How do I make an elevation surface using contour map and spot elevations?

[Anonymous]

Ok so I have a contour map with spot elevations of this area. I need to make a surface for this. How do I do this? I'm new to Civil 3D so please explain thoroughly. Thanks.

Attached is the drawing below I need to make a surface of. My goal is to alter this contour map and find the volume between the two surfaces. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. 

[Hidden_Brain]

i do not have access to Civil 3D at the moment, so cuold not open your file to check contents. i can take a peek on tuesday. in the mean time, see if this helps:

http://docs.autodesk.com/CIV3D/2011/ENU/index.html

link to exercise 2 at the bottom shows how to add spots to create a surface. post back if you need additional help.

[neilyj666]

The main problem you have is that the spot elevations need a bit of work to make them usable.

You need to select all the crosses that define the actrual location of the spot elevation (i.e. BLOCKNAME = topo???, FEATURE_CODE = SpotElevation), then explode to AutoCAD points, then make a surface from these points

[Anonymous]

nellyj, could you go into detail on how to explode to AutoCAD points? Like after I click on the spot elevations, what do I exactly do? Forgive me, this is my first time with Civil 3D. 

[neilyj666]

No worries. - assuming you have C3D 2011/2012 (not sure about earlier versions) and I haven't got C3D in front of me at present so this is just from memory......

Select one of the crosses, Right click Select similar, Then isolate objects (bottom right of the C3D window light bulb icon i think). Select all, then explode.

Create new surface, then Modify > Surface > add data to surface, data type is Points

Will check tomorrow when C3D available to me

[Anonymous]

nellyj- ok i isolated the spot elevations but i don't know how to "select all, then explode". If you can walk it through step-by-step that would be great. Thanks. 

[neilyj666]

You should create a new drawing based on the NCS imperial template (or similar imperial), insert your drawing into this and you have the styles available to see contours etc

See 1selectionset.jpg - you should just see the crosses, then select by clicking top left and dragging the window to bottom right to select all the spots (I had 154 blocks), then type EXPLODE and hit enter, now you should have AutoCAD Points.

Home Tab > Surface > Create Surface and accept defaults

Modify Tab > Surface > Add Data > Drawing Objects (press enter to pick surface from list) [2surface.jpg], choose Points and select all as before, Hit Enter

A few tweaks and you get the surface [3contours.jpg] - attached final drawing in next post. I'd recommend working through the tutorial for this procedure or do a youtube search

[neilyj666]

final drawing - the original contours have a weird spacing which is why mine don't match exactly

[Anonymous]

Neily has done a good job of helping you out here.  I'd recommend that you take the time to go through the tutorials.  They will help you get a firm grasp on how the program works.

Reid

[Anonymous]

nellyj- Ok I'm trying to do what you did and follow the tutorials but my TIN surface is not turning out like yours. I converted the spot elevations to points and everything, but the TIN surface is just a yellow line encircling all the points. What am I doing wrong? Please help. Thank you. 

[Anonymous]

your surface style is set to only show the border. edit the surface style to show contours

[Anonymous]

I went to "Edit Surface Styles" and went to the Contours tab and made everything True but nothing showed. Also, why does the yellow line in my drawing not connect with the points that line the southern border of drawing. It jumps from one edge to another. In nellyj's drawing, the surface connects to allow the points and the interior ones as well. What am I doing wrong?

[Anonymous]

unfortunately, I cannot  download your drawing file to determine what you may be doing wrong.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I went to "Edit Surface Styles" and went to the Contours tab and made everything True but nothing showed. Also, why does the yellow line in my drawing not connect with the points that line the southern border of drawing. It jumps from one edge to another. In nellyj's drawing, the surface connects to allow the points and the interior ones as well. What am I doing wrong?

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where is  "Edit Surface Styles" I am only aware of picking a style in question and editing [it] - not many.

I will reiterate what other have already told you. Take a step back from the problem at hand... take a short walk to clear your head, come back and do the surface tutorials (pay attention to the style dicussions) .

I have a few more minutes to be here if you want to email me the file jbouza<at>cameronengineering<dot><com>

[neilyj666]

You need to edit the TIN to remove the additional triangles (turn them on in the surface style) then to the ribbon and Modify > Surface > Edit Surface > Delete Line and then alter the contour spacing in the surface style (see screenshots)

[Anonymous]

Ok, this is tutorial video that I have been using:

http://docs.autodesk.com/CIV3D/2012/ENU/animations/002_surface.htm

It says to show the triangles and contours edit the surface style in surface properties to show the triangles and contours (skip to 19/36). It also has a load of other options too. Nellyj, I see you have the same options to in the file you uploaded. But those options don't show on mine. All I have is Standard. Why does mine not show the other options?

[neilyj666]

Probably because you have not started from a Civil 3D template that has relevant styles.

If you are using 2012 use the styles manager to import from NCS imperial template e.g. C:\Users\YOURNAMEHERE\AppData\Local\Autodesk\C3D 2012\enu\Template\_AutoCAD Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt or insert the drawing into a new drawing that has been started from the NCS template

[Anonymous]

I'm not using 2012, I'm using the 2011 version. What do I do if I'm using the 2011 version to get the relevant style options?

[neilyj666]

The template path will have 2011 instead of 2012

Ctrl N to open the File New Dialog and change Files of Type to Drawing Template *.dwt, then INSERT the pond drawing at 0,0

[Anonymous]

ok, i created an new NCS imperial template. When I go to Insert--> Import, and choose the drawing it says "You have selected an invalid or unsupported DGN file". What's going on? Am I importing it wrong?

[Anonymous]

Ok i think i got it. thanks. But I have a new problem now. I altered the elevations for the points along the southern border of the drawing (between the blue lines) and made a new surface with this new information. The problem is that the contours don't seem to change. I don't know why. Is it because i'm using the same drawing file? Should I create a new drawing file? Could you please help me out with this? I attached the new drawing. Thank you.