Surface styles and analysis

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There are multiple ways to access the style property

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of a surface so that you can change it.

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The Autocad properties dialogue would be one obvious choice.

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But let's review some other methods.

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Firstly, you can use the surface properties,

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select the surface right click and choose surface properties

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on the information tab,

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change the surface style to contours, 2 ft and 10 ft design and click. OK.

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The surface will update to display the new style.

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This method is rather slow. So lets look at other alternatives

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in prospector select the surfaces collection

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in the item list view at the bottom of the tool space.

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You'll see a list of all of the surfaces in the collection.

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The style column can be used to change the style of a surface in the list,

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click in this cell and then change the style in the select surface style dialogue

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to contours, 5 ft and 25 ft design and click. OK.

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This method has the advantage that you can select multiple surfaces

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in the list and change all of the stars together.

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Another method is to use quick properties,

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turn on quick properties in the status bar.

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If quick properties is not displayed. Then use the customization button

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on the lower right corner to turn it on

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with quick properties turned on.

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When you select the surface, the surface properties are displayed,

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you can change the style in here,

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set it to 1 ft and 5 ft design.

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Most surface stars can have analysis applied to them.

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This is a process whereby data from the surface is conveyed

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by modifying the assigned style based on the surface data,

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select the surface in the drawing and on the surface ribbon tab,

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click on surface properties

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on the information tab change the star to elevation banding two D.

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This star will display solid color fill in bands

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across the surface according to the surface elevation.

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Now go to the analysis tab

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make sure the analysis type is set to elevations.

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We can analyze the surface by contours, directions, elevations,

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slopes and slope arrows, user defined contours and watersheds,

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set the legend to elevations.

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If we add a surface table to the drawing, this will be the style of the table produced.

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Change creek ranges by

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to range interval

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and set the interval to 5 ft.

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Use the run analysis button to generate the ranges.

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Click OK to review the surface analysis,

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select the surface and on the surface ribbon tab

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labels and tables panel, click add legend

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on the command line,

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select elevations for the table type and then dynamic for the behavior.

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Pick a point in the drawing to insert the table.

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The table displays the legend for the surface display,

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select the surface again and go back to the surface properties.

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Now set the style to slope banding. Two D

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go to the analysis tab

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set the analysis type to slopes

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for ranges, set the number to eight and run the analysis.

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Civil 3D has split the range of gradients on

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the site into eight bands with a color for each

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click. OK.

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Each triangle in the surface has been colored according to its steepest gradient.

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Now use the surface properties to set the style to contours 1 ft and 5 ft design.

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We're going to make some changes to this

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style to add smooth contours to our surface display

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on the tool space. Click on the settings tab

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expand the surfaces collection and then expand surface styles.

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Select the style contours 1 ft and 5 ft design,

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right click and choose copy

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in the surface style dialog. Go to the information tab

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rename the style to contours 1 ft and 5 ft designed with smoothing,

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go to the contours tab

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expand the contour, smoothing property

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set, smooth contours to true.

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There are two methods that we could use to smooth the contours.

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A vertices or spline curve.

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Spline curve will fit a spline through the contour points.

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Using this option has the risk that crossing contours could be produced.

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The ad vertices method doesn't add curves to the contour.

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It will instead add additional vertices to the

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contour to give it a curved appearance.

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Select advertises as a smoothing type,

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use the contour, smoothing slider and set it at around eight or nine and then click,

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OK.

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Change the style of the surface to your new style and review the result.

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The contour lines now don't look as angular as

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they were before and they have a smoother appearance.