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I have forgotten how to turn a polyline into a contour line.

8 REPLIES 8
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Message 1 of 9
pottsk1
1589 Views, 8 Replies

I have forgotten how to turn a polyline into a contour line.

I have an old AutoCAD R12 (not 2012) .dwg with polylines that have elevations on them. I have forgotten how to turn these into contour lines and build a surface out of them in 2013. I know this used to be an easy thing to do. I don't want to use the points or set up point groups in the drawing because these polylines are exactly how I want my surface to look. I need to do a plan and profile from this surface.

Thanks in advance,

Kim

Kim Potts
AutoCAD/Survey Tech
Merritt LS L.L.C..
743 Horizon Ct. Suite 100B
Grand Junction, CO 81506
8 REPLIES 8
Message 2 of 9
tcorey
in reply to: pottsk1

Hello Kim,

 

Create a new surface. It will be blank with no data in it.

 

On the Prospector tab of Toolspace, expand Surfaces, expand your new surface, expand Definition, right click Contours and pick Add...

 

Best regards,

 

Tim



Tim Corey
MicroCAD Training and Consulting, Inc.
Redding, CA
Autodesk Gold Reseller

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. -- Kurt Vonnegut
Message 3 of 9
AllenJessup
in reply to: pottsk1

Off the top of my head I'd either convert them to Featurelines and add those to the Surface as breaklines. Or you could explode them and add them as lines.

 

cl.png

 

Allen



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 4 of 9
Jeff_M
in reply to: pottsk1

You could use the command CONVERTPOLY to convert them to LWPolylines. But, I just found, there's no need. As Tim suggested, the Add Contours accepts both Light & Heavy polylines...

Jeff_M, also a frequent Swamper
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Message 5 of 9
AllenJessup
in reply to: Jeff_M

Learned something new. I never realized you could add polylines as contours.

 

Allen

from my nook tablet



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Message 6 of 9
neilyj666
in reply to: pottsk1

isn't a polyline with an elevation just a contour line?

neilyj (No connection with Autodesk other than using the products in the real world)
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Message 7 of 9
pottsk1
in reply to: tcorey

This is what I figured out. Thanks Tim! Thanks to everyone else who sent suggestions. I have a couple different ways to do this now.

Kim Potts
AutoCAD/Survey Tech
Merritt LS L.L.C..
743 Horizon Ct. Suite 100B
Grand Junction, CO 81506
Message 8 of 9
pottsk1
in reply to: tcorey

Thanks Tim!
Kim Potts
AutoCAD/Survey Tech
Merritt LS L.L.C..
743 Horizon Ct. Suite 100B
Grand Junction, CO 81506
Message 9 of 9
sfore
in reply to: pottsk1

Just a suggestion to keep drawing size down.... Run the polylines through 'Drawing Cleanup' before you add them to a surface.  Often, contours/polylines from old drawings have a ton of vertices not needed.  If you run them through drawing cleanup first using simplify objects, delete duplicates and weed polylines, your surface will be cleaner and drawing size will be less.  If you do this, delete duplicates should be done first.  Simplify and weeding should be done individually - not together as a group.  Be careful with Simplify objects, because I've seen contours change shape a few times for whatever reason.  The 'weeding polylines' alone will benefit your file size.

 

 

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