Manually added lines with elevation points

[seanisean]

Hi first post,

Completely new to C3D, and just helping someone out with an existing drawing.

All I need to do is add a earth banking into top down view drawing, I'd simply like to add a 'top of bank' line with elevation data at a number of intervals manually, and likewise with a 'bottom of bank' line.

I have tried intuition ... and searched but I think I'm missing the correct terminology to find the relevant info ie: polyline, feature line, contour line etc... and elevation labels ie: manual point, load of other points etc...

I managed to make a new layer and draw a line so far, but could not annotate any elevation data to the line. Out of my depth I guess! But thought this would be simple enough to achieve.... how wrong I was!

regards

sean

[Joe-Bouza]

Sounds like you has a This-isn't-Kansass-anymore experience, Sean.

Is it your intention to model this embankment? Then Feature lines (FL) would be one way. I'm not in front of c3d but I'll give a shot. If you have line already drawn for the bank, On the home tab>> design panel>> feature line from object. pick your line aanswer the dialog box (dont worry about elevation yet).

Now grip the feature line and the contextual ribbon will present you with FL editing tools, but first right click and select elevation editor. in the panarama you should see the 2 end points : enter the elevations you want on the ends.

with the FL selected choose the green circle on the edit elevation panel. now move along you FL adding points and keying in elevations.

So that gives you a line with elevations so now what are you planning on doing with it?

[seanisean]

Hi thanks for replying,

OK so following your instruction I drew a feature line and entered points along the line with the elevation data but I would like this elevation data to be visible at each point along the line in the drawing. Thats pretty much it then.

So ultimately I will have a line representing the top of the banking/bund and a line either side representing the edge of the bank meeting the ground level, with spot levels at intervals along each line.

Yeah and far as Kansas is concerned it is a long way, I design and build small-medium landscapes and use photoshop or hand draught designs which works fine for the purpose, but C3D is another ball game... I am very interested though, looks like a powerful tool alright.

Sean

[Joe-Bouza]

Yeah its along way from Kansas.

I'll try to sum things up for you as best I can.

Civil3d is an object oriented (modeling) design/drafting tool where the annotation is linked to the object and is thus updated in the event the model changes. An example: you may design miles of highway with all kinds of changes in horizontal and vertical element along the way. In the old days (and still today sadly) labeling was done manually. If the design changed someone had to go through the miles of plans sheets and update them (i.e. Do over) civil3d allows designers and drafters to set up the annotation "Styles" and when the design changes the styles update. I highlighted styles, that's because label "styles" are the receiving end of the object oriented design. You can create a line label style to label the elevations along a feature line, or you can add your FL to a surface definition to create the surface of the bank have a contour "style' to display and/ or have surface label "styles" for labeling the points desired ,and if you edit the FL elevations the contours and labels adjust "Dynamically" to those changes.

There are getting started videos on your start up screen - watch them. There are a boat load of tutorials under the help menu - do them.  The learning curve is said to be steep, and people are encouraged to get training. Doing it on your own can be done but be prepared to use some budget money for uses other than profit.

Do some tut's, watch some vids, and ask more questions

Don't be put off, but this is a users forum not a tech support outlet. we share ideas and agony, and learn from ours and others mistakes and success. Welcome.

[AllenJessup]

Welcome to the forum. Joe has done a very good job explaining the power of Civil 3D. I agree with his suggestions on study and training if you're thinking of adopting it for production. I'll try to give you a jump start on labeling the points along your Featureline.

My suggestion would be to use a Point Label Style. You set up the styles using the Settings tab in the Toolspace. Home > Pallets > toolspace. This is how I have one of mine set up. I've highlighted one of the most important things in red. The red arrow (not red in the program, only the screenshot) is how you get the choices you've made in the left pane into the right hand pane to create or edit the style.

I've changed the screenshot from an insertion to an attachment because it was hard to read.

Allen