Grading Techniques in Civil 3D

Whether you’re just starting or a seasoned veteran in Civil 3D, there are many techniques you can use for grading. How do you know which one is best? Well, what if I told you there isn’t a wrong way? That’s the best part about many Autodesk products – We can accomplish the same tasks in various ways to get the same results, allowing designers and drafters to work in a way that makes the most sense.

There are four different grading techniques we can do in Civil 3D: Feature Lines, Grading Groups, Corridors, and CTC’s AutoGrader. Let’s break down these methods and then you can decide which technique works best for you!

Feature Lines

Pros

Fast and easy to use
Can be used as grading footprints, surface breaklines, and corridor baselines
Quickly update length, elevation, and grade

Cons

When not connected to other elements, feature lines are not dynamically linked
When a design changes, manual edits or redrawing a feature line is required

Grading Groups

Pros

The dialog box allows for easier edits
They are dynamic

Cons

Can cause a bloated drawing file size
Not the easiest to delete as it leaves things behind

Corridors

Pros

Very dynamic and can be linked to roadway alignments
Offset alignments allow us to create targets for widening or narrowing areas

Cons

Longer to set up
Longer rebuild times with older computers

CTC’s AutoGrader Tool

Pros

Works with multiple surfaces
Run independent grading areas or all at once
Very dynamic
Easy to use and visual preview within the tool

Cons

It is a third-party tool, so Autodesk Civil 3D software is not included

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Conclusion

There are a variety of ways we can grade in Civil 3D. Some native, and some that can be added to the software. Feel free to check out our webinar, Grading Techniques in Civil 3D, for a full rundown on this topic.