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Create an existing ground surface and add data to that surface.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
11 min.
Transcript
00:04
We're now going to start building our existing ground surface from
00:07
project data that we've acquired from a variety of sources.
00:13
This existing ground surface will be the base drawing for all of our site design.
00:17
From this point onwards.
00:21
In this drawing,
00:21
we have the survey points point group which was created from our survey point file.
00:28
We also have some contours which have been extracted from
00:31
ad em model from the US geographical survey data.
00:36
These are just lightweight poly lines with the height
00:40
to create a new surface. We could use the home ribbon tab
00:44
and on the crate ground data panel, choose surfaces and then create surface.
00:49
However,
00:50
we are going to use prospector to create our surface since
00:54
this provides easy access for everything that we need to do
00:58
in prospector, right, click on the surfaces collection and choose create surface.
01:05
This surface will be a tin surface made up of irregular triangles,
01:10
override the default name and rename it to existing ground.
01:15
It's good practice to give your civil 3d
01:17
objects names that your co workers will understand.
01:21
You can enter a description if required
01:24
set the surface style to contours 1 ft and 5 ft design.
01:29
This will show colored contours at 1 ft intervals.
01:33
Click OK.
01:36
We've just created a new empty surface. Now we need to start adding data to it.
01:41
We can add data to a surface using the ribbon
01:45
on the modify ribbon tab from the ground data panel, choose surface.
01:50
Then on the surface ribbon tab from the modify panel,
01:54
there's an add data button which can be used
01:56
to add data of different types to the surface.
01:60
We can also add data to our surface using the tool space prospector tap,
02:05
expand the existing ground surface in the surfaces collection,
02:10
expand the definition item.
02:13
Here you'll see all the different methods of adding data to the surface.
02:19
First, we're going to add our COGO points,
02:22
right. Click on point groups, select add
02:25
and from the list of point groups, choose survey points and then click. OK.
02:31
You will see the data has been added to the surface
02:34
and the surface is displayed in the model space as contours.
02:39
Now we're going to add the contour poly lines to the surface.
02:44
This is going to provide less accurate
02:46
surface data around the immediate site boundary.
02:49
But we can use this additional area of surface to provide context to our project.
02:56
Select the contours item, right click and choose add,
03:01
enter the description contours from dem
03:06
each contour will have a lot of vertices along the line and
03:10
this will subsequently generate a large number of triangles in the surface
03:15
which could affect the performance of our models.
03:18
We can adjust the number of vertices that are added from
03:21
the contour poly lines using the weeding and supplementing factors.
03:27
The weeding factors control the removal of points from the contour.
03:31
If the distance between vertices on two
03:34
line segments is less than the weeding distance
03:37
then provided the deviation of line segments is less than the weeding angle.
03:42
The middle vertex will be deleted.
03:45
Supplementing factors control the insertion of interpolated points
03:50
to ensure similarly sized triangles are created.
03:54
If the distance between two contour vertices
03:56
is greater than the supplementing distance,
03:59
then additional vertices are added.
04:02
If the contour lines are curved,
04:04
then additional vertices may be added around the curve so
04:07
that our surface triangles will match the contour more accurately
04:12
if the mid ordinate distance of the curved segment between
04:16
two vertices is greater than the supplementing mid ordinate distance,
04:20
then additional vertices are added
04:22
so that the separation of surface triangle sides are
04:25
now curved will match the specified mid ordinate distance
04:31
in the minimized flat areas by section
04:34
select swapping edges.
04:38
This ensures that triangles will be rearranged to prevent triangles from
04:42
spanning a single value contour and thus creating a flat triangle
04:47
click. OK. And in the model space use a crossing window
04:51
to select all of the contours
04:54
press enter to accept the selection.
04:57
The contours are now added to the surface definition.
05:00
We can't delete the original poly lines as this will delete them from the surface.
05:05
So to prevent us selecting them again, by accident, we'll turn off their layers
05:11
from the home ribbon tab on the layers panel,
05:13
click on the layers pull down list and turn off the layers zero D
05:18
contours major
05:19
and zero dem contours minor.
05:22
By turning off the light bulb icon.
05:25
We're now going to add some brake lines
05:26
to our surface to improve the surface definition.
05:30
When we add brake lines to a surface civil 3D will re triangulate the surface
05:35
to ensure that our surface triangle sides lie along the brake line and don't cross it
05:43
from the insert ribbon tab on the block panel,
05:45
choose insert and select blocks from libraries.
05:50
Add a new library by picking the add a library button
05:54
from the library. Now displayed, we're going to insert the 3D brake lines drawing
05:59
first, ensure that none of the insertion options are selected.
06:03
Right? Click on the 3D brake lines, drawing and choose insert and explode.
06:10
The brake lines are inserted into the drawing.
06:13
These are 3d poly lines representing surveyed features on the ground
06:19
in prospector, select brake lines from the existing ground definition,
06:24
right click and choose add,
06:27
enter a description of 3D survey.
06:32
There are two main types of brake lines standard and proximity.
06:37
We use standard when our brake lines are 3D and we
06:40
want to add the brake line heights to the surface.
06:45
We use proximity when our brake lines are two D poly
06:47
lines.
06:49
In this case, civil 3d will ignore the Z value of the Polyline
06:53
and only use the xy position of the line to control the triangles
06:58
ensure the brake line type is set to standard and click. Ok.
07:02
In the model space use a window crossing to select all
07:05
of the brake lines and press enter to accept the selection.
07:10
The brake lines will be added to the surface and the contours will update
07:15
the event viewer may be invoked by alerts triggered during the surface rebuild.
07:21
You can review warnings in the event viewer
07:23
and zoom to specific issues to review them.
07:27
Some brake lines have not been added where they cross another brake line
07:32
close the event viewer.
07:34
We're now going to add some additional
07:36
survey information from A two D survey drawing
07:39
from the insert ribbon tab blocks panel, select insert then blocks from libraries
07:46
select the two D survey drawing, right click and choose, insert and explode.
07:54
The two D survey has text values to represent the survey levels.
07:60
These have no Z value but the contents of
08:02
the text provides us with the required elevation.
08:07
We can raise these text items up to their correct Z values.
08:12
Select one of the text values right click and choose select similar
08:18
from the modify ribbon tab ground data panel, choose surface
08:24
from the surface ribbon tab surface tools panel select move to surface,
08:29
then move text to elevation.
08:32
The selected text objects will be given Z values based on their text contents.
08:40
Back in prospector under existing ground and definition slit drawing objects.
08:47
We use this method when we want to add data
08:49
to our surface that's represented by existing autocad entities.
08:53
Right? Click and choose add
08:56
from the list of types. Choose the text filter
09:00
type a description of two D level text
09:04
in the model space. Use a window crossing to select the area of two D text
09:09
press enter to accept the selection
09:13
again, the surface will update with the new information we have added.
09:20
We're now going to add the two D features as brake lines.
09:24
In prospector select brake lines, right, click and add
09:28
type a description of two D survey
09:32
set,
09:33
the brake line type to proximity since we don't want
09:36
to use the elevations of the lines in the surface
09:39
and click. Ok.
09:42
Use a crossing window to select all of the
09:44
poly lines in the two D survey and presenter,
09:48
close the event viewer. If it appears
09:53
the result of adding the two D brake lines can be
09:55
seen on this embankment where the contours now run along it.
10:01
Now that we've added our different datasets to the surface, we can review it,
10:06
select the surface by clicking on any contour,
10:09
right click and select object viewer.
10:14
We can see in the 3d view that there are
10:16
some mistakes in the surface which we'll need to correct.
10:21
We've now created our existing ground surface and our next task
10:25
will be to edit the surface to correct any errors.
Video transcript
00:04
We're now going to start building our existing ground surface from
00:07
project data that we've acquired from a variety of sources.
00:13
This existing ground surface will be the base drawing for all of our site design.
00:17
From this point onwards.
00:21
In this drawing,
00:21
we have the survey points point group which was created from our survey point file.
00:28
We also have some contours which have been extracted from
00:31
ad em model from the US geographical survey data.
00:36
These are just lightweight poly lines with the height
00:40
to create a new surface. We could use the home ribbon tab
00:44
and on the crate ground data panel, choose surfaces and then create surface.
00:49
However,
00:50
we are going to use prospector to create our surface since
00:54
this provides easy access for everything that we need to do
00:58
in prospector, right, click on the surfaces collection and choose create surface.
01:05
This surface will be a tin surface made up of irregular triangles,
01:10
override the default name and rename it to existing ground.
01:15
It's good practice to give your civil 3d
01:17
objects names that your co workers will understand.
01:21
You can enter a description if required
01:24
set the surface style to contours 1 ft and 5 ft design.
01:29
This will show colored contours at 1 ft intervals.
01:33
Click OK.
01:36
We've just created a new empty surface. Now we need to start adding data to it.
01:41
We can add data to a surface using the ribbon
01:45
on the modify ribbon tab from the ground data panel, choose surface.
01:50
Then on the surface ribbon tab from the modify panel,
01:54
there's an add data button which can be used
01:56
to add data of different types to the surface.
01:60
We can also add data to our surface using the tool space prospector tap,
02:05
expand the existing ground surface in the surfaces collection,
02:10
expand the definition item.
02:13
Here you'll see all the different methods of adding data to the surface.
02:19
First, we're going to add our COGO points,
02:22
right. Click on point groups, select add
02:25
and from the list of point groups, choose survey points and then click. OK.
02:31
You will see the data has been added to the surface
02:34
and the surface is displayed in the model space as contours.
02:39
Now we're going to add the contour poly lines to the surface.
02:44
This is going to provide less accurate
02:46
surface data around the immediate site boundary.
02:49
But we can use this additional area of surface to provide context to our project.
02:56
Select the contours item, right click and choose add,
03:01
enter the description contours from dem
03:06
each contour will have a lot of vertices along the line and
03:10
this will subsequently generate a large number of triangles in the surface
03:15
which could affect the performance of our models.
03:18
We can adjust the number of vertices that are added from
03:21
the contour poly lines using the weeding and supplementing factors.
03:27
The weeding factors control the removal of points from the contour.
03:31
If the distance between vertices on two
03:34
line segments is less than the weeding distance
03:37
then provided the deviation of line segments is less than the weeding angle.
03:42
The middle vertex will be deleted.
03:45
Supplementing factors control the insertion of interpolated points
03:50
to ensure similarly sized triangles are created.
03:54
If the distance between two contour vertices
03:56
is greater than the supplementing distance,
03:59
then additional vertices are added.
04:02
If the contour lines are curved,
04:04
then additional vertices may be added around the curve so
04:07
that our surface triangles will match the contour more accurately
04:12
if the mid ordinate distance of the curved segment between
04:16
two vertices is greater than the supplementing mid ordinate distance,
04:20
then additional vertices are added
04:22
so that the separation of surface triangle sides are
04:25
now curved will match the specified mid ordinate distance
04:31
in the minimized flat areas by section
04:34
select swapping edges.
04:38
This ensures that triangles will be rearranged to prevent triangles from
04:42
spanning a single value contour and thus creating a flat triangle
04:47
click. OK. And in the model space use a crossing window
04:51
to select all of the contours
04:54
press enter to accept the selection.
04:57
The contours are now added to the surface definition.
05:00
We can't delete the original poly lines as this will delete them from the surface.
05:05
So to prevent us selecting them again, by accident, we'll turn off their layers
05:11
from the home ribbon tab on the layers panel,
05:13
click on the layers pull down list and turn off the layers zero D
05:18
contours major
05:19
and zero dem contours minor.
05:22
By turning off the light bulb icon.
05:25
We're now going to add some brake lines
05:26
to our surface to improve the surface definition.
05:30
When we add brake lines to a surface civil 3D will re triangulate the surface
05:35
to ensure that our surface triangle sides lie along the brake line and don't cross it
05:43
from the insert ribbon tab on the block panel,
05:45
choose insert and select blocks from libraries.
05:50
Add a new library by picking the add a library button
05:54
from the library. Now displayed, we're going to insert the 3D brake lines drawing
05:59
first, ensure that none of the insertion options are selected.
06:03
Right? Click on the 3D brake lines, drawing and choose insert and explode.
06:10
The brake lines are inserted into the drawing.
06:13
These are 3d poly lines representing surveyed features on the ground
06:19
in prospector, select brake lines from the existing ground definition,
06:24
right click and choose add,
06:27
enter a description of 3D survey.
06:32
There are two main types of brake lines standard and proximity.
06:37
We use standard when our brake lines are 3D and we
06:40
want to add the brake line heights to the surface.
06:45
We use proximity when our brake lines are two D poly
06:47
lines.
06:49
In this case, civil 3d will ignore the Z value of the Polyline
06:53
and only use the xy position of the line to control the triangles
06:58
ensure the brake line type is set to standard and click. Ok.
07:02
In the model space use a window crossing to select all
07:05
of the brake lines and press enter to accept the selection.
07:10
The brake lines will be added to the surface and the contours will update
07:15
the event viewer may be invoked by alerts triggered during the surface rebuild.
07:21
You can review warnings in the event viewer
07:23
and zoom to specific issues to review them.
07:27
Some brake lines have not been added where they cross another brake line
07:32
close the event viewer.
07:34
We're now going to add some additional
07:36
survey information from A two D survey drawing
07:39
from the insert ribbon tab blocks panel, select insert then blocks from libraries
07:46
select the two D survey drawing, right click and choose, insert and explode.
07:54
The two D survey has text values to represent the survey levels.
07:60
These have no Z value but the contents of
08:02
the text provides us with the required elevation.
08:07
We can raise these text items up to their correct Z values.
08:12
Select one of the text values right click and choose select similar
08:18
from the modify ribbon tab ground data panel, choose surface
08:24
from the surface ribbon tab surface tools panel select move to surface,
08:29
then move text to elevation.
08:32
The selected text objects will be given Z values based on their text contents.
08:40
Back in prospector under existing ground and definition slit drawing objects.
08:47
We use this method when we want to add data
08:49
to our surface that's represented by existing autocad entities.
08:53
Right? Click and choose add
08:56
from the list of types. Choose the text filter
09:00
type a description of two D level text
09:04
in the model space. Use a window crossing to select the area of two D text
09:09
press enter to accept the selection
09:13
again, the surface will update with the new information we have added.
09:20
We're now going to add the two D features as brake lines.
09:24
In prospector select brake lines, right, click and add
09:28
type a description of two D survey
09:32
set,
09:33
the brake line type to proximity since we don't want
09:36
to use the elevations of the lines in the surface
09:39
and click. Ok.
09:42
Use a crossing window to select all of the
09:44
poly lines in the two D survey and presenter,
09:48
close the event viewer. If it appears
09:53
the result of adding the two D brake lines can be
09:55
seen on this embankment where the contours now run along it.
10:01
Now that we've added our different datasets to the surface, we can review it,
10:06
select the surface by clicking on any contour,
10:09
right click and select object viewer.
10:14
We can see in the 3d view that there are
10:16
some mistakes in the surface which we'll need to correct.
10:21
We've now created our existing ground surface and our next task
10:25
will be to edit the surface to correct any errors.
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