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file size limits?

8 REPLIES 8
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Message 1 of 9
j46k
606 Views, 8 Replies

file size limits?

Are there any file size limits in Civil 3D? We have a topo containing only contours that is over 90 megs in size. I was able to create a surface in Land Development and Civil 6 but couldn't do anything with it without crashing, usually with an out of memory message but not always. I can't even create a surface in civil 7. I am running dual zeons, 4 gigs of memory and an approved video card. We really need a solution to this problem other than breaking it up into smaller parcels.
8 REPLIES 8
Message 2 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: j46k

Hi,

I'm lost. You say you have a 90Mb topo pf contours. If that is in Civil
3D, then you have a surface and the contours are simply a way of looking at
it.

Or is the data in a separate file from which you are trying to create the
model?

What is your objection to working with manageable size data sets?


--

Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au

wrote in message news:5179685@discussion.autodesk.com...
Are there any file size limits in Civil 3D? We have a topo containing only
contours that is over 90 megs in size. I was able to create a surface in
Land Development and Civil 6 but couldn't do anything with it without
crashing, usually with an out of memory message but not always. I can't
even create a surface in civil 7. I am running dual zeons, 4 gigs of memory
and an approved video card. We really need a solution to this problem other
than breaking it up into smaller parcels.
Message 3 of 9
j46k
in reply to: j46k

The file we received from the aerial survey company contains only polyline contours. We have to make a surface from those.

We have to keep it as one surface because we are designing roads that traverse the whole property.
Message 4 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: j46k

would you consider using the Map Cleanup Tools to weed your vertices? It
can greatly reduce your file size without compromising the quality of your
surface.


--
Dana Breig Probert
http://civil3drocks.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cadapult_civil

wrote in message news:5179827@discussion.autodesk.com...
The file we received from the aerial survey company contains only polyline
contours. We have to make a surface from those.

We have to keep it as one surface because we are designing roads that
traverse the whole property.
Message 5 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: j46k

Hi,

Why didn't you get the DTM from the survey company?

They've build a DTM, then given you a "B" class repesentation of it. I
presume in a drawing file - you still haven't said so. Now you are
suffering hell/delays etc. because you can't even get a "C" class model from
the supplied data.

Do you design all the roads similtaneously? If you take that approach then
you might need all the model at once, but otherwise why not create a series
of DTMs, each covering sufficient area to allow manageable portions of your
job to be designed.

No matter how you approach it with a drawing size in the 50Mb plus area you
will get crashes, slow work and suffer far more than you would be breaking
your project into pieces you can work on

Dana has suggested you use the Map cleanup process on the contours, before
attempting to build your DTM.

This will reduce the quality of the data and if done injudiciously might get
you back to a "D" class model.

I would go back to teh Survey company and get a DTM from them - preferably
as 3Dfaces.

The I would define a series of outlines of DTMs you need to work with and
use Map queries to import the 3Dfaces for each into separate drawings and
build DTMs in each of these from the 3Dfaces.


--

Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au
--

Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au

wrote in message news:5179827@discussion.autodesk.com...
The file we received from the aerial survey company contains only polyline
contours. We have to make a surface from those.

We have to keep it as one surface because we are designing roads that
traverse the whole property.
Message 6 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: j46k

depending on what your aerial topo company provides, they sometimes include
a drawing that contains points and softbreaklines with is a much better way
to build a surface, of course, than from contours. Check your deliverables
and see if there isn't some sort of non-contour drawing in the package and
build a surface from that.

It depends what part of the country you are in and how much your aerial topo
company understands what you need.

I personally have not had success getting the actual TIN from aerial topo
companies, because I have been told that isn't how they get their contours
(at least the ones I work with).

I guess when it comes to what Laurie refers to as "C" or "D" class models-
it really depends on what exactly you are trying to accomplish.

Recently I worked on a large river project. Building a TIN from the
delivered aerial topo would have meant that my sections would show grade
changes every half foot or so. When you are dealing with 1000 ft or more
cross sections, that kind of detail is really just not necessary (At least
not for what we were working on)

It is up to you to decide how much you are willing to lose for the sake of
drawing performance.

Another thing that can slow you down- once you build the surface, remove
your heavy polyline contours out of the drawing. That helps a lot. But
make sure you make your surface so that removing the polylines doesn't
degrade the surface. I am paranoid, so I do a LandXML export-reimport, but
I have heard snapshots will do it, too.

Dana



--
Dana Breig Probert
http://civil3drocks.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cadapult_civil



"Laurie Comerford" wrote in message
news:5179968@discussion.autodesk.com...
Hi,

Why didn't you get the DTM from the survey company?

They've build a DTM, then given you a "B" class repesentation of it. I
presume in a drawing file - you still haven't said so. Now you are
suffering hell/delays etc. because you can't even get a "C" class model from
the supplied data.

Do you design all the roads similtaneously? If you take that approach then
you might need all the model at once, but otherwise why not create a series
of DTMs, each covering sufficient area to allow manageable portions of your
job to be designed.

No matter how you approach it with a drawing size in the 50Mb plus area you
will get crashes, slow work and suffer far more than you would be breaking
your project into pieces you can work on

Dana has suggested you use the Map cleanup process on the contours, before
attempting to build your DTM.

This will reduce the quality of the data and if done injudiciously might get
you back to a "D" class model.

I would go back to teh Survey company and get a DTM from them - preferably
as 3Dfaces.

The I would define a series of outlines of DTMs you need to work with and
use Map queries to import the 3Dfaces for each into separate drawings and
build DTMs in each of these from the 3Dfaces.


--

Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au
--

Laurie Comerford
CADApps
www.cadapps.com.au

wrote in message news:5179827@discussion.autodesk.com...
The file we received from the aerial survey company contains only polyline
contours. We have to make a surface from those.

We have to keep it as one surface because we are designing roads that
traverse the whole property.
Message 7 of 9
morrolan
in reply to: j46k

So, does any one have an answer to this question yet? I've got a similar situation, only contour data available, based on a lidar data which will _not_ be made available. Attempting to use the contour lines to create a surface rapidly crashes c3d 2007 SP3. No CER generated

interestingly enough, LDT 2006 will chug happily along, and build a surface with 3.9 million points from the contour. no crashes, just working. SDSK project data is now up to 2Gb in surfaces and alignments
Message 8 of 9
Anonymous
in reply to: j46k

I tried something similar with a large DEM file from the USGS. I could
import the DEM using built in command, but crashed trying to generate the
surface. I found that setting the surface style to have a large contour
interval or even no contours (before you try to import the points/convert
the contours) helped get a surface built. I could then clip the surface to a
manageable size by creating a boundary for the surface.

Hope this helps. Bryan Parker

wrote in message news:5430342@discussion.autodesk.com...
So, does any one have an answer to this question yet? I've got a similar
situation, only contour data available, based on a lidar data which will
_not_ be made available. Attempting to use the contour lines to create a
surface rapidly crashes c3d 2007 SP3. No CER generated

interestingly enough, LDT 2006 will chug happily along, and build a surface
with 3.9 million points from the contour. no crashes, just working. SDSK
project data is now up to 2Gb in surfaces and alignments
Message 9 of 9
morrolan
in reply to: j46k

I was advised by adesk support that there are 'known issues with creating a surface from contour data'.... the suggestion was to explode everything, and try to build the surface from Drawing Objects.

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