This section will cover how Civil 3d (C3d) works outside of ProjectWise. Having a good understanding of what a data shortcut is and how it works will help when you are setting up, maintaining or troubleshooting Civil 3d projects.

1.1       What is a Data Shortcut?

The key concept to grasp is the difference between an external reference (Xref) and a Data shortcut reference. (Dref)

A Xref references the entire content of a file. The horizontal line above indicates the boundary between two surfaces, if this were a data shortcut only the select object would highlight.

A data shortcut references a Civil 3d object. Notice that the dref is only part of the Xref file. The same data but just one object.

Here is an analogy to help visualize the difference. If an Xref was a loaf of bread, a Dref would be a slice of bread.

1.2        How are Data Shortcuts defined?

Data shortcuts are limited to specific types of Civil 3d data.

• Surfaces
• Alignments
• Pipe Networks
• Pressure Networks
• Corridors
• View Frame Groups

In Civil 3d the data shortcuts are accessed on the Prospector Tab of the Toolspace.

The Arrow at the top of the picture points at the section that shows the data shortcuts in the active file.
The arrow in the middle of the picture shows where the data shortcut project information begins. Below that you can see all the data shortcuts that are available in the project.

This illustration shows the physical relationship between data shortcut node in the prospector and the data shortcut project on the local computer or server.

In Civil 3d the data shortcut node points to the working folder. (not to be confused with the ProjectWise user working directory which is different) The working folder defines the top level of the data shortcut project. In this project, that folder is Civil Data. Below that is the data shortcut project itself Surface DS.

Each of the data shortcut types have their own folder with the XML definitions inside. This xml defines the relationships between the source file and the data shortcut project. As well as those between the data shortcut project and the referencing files.

Notice that the top line of the file says not to edit! Not directly editing the xml is very important to a healthy project.

There are a lot of full path references in the xml file. Traditionally this has made it very difficult to rename, move or delete files.

1.1       Best Practices for Civil 3d

• The recommended maximum number of data shortcuts in one project is between 500 and 1000
• You may have heard that only one data shortcut project per project should be used. Actually, it is one data shortcut project per file.
• Civil 3d is a high trust product, users need both read and write permission if editing data shortcuts.
• The data shortcut path limit is 128 characters.