drawings open up slowly civil 3d

Nov 16, 2015

And then, y'all accept an ESRI Shapfile with contour information in information technology and you desire to create a surface from it. How is this washed? Well, honestly, it really isn't too terribly difficult. At that place are, withal, some gotchas you have to exist aware of when using the easy method. Part 2 in this serial will cover a more than involved way of accomplishing this merely will give you a much better surface.

Creating Surface

First off, displaying the contours in your drawing, this part is super easy. Simply drag your .shp file from Windows Explorer into you cartoon surface area and information technology will connect to the .shp file and display it's contents.

Importing a Shapefile

This office isn't necessary just it is a nice way to compare the surface you lot get from the data you have.

Now, let's actually create the surface. On the home tab of the Civil 3D Workspace on the ribbon, expand out the Surfaces pulldown and choose "Create Surface from GIS Information".

Create Surface from GIS Data

This will open up upward another of the famous Civil 3D Wizards. The first tab allows you to set the properties of your new surface, such as the proper noun, description, way, etc. I recommend not using a style that displays a lot of information. Typically, GIS files have a TON of information in them! You lot don't want to unnecessarily overtax your organization.

Object Options

On the next tab, Connect to Data, you'll choose the type of information you want to connect to and and then the actual information source. Depending on the data type, options within the dialog will become available. In this example, I'g connecting to a shapefile so I choose that selection and then browse to the file. Don't forget to click on the Login push at the lesser (not certain why y'all need to login to a shapefile but yous do).

Connect to Data

the Schema and Coordinates section just allows you to choose the data you want to bring in and assign it a coordinate system (if information technology doesn't already have ane). In this case, I simply toggled on the only data that was available. If you are using something other and then a shapefile, you might accept additional options here.

Schema and Coordinates

The Geospatial Query department allows y'all to cull the area of the information source that yous desire to create the surface from. In most cases, y'all don't want to create a surface from the entire shapefile as that is but overkill. Choose the method you want to select the surface area and and then define the expanse (information technology's pretty straight frontwards). At the lesser of the dialog, you'll see two options, Within and Crossing. In most cases, I've institute the Crossing option to piece of work improve. If you cull Within, information technology volition just select the objects that are completely within the area of involvement and ignore any that extend across it. Since nearly contours are very long, they'll extend beyond your boundary and they won't be selected and then make sure to choose the Crossing selection.

Geospatial Query

Finally, the Data Mapping section. This if ane of the most of import parts of the dialog. A shapefile is 2d file. This means the lines within the shapefile only take 10,Y values, no Z values. The acme of the contours are then assigned to the objects as a information field. You'll need to tell Ceremonious 3D which field within the shapefile represents the elevations of the contours.

Data Mapping

Clicking Cease, Civil 3D then creates the surface, adds the data to it, and displays it in your cartoon.

Surface Created

Surface Issues

At present that the surface is created, you should be aware of some issues with creating a surface using this method. Get-go matter, not all the points from your contours are used in creating the surface. There is an automated weeding being applied to the data that y'all have no power to control.

Data Points Weeded Out

Whenever you accept a surface created from contour data, there is the possibility that flat areas tin can be created. Ceremonious 3D has the ability to minimize these flat areas. When creating a surface from a shapefile, Civil 3D automatically applies the Minimize Apartment Areas edit to your surface only, you lot can change the settings in this command. Add the trouble, you tin can't go back and change the settings afterwards, remove the edit to add together it back in, or do anything with information technology. You lot are stuck with it the manner information technology is. See THIS post for information almost the flat areas and what you settings you should employ. When creating a surface from a shapefile, the "Swap Edges" option is non used and therefore, creates a less and then desirable surface.

Missing Contours

Ok, so the contours aren't really missing, they should just follow the data improve. In other words, there should be contours in the areas that I've pointed out in the image.

For an culling method of creating the surface from a shapefile, stay tuned for Office 2.

November sixteen, 2015

In PART one of this serial of posts, I showed you how to create a surface in Ceremonious 3D from a shapefile that contained profile data. I too showed you some of the problems with using that command. In this mail service, I'll prove you how an culling method for creating a surface from a shapefile. There are pros and cons to this method compared with the previous method:

• Pros
  • Allows you to use all the data in the shapefile every bit needed.
  • Gives you lot command over the weeding and suplementing factors for the surface creation.
  • Allows y'all to use the correct options for minimizing apartment areas.
• Cons
  • There are a lot of steps to this process.
  • It potentially creates a much larger surface (information wise)

There are a lot of steps to this procedure and then rather then detailing each footstep similar I normally do, I'one thousand going to summarize the steps here and then, if you demand more than detailed information, yous can sentinel the included video.

1. Import the shapefile into a cartoon as AutoCAD entities (create object data from the shapefile data).
2. Save the file as a new drawing and shut it.
3. Create a new drawing and attach the drawing with the contours to it via the Map Explorer in the Map Task Pane.
4. Query the contours from the one-time drawing into the new drawing altering the elevations of the polylines to the meridian from the shapefile.
5. Create a new surface.
6. Add a dataclip purlieus to the surface.
7. Add together the contours to the surface as contour data (make sure you toggle on all 4 minimize apartment area options).

And that'southward it! This volition create a much better surface from your data but it definitely takes a lot longer to practise.

May 22, 2013

Ceremonious 3D Surface to Revit? That'southward Easy!

Posted past Brian Hailey nether Civil3D | Tags: Bridge, Civil 3D, contours, Corridor, points, Revit, Revit Structure, Settings, Construction, Surface, Survey, Topo, Topography |
[v] Comments

Then, you lot want to bring a surface from Ceremonious 3D into Revit? It's pretty easy, provided you accept both Civil 3D and Revit Construction. What? You don't take them both? You only have Ceremonious 3D? Are y'all certain? Recently, anyone that had Civil 3D on subscription was automatically upgraded to the Infrastructure Design Suite Premium and, estimate what, it has Revit Structure! And so most likely, unless you lot specifically opted out of the upgrade, you have access to Revit Construction.

Delight read this unabridged post as there is some very important information near the finish. Offset, I'll tell you how to Import the Surface and then I'll tell you nigh theLimitations and Issues.

Import the Surface

The Bridge Modeling Tools have been around for a while now. If you lot haven't installed them nonetheless, go to the subscription website and download them. You lot'll need both of them, ane for Revit Construction and one for Civil 3D.

Afterward y'all have installed them, simply open up the drawing that has the surface in Civil 3D and then open the file in Revit Structure you desire to bring the surface into. In Revit, at that place is a little bit of setup you demand to do (if yous're a Revit person, you probably already know this stuff). Go to your "default 3D view" (that's the "doghouse" on the quick access toolbar) and edit the Visibility/Graphic Overrides.

Setting Up Revit

In the Visibility/Graphics Overrides, turn on the display of the Topography.

Topography Options

This will permit you to see the surface when yous bring it in. Once Revit is set up (I'thou sure there are some settings I'm not aware of and I'thou certain a Revit Guru volition correct me on this), become to the Extensions tab, expand out the Civil Structures tool and choose "Integration with AutoCAD Civil 3D".

Integration with Civil 3D

If you have more than one drawing open in Ceremonious 3D, you'll demand to choose the drawing with the surface in information technology, the surface(southward) in the drawing you want to import, and then have it import the surface into Revit.

Import Settings

After hit OK, you then take some options when importing the surface, such as the textile that volition be assigned to the surface and the limits of the surface (if you lot don't want the entire thing).

Terrain Definition

One time done, you'll have a surface in Revit that you can do any y'all want to with it.

Surface in Revit

Limitations and Issues

This tool is really, I mean REALLY cool! A few years agone, one of my coworkers (Brian Mackey) and I worked up a technique to practice this very thing and believe me, information technology wasn't this easy. This is easy but, yous demand to know what it does. If I accept this surface in Revit and I compare information technology to the surface in Ceremonious 3D (I've stylized it in C3D to be similar to what we run across in Revit) you'll run across they are quite different.

Civil 3D vs. Revit

As you can see, the limits of the surface from Civil 3D aren't honored in Revit. In fact, the only thing that comes through in Revit is the surface points. If you have added any breaklines or boundaries to the surface in Civil 3D, Revit doesn't recognize those. For you civil folks, to become a feel for what Revit is doing, basically extract the surface points from a surface and so add them to a new surface and that's what you volition have in Revit. This is still better than what we had though so it'south definitely an improvement. If this is important to you lot, file a support request with Autodesk and so they know and mayhap they volition adjust the way the tool works (the method Brian Mackey and I developed has the aforementioned issue by the way).

Apr 22, 2013

I Desire Y'all TO MAKE THE SURFACE LOOK PRETTY!!!!!

Yes, we've all heard it before, Ceremonious 3D makes contours that sometimes wait similar the recording of an earthquake on a Seismometer:

Seismometer Recording

Really, it's not the fault of Civil 3D, it's the information. Add the same data to whatever other civil blueprint program and yous'll get the aforementioned results. This seems to crop upwards quite a bit when you take cross grades. In the following image y'all tin can encounter that there are two roads going opposite directions and this is where the jagged contours are coming from:

Jagged Contours

No contractor would build it this way so, let's see what our options are.

Pick one: Smoothen the Contours

You tin smooth the contours of the surface. In the style the surface is using, you can toggle on the option to smooth the contours. This is a cracking way to make a drawing "expect pretty". It will have the contours and polish them out. This is merely editing the brandish of the surface. If you take a profile through this area, smoothing contours does null to the profile because nosotros aren't smoothing the surface, we are smoothing the brandish of the surface.

To smooth the contours, go into the style the surface is using and, on the contours tab, toggle the option to smooth the contours to True. Once you have this toggled on, you tin select the type of smoothing you want to apply to the surface also as how ambitious you want the contour smoothing to exist. Play around with these settings and see what looks best for you. At that place isn't a right setting for this considering your goal, when smoothing contours, is to make the contours look pretty.

Contour Smoothing Options

And here is the same area of that surface with the profile smoothing choice set to Truthful, the Smoothing Type set to "Add Vertices" and the contour smoothing maxed out.

Surface with Smoothed Contours

There are some things to be concerned with when smoothing contours, you lot are sacrificing the accuracy of the contours to make them "expect pretty". If you have a spot elevation that happens to autumn very shut to a contour or perhaps a point that was used in the surface creation that's really close to the contour height, you might run across some discrepancies. In the following paradigm, I placed a spot elevation and snapped to the contour and you lot tin see information technology's not the exact same elevation every bit the contour:

Smoothed Contours Labeled

Some other issue with smoothing contours is you lot might end upwards with contours that cross each other. You'll run across this sort of affair primarily where you have some really steep areas such every bit retaining walls.

Crossing Contours

Anyone that's done any corporeality of surface modeling knows this is not immune.

The last issue that I'm enlightened of with smoothing your contours is, information technology'due south all or nothing. You can't polish just a portion of the contours of your surface. This is because information technology's a part of the style.

Option 2: Smooth the Surface

The other option is to smoothen the surface directly. This is an edit that is washed to the surface and is found in the aforementioned identify you can raise/lower the surface or paste in some other surface.

Smooth Surface Command

At that place are two options when smoothing surfaces, "Natural neighbor interpolation" and "Kriging". I'g not going to become into detail on how the different methods piece of work or what settings to employ. You'll need to read the HELP FILE and practise your own research to find out which method works best for your situation. In this case, I'm going to apply the natural neighbor interpolation method.

Smothing Options

Then, how does this differ from smoothing the contours? Well, when you shine contours, you are smoothing the display of the surface. When you shine the surface, yous are actually editing the surface and non only the display. Here is an prototype of the surface with the smoothing edit applied to it:

Smoothed Surface

As you can see, the contours wait much different then when the profile smoothing was practical. If you take a wait at the triangles of the surface, you can get a amend thought of what happened hither (I did a 5′ filigree in this case):

Smoothed Surface Triangles

A couple things to annotation here, I didn't smooth the unabridged surface, just the  area that needed it. 2d, whatsoever data that was added to the surface was not modified in any way at all. If there are points, or breaklines, or corridors, or gradings, they are preserved (including the triangulation along the breaklines). This but affects the way the triangulation in the areas between information are calculated. Basically, instead of doing a straight form between one indicate and the next, information technology rounds it out.

Something to exist aware of, this tin can add a LOT of information to your surface and can get in very deadening to work with so play around with the settings and get the results y'all want without adding also many points to the surface.

Hopefully this helps out when someone is lament well-nigh your ugly contours!

Dec 23, 2012

Ceremonious 3D uses a Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN)  for surface models, just like every other piece of civil engineering software that I'm aware of. There a  couple of major limitation to a Tin can that you lot should be aware of. Start, every single horizontal location (i.due east. every ten,y coordinate) tin can have only one acme. This ways no vertical faces and no overhangs or undercuts. The other limitation is since it's made up of a bunch of triangles, you tin't have curves in your surface. If you lot have curved data that you want to add to your surface, you must estimate this with straight line segments, and this is where the mid-ordinate distance comes into play.

What the Mid Ordinate Distance Is

When y'all add data to your surface, ane of the options is the mid-ordinate distance. What the heck is the mid-ordinate distance? Well, it's the distance from the midpoint of a curve to the midpoint of the arc.

Mid Ordinate Distance

When you add something like a curve to your surface as a breakline, boundary, or profile; the surface cannot follow the curve so it uses the Mid Ordinate Distance to approximate the curve. Basically what happens is C3D will get-go at the stop of the curve and draw a line to another point on the curve so the mid ordinate altitude between those two points on the bend equal what is set in the dialog box.

Mid Ordinate Calculated

Every bit you tin can encounter in the prototype, there is a piddling bit left over at the end, when you lot add this to a surface, you don't want that trivial chip left over so Civil 3D and so evenly distributes the number of points added to the feature along it. This will result in a last Mid Ordinate Distance slightly less then what was calculated.

Mid Ordinates Distributed Along Bend

So, instead of adding just the ends of the curve to the surface, the Mid Ordinate Distance allows us to decide how many points along the curve we want to add.

What Should You Prepare It To?

Now that yous know what information technology is, what should it be set to? In the default template, it's value is set to 1 drawing unit (1′ in the purple template and 1m in the metric template). Is this value as well big? Too small? Or just right? Permit's think of this in a different style. Don't think of it in the abstract Mid Ordinate Distance fashion, recollect of information technology instead as "How far away from my data should I allow my surface to exist created?" If you set the Mid Ordinate Distance to 1′, and then the triangle of your surface can be upwardly to 1′ away from the actual data. It's your telephone call, is this acceptable or not?

Here's how I like to effigy out an acceptable Mid Ordinate Distance. What is the smallest distance between any two breaklines you'll have in your surface? Are yous modeling a haul route for a mine? Or are yous modeling adjourn and gutter for a commercial parking lot? In my experience (primarily country development) I use a lot of curb and gutter. When I model the flow line and the top face of curb in a standard curb and gutter, that's a horizontal distance of 2″. Take that smallest distance and cut it in half to become your desired Mid Ordinate Distance, in this case 1″. Since i″ is about 0.08333 I will typically united states of america 0.1′.

Can I Change the Default?

Well, of course you tin can! Ok, let me rephrase that, if you are using Civil 3D 2010 or later you tin can. On your toolspace, go to the Settings tab and expand out Surface and Commands:

Command Settings Location

As shown in the image, at that place are three commands (at least that I know of) that tin accept the Mid Ordinate Distance fix, AddSurfaceBoundaries, AddSurfaceBreaklines, and AddSurfaceContours. Correct click on the command you desire to alter and cull Edit Command Settings. In the command settings, expand out "Add data options" and change the "Default mid-ordinate distance" setting.

Mid Ordinate Distance Defaults

Hopefully this will help you empathize what's going on with this setting and, take a Merry Christmas!

June 25, 2012

Checking comments on my weblog this morn I ran into this question:

Cheers very much for dainty post. I have 1 more query. I desire to display elavations of contours for each contour line at some stock-still interval. I don't want to draw lable lines. Is there any way to do that. If u know it delight assistance me

Almost likely they want an automatic contour labeling routine but it got me thinking, what about labeling every third contour? Or every seventh? Or every whatever the heck you want contour! It's pretty unproblematic, you lot but need an expression that volition check the interval and then command it's display. Here's how to do information technology.

For this example I am going to label every third contour line. First, create an expression. This expression will see if the contour is at the interval. If it is, then return the contour pinnacle. If it's not, return a negative one. To create the expression, expand out Surface on the Settings tab of the prospector, then Label Styles, and finally Profile. Correct click on Expressions and select New…

New Expression

In the new expression dialog box give the expression a name and a description. Have a picayune forethought on this as yous tin can't go dorsum and rename or change the description of the expression. The actual expression itself volition look something similar this (remember I'grand doing this for every 3rd contour):

Expression Settings

So, what does this expression do? The exam in the IF argument is "{Surface Meridian}/three=TRUNC({Surface Superlative}/3)". This tests to see if the contour is the third profile or not. If this exam is true (the contour IS divisible evenly by three) then it returns the contour elevation, if it'due south not, it returns -1. This -1 is primal to how this expression works in the label way.

And brand sure to format information technology as an top.

Now that the expression is created use information technology in your characterization fashion. You can create a new style or re-create an existing fashion. In the manner composer, edit the style. On the Layout tab, edit the contents of the text component. Remove the current text from the right hand side and insert your new expression into the label. When you do this, the important part is to fix the "Sign" value to "hide negative values". This way if the expression returns -1 it volition, basically, not display anything at all.

Applying the Expression

Once you have washed this to all label styles involved in your labeling process (i.e. major, minor, user, etc.) your drawing will look something like this:

Expression Used in Labels

Yous want to modify the interval? Modify the expression or create a new one for that interval. Desire to accommodate the base of the calculation? Simply add a number in the surface expression to adjust it. For example, I want to label contours 1, 4, vii, and 10. The expression would wait similar this: IF(({Surface Superlative}+ane)/3=TRUNC(({Surface Elevation}+1)/3),{Surface Elevation},-1) – Notice that I added 1 to the outset two {Surface Pinnacle} values to adjust the examination (don't add i to the last 1!).

April 30, 2012

Alternative to Importing Google Earth in Civil 3D

Posted by Brian Hailey under Civil3D | Tags: 2013, aeriform paradigm, Civil, Civil 3D, contours, DEM, GIS, Google Earth, Images, Seamless, Surface, USGS |
[18] Comments

Note from Brian: There'south some new functionality in the 2022 release regarding images. Check it out HERE.

I'm constantly amazed at how many people import information from Google Globe into Civil 3D so complain about how horrible the data is. In that location are 2 principal issues that I've seen when importing information from Google Globe. First of all, the imagery is inconsistent at best. The guys over at Existence Civil wrote up a nice post nearly this upshot HERE if you are interested (also, the images come in black and white). The surface information that you bring in is very express. Sure, yous tin pick anywhere y'all want but you lot are limited to importing 5,000 points and, if you take a big area, that'due south non very much data at all (I recently downloaded a DEM file with over 2.5 meg points, now THAT'S information!). So, instead of relying on Google Earth, go out and get the information yourself! You'll be much happier with the results.

For those of you with projects in the United States there is an amazing resources that I was familiar with but never actually investigated much, the USGS Seamless Information Warehouse (I was playing around with the Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler and looking for data). You can find it at seamless.usgs.gov. Here you can scan a map to find your project location and download orthoimagery (i.e. aerial images) as well every bit surfaces (DEM files). Y'all'll need to create an business relationship to download the data merely it'southward free.

Using the Seamless Viewer

When you get to seamless.usgs.gov, on the left manus side, there is a panel and on this panel, is a link to the Seamless Viewer (you lot can admission information technology HERE if you like). It looks a little something like this:

Seamless Viewer Link

One time you lot click on this, it will take you to a map showing the unabridged United states of america (well, most of North America actually). Draw a rectangle effectually where your project is (you'll come across the state boundaries so use that equally a guide and zoom in on the land the project is in). Once at the country level, you'll probably need some help locating your project area. On the right paw side of the map, y'all can change what is being displayed in the map. By default (at least for me) all information technology showed was the digital meridian data. That really didn't help me observe the area I was looking for (Colorado is a big state, not as large equally Texas of grade, but nevertheless large) and then I toggled on a few options to help me locate my project. The ones that seemed to assistance me the near were the Orthoimagery, the Transportation, and the Places (Names). As you tin see in the post-obit images, it makes a huge difference.

Earlier Editing the Brandish Options

After Editing the Display Options

Once you go zoomed in on the area of involvement, y'all demand to tell the Seamless servers what it is yous want to download. On the right side of the map where the Brandish options are located, switch from Display to Download.

Download Options

In this instance, I chose to download the NAIP (National Agriculture Imagery Program) Orthoimagery also as the one/3 second DEM from the National /Pinnacle Dataset. In one case y'all've set what it is you want to download, you need to specify what part of the map that you lot desire the data for. To do this, employ the tools on the left side. I chose the "Define Rectangular Download Area" option.

Download Selections

A new window will pop up with links to download each file. The files you'll get are simple .naught files. Once you unzip them you'll get a ton of data. For the DEM, the files you demand are the ones that end in .adf. Just keep all these files in one location and yous can then create a surface from them in Ceremonious 3D. The images will accept a lot of files too only really the only ones y'all need are the .tif file and the .tfw file. The .tif file is the actual paradigm itself and the .tfw file is the world file. The globe file lets Civil 3D properly locate it in your cartoon. And honestly, I don't call up you really need the .tfw file equally .tif files tin can take coordinate information embedded into them (aka GeoTIFF). I would even so just leave them together to be rubber.

Download Files

Using the Data in Civil 3D

Once you have the data, you need to add it into Civil 3D. Kickoff matter you lot want to do before adding in this data is to make certain your drawing has a coordinate system assigned to information technology. If you aren't familiar with this, simply right click on the drawing name on the settings tab of the Prospector and cull Edit Drawing Settings. On the Units and Zone tab, assign an advisable coordinate system to your drawing. If you aren't certain what to utilize here, bank check with your surveyor on the project.

Coordinate System in Civil 3D

To bring the DEM file into Civil 3D, create a surface and add the DEM file every bit data. I'm not going to get into the details in the post equally I've already talked about how to bring DEM files in to Civil 3D. You can read it HERE if you like. When you add the DEM file, utilize the coordinate system code LL83. Also make certain you read the comments as you'll need create the surface in a metric drawing and apply LandXML to bring it into a drawing that is in imperial units.

To bring the images into Civil 3D, utilize the Map Epitome Insert command MAPIINSERT (yes, 2 I'south in there). This will bring the images in georeferenced.

Decision

Sure this process takes longer and then importing from Google Earth but think of it this way, "You get what you pay for". In this case, yous're paying with fourth dimension. Importing from Google Globe is fast merely you lot get very poor data. Getting the data yourself takes a bit longer just you get MUCH better results. Check out this example, in the following image yous can see where four of the images downloaded from the Seamless server line upwardly and it's Actually close to being exactly matched upwards (I tin't meet any showtime or other error personally). Compare that with what you go out of Google Earth.

Image Overlap

If anyone has information sources similar to this for other countries, comment here so others tin can observe them.

Baronial 13, 2011

For a while now, I've been preaching how to add contour data to my classes and nowhere take I e'er seen anyone else teach it the way I do. I've done some searching online and even the folks over at http://www.civil4d.com (formerly http://www.civil3d.com) practice it the aforementioned way everyone else does, and they are doing it wrong (sorry).

Then, what do I do different then anybody else? Start off, let's talk almost what everyone else does.

The Incorrect Way To Add Contour Data

When you add contour data to a surface, you are offered iv options for minimizing flat areas:

Adding Contours

As you tin can come across in the image above, three of these options are toggled on by default (1, 3, and4) and one is toggled off (2). Everywhere I've ever seen anyone talk nigh adding contour data says "Use these settings when adding profile information". Examples:
http://www.civil4d.com/2006/04/creating-an-accurate-surface-from-contours/
http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=32786.0
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=122101
http://world wide web.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/wqg/srp/pdfs/rc221_chap2.pdf

Even the official Autodesk Best Practices Guide for Ceremonious 3D 2012 says to practice it this way:
http://docs.autodesk.com/CIV3D/2012/ENU/filesCBP/GUID-5268C849-DC6E-4FE6-81FE-21DB9407A77-92.htm

Then what's wrong with doing it this way? Well, IT Just DOESN'T Work! First off, allow's run across what happens when you don't do any minimizing at all. In the post-obit image, y'all'll see a group of contours. These are 5′ and 25′ contours.

Original Profile Data

Now, I'm going to add these contours to a surface and I'k not going to practice any sort of  minimizing options at all (all unchecked). The resulting surface (showing v′ and 25′ contours) shows why yous demand to minimize your flat areas.

Contours Added w/o Minimizing Apartment Areas

The surface contours and the data contours don't match upward at all, so we minimize the apartment areas. Starting time off, I'yard going to testify you what happens if yous only swap the edges (toggle merely pick 2 on). When you bandy edges, Civil 3D merely  changes the way it triangulates the data.

Flat Areas Minimized by merely Swapping Edges

This does a pretty good job fixing the contours just there are still some areas that it simply doesn't quite piece of work. I think information technology'south because of this that people say not to use the swapping edges method. Instead of swapping edges, the next image shows the exact same surface with options specified by all of the sources linked to above, 1) Filling gaps in contour information* 3) Adding points to flat triangle edges and 4) Adding points to apartment edges.
*This is not actually a minimizing option and I'm not certain why it'south included in this dialog box. I suppose they had to put this option somewhere and they decided to place it hither.

Minimized Flat Areas with Default Settings

As you tin can see, the new contours match up exactly with the original contour data (inside the parameters set by the weeding factors at least). People see this and recall to themselves, "Hey! That looks perfect! I'one thousand done!" Well, let's take a closer look at the surface, I'1000 going to exercise this by using a different contour interval. The original information was v′ contours then I'g going to brandish my surface with 1′ contours.

Default Options Still Leave Apartment Areas

Even though nosotros told Civil 3D to minimize the flat areas, this image shows that there are withal apartment areas. Well, technically, they aren't flat. When you use the default options to minimize apartment areas, it takes the flat areas and puts a actually small gradient on them then they are no longer perfectly flat, they are just really really close to being flat. And this is the trouble with using the default settings. The surface contours that are at the exact same meridian equally the data contours match up exactly. However, between the contours, it just doesn't do a skilful job estimating what the surface should exercise.

The Correct Fashion To Add Contour Information

Ok, I've just shown you lot that everything y'all know is wrong near contour information and then, what's the correct way to add contour information to a surface? The respond is suprisingly uncomplicated, only use all the options when you add your contour data. For the flat areas, if it can bandy the edges, it does. If it can't bandy the edges, it adds the points. The following epitome shows how this aforementioned surface looks with all four of the options turned on.

All Minimizing Options On

It's not perfect. In that location are still some apartment areas (hence the term MINIMIZING flat areas) but using all the options results in a much ameliorate surface than the default options. Hopefully I've convinced yous to come up over to the nighttime side and employ all the minimizing options when adding profile data. Of course, there may be situations where the different options will provide better results (and if you know of any, please let me know what they are) but overall, only toggle them all on.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to change the defaults used for the Minimize Flat Areas command and then you're going to be stuck toggling on the swapping edges each fourth dimension yous add contour data or use the edit (once more, if anyone know how to change the defaults, please let me know).

<edit>Looks similar you lot can now edit the defaults in Ceremonious 3D 2013. Right click on the control AddSurfaceContours in the settings tab and you can modify the defaults:

Change the Defaults

Thanks to Gunnar on the word groups.

</edit>

Now get out there and buck the C3D system!

March 12, 2010

It always seems similar there'southward something you can't do in Civil 3D that you used to exist able to do.  For example, if my contours get really shut together, i.east. the surface is steep, I would similar to use a different profile interval for that surface area.  In Civil 3D, you can't specify a unlike contour interval for different slope ranges but, if you understand how the plan works, yous can accomplish pretty much the same matter.  Read on for more information. (more…)

February xi, 2010

Now, I'g not a large fan of the way Civil 3D handles contour labels, I remember at that place are some alternatives that might work a bit amend merely, I don't have much say in that then I've learned to handle what I've got.  When I'm showing profile labels in my classes, inevitably, someone asks, "Do those lines plot?"  Well, read on and I'll explain to you what I explicate to my students. (more…)

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Source: https://civil3dplus.wordpress.com/tag/contours/

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