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Michael Kinnear/5 min read

Creating a Figure Prefix Database for Survey Import in Civil 3D

Figure Prefix Database

Prefix Definitions

Define codes (EP for edge of pavement, CL for centerline).

Layer Assignment

Each prefix maps to a specific drawing layer.

Style Mapping

Apply consistent figure styles to imported features.

Reuse Across Projects

Save the database for projects with similar survey codes.

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This Civil 3D tutorial walks through creating a figure prefix database for survey import in civil 3d, covering essential tools and techniques for your projects.

In this video we're going to go ahead and create a Figure Prefix Database for our drawing to do a survey import. So the first thing we're going to do is we're going to navigate over to the Toolspace, we're going to go to the Survey tab of the Toolspace, and we're going to go up to Figure Prefix Database.

We're going to go ahead and select Figure Prefix Database, right-click, and select New. I'm going to go ahead and type in a new Figure Prefix Database name here, and I'm going to call it Civ 201, and I'm going to click OK. When I do that, it creates a new Figure Prefix Database, and if I open up my working folder for the class files that I have, if I look inside here, I will have a Civ 201.fdb, which is our Figure Prefix Database.

So I'm going to go ahead and go back into the drawing. I'm going to go to my Civ 201, I'm going to right-click on it, and I'm going to manage my Figure Prefix Database. When I select Manage Figure Prefix Database, a new window pops up for our Figure Prefix Database Manager.

So what we're going to have here is the different Code Sets that correlate to a specific type of figure inside our drawing. To create a new Code Set, we're going to go ahead and hit the plus to add one in, and then we can select the name that we're going to have, and we can go ahead and type in the names of different entities inside of Civil 3D, just like we did when we created our Description Key Sets. We're going to go ahead and type in not all of the same items as we had for our Description Key Sets, because not all of the points correlate to a figure inside our drawing.

So what we're going to do is we're going to do one for TC, which is our Top of Curve. We're going to state that our Top of Curve is in fact a Break Line. And so what Break Lines are is that they are objects inside Civil 3D that have a defined elevation and are used to help create surfaces.

We'll get into further definitions of what our Break Line is when we start creating surfaces, but know that some items you want to define as Break Lines, and we're going to define most of the items that we're dealing with right now as Break Lines. So our Top of Curve is a Break Line, it is not a Lot Line, and we are going to go ahead and put that Top of Curve on V-Road, and we're going to go ahead and do V-Road TC. We're going to leave it as a Standard Style, and we're going to go ahead and leave it in the Survey Site.

Now from here, you can either create a new one, or you can copy the one that you have selected. So I'm going to go ahead and click Copy, and then I am going to create a Flow Line one. I'm going to click on TC1, I'm going to type in FL Star, and then I'm going to leave Break Line, I'm going to drop down on my Layer, and I'm going to put it onto V-Road FL.

So I'm going to go down to V-Road FL, and then I'm going to copy it again. I'm going to create a new Figure Prefix for my Edge of Pavement. I'm going to leave it as a Break Line.

I am going to put it on a new Layer. I'm going to put it on V-Road, and I'm going to put it on EP for Edge of Pavement. Then I'm going to copy again.

I'm going to create one for my Sidewalk. So I'm going to do SW Star. I'm going to leave it as Break Line, and I'm going to go and drop down to V-Road Sidewalk, or SW.

I'm going to go ahead and copy again. We're going to create a couple more of these. We're going to create one for Top and one for Toe.

So I'm going to go ahead and type in Top, and then I'm going to drop down, and now we aren't going to be on V-Road, we're going to be on V-Slope. We're going to be V-Slp, and we're going to go Top, and then we're going to copy, and we are going to go with Toe, and we're going to go ahead and drop down and put it on Layer V-Slope Toe, and we're going to click OK. And now Civil 3D should have saved this into the folder that we're working on.

We're not required to save the drawing because these are objects that are not linked to a specific drawing but linked to a working folder, and our working folder is our class folder. But I'm going to go ahead and save anyway. Then in the next video, we'll actually start creating a survey database.