Pipe Styles in Civil 3D

Pipe Display 

The pipe style defines how a pipe displays in model, plan, profile, and section views. A variety of components of the pipes can be controlled, such as inner and outer walls of the pipe, its centerlines, and its end lines. By toggling on or off the component display, a style affects how a network displays in the drawing window (e.g., as a single or double line), its layer name, and its color. 
Sometimes it is desirable to see the actual width of the pipe in the plan view and even the profile view. This is what this blog will examine. 
 

The Pipe Style Dialog Box 

The Pipe Style dialog box has multiple tabs: 

• Information
• Plan
• Profile
• Section
• Display
• Summary 
   
  The Information tab provides a proper name and description for the style, as well as the name of its creator and who had modified it last. 
  The Plan tab controls how each component of the pipe is handled. Since we want to see the actual width of the pipe, we will set the width of the centerline to be that to the outer walls, as follows: 
  
• Pipe wall sizes: Use part dimensions 
  
• Pipe end line size: Draw to outer walls 
  
• Pipe hatch options: Inconsequential, since hatching will not be displayed in the plan view. 
  
• Pipe centerline options: Specify width and select Draw to outer walls (from the drop-down list)
• Select the Clean up pipe to pipe connections option 
  
   
  On the Profile tab, we cannot widen the centerline as we did in the plan, so we need to hatch to the outer walls instead. Therefore, set the following:
• Pipe wall sizes: Use part dimensions
• Pipe end line size: Draw to outer walls
• Pipe hatch options: Hatch to outer walls
• Crossing pipe hatch options: Hatch walls only
• Select the Clean up pipe to pipe connections option 
    
  
  
  For the Section tab, leave all as the defaults. 
  On the Display tab, ensure the View Direction is set to Plan. We do not want to see the inner walls, only the outer pipe walls and the centerline. We also want to show the pipeline as a dashed line. Therefore, do the following: 
  
• Pipe Centerline: Turn on and set Linetype to DASHED. 
  
• Inside Pipe Walls: Turn off. 
  
• Outside Pipe Walls: Turn on.
• Pipe Hatch: Turn off. 
  
  
  Switch to the Profile view direction. We do want to see the hatch and configure the hatch pattern and size. Therefore, do the following:

• Pipe Centerline: Turn off
• Inside Pipe Walls: Turn off.
• Outside Pipe Walls: Turn on.
• Pipe Hatch: Turn on.
• In the Component hatch display section, for Pipe Hatch: 
  
  • Set Pattern to ANSI31.
  • Set Scale to 25.

 

When applying this style to the pipes, they will be displayed as a dashed blue line in the plan view and as hatched vertical lines in the profile view. The widths of the lines/hatches represent the thicknesses of the pipes.   

Conclusion 

Pipe styles are versatile. With proper management of such styles, you can make the pipes in Civil 3D drawings emulate just about any type of drafting practices your organization has standardized for plan views, profiles, or section views. 
 
 

About the Author

Learning Content Developer<br><br>Jeff specializes in infrastructure tools such as Civil 3D and Infraworks, delivering training classes and contributing to the learning guides for these Autodesk software applications. Jeff has worked for several Autodesk resellers and has had roles of both CAD and BIM Manager with Civil and Architectural firms.

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