Accelerating Gas Distribution Design with AUD in Civil 3D

Gas distribution design often requires engineers to manage the same information across multiple steps: drafting assets, calculating materials, creating annotations, developing plan and profile views, and moving data between engineering and GIS systems.

Each handoff creates another opportunity for information to be recreated, manually maintained, or lost.

In our recent webinar, Accelerating Gas Design with AUD in Civil 3D, SBS Director of Solutions Engineering Joe Cronin demonstrated a different approach. Using Automated Utility Design (AUD) within Civil 3D, he showed how utilities can create intelligent gas designs that carry engineering information through the workflow instead of relying on disconnected CAD geometry and manual updates.

The full webinar includes three live demonstrations. Here are a few of the highlights.

Design with utility assets, not lines and blocks

The first demonstration starts with a familiar gas design workflow: drawing pipe, assigning layers, inserting fittings, and manually creating callouts.

AUD changes that process by allowing designers to work with actual utility-aware assets.

When Joe places a six-inch steel main, for example, AUD understands what is being designed. Intersecting mains can automatically create the appropriate tee. Pipes are placed using the correct standards and symbology. Fittings, valves, service points, and other assets carry their own engineering attributes.

That intelligence also allows related information to update automatically as the design changes.

During the demonstration, Joe changes a six-inch lateral to four inches. AUD automatically updates the pipe, the connecting tee, and the associated annotations. The designer does not have to find and correct each reference manually.

The result is not simply faster drafting. It is a design in which the information stays connected.

Keep materials and design standards connected to the work

AUD also maintains a dynamic material list as the design develops.

As pipe, fittings, and valves are added or changed, quantities update with the design. Instead of completing a design and then manually calculating the bill of materials, that information is captured as part of the workflow.

The webinar also shows how utilities can build their own engineering and business rules into AUD.

In one example, Joe creates a service line that exceeds a configured 500-foot threshold. AUD immediately flags the design for engineering review and prompts the designer to verify pressure drop and pipe sizing. When the design is adjusted, the validation updates as well.

These rules can help utilities move standards enforcement closer to the point where design decisions are actually being made.

Bring Civil 3D terrain directly into gas design

One of the most useful demonstrations in the webinar shows the relationship between AUD and Civil 3D.

Joe creates a terrain surface, lays out a gas main along a roadway, and assigns the required cover depth. Because the pipe is being modeled in three dimensions, it follows the terrain rather than existing only as a 2D representation.

From there, AUD generates a plan and profile view using the same intelligent design information.

For utilities already working with Civil 3D surfaces, the workflow does not require an AUD-generated surface. During the Q&A, Joe confirmed that existing and proposed Civil 3D surfaces can also be used, an important capability for projects such as roadway improvements where civil engineering data already exists.

The webinar shows the complete workflow from surface information to an intelligent gas main and profile view.

Connect engineering and GIS without recreating the network

The final demonstration focuses on a problem that extends beyond drafting: moving information between GIS and engineering.

Traditional workflows often require teams to export GIS data, translate or redraw it inside CAD, complete the design, and then hand information back to another group to update the system of record.

Using SBS Utility Data Hub, Joe demonstrates a connected workflow instead.

Existing gas network data is brought directly into the AUD design environment. GIS features are transformed into engineering-aware assets that can be used as the starting point for a design. New services are then connected to the existing network using automated workflows.

When the design is complete, the changes can be exported back toward GIS, carrying the asset information created during engineering with them.

That connection is important because the value of an intelligent design should not end when the drawing is finished.

The bigger idea: stop recreating the same information

Joe closes the webinar with three themes: intelligence, automation, and connectivity.

Together, they point to a broader change in utility design.

The opportunity is not simply to draw gas networks faster. It is to reduce how often engineers, designers, GIS teams, and field personnel have to recreate, reinterpret, or manually maintain the same project information.

That means intelligent utility assets instead of basic CAD geometry. Automated materials, validation, and documentation instead of separate manual processes. And connected engineering and GIS workflows instead of repeated exports and data translation.

The webinar shows what those ideas look like in an actual Civil 3D gas distribution workflow, including the live demonstrations and audience Q&A.

Watch the full webinar to see AUD for gas in Civil 3D in action.