Grading object problems

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any helpful hints for using grading objects in a large
project? I love the concept when it works correctly.
The problem is, it does not work correctly some of the time, and is not
reliable.
Should I create grading objects in a separate drawing and reference them in?
That would be a last resort, as I would like all my grading in the main
drawing.
Here is a snapshot of a typical grading object in the subdivision. It has
side slopes, berm and then daylight feature lines. The problem is, it only
works right half of the time. My existing surface is data shortcut
referenced into the base drawing.

Alan B

[kcobabe]

I only use grading objects when I need to daylight. Other wise it's feature lines. To answer you question, I would place them in a surface file and reference the surface when I am done.

[Anonymous]

The reason I want to use grading objects, is because I can have one surface
that is made up of all the basins, but acts as little mini-surfaces for each
basin or channel, and I do not have to create individual surfaces for all my
basins and channels. That would be a pain.
Alan B
wrote in message news:5804835@discussion.autodesk.com...
I only use grading objects when I need to daylight. Other wise it's feature
lines. To answer you question, I would place them in a surface file and
reference the surface when I am done.

[Anonymous]

According to best practices, exploding the gradings is a good solution
(insert chuckle here).

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/c3d_2008_grading_bp.pdf

I would think/hope/pray this changes in 09.

--
John Mayo, PE
Project Engineer
Conklin Associates
Ramsey, NJ

Civil 3D 2008, LDT 2008, Raster Design 2008
P-IV at 3.5 GHz
2 GB Ram
Nvidea Quadro FX w/ 128 MB Ram
"Alan B" wrote in message
news:5804799@discussion.autodesk.com...
Does anyone have any helpful hints for using grading objects in a large
project? I love the concept when it works correctly.
The problem is, it does not work correctly some of the time, and is not
reliable.
Should I create grading objects in a separate drawing and reference them in?
That would be a last resort, as I would like all my grading in the main
drawing.
Here is a snapshot of a typical grading object in the subdivision. It has
side slopes, berm and then daylight featur
e lines. The problem is, it only
works right half of the time. My existing surface is data shortcut
referenced into the base drawing.

Alan B

[Anonymous]

I dont know if this will help or not Alan, but I have had good success creating my grading objects in a 2nd drawing. Then i would copy the feature lines out of the grading drawing and paste them into the base drawing, and add them to my FG surface. I have only done this when I cant get grading objects to perform correctly in the base drawing. But typically I dont like to use the grading objects if i can get away without them.

Out of curiosity, what types of problems are you having?

Matt
Adams and Clark

[Anonymous]

Matt,
The problem with your solution is that if I explode the grading objects, and
just use the feature lines for the FG surface, I have to create many
surfaces, as I don't want the little groups of grading areas, to create one
large surface where it grades outside of the daylight lines between the
basins, channels etc.
Also, the grading groups are dynamic, which is what appeals to me about
Civil 3d. However, if I cannot get the grading objects to be stable, and
work the way they should, I will eventually be forced to look for a
different software package that can handle this task (thinly veiled threat
to AutoDesk!).
Problems I am having:
After creating a grading object it seems to work O.K., but when I close and
re-open the drawing, half of the grading objects are missing or exploded
polylines (typically for daylight portion).
Sometimes, I just cannot create a slope or whatever, even though it should
by all accounts.
Also, the infill on my basins gets removed sometimes.
As I said before, when it works right, I jump up and down and want to kiss
myself (kinda like James Brown).
I just hope that the grading will become more stable VERY SOON!
Also I should note that I have all the latest updates, have a very good
computer and graphics card (Autodesk certified), and start my drawings based
on the latest template provided by Autodesk.

Alan B






wrote in message news:5804997@discussion.autodesk.com...
I dont know if this will help or not Alan, but I have had good success
creating my grading objects in a 2nd drawing. Then i would copy the feature
lines out of the grading drawing and paste them into the base drawing, and
add them to my FG surface. I have only done this when I cant get grading
objects to perform correctly in the base drawing. But typically I dont like
to use the grading objects if i can get away without them.

Out of curiosity, what types of problems are you having?

Matt
Adams and Clark