Lidar Data into Civil3d/LDD

[colt]

I need to create cross sections for 32km pipeline ROW (approx.20m left and right of the centerline) and I want to use 1.0m LIDAR data as a point file.The problem is the amount of data I will end up with and the ability of Civil 3D/LDD to manage it!I have used LIDAR data in the past, for grading and volume calculation,but I had to resample it to 5m and loose the benefit of high resolution data.Any suggestion or experience working with LIDAR in Civil3D or LDD data is highly appreciated.

Regards

[alkabong]

I find that the software becomes extremely slow when handling large data files; so:
 TURN OFF autosave – type OPTIONS > Open&Save tab > autosave=600 un-toggle Automatic Save. Toggle on – create bkup with each save.
 TURN OFF all points; Settings > Surf style >
 Take a Snapshot of the surface once you've made it. Never look back.

[Anonymous]

I am no C3D guru, but since you mention your LIDAR is data is a point file,
I would think you could do some pre-processing with a spread sheet to trim
the data to include only what you need for your pipeline corridor.

If you have access to a GIS application such as ArcMap, you could easily
select and export the data by using a buffer along the pipeline alignment.

wrote in message news:5177886@discussion.autodesk.com...
I need to create cross sections for 32km pipeline ROW (approx.20m left and
right of the centerline) and I want to use 1.0m LIDAR data as a point
file.The problem is the amount of data I will end up with and the ability of
Civil 3D/LDD to manage it!I have used LIDAR data in the past, for grading
and volume calculation,but I had to resample it to 5m and loose the benefit
of high resolution data.Any suggestion or experience working with LIDAR in
Civil3D or LDD data is highly appreciated.

Regards

[Anonymous]

colt wrote:
> I need to create cross sections for 32km pipeline ROW (approx.20m
> left and right of the centerline) and I want to use 1.0m LIDAR data
> as a point file.The problem is the amount of data I will end up with
> and the ability of Civil 3D/LDD to manage it!I have used LIDAR data
> in the past, for grading and volume calculation,but I had to resample
> it to 5m and loose the benefit of high resolution data.Any
> suggestion or experience working with LIDAR in Civil3D or LDD data is
> highly appreciated.

Colt,

Whether you do this in Land Desktop or Civil 3D, you will NOT want to
import the point file that you create. You can assign an external
point file to your surface definition, which will keep you from having
to import the points. I'm betting that it'll still be slow, but it
will definitely work better than inserting the points.



--
Jason Hickey
Civil 3D 2007
Dell Inspiron 9100
3.0 gHz, 2 GIG RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (128 MB)
Windows XP Pro SP2

http://beneaththelines.blogspot.com

[mscacco]

using the process Jason suggests, I created a surface for a client from 500,000 lidar points using C3d 2006 in just around 2 minutes. The total data set was 4 million points, but we were just testing the process to becnhmark it in c3D. (they didnt have the full ascii point file or we would have tried the whole thing). It took about 4 minutes to apply a surface style with 1' contour intervals, but other than that performance was not bad. This was on my old slow laptop too.

Mark

[Anonymous]

No need for the GIS app. The Map functionality provides the same tool, via
queries.

"neilw" wrote in message
news:5178354@discussion.autodesk.com...
I am no C3D guru, but since you mention your LIDAR is data is a point file,
I would think you could do some pre-processing with a spread sheet to trim
the data to include only what you need for your pipeline corridor.

If you have access to a GIS application such as ArcMap, you could easily
select and export the data by using a buffer along the pipeline alignment.

wrote in message news:5177886@discussion.autodesk.com...
I need to create cross sections for 32km pipeline ROW (approx.20m left and
right of the centerline) and I want to use 1.0m LIDAR data as a point
file.The problem is the amount of data I will end up with and the ability of
Civil 3D/LDD to manage it!I have used LIDAR data in the past, for grading
and volume calculation,but I had to resample it to 5m and loose the benefit
of high resolution data.Any suggestion or experience working with LIDAR in
Civil3D or LDD data is highly appreciated.

Regards

[Anonymous]

Yes you could do it with Map, but I am not sure how to go about it without
having to import the entire points dataset into a drawing or database. Could
you explain how you would do it?

"TomD" wrote in message
news:5178434@discussion.autodesk.com...
No need for the GIS app. The Map functionality provides the same tool, via
queries.

"neilw" wrote in message
news:5178354@discussion.autodesk.com...
I am no C3D guru, but since you mention your LIDAR is data is a point file,
I would think you could do some pre-processing with a spread sheet to trim
the data to include only what you need for your pipeline corridor.

If you have access to a GIS application such as ArcMap, you could easily
select and export the data by using a buffer along the pipeline alignment.

wrote in message news:5177886@discussion.autodesk.com...
I need to create cross sections for 32km pipeline ROW (approx.20m left and
right of the centerline) and I want to use 1.0m LIDAR data as a point
file.The problem is the amount of data I will end up with and the ability of
Civil 3D/LDD to manage it!I have used LIDAR data in the past, for grading
and volume calculation,but I had to resample it to 5m and loose the benefit
of high resolution data.Any suggestion or experience working with LIDAR in
Civil3D or LDD data is highly appreciated.

Regards

[colt]

Thank you all for the suggestions.In order to decrease the file size, I was using ArcGIS to create a buffer around my centerline and to retrieve only the points that I needed for my LDD calculations.Because of it I can only create a contours within the buffer zone and the rest of the LIDAR data, was "wasted".During this process, loading or displaying the points in the dwg was out of the question.The idea of the whole exercise was to combine LDD/Civil3D functionality for creating vertical profiles and cross sections and LIDAR data accuracy, without using ArcGIS in the process.It looks like I will have to wait a while for that:)Thanks again.