Civil 3D Tip: Quick Profile Tool
At the beginning of a project, there may be a need to evaluate the condition of the site before alignments, profiles, and/or corridors are added and locked in. In Civil 3D, we can quickly create temporary profiles or sections to accomplish this.
The temporary use of this function provides a quick, temporary profile that remains only until the job is saved. Once the file is closed and reopened, it is no longer there.
In this example, we have surfaces including existing ground, top surface called Rfnt-All-Top, and datum called Rfnt-All-Datum. We would like to analyze how they align with one another.
Start by generating a line or polyline that will act as the section line where you would like to make the cut. Select the polyline and right-click. Choose Quick Profile.
The Create Quick Profile dialog box will open. You will want to set the profile styles for the surfaces you are sampling as well as the profile view style.
Once the display is set to your liking, click OK. You will be prompted to choose the insertion point, which should be the bottom-left corner of the profile view. The profile view is then placed temporarily.
You will notice that when you select and right-click the profile view, the Profile View Properties are greyed out and not selectable. This is a built-in reminder that this view is temporary.
The Quick Profile behaves similarly to a regular profile or section, and objects in the model space can be selected and projected into it. In this example, we are adding a culvert that passes through where we are cutting this Quick Profile. You can accomplish this by highlighting the desired items, right-clicking, and selecting Draw Parts in Profile View.
Remember that this is temporary. Once you are done with the temporary profile, the data will be lost as soon as a save is initiated.
