This tutorial shows an example of how to create a 3D model of signaling elements over a surface that actually is not placed in the same drawing.
Autosign 3D modelling tool always needs a surface or DTM in order to be able to generate the 3D model of the traffic signaling elements, but the problem comes when the surface or DTM of our file has a considerable size. In this case, the presence of surface or DTM in the drawing might make the DWG files very heavy, which decreases the working speed of the different CAD platform processes. Therefore, the presence of a large-size surface or DTM in our working drawing can reduce considerably productivity.
1. Run the 3D Sign and Markings command.
If the following message appears, come back to your CAD model and draw a 3DFACE entity with whichever size at whichever place. The command will recognize this 3DFACE as a surface and will allow you to open the “3D Traffic signs and markings”. To draw a 3DFACE entity, you just need to type “3DFACE” in the command prompt on your CAD platform and define four points for the four corners of the 3DFACE.
2. Once we access the "3D Traffic sign and markings" dialogue box, click on the button to open the "Select surface" dialogue box.
3. At the "Select surface" dialogue box click on the "Add external references" button.
4. At the "External references" dialogue box, click on button to search and add the external DWG files which contain the surface/s that you want to use in your drawing.
5. After clicking OK, the external surfaces are displayed in the "External references" dialogue box.
6. After clicking OK, we can see that the surfaces contained in the external file have been loaded to our dialogue box. Here is where we select the surface that we want to use and click OK.
7. The external surfaces are also displayed on the drop-down menu on the top of the “3D Traffic signs and markings” dialogue box. In the case of external referenced surfaces, the name will be compounded as follows: "Surface name in the source file"@"source file name”.dwg.
8. By clicking OK, the 3D model is created. In this way, we can create a 3D model without having the surface contained within the same DWG file.
Keywords in this article:
DTM, surface, terrain, CAD, external, references, digital, model, 3D, DWG, traffic, signs, elements, markings, creation, Computer-Aided Design