AutoCAD Civil 3D :: Add A Surface To Blank Drawing / Then Upload DEM Files To Surface
Oct 2, 2012
I am issues with DEM files that I am downloading from the USGS website.I download 24k, elevation for the area I need. I then choose staged 1 second, add a surface to a blank drawing, then upload the DEM files to the surface.
The surface imports correcty, but when I try to import points taken by a surveyor on the same drawing, they plot incorrectly.The DEM surface and the points from the surveyor do not correspond. Also, the DEM surface is in meters, not feet. I have tried changing drawing settings, datum types, coordinate types, etc.
I often have to do storm pond surfaces that (for the purposes of planning) are flat on the bottom. These surfaces are created from a combination of survey data and grading groups and the tin of these surfaces is perfectably acceptable. However, when contours are shown, the flat bottom is shown with contours jig-jagging all over the place.
The attached image shows a comparison of the same pond. The top was created with survey data and grading groups; the bottom was created using contour data only. The generated surface on the top shows the bottom contour going in different directions and has parts where the an expected contour is missing.
How to correct/manipulate the surface to show a proper flat surface?
Has instances where you set your tolerance for the maximum triangle lenth to say 50m to reduce the amount of triangles along the edge that run at long distances. When I do this I end up with multiple surface holes and I'm not sure why as there are points in the area.
I thought well maybe it's because i should've reduced my max triangles first then added breaklines. Would this matter? I also thought I could add a line to the surface to fix the holes vs. deleting surface lines along the entire edge of a surface for many many miles.
I am trying to add points into a surface. I have done this before without any problems, but now I am having issues.
When I ID points which makes up the surface it gives me the correct Z level e.g. 24.5m, however when I hover over the surface it shows me the surface name and a different z level e.g. 0.65m. What is the reason for this difference in z levels? I think this may be causing the issue I am having when I add new points.
I select the surface and use the 'edit surface command' in the ribbon, choosing add point.
When I add a point at the level I require(23.89m), it puts it in a lot higher than the surrounding area, so I tried to put the point in to the lower z levels (0.4m) it puts it in a lot lower!
I have a project involving 3 programs. I am creating a planned development in 3d to be 3d printed when finished. The project is a 5 acre tract containing 8 buildings. I have built the surface in C3D and each building in Revit. The buildings are not in the same Revit file. For my solid work, I will bring the files over into 3ds Max Design to section into smaller quadrants to build in the 3d printer.
The questions:
Would it be better to import the surface into Revit to merge surface and buildings together?
Would it be better to import the buildings into C3D to merge entities?
Would it be better to bring those entities into 3ds Max and then merge them into one? Will 3ds Max Design allow me to insert entities accurately in the environment?
I need to create a sub-set surface from my main surface. not sure what the vernacular is for a "subset surface" in c3d but i do have a feature line that bouinds the desired area, but that is as far as i can solve.
i did try creating a new surface - pasted the main surface in the edit definition, then deleted triangles until the boundary alighned wiht my featureline. This seemed to work, but when i view the properties of the smaller subset suface, it shows a mimum and maximum elevation that is incorrect.
Im currently using an addon for Civil 3D called Novapoint. It allows me to create 3D models of surfaces made out of 3d faces and easily models cut and fill 3d-models for me.
The only thing i need to create a cut and fill model is one or several ground surfaces (existing ground, earth layers, rock etc. whatever i need) and a closed polyline/3Dpolyline that represents the level I want my cut and/or fill model.
I enter the spcifications I want such as; earth cut angle, rock cut angle, fill angle, select which surfaces i want to include in the model calculation and select the polyline.Novapoint then calculates the cut/fill model from the surfaces to the polyline and models the different cut/fill angles and gives me the results in a 3d-face model and a specification of the volyme of rock cut, earth cut an fill.
1. Novapoint is quite unstable and crashes alot
2. You cant create profiles out of 3d faces
3. Novapoint does not automaticly combine the start surfaces with the modeled cut/fill surface
4. A large surface made out of 3d-faces demands alot of computer power
So I want to how I do the same that Novapoint does for me in Civil 3D? (I have access to Civil 3D 2007-2013 depending on which one you're using)I know I can take the 3Dfaces i created in Novapoint and make a surface in Civil 3D with them but I want to exclude Novapoint completely.
all of a sudden whenever I run audit on my corridor file the surface definition becomes a snapshot. To add to the drama, the corridor surface will not paste into an empty surface. Why?
My problem added with pic ... I want to make volume calculate for sample road project. When I try to compute materials I cant use Corridor surface for DATUM... There is only target surface on option..
I am trying to visualize a road project. The problems is, whenever the corridor surface goes below the EG surface (when the road is in cut) the EG surface is the only visible surface.
I sort of need to subtract the corridor surface from the EG surface, or merge the both surfaces into one.
I was wondering if there is an easy way to trim one surface to another. Right now, I have two slopes (3:1) that are perpendicular to each other. They meet at a corner and I have extended them past each other so that I could see the intersecting edge. Now I would like to trim them to each other like you would a polyline etc... but I am not sure how to do this.
If I select surf trim, it tells me they are the wrong object type, but they are tin surfaces?
I customized a surface style to show relative elevations, with lighter tones representing higher elevations, and darker tones representing lower elevations. With a single glance, I know the high and low spots in my project area.
C3d provides several default surface elevation styles. None of them comes close to providing the instant, data-at-a-glance information that my customized style does, which I use to design stormwater systems. Again, it's really useful to see, with one look, where the high and low spots are in my project area.
I can't figure out how to export, transfer, copy, whatever, my customized style from one drawing to a new drawing. If I want to see my customized style, I have to recreate it from scratch in each and every drawing where I want to use it.
How to transfer a surface style from one drawing to another? By the way, I tried opening up both drawings, with both toolspace/settings windows open. Tried dragging and dropping the customized style to the new drawing. Didn't work.
i am trying to add as a breakline. i have not been able to get this particular line to work as a breakline and the surface keeps drawing triangles through the line like its not even there. The figure properties show that it is a breakline. The figure prefix database brings the line style in as a breakline from the start.
I have been provided survey data in the form of an XML file that I am using to build a surface. Everything is fine, except for the drawing with the surface is still referencing the XML file. What is the best method to remove this reference and have the surface fully contained in one file? Using C3D 2012.
I need to supply a client with a drawing and exist. surface.But I don't want them to have the survey data or points.What's the best way to handle this?
I have created a surface in Civil 3D by adding contours....... Now that I have created the surface I need to Exoprt it to .sat / .stl files. But in order to do this I need a 3D Solid.
How do I convert this service to a 3D solid in order to the the export?
I have tried the thickening option in the 3D Modeling workspace but it doesn't want to accept my surface.
I am working on roadway project where I am using Pipe Networks to layout the drainage infrastructure. I have set my working dwg up so that I am data referencing the existing surface and proposed alignment. I have set my pipe network up so that it is also referencing this surface and alignment. Everything was working fine. Labels were pulling the correct information from my surface elevations, and stations were being referenced as well, until I got a message that recommended that I recover my drawing.
I ran recover and my surface and alignment data shortcut disappeared. My pipe network now shows questions marks where there were once stationing and it appears that the surface and alignment have completely disassociated themselves from my drawing, however they appear in the prospector, but cannot be refreshed. Again the data shortcut symbol is no longer next to my surface and alignment, but there is a symbol telling me that those objects are being referenced by another object in my drawing (my pipe network). I have tried refreshing, resetting the working folder, all to no avail.
I was given a job where i need to create a surface from a gis file. have been messing with my civ 3d 2013 a little bit and have been able to get a surface comprised of a bunch of polylines to appear (not a true surface). I will need to create profiles so i need a true surface. I downloaded a compressed shape file from the county and need to know how to insert this into a drawing and build a surface using my own surface style.
I have checked my data folder and I cannot find the file Surface-7.dwg used in a surfaces tutorial. It's a multi-view block. I checked my entire hard drive and it is not there. Can the files be downloaded? I can't seem to find where I can do this.
As a matter of fact, the location where the tutuorials say to look, Windows 7: C:ProgramDataAutodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D2012enuData, does not exist on this Windows 7 Home Premium computer I am using.
Windows 7 x 64 Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 8 GB Ram Intel Core i5-2310 @ 2.90 GHz v. F.107.0.0 AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 SP1
I am having a problem using 2014 civil 3D. When I import las files and create a point cloud, and go on to make a surface from those points, it is limiting the "number of points added" to 340134. I am using the lidar las files which each tile or file has an average of 12 million points, and I have tried to create a surface using one file, and up to 28 tiles (where there should be 340 million points). Regardless, one of the files contains 12 million points and I do have the "point density" set to 100, and the "real time density" set to 100. Why will it only use 340,134 points? I have tried all options from "point cloud extents" to "window" and same result. All the points from the cloud are there and displaying fine, it just seems civil 3d is limiting the number of points used for surface.
How can I make sure the annotated surface labels spot elevations from my 3d design drawing which is being xrefed into a new Precise Grading Breakout Sheet plots screened?
The Label Style which I created for the annotated surface label spot elevations has all its properties set to be ByLayer for example its color and lineweight. The Layer I assigned the Label Style was assigned to a layer with a color and plot style that should plot any object screened. Color 8 and Plot Style Screened.
What other steps am I missing to assure myself that this Label Style will plot screened in my new Precise Grading Breakout Sheet?
I also made sure that the xref drawing in which this Surface spot elevation has the correct colors and lineweights and Plot Styles in my new Precise Grading Breakout Sheet.
I used a 2d polyline to create a surface boundary for a surface created. The polyline is a closed loop. For the boundary type it is outer, unchecked Non-destructive breakline, and mid-ordinate distance = 1.
My problem is that when I do this I only get a small portion of the surface to show up within my surface boundary. If I don't have a surface boundary the entire drawing surface shows up no problem.
The purple polyline is my boundary and the light blue is the surface created within the boundary.
how I can add more volume to curved object surface? Say for example I have a plastic cup.You can think of this as cylinder object ,which was the shelled out using the shell tool and then had its base sealed.
Now at certain parts, I would like to increase the thickness and then blend it the rest of the surface(may be chamfer its edges) .
At certain parts on curved surface I would like to add an extra mm, I think if the surface was flat I would just sketch the shape, then extrude it by few mm and smooth the edges by doing a chamfer
But how can this be done on surface that is curved? Or multi curved for edges?
I would like to know how can put planar surface to solid object which surface is curved like cylinder for example. When start draw from first point rectangle of planar surface follow x cordinate not that solid object. How to do that simply?
I'm designing a press for a skateboard similar to: Rib Press
I have the board modeled: (see attached)
Now what i want to do is generate those ribs as seen in the picture.
I tried creating a block that intersected with the board and tried to split the rib at the surface, but to no avail. I think the issue has something to do with the curve of the board in two directions, but i can't seem to get it right.
if you are having trouble visualizing what i'm asking about, look at this. I want to be able to figure out the exact shape of those center ribs to print and eventually cut out of wood.
It is not possible forme to add the fil because it is to large 1.8MB how can I poste then I like to know if it is possible to extend the button flat surface diameter ø12.5 up to the shaped surface. The result should be a total solid block whit a surface shaped hole.
File last up-date with Autodesk Inventor Professional 2013
I am a beginner when a extrude a feature and select a part surface for new sketch now i want is to offset that surface but i can,t there is + sign with mouse icon and something like fully constrained is written in down the window.
