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Place Hydrants

Drops hydrant marker blocks along a road alignment at fixed station spacing (typical 400 ft residential, 500 ft commercial). Markers are placeholders: they get replaced by real fire-hydrant parts when the pressure network is built later. Manual carryover hint at intersections.

Command VDCFHSPACE · VDC Utilities tab › Drawing Tools panel
Drops hydrant marker blocks along a road alignment at fixed station spacing (typical 400 ft residential, 500 ft commercial). Markers are placeholders: they get replaced by real fire-hydrant parts when the pressure network is built later. Manual carryover hint at intersections.
Single alignment per run + manual carryover hint at intersections. User controls start station for predictable placement across roads. Alignment A Sta 0+00 Sta 9+50 (end) 0+00 4+00 8+00 trailing 150' intersection Alignment B 2+50 (B) Carryover hint (printed by tool): spacing − trailing = 400 − 150 = 250 → start next alignment 250 ft past the intersection
Road alignment (centerline)   Hydrant marker block (auto-defined: circle + crosshair)

What it does, per run

  1. Settings dialog: spacing, block name, layer, marker radius, rotate-to-tangent, auto-create flags.
  2. Pick alignment: single Civil 3D Alignment in the host drawing.
  3. Start station prompt: ENTER for alignment start, type a value, or "Pick" keyword to click a point that gets projected onto the alignment.
  4. Compute & place: stations S0, S0+D, S0+2D, ... while ≤ end. All markers in one transaction → single undo.
  5. Carryover hint: tool prints spacing − trailing so the next alignment past the intersection is easy to start.

Defaults & settings

  • Default spacing: 400 (residential), typical fire-marshal max. 500 for commercial.
  • Block name: Hydrant. Auto-defined as a placeholder (circle + crosshair) if missing.
  • Rotation: alignment tangent at each station, off if you prefer axis-aligned.
  • Settings: %APPDATA%\VDC\PlaceHydrants\settings.json (or override via VDC_PLACEHYDRANTS_SETTINGS).
  • Phase 2 (deferred): network-graph auto-placement across alignment intersections.

Dialog

Place Hydrants dialog
Place Hydrants, VDCFHSPACE

When to use it

  • Checking or laying out hydrant spacing along roads.

How to run it

  1. Run VDCFHSPACE and select the road alignment.
  2. Enter the station spacing.
  3. Review the hydrant markers placed along the alignment.

Watch out for

  • Spacing is along the alignment stationing - confirm the alignment is the road centerline you intend.

Related: Service Lots · Multi-Offset