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Exporting Civil3D 2010 drawings to LDD

31 REPLIES 31
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Message 1 of 32
tinakae
960 Views, 31 Replies

Exporting Civil3D 2010 drawings to LDD

Good afternoon all recovering LDD users. How are you all handling the export of Civil3D 2010 drawings to a usable in LDD drawing? I understand that you have to export and not save as. My issue is that when you export all civil3d objects are exploded down to a simple line. They also do not hold arc information, but turns them into little line seqments. How is everyone dealling with this or do you all not see it as an issue?

Thank You
Tina Clark
tinac@sgm-inc.com
31 REPLIES 31
Message 2 of 32
Anonymous
in reply to: tinakae

Yes, export explodes the Civil objects, but since LDD can't use them, what
does it matter? Curious, why would you need to take a Civil 3D file and use
it to design in Land Desktop?

XML export will get the data into a form which can be imported into LDD.

Also, what is turned from arcs into line segments? Alignment?

--
Matt Kolberg
Global CADD Systems - A division of Cansel
Message 3 of 32
omc-usnr
in reply to: tinakae

Tina,

How far back are you going? LDD to me, means prior to C3d (2006) and LDC means after C3d. If you want to use a 2010 dwg, it needs to be exported back to the version you need. The only way to get the design data back out is with xml, and I'm not sure that the older LDD had xml import availability.

This may wind up being a multi stage process, if you really need to get back to say, 2000.

Reid
Message 4 of 32
tinakae
in reply to: tinakae

The process that we are trying to work out is that with Civil3D 2010 we are using field to finish to create the linework for the improvements (i.e. curb and gutter, edge of pavement) This creates suvey figures that are 3d objects. When you export these drawings down to any version to use in Land Desktop it explodes the 3d objects into simple lines or polylines. The main problem with this is that the arcs are then converted in to small lines segments. This is not exceptable as a finished product to give to someone for design and redrawing the arcs is a huge lost in production. Any ideas?
Message 5 of 32
awood
in reply to: tinakae

Depending on the version of Land Desktop, I recall there was a command under the Projects menu to "Extract Civil 3D Data" to get the design data and then simply wblock and insert the standard AutoCAD objects (Lines, PLines, text, etc).

But Matt probably has the best question...why would you start design in Civil and move it backwards to Land Desktop (LDD, LDT, LDC)...
That in itself would be the main cause of an unacceptable loss of production IMHO.

Cheers,
AWood
Message 6 of 32
tinakae
in reply to: tinakae

This would be in a case that we are not doing the design work, but only the existing conditions topo survey. We have many many clients that we do survey work for that are not using civil3d or autocad at all. I don't see this situation ever going away, but I do not want to be creating design topos in civil3d for some and LDD for others.
Message 7 of 32
Anonymous
in reply to: tinakae

Hi,

What happens when you set the figures to be displayed as 2D?


Regards,


Laurie Comerford

tinakae wrote:
> The process that we are trying to work out is that with Civil3D 2010 we are using field to finish to create the linework for the improvements (i.e. curb and gutter, edge of pavement) This creates suvey figures that are 3d objects. When you export these drawings down to any version to use in Land Desktop it explodes the 3d objects into simple lines or polylines. The main problem with this is that the arcs are then converted in to small lines segments. This is not exceptable as a finished product to give to someone for design and redrawing the arcs is a huge lost in production. Any ideas?
>
Message 8 of 32
tinakae
in reply to: tinakae

Laurie

How do you set figures to display as 2d?
Message 9 of 32
ctbailey
in reply to: tinakae

Hi Everyone:

It can be done.

When you export to ACAD what is happening to your figures is they are being exploded.

Because the figures have elevations, they are being exploded to 3DPOLYLINES.

A 3DPOLY can not display an arc segment.

Here's what has to happen:

Step 1. insert the figures into the Civil3D Drawing
Step 2. select a figure in the drawing. The ribbon will switch to "Figure Mode."
Step 3. Select "Edit Elevations" from the figure-modify panel
Step 4. Select "Elevation Editor" from the "Edit-Elevations panel"
Step 5. Select all the verticies of the figure in the list view of the editor
Step 6. type 0.00 in one of the elevation cells. This will update all the vertices to 0.00 elevation.
Step 7. Repeat for all other 3D figures with ARC segments incorporated.
Step 8. Export the drawing to ACAD.


Hope that sheds some light on the situation

Craig Bailey
__________
Craig T. Bailey, PE, LLS
Bailey Engineering
Message 10 of 32
Anonymous
in reply to: tinakae

Hi,

I've forgotten the actual setting and as my motherboard spat the dummy
yesterday it will be several days before I get Civil 3D running again in
order to read the help files.


Regards

Laurie Comerford

On 7/04/2010 9:30 AM, tinakae wrote:
> Laurie
>
> How do you set figures to display as 2d?
Message 11 of 32
tinakae
in reply to: tinakae

Craig -

That is awesome thank you, but you know I'm going to ask...Is there a way to do more then one figure at a time? As we all know the flatten routne doesn't work for this. Again thank you so much for the info. I truely appricate it.

Tina
tinac@sgm-inc.com
Message 12 of 32
ctbailey
in reply to: tinakae

I can think of one method that would do more than one at a time...

1. Explode all the figures in the drawing using the acad EXPLODE command, you would end up with 3D polys.

2. From the grading menu in Civil3D, choose Polyline utilities > Convert 3D to 2D Polylines.

3. Choose the 3D Polys you want to deal with, and convert them to 2D.

4. QSELECT all the 2D polys, and from the ACAD properties tool pallette, set the elevations to 0.00

That's not really a very sexy approach, but if you've got to get data to a LDT user, it'll work.

Craig
__________
Craig T. Bailey, PE, LLS
Bailey Engineering
Message 13 of 32
tinakae
in reply to: tinakae

This is exactly what we are doing now. The issue is that when you explode the arc information becomes lines and doesn't hold the curve. Thank you for your thoughts thou.

Tina
Message 14 of 32
ctbailey
in reply to: tinakae

Don't forget to convert your 3DPoly's to 2DPoly's BEFORE you explode them.
__________
Craig T. Bailey, PE, LLS
Bailey Engineering
Message 15 of 32
tinakae
in reply to: tinakae

How do you convert a Survey Figure to a 3D polyline without exploding it?
Message 16 of 32
ctbailey
in reply to: tinakae

Yes, you have to explode them to 3D.

but then you need to convert those 3D to 2D.

Explore some of the grading tools. You will find a "polyline utilities" tool. There you will find what you seek.

Good luck

Craig
__________
Craig T. Bailey, PE, LLS
Bailey Engineering
Message 17 of 32
Anonymous
in reply to: tinakae

Ok, why not after using the field-to-finish, export your figures as
Fieldbooks and go back to Land Desktop and insert the Fieldbook?

Matthew Anderson, PE


On 4/6/2010 10:37 AM, tinakae wrote:
> The process that we are trying to work out is that with Civil3D 2010 we are using field to finish to create the linework for the improvements (i.e. curb and gutter, edge of pavement) This creates suvey figures that are 3d objects. When you export these drawings down to any version to use in Land Desktop it explodes the 3d objects into simple lines or polylines. The main problem with this is that the arcs are then converted in to small lines segments. This is not exceptable as a finished product to give to someone for design and redrawing the arcs is a huge lost in production. Any ideas?
>
Message 18 of 32
tinakae
in reply to: tinakae

As soon as you explode a Survey Figure it loses it's curves. Does anyone know if Autodesk has any plans on fixing the issue of the linetype generation of the Survey Figures? I can't imagine that we are the only company that is having a HUGE issue with this. I have survey drafters that would rather go back to Land Desktop then deal with this issue.
Message 19 of 32
Anonymous
in reply to: tinakae

Hi All,

It now 5 days since I posted the resolution that you should insert
figures as 2D (Flattened figures) and still posters are talking about
dealing with 3D polylines.

It appears using the help file is too much effort, so I'll do it for you.

{Help file extract}
3D Geometry Tab (Survey Figure Style Dialog Box) Expand All
Expand all collapsed sections.
Collapse All
Collapse all expanded sections.


Use this tab to specify the 3D display of the survey figure style
components.

Figure Display Mode
Specifies the display mode for figure elevations in the drawing. Click
the cell in the Value column and select one of the following:

Use Figure Elevations: displays figure components at the actual elevations.
Flatten Figure To Elevation: flattens figure component elevations to a
specified value:
Exaggerate Figure Elevations By Scale Factor: scales figure component
elevations by a specified scale factor.

Flatten Figure To Elevation
This field is enabled if you specify Flatten Figure To Elevation as the
Figure Display Mode. All figure component elevations are displayed at
the specified elevation.

Exaggerate Figure Elevations By Scale Factor
This field is enabled if you specify Exaggerate Figure Elevations By
Scale Factor as the Figure Display Mode. Click the cell in the Value
column and enter a value. All figure component elevations are multiplied
by the value you enter.
{End Help file extract}

The attached screen grab shows how to actually set it when defining a
figure style.


Regards


Laurie Comerford

tinakae wrote:
> As soon as you explode a Survey Figure it loses it's curves. Does anyone know if Autodesk has any plans on fixing the issue of the linetype generation of the Survey Figures? I can't imagine that we are the only company that is having a HUGE issue with this. I have survey drafters that would rather go back to Land Desktop then deal with this issue.
Message 20 of 32
tinakae
in reply to: tinakae

Laurie

Thank you for the information. I thought you had found a way for the Survey Figures to be DISPLAYED as 2D Polylines the was different then FLATTENING the Survey Figures to a zero elevations. This does not appear to be the case. (correct me if I am wrong). If you set the figures to be flattened they are still 3D polylines and the linetype generation does not work. Thank you for you information. I really appriciate it.

Tina

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