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CONTOUR ELEVATIONS

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Message 1 of 12
CADEngr2014
14730 Views, 11 Replies

CONTOUR ELEVATIONS

Hello,

 

I am using Civil 3D 2014.

 

I have imported contour shape files using the "MapImport" command.  The shape files come into the drawing file without issues but the properties show the shape file attribute data only, such as "CONTOURELE", while the polyline elevation is 0.0.  See attached image.  Is there a way to get the contour polyline to import and have the proper elevation assigned to the polyline and not just the shape file attribute?

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11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
neilyj666
in reply to: CADEngr2014

yes there is - you need to perform an Alter Properties Query

http://www.thecadmasters.com/wordpress/index.php/2011/03/16/assign-elevations-to-contours-from-an-es...

 

and one from Murph

 

https://map3d.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/contours-from-shape-files-with-elevations/

neilyj (No connection with Autodesk other than using the products in the real world)
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Message 3 of 12
kcobabe
in reply to: CADEngr2014

Have your GIS person export out the contours with Z value.  Most people forget to do this when exporting a file.  Other than that you can attach the file and do a query to change the elevation to the elevation attribute.


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Message 4 of 12
KirkNoonan
in reply to: CADEngr2014

Instead of using the mapimport command, I would recommend building a surface from the shapefile. You will need to map the correct field from the shapefile to the elevation value.

 

GIS Surface.png

Message 5 of 12
CADEngr2014
in reply to: KirkNoonan

How do you build a surface from a shape file.  Is there a white paper on this?

Message 6 of 12
KirkNoonan
in reply to: CADEngr2014

Sounds like you can't see the screen shot above.

On the Home tab of the ribbon, go to Surfaces -> Create Surface from GIS Data

 

Browse to and attach the shapefile with your surface data, map the elevaation attribute of the GIS data to the elevation of the surface, add a boundary, if desired, and you're done.

 

Creating a surface from contours should be your last resort, as it usually results in a pretty sloppy surface that doesn't match the contour data.

Message 7 of 12

Hello, I am importing shp contours as described in this thread using AutoCAD Map. 

 

There doesn't seem to be proper object data attached for elevations, however. Please see attachment from the properties screen in the original drawing after going through the steps provided.

 

After I open the new drawing, attach previous drawing with shp contours, etc. etc. and I get to the property alteration dialog box, upon opening the "Properties" box, I see a list of expressions, ELEVATION being one. There is no "Object Property" choice under the Properties heading. If I am mistaken and do not need to find the object properties box, I choose "ELEVATION" and then execute query. Message says "Query source is not available or empty". 

 

Am I doing something wrong or does the original drawing not provide proper object data. 

 

 

Message 8 of 12

It's been a while since I did the query method, but your elevation query needs to query the attribute in the shapefile that is actually the elevation and set the elevation of the contour to that value.. Just guessing, but that might be 'e' attribute in the capture you posted.

Message 9 of 12

Thanks for the reply. I think you are correct - the general elevation in Fort Simpson is about 170m. But this still doesn't explain why these attributes didn't transfer over correctly to the "new" drawing. From what I understand, if these elevations show up as Object Data in the original drawing, connecting to the "new" drawing and doing the query should assign those elevations to those objects. And that's not happening. Ugh.

Message 10 of 12

Liesl,

 

Did you hit the "Expression" Button and then "Add" the Elevation attribute to "Current Property Alterations"?

 

Expression.png

 

 

 

And when you _MAPIMPORT'ed those Contours into your Source Drawing, did you check the "Create Object Data" Radio Button?

 

Dave

Dave Stoll
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Message 11 of 12

Hi Dave,

 

Thanks for the reply! I was able to successfully jump through all these hoops (this is NOT an easy task but at least it can be done!) and the contours are now correct with their elevations.

 

The reason my first attempt didn't work is because I didn't have the original drawing closed when I tried to run the query in the new drawing. That is apparently a very important step.

 

All good now - I am super excited about learning this task as it has come up time and time again.

Message 12 of 12
christyFN55A
in reply to: neilyj666

Thank you so much for this information, I have been trying for more than a week to figure this out.

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