How to create a smart pond in Civil 3D

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create only one featureline to create a simple pond and get your volumes!
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If you are new to the channel - Hi 👋 I am Ferdi, a civil engineer that wants to share his knowledge and experience with other engineers, especially graduates!

[@dmac2573]

6:40 nooooo!!! Don't add additional unnecessary elevation points to featurelines! You get the same (and much better) result by including supplementing factors in the dialog box at 5:13. Try making 'distance' 1m and mid-ordinate distance 0.01m. You keep the original featureline nice and simple but the triangulation adapts to ensure there is a surface point at least every 1m and curves get more definition the tighter their radius.

[@CivilTechSource]

I have noticed that sometimesadding mid-ordinate distance caps the distance at a curve. Will try this option in different scenarios and see what it throws. Thanks for your input!

[@dmac2573]

@@CivilTechSource the mid-ordinate distance isn’t the distance along the curve, it’s the maximum allowed deviation between the faceted triangulated arc and the true arc. Using 0.1m for this tends to give good results but you can always increase it

[@gilbertoflores6324]

@@dmac2573 it is great to share and thanks to the video comments can be made. Comments help all users with a lower level experience. Thanks to both!

[@gilbertoflores6324]

Watched again making notes and feel more comfortable now. Thank you!

[@CivilTechSource]

Hi Glad, that you found this tutorial useful.

[@althafa8371]

THIS IS LIFE SAVER FOR MY PROJECT, GOD BLESS U SIR

[@CivilTechSource]

Thank you!

[@louissime4309]

Thanks Ferdi, spot on!

[@CivilTechSource]

You are welcome!

[@CivilTechSource]

Let me know what you think of this method of creating a pond and calculating the storage volume!

[@gilbertoflores6324]

I wrote 3-sheets summary with most of the steps higghlighted. This is a good method and sure others have slightly different opinions. I would like to see the discharge process of the pond with vertical CMP and the orifices.

[@CivilTechSource]

I hope you named it the Ferdi way? The comment about avoiding elevation point is valid though. I might delete the video and upload a new one including his comment.

[@themysteriousorient1291]

I love it, so helpful!

[@CivilTechSource]

Glad you think so!

[@jamesbennett8849]

FYI - I typically add 2 feature lines for the berm top so I can reduce the berm width on the cut side to a very small distance as many sites are restricted by space on the site. This allows that extra 8 feet or 10 feet in width of useable additional volume if needed on site but I like this video and the approach.

[@CivilTechSource]

Interesting!!! I did have to design a pond couple of weeks ago and it was tight and remembered your comment and tried your way, it was tiny bit finky (not sure if its a word). But ended up working! Thank you.

[@tafadzwadeaneushe7897]

Im glad i found this page

[@zeraimebrahtuhabtu226]

Nice dynamic approach!!! Thank you very much!

[@CivilTechSource]

Thank you, just remember when adding the featureline to the surface to reduce the mid-ordinate that way you don't have to add elevation points

[@getfanmedia]

nice presentation thank you for sharing

[@CivilTechSource]

Thank you!

[@KerolosGaberKasper]

Thank you so much, could help me, how make a berm (toe) at the end of the slope around high graded area. Represent it and be variable with natural ground. Thank you again

[@luyolomagwebu389]

Hi, firstly amazing video, direct and informational. I just wanted to ask with regards to the water level surface... Wouldn't it be possible to grade the pond original feature line down, creating the water surface, so that we can avoid the overlapping volume on the sides? Please do a Civil 3d to SSA workflow video.

[@CivilTechSource]

I suppose you can, or alternatively you can turn the cut ratio from 1 down to 0.

[@elliottbuxton]

you go a little fast but thats okay. this was life saving thank you so much man!!!

[@CivilTechSource]

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you found it useful!

[@thequantumprophet]

Hey, do you use Bentley Openroads?

[@CivilTechSource]

No, too expensive for SME.

[@thequantumprophet]

@@CivilTechSource What's SME? Are you freelance or work for a company?

[@camaliciousness]

Great video. I have heard the hrading objects are.pretty unstable in surfaces though and I myself have had many issues with them not working correctly. When you do a design like this, relying so heavily on them, what type of measures will you put in to lower the risk of something failing in your drawing? For example I create my finished surface it its own drawinf and data ref into my plan set drawing.

[@CivilTechSource]

Hi @dappercam many thanks for the comment! Well as with each Civil3D update is becoming more and more stable, I am not that worried about things breaking but more trying to keep things separate and clean and to it's intended purpose. So yes, I would have a C3D file where only the ponds are in there, another where the corridors are in and so on. For example I separate the surfaces into Existing, Proposed, Formation, Earthworks.

[@rudytiara3684]

What if I want to create grading not to the Existing Surface but to a certain elevation level, and the slope of the pond base is not 0%, but with 2% slopes? Do you know how to do it?

[@CivilTechSource]

Yes, it is possible to do it. You just have to select the appropriate settings. I am currently on holiday so can't access a pc to tell you which option is it. But from memory should be slope to elevation option depending if you have the correct settings.

[@CarbonTaxLOL]

Do you have a tutorial on making a smart dam?

[@CivilTechSource]

Need more details on what do you mean by smart damn.

[@CarbonTaxLOL]

@@CivilTechSource I was wondering if there was a way we could make a "one polyline" dam. I suppose we draw a PL, then we just grade it 1:3 to the surface. But each time we raise the dam (for a tailings dam), we would want to offset the first PL by 3m horizontal, and 9m vertical, to get our next 3m Raise. Then we would have to grade again, and compare to the first dam, to find the volume of the second material. I suppose that is not that complicated afterall...

[@gilbertoflores6324]

for some reason the VolumesDashboard doesnot open in the Imperial version but it opens in the METRIC version. Which variable commands that?

[@gilbertoflores6324]

Sorry I had 2 monitors and the Dashboard was OFF both screens. Disconneted second sreen and Dashboard came back

[@CivilTechSource]

Happened to me on something, else I figured it out after two days 😅

[@givingmemories8010]

Try Grading ponds with corridors. Less issues with drawing.

[@CivilTechSource]

Hi thanks for your input, what less issues do you encounter?

[@oboumoura5130]

TIps that i would add: 1. If you need to find the volume of the levee, use the auto-creation feature of the grading surface, faster than creating a separate surface. 2. It is much easier to create the top of the levee using a steep offset from the original feature line. Then use Infill from the grading tool. 3. When measuring the water level volume, it becomes easier if you extract a contour from the inner slope and create a surface with it. You can get 0 fill that way..... But that how I do it... 👍Like the video but it hurt to watch

[@gilbertoflores6324]

Could you add a video to see?

[@oboumoura5130]

@@gilbertoflores6324 I posted a video on how I would go about doing it. @oboumoura5130

[@CivilTechSource]

Thanks for this!! Did not think about the grade infill and extracting the info! But I only see one problem with your method. It is not dynamic as you are relaying on the contours rather than the featurelines. for the 0 fill you can always adjust the fill ration to 0 instead of 1. Will keep this in mind and see if there is any way both methods can be married. Thank you for uploading the video, Liked the video but it also hurt to watch. :D

[@hendrickyoupa3593]

Hi, I want to do something a bit similar. Scenario: I have an existing surface (with slope), I need to excavate from the lowest point at a particular area, a cube of depth 2m. Backfill with rock base material of 500mm, and finally backfill to designed level (which is ~450mm higher then the existing surface). Any idea what kinda workflow that can be used? I hope the scenario is clear enough... Thanks

[@CivilTechSource]

What is the goal of the exercise? To calculate the volumes?

[@hendrickyoupa3593]

@@CivilTechSource Yes the goal is to calculate volumes of each segment. 1st, total excavated volume (including the slope of the surface within the cube), secondly only the back-filling of the 500mm rock base and finally , volume from the top of the rock base to the designed surface.

[@gilbertoflores6324]

Hi Fredy! Could you share this file? Thanks

[@CivilTechSource]

Hi, sorry cannot find it any more.

[@vishalbalraj337]

Hey great video as always. I have a question as to the computer specs you are using, as your Civil 3D appears to operate so smoothly. Thank you.

[@CivilTechSource]

My pc is an old spec 😅 the models I do on civil3d do not have xref that why they appear so smooth, if you are interested I can send you a spec for a pc and laptop.

[@vishalbalraj337]

@@CivilTechSource thank you that would be great.

[@CivilTechSource]

Drop me an email

[@craig7878]

I don't have an "existing surface" to even start with. How can I make one?

[@luanalidema]

@@craig7878 There are many ways to create the surface. Creatin surface using COGO Points: put four COGO Points in the imaginary rectangular shape with different heights put them in a Point Group and create a surface using that Point Group.

[@fizmo303]

Rectangle shape 3d polyline, vary the vertices slightly and randomly (for instance give it levels 1.1, 1.17, 1.0 and 0.96) and add to the surface. Voila!

[@CivilTechSource]

Hi @craig7878 that will depend on what project you working on. If you want to follow this tutorial, just create a rectangle and give it and elevation. Create a surface and add the rectangle to the surface. But if you are working on a live project, you will have to check your topographical survey and see what kind of information you are working with.

[@chamnong7778]

Hi bro.can you pls design Ramp

[@CivilTechSource]

What kind of ramp?

[@chamnong7778]

Ramp in the pit something like that.

[@gilbertoflores6324]

the access concrete ramp? with transversal slope?@@chamnong7778

[@hamimuidrisa6390]

How Design Surface is created?

[@CivilTechSource]

Do you mean the surface that the pond ties into?

[@hamimuidrisa6390]

@CivilTechSource Yes, but I managed

[@hamimuidrisa6390]

In this design, can't we have bunds at where levels is higher than Original Ground Level

[@CivilTechSource]

You can I don't see why not, this tutorial just shows how to tie in into existing surface. If you have specific levels you can define them using the level tie in rather than the surface tie in

[@hamimuidrisa6390]

@@CivilTechSource Actually I don't know how to include bunds on the pond having width and side slopes outside of the pond.

[@wilsononduko3421]

thenbexplanation is great but you are too fast

[@CivilTechSource]

If you call this method of creating ponds the CTS way, I will try and speak slower in future tutorials. Thank you for the kind comments 😊

[@gilbertoflores6324]

I agree on too fast not talking but when clicking the commands@@CivilTechSource