Civil 3D 2014 - Realistic View and the Drive function

by Geoff Woodhead

I’ve been having some problems getting the Realistic View to activate when using the Drive function in Civil 3D recently, it seemed to only display a Conceptual View and this is nowhere near as appealing as the visualisations Civil previously provided.

I’m glad to report that I have found a couple of workarounds, hopefully they will work for you too!

The first method is to activate the Realistic View before attempting to enter the Drive function, when you are then placed in the ‘Drivers View’ you should immediately see the textures applied to your model.

The second method is to enter the Drive function and then using the Viewport Controls (see fig. 1 below) found in the top left of your viewport select 2D Wireframe from the list. The view will flick to Plan View before returning to the Drivers View, still using a Conceptual View style. Doesn’t look like it did anything does it? Now try entering the Realistic View from any of the viewport controls AutoCAD provides and your textures should be applied.

Fig. 1