Surface in Prospector is being used, but is showing up as NOT being used?!?

[CrazyIvan]

I have a surface under Prospector that has a surface applied to it, but is not showing the little orange arrow as being active.  So, when this is data linked into an XREF drawing, I can not control the visibility of this surface.  How do I enable the surface or make it recognize that it is IN FACT being used?

This happens randomly and I can not figure out why, how or the method to resolve the issue.

Thanks.

[troma]

What is it being used for? A profile?
I don't see how that has any link to the display of the surface itself, in it's own drawing or a d-ref.
More details would help. Perhaps a few pictures?

[CrazyIvan]

Attached is a photo.  You can see the prospector.  Every Surface that has the little orange arrow has a surface associated with it.  There are a few listed there without the arrow.  On the one in this example, I have selected and put the crosshair over the surface applied to the "SWMP Final_Final Grade" surface, but the "SWMP Final_Final Grade" does not have the arrow, basically saying that C3D is not recognizing that there is a surface associated with it, and then ultimately keeping me from managing the visibility of it via data reference in any drawing this file is XREF'd into.

Thanks.

[Nrhoads]

Maybe I missed something but what is "depending" on that surface? In other words, are you using this surface for other surfaces, profiles, etc? If no objects are "looking" at this surface it will not have the triangle.

[CrazyIvan]

The contours/topography that is highlighted which you can see the crosshair hovering over is attached to this surface style, so it IS in use.  But, for some reason, it does not show as active.  That is the problem.

[Jeff_M]

That triangle is not an indicator of whether it is a valid surface with elevations/contours/whatever. It gets that triangle when it is actually used by another C3D object, such as a profile, or grading/corridor target, or volume surface.

[troma]

I think you are confusing the SURFACE and the SURFACE STYLE. The surface style shows an orange triangle when it is being used by a surface. The surface shows an orange triangle when it is being used by some other object (e.g. a profile, pasted into another surface, volume surface etc).

[Nrhoads]

You posted a screen grab of Toolspace=Prospector. However surface styles are located in Toolspace=Settings

[jmayo-EE]

Jeff has the answer to the orange triangle. It only diplays if the surface has profile, grading, corridor or vol srf dependancies.

This where I got confused with your originial post. "Every Surface that has the little orange arrow has a surface associated" You can't "associate" a surface to a surface. We can paste surfaces, sample them for profiles/sections and target them with gradings/corridors. I think you meant you pasted a surface into another? This will not produce the orange triangle.

[Nrhoads]

@ johnm

You are correct but to clarify: a pasted surface does display the triabgle but the surface you paste it into does not.

[CrazyIvan]

Thank you for the clarification.

I will say, however, that without the small little orange triangle showing in the prospector, the surface visibility doesn't seem to work properly in any drawings the file is XREF'd into.  When I create a Data Reference to that surface style, I can toggle it on and off when it shows the triangle. When it does not show the triangle, I can not toggle it on and off, as it seems to be dependent on the base file visibility.

[troma]

You can d-ref a surface. You cannot d-ref a surface style.

What are you toggling, where are you toggling it? What happens when it works correctly?
The display of a surface is not connected in the slightest to whether or not it is in use with an orange triangle next to it.

[CrazyIvan]

Let's say we have topography received from a survey company.  So, we put that into or model as the existing contours on an "existing" surfac style.  Then, we begin to create initial contours on a different surface style called "initial" style.

We also create "intermediate" and "final" surface styles.  Each one shows different contours as they are phased into a site.

So, then we create our drawings with this model xref'd in.  We create the d-ref folders, information, etc...we apply all templates and styles to the new drawing to maintain consistency.

Now, lets say we are creating the "initial" contour plan.  So, we Create Reference using the d-ref of the "initial" topography as well as the "existing" contours.

So, here is where the problem begins.

If, in the model, we have a surface style that is not showing the little triangle, and we leave this surface tured on in the model, we have no control over turning it on/off in the drawing where the model is xref'd into.

The way we toggle it is edit surface style, either in the model directly through the surface style, or in the drawing file where the model is x-ref'd using the Reference Surface Style editor.  We have layers and component types for both major/minor contours.  But, all phases of the project use the same layers.  So, we only can toggle their display using the Component Type under Surface Style Edit.

All I know is when I create a reference for a surface style that has the little triangle, I can toggle it on and off in the drawing file no matter what the visibility state those contours are currently at in the model.  If there isn't a triangle, however, and doing the exact same steps, I can not toggle the visibility in the drawing file...unless I create a reference and then turn off those contours in the model.  But, we don't want to have to worry about the visibility of the contours in the model once we are done with it.  We need to just modify the visibility in the drawing file using d-refs.

[troma]

Sorry I've been MIA for a little while. I'm having trouble understanding your workflow, but I have a suggestion. Next time you run into your problem, try this:
1. Create a dummy surface.
2. Paste your problem surface into the dummy surface.

Now your problem surface will have an orange triangle next to it. Let us know it this resolves the display issue. I can't understand how it could be related, but you seem to be pretty sure that it is so this will be a good test.

[lsimms1]

Are you talking about dref, or XREF?

Your surface style and layers in your current drawing will not do anything if it is displaying in your XREF.

You could turn off the XREF layers in your current drawing to turn off the display.

[troma]

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@lsimms1 wrote:

Are you talking about dref, or XREF?

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 I'm wondering that too.  You seem to talk about doing both.

Here is the part where I loose your train of thought:

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@crazyIVAN wrote:

The way we toggle it is edit surface style, either in the model directly through the surface style, or in the drawing file where the model is x-ref'd using the Reference Surface Style editor.  We have layers and component types for both major/minor contours.  But, all phases of the project use the same layers.  So, we only can toggle their display using the Component Type under Surface Style Edit.

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I don't know what the Reference Surface Style editor is.  Unless you just mean editing the style of a d-reff'd surface?