contours and pads

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I've been following the AOTC Residential Grading book for Civil 3D 2007
(which is VERY good! except for a few typos, assumptions, etc.). In our
firm, we do not like to show contours going through pads. I haven't found a
good way to do this in Civil 3D. I've tried to make HIDE borders, use
wipeout (which I desipise). Are any other firms not used to seeing the
contours go through the house pad too?

Looking for any suggestions.

BTW - Since loading SP2, I had ONE crash all day yesterday! This is a
difference from the 10-20 crashes I've had in previous versions. KUDOS to
the AD people for taking the time and getting it right. - Now I probably
jinxed myself! 🙂

Rick

[kevincurrey]

set pad elevations with polylines or grading feature lines. Add those lines to your surface.

[Anonymous]

Kevin,

I've done all that (via the examples in the book and some further
exploration). I've set pad elevs via feature lines. Would you care to
elaborate?
wrote in message news:5319055@discussion.autodesk.com...
set pad elevations with polylines or grading feature lines. Add those lines
to your surface.

[freddy_j]

Are you against using the HIDE border? It doesn't interfere with your surface.

[Anonymous]

surface mask?

--
Dana Breig Probert
www.civil3d.com
----------------------------------
Civil 3D 2007 SP2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 2.01 GHz
2GB RAM, 256 MB ATI FireGL V5200

"Rick Graham" wrote in message
news:5319063@discussion.autodesk.com...
Kevin,

I've done all that (via the examples in the book and some further
exploration). I've set pad elevs via feature lines. Would you care to
elaborate?
wrote in message news:5319055@discussion.autodesk.com...
set pad elevations with polylines or grading feature lines. Add those lines
to your surface.

[Anonymous]

One option is to have two feature lines for your building pads.
One for the exterior finished grade elevation and one slightly offset to the interior for your basements if having any. the contours will then follow around the exterior walls and not go through the building pads.

[kevincurrey]

I haven't read the book, so I'm not sure what it says. But if you add a polyline to a surface as a breakline, it should change the contours accordingly.

Wait a minute... I you're using a corridor model for your rough grading, it won't. The surface will already have data inside the pad, so adding a breakline won't do much. Here's what I would do:

Create grading feature lines for each pad (I would use polylines, set the elevation, then convert to feature line, but there's probably more efficient ways). Next use the grading tools to create a grading group and turn ON automatic surface creation. Use the infill button to create grading infill on each of your pads. Now paste your grading group surface into your finished surface.

This method isn't too time intensive, and it will give a surface that looks (almost) exactly like the real thing. Using surface masks would probably be quicker though. Dana can explain that one.

[Anonymous]

Dana,

That works but I would like to be able to select ALL of the objects and have
them all mask instead of picking one and then having to redo the command for
150 more pads. Unless I'm just not getting it yet - which is very possible!
:)

Rick
"Dana Breig Probert" wrote in message
news:5319073@discussion.autodesk.com...
surface mask?

--
Dana Breig Probert
www.civil3d.com
----------------------------------
Civil 3D 2007 SP2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 2.01 GHz
2GB RAM, 256 MB ATI FireGL V5200

"Rick Graham" wrote in message
news:5319063@discussion.autodesk.com...
Kevin,

I've done all that (via the examples in the book and some further
exploration). I've set pad elevs via feature lines. Would you care to
elaborate?
wrote in message news:5319055@discussion.autodesk.com...
set pad elevations with polylines or grading feature lines. Add those lines
to your surface.

[Anonymous]

Rick Graham wrote:
> Dana,
>
> That works but I would like to be able to select ALL of the objects and have
> them all mask instead of picking one and then having to redo the command for
> 150 more pads. Unless I'm just not getting it yet - which is very possible!
> 🙂

FWIW, once you define an inside mask, you cannot use any other masks
with the surface. Insane, I know, but I had a customer run into that
issue, and it (believe it or not) documented in the help file.
Directly from help:

If you define an inside mask, you cannot use other types of masks on the
same surface.

--
Jason Hickey

Civil 3D 2007, SP2
Dell Precision M70
2 GIG RAM, 256 MB nVidia Quadro FX Go1400
Intel Centrino 2 gHz Processor

www.civil3d.com

[Anonymous]

jstew wrote:
> One option is to have two feature lines for your building pads. One
> for the exterior finished grade elevation and one slightly offset to
> the interior for your basements if having any. the contours will
> then follow around the exterior walls and not go through the building
> pads.

I've one the same thing. Even an offset feature line of a very small
distance (both horizontally and vertically) will work. Try it -
you'll be surprised. Or not. Either way, it's a pretty good idea 😉

--
Jason Hickey

Civil 3D 2007, SP2
Dell Precision M70
2 GIG RAM, 256 MB nVidia Quadro FX Go1400
Intel Centrino 2 gHz Processor

www.civil3d.com

[Anonymous]

righ

but unless your pad is perfectly flat

there will be contours that run through it depending on the interval

Rick doest want to show that...

hmmmmmm lemme think

--
Dana Breig Probert
www.civil3d.com
----------------------------------
Civil 3D 2007 SP2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 2.01 GHz
2GB RAM, 256 MB ATI FireGL V5200

[Anonymous]

Draw your wipeouts on the layout tab? Draw them in modelspace and use the
CHSPACE command to move them to a Layout tab?.
--

sm

Scott McEachron
DC CADD, Dallas - Fort Worth
http://c3dpavingtheway.blogspot.com/

"Dana Breig Probert" wrote in message
news:5320045@discussion.autodesk.com...
righ

but unless your pad is perfectly flat

there will be contours that run through it depending on the interval

Rick doest want to show that...

hmmmmmm lemme think

--
Dana Breig Probert
www.civil3d.com
----------------------------------
Civil 3D 2007 SP2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 2.01 GHz
2GB RAM, 256 MB ATI FireGL V5200

[Anonymous]

I wanted to stay away from this route because of the still-dreaded
DRAWORDER! I can't tell you how many times the boss called me in and asked
me WHY something wasn't showing up on a plan when it was before. I know we
have some major hurdles to overcome in this area, but just trying to get
things to be semi-smooth in the LDT to C3D transition.

Guess I'll just have bite the bullet and do the 'one-at-a-time',
'very-slow-process' surface mask for now.

Rick
"Scott McEachron" wrote in message
news:5320056@discussion.autodesk.com...
Draw your wipeouts on the layout tab? Draw them in modelspace and use the
CHSPACE command to move them to a Layout tab?.
--

sm

Scott McEachron
DC CADD, Dallas - Fort Worth
http://c3dpavingtheway.blogspot.com/

"Dana Breig Probert" wrote in message
news:5320045@discussion.autodesk.com...
righ

but unless your pad is perfectly flat

there will be contours that run through it depending on the interval

Rick doest want to show that...

hmmmmmm lemme think

--
Dana Breig Probert
www.civil3d.com
----------------------------------
Civil 3D 2007 SP2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 2.01 GHz
2GB RAM, 256 MB ATI FireGL V5200

[Civil3DReminders_com]

Here is a post which proposes a different way of doing this. Just something I am thinking about.

http://civil-3d.blogspot.com/2007/04/using-aecpolygon-to-hide-surface.html