I am not an Autocad user,but I use Trimble Business Center ver. 3.1 ( TBC ) and the Trimble TSC3 data collector.
I have been asked to work with an autocad technician so we can get better communication between AutoCad Civil 3-D and the Trimble survey products.
In the field,for construction road staking,I like to use Trimble corridors.
I build the Trimble corridors from the design drawings using TBC.
Talking to the autocad tech,they build their corridors,much like I do, but they use AutoCad Civil 3-D.
We are wondering if it is possible to transfer the Civil 3-D corridor to Trimble Business Center and this corridor would work in TBC ?
We have looked at the Trimble Link for AutoCad,but have not tried to use it.
We do alot of road construction,so any help would be appreciated.
Thank you,
John
I do believe your on the right path, Trimble link will export many things however I'm using 2011 64bit and Trimble link doesn't like it.....
We don't have TBC so I cannot speak on it. However, we do use Civil3d and also do a lot of road construction. All we do is export the CIvil3d corridor to our trimble data collector through trimble link. We can stake any portion of any corridor component very easily. One would think you could export the same to TBC.
WA-ID Surveyor
Once you get the corridor information into your data collector,do you have to do any manipulation,or does the corridor right out of Civil 3-D work ?
Thank you for your help,
Sounds like great news,
John
I use C3D and Trimble link to export alignments and the "finished Grade" surface. The alignment will go with no problem as a .rxl file. the surface will go as well but you may have to create a "site" first. It may be easier to export the the alignment then the surface. There have been a few times I had to export the surface to TBC as a xml and then bring it back into C3D for trimble link to work, but overall they do play well together.
I have done this a few times, unfortunately I never take good notes just plug and chug 'til it works.
I have been producing Trimble rxl files for layout in Access using Civil3d, Trimble link and TBC. Some things work well, others not so much.
A surface created in Civil 3d can be exported to an ttm file for use in the field, and I've never had any complaints about those files. An alignment and profile can also be exported to an rxl file.
The problems I've run into are always related to exporting Civil3d corridors to rxl. You have to ensure that the corridor is currently displaying the links for the section data that you intend to export, and that there is a design surface through those links.
The exported rxl file will have design section information in it, very similar to the old TDS tpl files. The major problem is that TBC simply doesn't have the same level of programming sophistication as Civil3d, so the exported section is rather static. This can become an issue for daylighting because the exported section assumes one condition but the surveyor in the field may find something else.
I dont know if this helps, but you could save the corridors as .dwg's (3d linework) then import them into trimble and create a surface out of that 3d linework. I stumbled on this trick when i was trying to use the "merge surfaces" command and could only merge 2 surfaces at a time. The only downfall of which it wouldnt be considered a "corridor" anymore but a "surface". If youre trying to get stationing to go with the surface you will have to use the "field data" section and create a design called "road surface". this will take a surface and alignment and merge them together into a .pro (terramodel) file that could then be loaded onto a data collector as a design.
Like i said. hope it helps.
TJ
Everyone,
I sure appreciate everyone's help.We are making strides with Trimble Link.
TJ,we will try your suggestions in the early new year.
Thank you everyone,
John MacKenzie
Also forgot to mention that saving as a .XML saves all surface info and stationing between Trimble Business Centre and Autocad C3-d
