Installing the bundle adds seven tabs to the Civil 3D ribbon: VDC Civil (grading, feature lines, terrain, hydrology), VDC Lots (lots, parcels, labels), VDC Utilities (pipes, profiles, drawing tools), VDC Survey (adjoiners + GIS, points, boundary + plats), VDC Sheets (sheets, sheet sets, sheets + takeoff), VDC Plans (plans, tables + reports, coordination, closeout) and VDC QC (site / design / drawing audits), every tab sized to fit a 1920-wide screen with every label showing (since 1.109.0; wider tabs made AutoCAD hide the stacked buttons' text). Panels of four or fewer commands show all LARGE buttons, bigger panels lead with a large hero and stack the rest, so nobody has to memorize command names. Clicking a button runs the same command as typing it: every prompt, dialog, and setting is identical. Hover any button for a tooltip describing the tool.
How it behaves
- Appears automatically: the tab is built in-process when the bundle loads at startup, there is no CUIX file to install, load, or migrate between Civil 3D versions.
- Survives workspace switches: changing workspace rebuilds the AutoCAD ribbon; the tab re-adds itself automatically on the next idle tick.
- If it ever goes missing (e.g. after a CUI reload), type
VDCRIBBON, the tab is rebuilt and brought to the front. - Buttons = commands: a click posts the command to the command line. Settings dialogs, prompts, Run/Refresh/Pick modes, everything matches the typed command exactly.
Panels & buttons
- VDC Civil, Grading: Grade Lots (
VDCGRADELOTS), Refresh Elevations (VDCGRADELOTS_REFRESH), Refresh All (VDCREFRESHALL), Re-map Surface (VDCGRADELOTS_RESURFACE), Smooth Surface (VDCSMOOTHSURF), Drain Arrows (VDCDRAINARROW) - VDC Civil, Feature Lines (all large): FL Elevation Points (
VDCFLPOINTS), FL Delete Points (VDCFLDELVERTS), FL from Points (VDCFLFROMPTS), Connect Points (VDCFLCONNECT) - VDC Civil, Terrain (all large): Ground Thin (
VDCGROUNDTHIN), Cloud Slice (VDCCLOUDSLICE), Cloud Assets (VDCCLOUDASSETS), Terrain (VDCTERRAIN) - VDC Civil, Hydrology: Drainage Area (
VDCDRAINAGEAREA), Time of Conc. (VDCTC), Curve Numbers (VDCCN), Stage-Storage (VDCSTAGESTORAGE) - VDC Lots, Lots: Lot Fronts (
VDCLOTFRONT), Setback Lines (VDCSETBACK), Service Lots (VDCSERVICELOTS), Stretch Services (VDCSERVICESTRETCH), Front Easements (VDCFRONTEASE) - VDC Lots, Parcels: Create Parcels (
VDCPARCELGEN), ROW Gen (VDCROWGEN), Lot Split (VDCLOTSPLIT), Regen (VDCPARCELREGEN), Publish (VDCPARCELPUB), Parcel Ref (VDCPARCELREF), Renumber (VDCPARCELNUM), Parcel QC (VDCPARCELQC), Export/Import (VDCPARCELXPORT), Parcel Probe (VDCPARCELPROBE) - VDC Lots, Labels: Feature Line Slopes (
VDCFLLABEL), Pad Labels (VDCPADLABEL), Label Drag (VDCLABELDRAG), Label Fix (VDCLABELFIX), MText to Leader (VDCMTEXT2MLDR), Code Leaders (VDCCODELEADER), Keynotes (VDCKEYNOTE) - VDC Sheets, Sheets: Sheet Frames (
VDCFRAMEDEF), Sheet Gen (VDCSHEETGEN), Plot Batch (VDCPLOTBATCH), Phasing (VDCPHASING), Sheet Set Paths (VDCSHEETPATH), Display Plot Styles (VDCDISPSTYLES), Rev Cloud (VDCREVCLOUD), Legend (VDCLEGEND), Title Block QC (VDCTITLEQC) - VDC Sheets, Sheet Sets: Sheet Numbers (
VDCSHEETNUM), Sheet Set QC (VDCSHEETQC), Sheet Set Mirror (VDCSHEETMIRROR), Sheet Share (VDCSHEETSHARE), Sheet Stamp (VDCSHEETSTAMP) - VDC Utilities, Pipes: Pipe Crossings (
VDCPIPELABEL), Pipe Ref (VDCPIPEREF), Pipe Views (VDCPIPEVIEWS), Pipe Names (VDCPIPENAMES), Profile Pipes (VDCPROFXING), Storm Draft (VDCSTORMDRAFT), Sewer Draft (VDCSEWERDRAFT) - VDC Utilities, Profiles (all large): Profile Line (
VDCPROFLINE), Surface Profiles (VDCSURFPROFILES), Band Profiles (VDCBANDPROFILES) - VDC Utilities, Drawing Tools: Multi-Offset (
VDCOFFSET), Easement Widths (VDCEASEMENT), Space Hydrants (VDCFHSPACE), Delete Vertices (VDCDELVERTS), Scan DWG (VDCSCANDWG), Clean DWG (VDCCLEANDWG), Super Clean (VDCSUPERCLEAN), Style Update (VDCSTYLEUPDATE), Export CAD (VDCEXPORTCAD), Xref Fix (VDCXREFFIX), Layer Map (VDCLAYERMAP) - VDC Plans, Coordination: Drawing Locks (
VDCLOCKS), Stale Locks (VDCSTALELOCKS), Plan Review Email (VDCPLANEMAIL), Error Report Email (VDCERROREMAIL) - Plain-AutoCAD seats (VDC.Acad bundle): the surviving buttons re-home into FOUR neutral tabs, VDC Tools (civil, lots, utilities, plans survivors), VDC GIS (the survey / GIS survivors), VDC Sheets, VDC QC, instead of mostly-blank Civil/Survey-named tabs (two tabs from 1.92.0 to 1.108.0; the single Tools tab had grown too wide to show its labels).
- VDC Survey, Adjoiners + GIS: Adjoiner Labels (
VDCADJLABEL), Adjoiner Parcels (VDCADJPARCELS), Adjoiner Tags (VDCADJTAG), Buffer Yard (VDCBUFFERYARD), Wetlands (VDCWETLAND), Site Data (VDCSITEDATA), Site Snapshot (VDCSITESNAPSHOT), Soils (VDCSOILS), KML Export (VDCKMLEXPORT), KML Import (VDCKMLIMPORT), GIS Import (VDCSHPIMPORT), GIS Export (VDCGISEXPORT) - VDC Survey, Points: Stake Out (
VDCSTAKEOUT), Stake Lots (VDCSTAKELOTS), Dedupe Points (VDCDEDUPPOINTS), Control Exhibit (VDCCONTROL), NGS Control (VDCNGSCONTROL), Figures (VDCFIGURES) - VDC Survey, Boundary + Plats (all large): Deed Table (
VDCDEEDTABLE), Tag Labels (VDCTAGLABELS), Plat QC (VDCPLATQC) - VDC Plans, Closeout: As-Built (
VDCASBUILT), Set Inverts (VDCSETINVERTS), Build Structs (VDCBUILDSTRUCTS), Build Pipes (VDCBUILDPIPES), Stake QC (VDCSTAKEQC) - VDC QC, Site QC: Lot QC (
VDCLOTQC), Lot Drainage QC (VDCLOTDRAINQC), Parking Count (VDCPARKING), Parking Code (VDCPARKINGDIM), ADA Slopes (VDCADASLOPE), Fire Coverage (VDCFIRECOVER), Sight Dist (VDCSIGHTDIST), Tree Clear (VDCTREECLEAR) - VDC QC, Design QC: Pipe QC (
VDCPIPEQC), Road QC (VDCROADQC), Surface QC (VDCSURFQC), Pipe Clash (VDCCLASH), Flood QC (VDCFLOODQC), Pond QC (VDCPONDQC) - VDC QC, Drawing QC: Standards QC (
VDCSTDQC), Style QC (VDCSTYLEAUDIT), Xref QC (VDCXREFQC), QC Status (VDCQCSTATUS), Who Did It (VDCWHO), Font Swap (VDCFONTSWAP), Dimension QC (VDCDIMQC) - VDC Plans, Tables + Reports: Lot Table (
VDCLOTTABLE), Pipe Table (VDCPIPETABLE), Station Offset Table (VDCSOTABLE), Earthwork Haul (VDCHAUL), Balance (VDCBALANCE) - VDC Sheets, Sheets + Takeoff: Sheet Index (
VDCSHEETINDEX), Label QC (VDCLABELQC), Viewport QC (VDCVIEWPORTQC), Quantity Takeoff (VDCQTO), Erosion Control (VDCESC), Tree Table (VDCTREETABLE), Rev Table (VDCREVTABLE) - VDC Plans, Plans (all large): Cover Fill (
VDCCOVERFILL), FIRM Note (VDCFIRM) - Help (every tab): Command Reference, opens this document; its drop-down holds License Terms (
VDCEULA) and Privacy Policy (VDCPRIVACY), Suite Versions (VDCVERSIONS), and Check for Updates (VDCUPDATE). - Every session prints its version at startup (1.101):
VDC Custom CAD Tools 1.101.2 loaded.The bundle on disk can be newer than the DLLs a running session holds, the sign-in sync updates files, a running session keeps its code until Civil 3D restarts, and that difference used to be invisible.VDCWHATSNEWreplays the release notes; Read the Full Notes opens the notes page shipped in the bundle, so it works offline. - Icons render at runtime (light strokes + VDC blue) and read correctly on both the dark and light Civil 3D color themes.
Dialog
VDCRIBBON, No dialog, rebuilds the VDC ribbon tabs.When to use it
- If a VDC tab does not appear, or after an update, to rebuild the tabs.
How to run it
- Run VDCRIBBON to (re)build the tabs (VDC Civil comes to the front).
- Civil production on VDC Civil, pipes/profiles/utilities on VDC Utilities, survey and closeout on VDC Survey, audits on VDC QC.
Watch out for
- If a tab is missing after an update, run VDCRIBBON once - it rebuilds the whole set.