Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 has just been released, and there are a host of new features to expand your productivity and enhance your project workflows. I'll list the main features in this post.

2013 DWG File Format Remains, but with a Catch

Civil 3D 2017 continues with its use of the 2013 DWG drawing format. However, unlike the 2013-2016 versions, it is very important to note that Civil 3D 2017 is NOT backwards compatible with previous versions.

The AEC Objects have been revised and new features introduced that are unable to be read by previous versions of the software.  Once you open a drawing in Civil 3D 2017 that was created in an earlier version, you will be presented with a warning, familiar to many.  Saving this drawing will upgrade the AEC Objects to the current version that will be incompatible with earlier versions.

Corridors

The process for extracting solids from corridors has been enhanced. New options are available for selecting the corridor areas to extract within corridor regions, station ranges, or closed polygonal areas. When created in the same drawing as the corridor or corridor reference, the solids can now be created with a dynamic link to the corridor so they update when the corridor is updated. A Property Data page is now included in the wizard which you can use to automatically associate property data with the solids, such as corridor name, region name, and code name.

In addition to alignments and profiles, you can now use feature lines as corridor baselines. You can select the feature lines when creating the corridor and when adding baselines. The feature lines that you can use can be created from the feature line creation tools. Corridor feature lines cannot be used directly but can be used if extracted from the corridor.

An option is now provided for controlling whether corridor feature lines can cross a baseline. For example, in certain situations, such as with a divided highway, part of a corridor design may need to cross the centerline and this can require that the corresponding feature lines also cross the centerline.

Where corridor tangents intersect at a corner, and where the corridor is created at a fixed width, the inner and outer corners of corridors are cleaned up automatically.

Data Shortcuts

You can now create data shortcuts for corridors so you can reference them into other drawings. When you create a data shortcut for a corridor, shortcuts are also created for the alignments and profiles that make up the corridor baselines. If corridor baselines are comprised of feature lines, shortcuts are not created independently for those feature lines.

You can now save the geometry of a reference surface in the drawing that contains the data shortcut reference. If you choose to save the geometry of a reference surface in the drawing, the drawing that contains the reference will become larger, but will open more quickly unless the source surface has changed.

You can now create multiple data shortcut references at once, by either right-clicking the data shortcuts and selecting the Create Reference command, or by selecting them and dragging them into the drawing. This functionality is available from the Data Shortcuts collection in Prospector and in the Data Shortcut Manager dialog box.

You can now control whether notifications appear at the drawing status bar when data shortcut references are out of date and need to be synchronized.

You can now create subfolders within Prospector and the Data Shortcut Manager. Right-click an object collection or a data shortcut collection and click Create Folder. You can drag-and-drop existing objects into the new folders, and you can place folders inside other folders. When you create references to data shortcuts that are stored in subfolders, the subfolder structure is replicated in the consumer drawing.

External Style Management

You can now keep styles in your drawing synchronized with the styles in external reference templates. Reference templates simplify the management of your drawing styles and keep them up to date.

When you attach a reference template to a drawing, the AutoCAD Civil 3D styles that are in that reference template are copied into the drawing, and the connection between the drawing and the reference templates is maintained. Drawings can be updated on an ongoing basis either automatically or manually with changes to the styles in the templates.

Pressure Network Content

New and updated pressure network catalogs are available.

Roundabouts

The roundabout-related features from Autodesk Vehicle Tracking have been integrated into AutoCAD Civil 3D. These commands create a new type of roundabout object and will create a corridor from this object that can be added to your design.

You can now bring roundabouts into an AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing from Autodesk InfraWorks 360.

Autodesk Vault

You can now add corridors to Autodesk Vault projects. Alignments and profiles which are used as the corridor baselines are also added to a project when you add the corridor.

Integration of the Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016 Productivity Packs and Extensions

Several features from the Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016 productivity packs and transportation extension have been integrated into AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 further enhancing the reporting and workflow and reporting capabilities of the software.

These new features along with the enhancements to Autodesk AutoCAD 2017 and Autodesk Map 3D make this an exiting release. Want to learn more? Stay tuned for information on a live webcast showing the new features.

You can also contact me at [email protected].com for more information or to answer any questions about Civil 3D 2017.