How to Add Medians Automatically in Civil 3D?

Get your free trial of Civil Site Design with Present-Trade: Website: https://present-trade.com/product/civ... LinkedIn:   / present-trade   Email: [email protected] Tired of wasting hours adding a median manually—editing cross sections, calculating slopes, and fixing the intersection again and again? Instead of doing everything manually, let’s design the easy way. Welcome to Present-Trade’s tutorial on how to create a Custom Variation using Civil Site Design. Previously, we learned how to create Design Variations. In this video, we have a road with a crown inside the intersection, and we also have a median that doesn’t exist in the template or in the cross section. So our goal is to add this median and its codes into the cross section to make it display correctly in the design. Let’s get started. Make sure you’re in the Roads tab, then click on Design Data Form. A window will pop up. As you can see, all the design variations we created earlier are highlighted in mint green. Let’s start with the REB code by clicking on it, then click on the plus (+) icon at the bottom-left of the window. Another window will appear with multiple options. In this video, we’ll choose Custom Variation. A new window will open with additional options. From here, select Insert – Add Median Edge Codes, then click Add Variation. Now, the settings for this option will appear on the right side of the Design Data Form window. You can set the Start Chainage and End Chainage by typing them manually or clicking the right-side button and selecting directly from the drawing. And don’t worry—Civil Site Design will snap to the nearest chainage automatically. For the LeftMost Code and RightMost Code, we’ll keep the default values: MEDL & MEDR. For the Widen Method, you can base it on the alignment or a polyline. In this video, we’ll use Polyline. Once we choose Polyline, the LeftMost and RightMost sections will be blank, and Civil Site Design will be ready for us to select the polyline. So click on the right-side button to pick it directly from the drawing for easier access. You can also choose the Elevation Method, but we’ll leave it as the default (Interpolate from Design). Same for the Left & Right Slopes—we’ll keep them at 1%. Once you’re done, click Add/Update. You’ll notice a new section called VaryPlayScript added in mint green. Let’s check the Cross Section. As you can see, Civil Site Design added the median codes and assigned the correct levels based on the design. Let’s try editing it. Select it again, and as you can see, all our previous settings are already loaded. Let’s change the Elevation Method to Set Slopes, and set both slopes to 0%. Then click Add/Update. Now, the median is completely flat at 0%. And once we exit the median area, the cross section returns back to the normal crown. Let’s click Automodel to update the surface and see our changes in the model. Now let’s try another option in the Elevation Method: Extend Pavement. Click Automodel again to update the surface and see the result. Now the crown shifts from the centerline to the edge of the median. Let’s check the Cross Section. Now let’s try a different shape of median, like the one on the right. You don’t have to repeat everything from scratch. Just highlight the variation you want to copy, then click on Copy Entry at the bottom-left. We’ll change the chainages and select a new polyline. This time, let’s set the Elevation Method to Set Slope. Then click Add/Update again. Click Automodel to see the new surface. Let’s open the Cross Section. As usual, Civil Site Design added the median automatically with the slope we selected—without changing the intersection template or doing extra manual work. And here you have it… A fast, accurate, and flexible way to add medians using Custom Variation in Civil Site Design—without endless manual editing.