yucad3d
Help / User Guide / Getting started

Getting started

From an empty project to a corridor swept along an alignment, seen in 3D.

1. A project opens with a sample

On launch, yucad3d opens a sample project so there is always something to look at. Use File › New for an empty project, or File › Open to load an existing .yu3d file.

2. The tabs

Along the top are Plan, Profile, Sections, 3D, Assemblies and Layout. They all view the same model — edit an alignment in Plan and it updates everywhere. See The interface for the full tour.

3. Draw a horizontal alignment

  1. Go to the Plan tab.
  2. Run Draw › Alignment (Ctrl+Shift+A).
  3. Click to place PIs (points of intersection); the centreline follows.
  4. Add curves and spirals between tangents with Draw › Curve and Draw › Spiral.
  5. Press Esc to finish the tool.

Drag the PI grips to reshape; edit exact values in the Alignment Builder dock. Details: Horizontal alignments.

4. Add a vertical profile

Select the alignment, open the Profile tab, and place VPIs to define the design grade line. Vertical curves smooth each grade break. See Profiles.

5. Build a cross-section (assembly)

Open Tools › Open Assembly Designer and compose a cross-section as a flowchart of points, links and shapes, or drop a ready one from the Assembly Library. See Assemblies & Composer.

6. Make a corridor

A corridor sweeps an assembly along an alignment + profile. Assign assemblies to regions and tune sampling in Corridor Properties. See Corridors.

7. See it in 3D and get volumes

The 3D tab renders the corridor solid, surfaces and grids. Run Tools › Corridor Surface + Volume to build a TIN from the corridor and compute cut/fill against the ground. See Surfaces & volumes.

Set your design standard early Tools › Design Standard picks AASHTO / RAL / VSS / KGM and the design speed. This drives minimum radius, sight distance, superelevation runoff and the live design checks. See Design standards.

Drawing units (metric / imperial)

Tools › Drawing Units switches the document between metric (metres) and imperial (feet), Civil-3D style. The model is always stored in SI metres — this only changes how lengths, elevations, stations, areas and volumes are shown and how typed input is read. The Plan / Profile / Sections readouts, the coordinate bar, the Properties dock, the earthwork report, the assembly preview and the length input fields all follow the setting and re-label live when you change it.

Two authoring contexts keep their own units on purpose: the Part Builder defines catalog parts in SI metres (unit-neutral geometry a project then displays in its own units), and the Layout tab is paper space — sheet sizes are paper units (mm / inch), independent of the model's metric/imperial setting.

Saving

File › Save writes a single binary .yu3d file (the whole model — alignments, surfaces, corridors, assemblies, styles, CRS). Exchange with other software via Export DXF / Export LandXML.