Elevation colors in surface style

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

A short and (hopefully) easy to answer question. 

I have a surface with all sorts of heights, and want to add color to different heights. Getting the color there is not that difficult, but how do I swap them around? i.e. red is 'low ground' and blue is 'high ground'. In Holland we use it the other way around though, so blue should be low ground and red high ground. 

Where exactly do I change this? I've tried it in the surface style tab, surface properties tab, analysis tab, and some others, but no succes so far.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Aernout

[Jay_B]

What specifically are you looking to change the color of on the surface?

Posting a caption may help.

[Anonymous]

Hello Jay,

If you look in the screen capture, you'll see a lot of red. That's all lower ground, whereas the blue/green is high ground. I want those 2 colors to be swapped, so the red/purple tints become high ground, and blue/green etc becomes lower ground. I believe it's the Rainbow color palet in Civil 3D. I want to swap the ranges around.

Oh, and the reason WHY, is because of readability. Like I said in OP, in Holland we use the colors that way. 

Thanks!

Aernout

[Jay_B]

I see, it appears your using the "Rainbow" color scheme, found on the Analysis Tab in the Surface style dialog for the 4 categories.

I'm not sure if this can be customized, but maybe This thread will help.

[Neilw_05]

The color schemes you are describing are known as color ramps. The ones that come with C3D are hard coded so you can't edit them, nor can you create and save your own for re-use (as far as I know). What is especially frustrating is the ramps that are included are backwards from what is typically used (i.e. low elevations should be cool colors and high elevations warm).

In the past we could use a workaround that involved loading a language pack but it is my understanding that doesn't work any more. There have been several wishes for this to be fixed. Until an enhancement is provided we're stuck with having to manually create custom color ramps on a per surface basis.

A forum search on surface analysis or color ramps might give you some ideas on how to deal with this limitation. You might also file a support request to get an official answer and post the reply for the benefit of others.

[neilyj666]

Absolutely - to my mind the colours are "backwards", it is possible to change them to suit your own needs but as for saving and reusing there is a tool in the UKIE pack that may be of use although I've never tried it

[nicolas.menu]

May be this can be usefull to you ?
The UK&Ireland Country Kit available here http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7271531&linkID=9240698 contains a little tool to import/export surface analysis color scheme.
Once exported, you can easily invert the colors and bring it back in.
Quick and dirty how it looks... http://screencast.com/t/ho4r0J1fRJl

Hope this helps

[Neilw_05]

Nicolas,

The country kit is what I was referring to (language pack) in my reply above. I recall seeing a post recently that said that workaround no longer works. Can you verify that it does?

[neilyj666]

if using 2014 the current behavior for surface analyses may always cause Civil 3D to revert back to default anyway.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I'm using 2014 civil 3D. So if I read this right, even the workaround doesnt work anymore? I have the dutch languagepack installed, I do have that export/import function in my toolbox.. I tried that today, but when trying to import it back, with the colors the other way around, it said the data was invalid..

[neilyj666]

I've never had success with the surface analysis import/export but there is another thread about the current behavior with surface analysis which Is different from previous versions.

[ccl_cad_manager · Accepted solution]

Not Ideal, but this may work for you:

Create a surface with elev 0 that's larger than your site
Create a TIN Volume surface:
     Comparison Surface:  0 Elevation Surface
     Base Surface:  the surface you want to invert the ramp

Apply Elevation Bands to your TIN Volume surface and you'll get the inverted picture, and it'll update.  
 

[BrianHailey]

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@michaelchase wrote:

Not Ideal, but this may work for you:

Create a surface with elev 0 that's larger than your site
Create a TIN Volume surface:
     Comparison Surface:  0 Elevation Surface
     Base Surface:  the surface you want to invert the ramp

Apply Elevation Bands to your TIN Volume surface and you'll get the inverted picture, and it'll update.  
 

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Fantastic work around!

[Anonymous]

That's an easy workaround, so it's ideal to me! Thanks a lot! 

[neilyj666]

Good workaround - although its a bit of a shame that we have to resort to a workaround

[Anonymous]

Michael,

Do you know how to get the automated legend working with the new colors as well? For some reason, it wont swap the colors around in the legend.. I use the legend when selecting the TIN volume surface, and then add legend in the associative toolbar.

Thanks,

Aernout

[nicolas.menu]

Neil,

Right now, analysis is recalculated (and color scheme reset) each time the surface is rebuild. This should be fixed in the next update if all goes as planned.
Also stay away from using true color, use indexed instead (true color right now will be converted back to indexed and wont print as expected from true color.)
That said the little tool in UK&Ie Country kits should work (http://screencast.com/t/k8tvx4tbjT)

[ccl_cad_manager]

I can think of two ways to make that legend work:

Quick and dirty:
Make a legend for both your Base and Inverted Surfaces, making sure that they have the same ranges
Create a viewport for each of the legends, but cut off the text of the inverted surface legend and the colors of the base legned and then match them up.

More fun way:
Make a copy of your table style, edit style
In the Minimum column put Surface Range Maximum Elevation, drop sign.
In the Maximum colum put Surface Range Minimum Elevation, drop sign.   
Warnings:  1. Won't work if you actually have negative values in your base surface (you'll have to add the negatives manual to the table.  2. Legend will read from high to low.  

[Neilw_05]

Until we get the update it looks to me like the Country Kit is the best solution. Thanks Nicolas.

[BrianHailey]

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@michaelchase wrote:

Warnings:  2. Legend will read from high to low.  

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You can sort by any column in any order (ascending - descending).