Large surface - converting points to cogo points

[Anonymous]

I have a large surface (over 1.5 million points and 20 000hectares)

I need to get a point file .csv from the TIN to be able to use it in another program.

-so i've extracted the points from my surface, but they are Autocad points.

-next step is to convert them to civil 3d points.

-I can not select them all when converting them or my computer crashes.

-so i select about 25 000 at a time, the converting takes roughly 10 minutes.

and i have over 1.5 million points to do.

how can i speed this up.

will more ram help?

[TerryDotson]

Grab the PTEXPORT.LSP file from the Free Stuff section of the site below.  It will export your AutoCAD point objects directly to a CSV file.   The simplest way (while not free) would be MapWorks Surfaces Manager, Export to CSV option which works directly from your Civil3D surface.

[tom_berning]

Use the Surface Points to CSV report in the report manager. This will create your CSV file in one step.

[BrianHailey]

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@tom_Berning wrote:

Use the Surface Points to CSV report in the report manager. This will create your CSV file in one step.

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Unfortunately, that report adds additional spaces to the .csv file

[neilyj666]

.... although it is a fairly trivial task to sort in Excel by ascending point numbers to remove the spaces..

...Data Extraction should be able to handle this task pretty well actually

[antoniovinci]

 Well, even quicker than Excel, you get rid of extra spaces with an advanced text editor (e.g. Notetab) by replacing ^P^P with ^P (i.e. one carriage return instead of two).

[BrianHailey]

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@neilyj666 wrote:

.... although it is a fairly trivial task to sort in Excel by ascending point numbers to remove the spaces..

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Not with a data set that large. You wouldn't even be able to open it in Excel.

[neilyj666]

it rather depends on the Excel version you use... but any current Excel spreadsheet would be too small hence the data extraction route would be best?

Worksheet size

1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns

[AllenJessup]

Sometimes the simplest is the best. I've been that route many times myself.

[BrianHailey]

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@neilyj666 wrote:

it rather depends on the Excel version you use... but any current Excel spreadsheet would be too small hence the data extraction route would be best?

Worksheet size

1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns

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What version is that for?

[BrianHailey]

I totally meant to post this up here last night (that's when I created the video) but apparenlty I was too tired to actually get it posted.

HERE is a video showing the process of exporting points from a surface into a .csv file.

[neilyj666]

All you ever wanted to know about Excel rows and columns... Good video by the way