Archgrid, Geotiff, DEM Alternatives to Google Earth Import in Civil 3D

[mikeshick]

Hi Fellows...

I'm sure there are many ways of skinning this cat and would love to hear your ideas about importing surface terrain and areial photography into Civil 3D.  I understand google earths limitations, and especially the lack of precise data.  I also understand that there is better data available out there but requires more work than Civil 3D 2012 Google Earth Import.  I'd like to hear your ideas or recommendations for either of these two methods.

Second, I have come across Brian Hailey's blog post HERE and attempted to follow it.  From the USGS TNM Viewer, I downloaded the archgrid 1/3" NED Elevation and Geotiff files, unzipped, and found the *.adf file. For the life of me, I could build a surface with it, either by adding DEM file to an existing surface, or building a surface by DEM.  Does anyone have a recommenndation for a successfull approach.

Finally, I also used Brian's comments posted HERE which discuss getting a DEM surface from Geo Community.  unpacked the *.gz file and converted the DDF files using the the SDTStoDEM from University of Arizon (HERE). This DEM surface imported ok (I think), but I could never verify whether the units I inserted the DEM file in as were feet or meters.  Likewise, I used mapinsert in attempt to bring in the geotiff file from USGS TNM Viewer, but could not relate it to the DEM above, either in feet or inches. 

So...I need to work in feet and like to find the best data and methods for building surfaces in Civil 3D 2013. 

Thanks ahead of time for your help!

[mikeshick]

Antonio....got your tin file from my ADF file. How did you manage to come up with this. Importing that ADF never worked for me.

[mikeshick]

Neil...please let us know what you find.  Somehow keeps sounding a bit like IM is the free option for subscription users.  I agree...what a convulted process to bring in some DEM.

[BrianHailey]

Infrastructure Modeler is not a part of subscription, it's a part of the Infrastructure Design Suite Premium.

[antoniovinci]

---

mikeshick wrote:

How did you manage to come up with this

---

1] with Qgis I converted .ADF to .ASC

2] with Microdem I decimated the .ASC dem, then exported to .OBJ format

3] with Meshlab I transformed the .OBJ into .3DS

4] finally _3DSIN with my glorious Map2006

In other words, give up and use the "add boundary" technique, sir.

[mikeshick]

I'm sorry. What do you mean "add boundary" technique?

[antoniovinci]

---

mikeshick wrote:
What do you mean "add boundary" technique?

---

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/Archgrid-Geotiff-DEM-Alternatives-to-Google-Earth-Imp...

[mikeshick]

Ah, my bad. I thought i had many emails inviting me to download for free. I also had the revit suite which just converted bldg design suite. It is the source of the incitation.

[BrianHailey]

For anyone following this post, might want to check out THIS post as well.