Land Surveyor Forum

Replies

• Survey Legend

  Justin Farrow April 14, 2023 at 2:10pm

  Drawing a spiral curve in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016 for a legal description can be a bit challenging, but it is possible. Here are some steps that you can follow to draw a spiral curve in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016:

  1. Open AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016 and create a new drawing.

  2. Go to the "Create Alignment" button in the toolbar and select "Create Alignment from Existing Entities."

  3. Select the existing alignment that the spiral curve is a part of.

  4. Go to the "Edit Geometry" button in the toolbar and select "Insert Curve."

  5. Select "Spiral Curve" from the drop-down menu.

  6. Input the parameters for the spiral curve, such as the radius, length, and degree of curvature.

  7. Click "OK" to create the spiral curve.

  8. The spiral curve will appear as a separate object in the drawing, which you can manipulate as needed.

  9. You can also use the "Draw" commands in AutoCAD to add additional details to the spiral curve, such as dimensions and annotations.

  10. Save your drawing and print it out for your legal description.

  It's important to note that legal descriptions for spiral curves can be quite complex, and it's always a good idea to consult with a licensed land surveyor or civil engineer to ensure that your legal description is accurate and meets all relevant regulations and standards.
• Student Surveyor

  Dave Drahn July 26, 2017 at 6:20pm

  I'm not sure how your legal description is worded, but there's a SPIRAL command in C3D that seems to give you good control of the outcome.
• Land Surveyor

  Jerry Anderson July 24, 2017 at 2:13pm

  I'm still using autocad with LDD3 (Land development desktop)  There is a command that will automatically draw the spiral.

  Realize that there's really no such thing as an offset and parallel spiral.  You can get close, but no cigar.
• Land Surveyor

  Bobby King July 23, 2017 at 7:49am

  Set points on spiral; then use auto cad spline function to draw the spiral. It's like drawing contours between known elevation points
• Land Surveyor

  Timothy Ney July 22, 2017 at 10:05pm

  Many Australian states continue to use curve boundaries for legal descriptions to define physical boundaries on the ground such as canal walls. It is not generally used where it is intended to fence the boundary. A legal description of the boundary is to define the tangent points, provide a traverse connection across the cord and finally a fixed radius. Complicated spirals or the like are not used as they are too difficult to explain to non surveying people. The spirals are broken down to individual curves. This document is very helpful. http://sbq.com.au/2015/05/29/cadastral-survey-requirements-june-2015/
• 

  CHARLIE B. AYCOCK, III July 22, 2017 at 9:02pm

  I don't have a clue about autocad since I have never used it. I was using CAD long before anybody ever heard of Bill Gates or Windows & found autocad over priced & not cost effective. Assuming the curve data is mathematically sound, drawing it should not be a problem in any decent cad program. Any of the up to date co - go programs that run inside of autocad should be able to handle the task as well. Most of it doesn't float my boat but there is survey software out there that will do anything, maybe even drive the truck. If I couldn't draw any curve in my surveying program, I would be looking for different software.

  Most lawyers here don't even attempt to write legal descriptions anymore & definitely not anything as complicated as a spiral curve. They generally just reference the plat. That way at least they get something right. The last legal description I had to deal with calculated two acres but the deed conveyed one acre. Oh yea!, the County name was also spelled incorrectly. They just copy the previous description, errors & all & it is rare that anything is updated. Why are lawyers allowed to write legal descriptions?

  Then there was the case where the lawyer got me to survey & record a new plat to change a property line because the existing property line ran through a portion of the house. Then he conveyed the property by the old plat so the property line still ran through the house!
• 

  Billy Brooks July 21, 2017 at 9:18pm

  Hi Mason.

  There are , I think 3 videos on transition curves parts 1-3 here at LSU I do not think they go over AutoCad 

  But maybe some of it, there is a lot of info on the web for autocad. The thing is under standing spiral curves,and all of it parts. Which that you may not need. I have always like solving them long handed

  with equation ,then checking it with a program. But I like math ,just for fun. But see if this can help.

  https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-civil-3d/learn-explo...

  https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-civil-3d/learn-explo...

  https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=how+to+draw+transi...

  http://www.engineeringcivil.com/transition-spiral-curves.html

  https://us.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=blp&hsimp=yhs-def...

  

  Adding Lines, Curves, and Spirals to an Alignment

  Adding Lines, Curves, and Spirals to an Alignment