Tips and Tricks

This topic identifies some important tips and tricks to use with Civil View.

General

1. Use Civil View with a screen resolution of at least 1280 x 1024. At lower resolutions, some panels occupy too much screen space.
2. Set viewports to Wireframe display to maximize performance.
3. To simplify the user interface as much as possible, work in a single viewport and close the 3ds Max command panel.

   You can access most basic 3ds Max commands through the Civil View Explorer panel.

4. Take note of how to use Civil View Dynamic Markers.
5. When importing data from other applications, import only objects you actually need to use.

   For example, when importing GENIO data from MX, don't import all the strings in a model if you need only the main strings. Unnecessary objects in your 3ds Max scene (particularly shape objects) will severely affect system performance.

6. Never attempt to rename materials that are automatically generated and managed by Civil View.

   For a list of these materials, see Civil View Material Library Overview.

7. To improve the performance of the Object Placement Style Editor you can reduce the number of Object definitions in the INI file.

   Every time you open this editor, Civil View loads the entire library of definitions in the INI file. For this reason, the Country Resource Kit libraries that ship with Civil View can contain additional resources such as sign bitmaps that by default are not used.

8. You can use Resource Kits on a per-project basis, simply by activating the Project Resource Kit option in the Civil View Preference panel.

   This allows additional resources to be loaded into a project-based resource kit folder without affecting the default "base" country resource kit, which you can reserve for more general use.

9. If street furniture positions have been designed in your civil design application through the use of a series of point strings, it is possible to automatically place these items in your Civil View model.

   To do so, use a series of point strings that each contain just two points. The first point in each string represents the location of an item of street furniture, and the second point is used merely to set the orientation of the furniture object. You can then create an Object Placement Style that places only a single object at the start point of a string.

   By using this method in conjunction with feature interpretation, an entire set of 3D street furniture objects can be placed completely automatically.

Lighting

If you require more accurate simulation of natural daylight, including shadow calculation, it is worth working through the 3ds Max lighting tutorials.

Keyboard Shortcuts

3ds Max keyboard shortcuts can improve your experience of working with 3ds Max and Civil View. Getting to know these shortcuts can increase your workflow.

3ds Max keyboard shortcuts are customizable.