Point Managment on Mid-Large Projects

[Anonymous]

I need some help coming up with Point Management Best Practices in C3D on Mid-Large Projects.

I work for a small geomatics firm providing a wide variety of geospatial services. Our data comes from a variety of sources including LiDAR, orthophotography, field surveys, record raster datasets, shape files, etc.  Currently we work in both C3D 2010 and Land Desktop Companion 2009 (LD2009). We maintain the project point database in LD2009 and we work with surfaces and orthophotos in C3D. Because our point database is in LD2009 we produce all of our boundary drawings and plats in LD2009. For boundary drawings, we find that it's appropriate to have the static line labeling that LD2009 provides (in boundary drawings/plats dynamic labeling is a potential liability).

I like the speed and many of the mapping routines in C3D but I haven't come up with a viable way to manage numbered points in C3D. With each passing version it gets more difficult to keep LD but I don't have a solution to the point management problem in C3D. I can easily handle the C3D points in a one or two drawing project - it starts to unravel when you have 15 or 20 drawings.

On projects with 10s or 100s of C3D civil design, boundary, right-of-way, and survey control drawings I don't know how to:
- ensure that we don't have different instances of the same point # in different drawings;
- determine what points are available for the survey crew to use (unused points);
- identify all points in a certain geographic area regardless of what drawing they are in;
- find a specific point by description or point #.

Early on Vault was touted as the solution but for now - VAULT IS OUT OF THE EQUATION for us (unless someone can definitively demonstrate that it: 1. Is low/no cost for a network implementation, AND; 2. Requires virtually no end-user training, AND; 3. Doesn't require additional IT resources for installation, maintenance, end-user support, AND; 4. Provides the Point Management functionality equal to or beyond that in Land Desktop.)

I'm looking for a way in C3D to:
1. Easily access points from any drawing related to the project;
2. Maintain a current inventory of all used points - project wide;
3. Determine what descriptors have been used on a project;
4. Lock/unlock points in it are individually from any drawing in the project;
5. Update unlocked points as they are edited so that there are not "out of sync" points;
6. Permit users to update points from/in any drawing;
7. Query points by geographic location/point #/description regardless of what drawing you are in.

That's it - just a simple centralized project point database to keep points organized, secure, and accessible.

How do you handle point management in C3D on mid-large projects with 10 or more civil/survey/right-of-way drawings?

Thanks - JK

[AlmasSuljevic]

Hi JK,

Just to start conversation. I think there is no silver bullet here but I believe that most of these tasks you can do with Civil 3D. Maybe your best bet is to use Survey Database.

1. Easily access points from any drawing related to the project. Use survey database
2. 2.     Maintain a current inventory of all used points - project wide.  There are commands that can tell you used points and available points.

See : http://beingcivil.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/undocumented-commands-for-points.html

1. 3.     Determine what descriptors have been used on a project; Not sure about this one.
2. 4.     Lock/unlock points in it are individually from any drawing in the project; You can lock points individually or in Point Group.
3. Update unlocked points as they are edited so that there are not "out of sync" points; You can Update points in Survey DB.
4. Permit users to update points from/in any drawing. If you were using Survey database there is an option to Open for Edits.

See: http://beingcivil.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/undocumented-commands-for-points.html

1. 7.     Query points by geographic location/point #/description regardless of what drawing you are in. If you add some identifiers such as point group or date or something else you may be able to get these by using Point Groups or Description Keys.