AutoCAD 2009

[#1]

Is it possible to create a contour surface with ACAD 2009?

[#2]

There isn't any command to do it with, all you can do is trace or import from a civil drawing.

[#3]

That's what I thought, thanks. I've done it with LandDesktop, but don't have that available. Guess I'll have to figure it out using Civil 3D. Thanks for the confirmation.

[#4]

You cannot view a Civil 3D surface or any other intelligent object in anything but Civil 3D. If you try, you will just see a box where the object is supposed to be.

The only way to view it in AutoCAD is to exploded it from Civil.

[#5]

DMS_Dude,

I just got Civil 3D installed, but you're saying if I create a surface from contour lines in Civil 3D (2011) I won't be able to export it as a surface to be used in ACAD 2009?

[#6]

Like Dude said, explode the contours in C3d, copy then paste to plain Autocad, all you will get are polylines, same as you get the countours from Land Desktop.

[#7]

That is correct. You will have to explode the surface twice, and that will create 3d polylines with elevations. That's all you can do using basic autocad.

[#8]

If you don't know how to create a surface, email me the data and I will create it for you. Jnorton@craworld.com

[#9]

Thanks, I appreciate that, but I've got someone in the office that walked me through it. Fortunately, it was easier than I thought it would be (although, there were a lot of settings we didn't adjust).

This contour map I got is pretty sketchy. That is, lots of broken contours and 'holes' in the data. I noticed there's an option for developing a surfce from Google maps. I've love to be able to verfiy this data from another source. As such, have you tried developing a surface from the Google option?

Thanks again for your help!

[#10]

There is alot more to building a surface than just importing data. You have to turn on the triangles, and clean up the surface so the contours run smoothly, among other things. You can also adjust your contour intervals, and smooth the surface so its more appealing.