Creating a surface from a DWG file

[chisamba]

Good day all, I have a topo drawing, dwg format, it shows a hilly region through which I'm to design a road. I'd like to convert it to a 3D surface that I can be able to work on it in Civil3D.

Any suggestions, help or a step to step guide will be greatly appreciated

[Joe-Bouza]

Cant open the drawing, but that could be quite a bill to fll. I suggest doing some tutorials.

In the prospector add a surface to the surface collection, expand the node, and start adding data.

[Neilw_05 · Accepted solution]

After reviewing the dwg it is apparent that the only useful data are the contours and perhaps the points. The contours have all been exploded down to line elements so the first step is to rejoin them into polylines. Use the PEDIT command with Multiple option to convert and join the contours to polylines. Next create an empty surface object and add the contours. Evaluate the resulting surface by comparing the 2 sets of contours. You can try adding the point objects and see how they affect the contours.

Note: some of the exploded contour lines have a thickness applied to them. Use QSELECT to select them and set the thickness value to zero in the properties.

[Pointdump]

C,

You'll have to unlock several layers before isolating the contour segments and then you can use the PEDIT command to join the contour segments into 3D Polylines. Neil's workflow is good. 

Dave

[sboon]

Contours are only a representation of the surface data.  Whoever provided the drawing should have the real model.  Contact them and ask for a TIN, which will accurately represent the original surface.

Steve
Please use the Accept as Solution or Kudo buttons when appropriate

[antoniovinci]

Basing on your contours, here's a 3D model of the site (orbitable with a WebGL browser like Chrome, Firefox or IE11):

http://novarese.url.ph/autodesk/chisamba

Moreover I attach the DEM out of those isolines, sir.

[Pointdump]

Antonio,

That's cool! How'd you do that?

Dave

[neilyj666]

How is that done? It orbits great on my phone. ..☺

[chisamba]

Its a little complicated, I'm studying civil engineering in China, and this is a design homework. Our teacher gave us the topo dwg, I doubt he'll have a TIN file, no one in the class is using civil3D to do the project, but its definitely still worth asking.

[chisamba]

thanks a lot, that is really cool!! 

[chisamba]

created the surface quite alright, now to figure out how to work with it, very new to Civil3D..

Thanks 

[antoniovinci]

Dear Chisamba,

as stated by Joe, you should train hardly with the official Civil tutorials, just because it is a major program, not an easy toy.

@ Dave & Neil
To get info about the 3D model, please press the I icon on the lower left corner of the canvas.

[chisamba]

Created the surface. Its not as detailed as the original, but it'll do. I'm new to Civil3D, so now to figure out how to work with the surface. Thanks a lot 🙂

[Neilw_05]

I've seen your comments about QGIS before but I never took the time to investigate it. Your very nice model got me to finally look at it and I am excited by what I see.

Currently I have been provding our GIS layers to our staff in KMZ files which they load into Google Earth. The downside to this approach is I have to recreate the KMZ files and have the users reload it whenever the data changes. QGIS may provide a better vehicle for distributing the data.

One Kudo for you Antonio.

[neilyj666]

I might have guessed it was done in QGIS given the author of the post...:)

[antoniovinci]

Nice words, gentlemen.

Maybe we've just noticed it, but if you click on the model, you get the full XYZ coords of that point.

[tendo07]

antoniovinci,  can you give us link Civil tutorials ?