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Most Efficient way To Crop Surface

14 REPLIES 14
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Message 1 of 15
cattjake
7633 Views, 14 Replies

Most Efficient way To Crop Surface

Good Morning,

 

I am working with a rather large EG surface. Any drawing that it is in is very cumbersome to work in. Is there way to crop the surface to just the small work area I need while maintaining a dynamic link to the original EG surface? (ie. I don't want to have to create a second surface that I will have to open and update any time the original EG surface is changed)

 

Thanks,

 

14 REPLIES 14
Message 2 of 15
rl_jackson
in reply to: cattjake

Doesn't this work?

crop.png

 


Rick Jackson
Survey CAD Technician VI

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Message 3 of 15
Neilw_05
in reply to: cattjake

Ideally we'd like to be able to create a DREF and apply a data clip boundary to it.I've explored that possibility when working with large DEM datasets. It can't be done. Your only option is to create a copy and edit the boundary or use the crop surface tool mentioned above. The surfaces won't be dynamic to changes in the original.

Neil Wilson (a.k.a. neilw)
AEC Collection/C3D 2024, LDT 2004, Power Civil v8i SS1
WIN 10 64 PRO

http://www.sec-landmgt.com
Message 4 of 15
sboon
in reply to: Neilw_05

Neil, are you sure that the cropped surface isn't dynamic?  According to the help file it seems like it should be.


When you create a surface by cropping the source surface, or when you rebuild the new surface, AutoCAD Civil 3D creates a copy from the saved version of the source surface. If you modify the source surface and want the changes to be reflected in the new surface, save the drawing containing the source surface before you rebuild the new surface.

Steve
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Steve
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Message 5 of 15
neilyj666
in reply to: sboon

Neil is referring to using data clip boundaries rather than cropped surfaces - I've never really explored either method so can't comment any further.

neilyj (No connection with Autodesk other than using the products in the real world)
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AEC Collection 2024 UKIE (mainly Civil 3D UKIE and IW)
Win 11 Pro x64, 1Tb Primary SSD, 1Tb Secondary SSD
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Message 6 of 15
ksorsby
in reply to: cattjake

Personally, I'd get your EG surface and paste it into a new surface called Clipped EG (or whatever), then add in a Dataclip boundary from an outline polyline. The key thing here is to then edit Surface Properties/Definitions and move the dataclip entry right to the top. This then doesn't bring in any data outside the boundary. Then make sure your original EG is always turned off. This definitely retains a dynamic link.

You could actually create a separate model for the above and datalink in the EG surface, then do the above so keeping the original EG data in a separate model entirely.

 

 

Another good way if you have a Lidar or large point number dataset is to use point clouds. I had a 316 million point cloud from an aerial survey and created surfaces for only the areas that I needed, using the level of detail toggle to get around half a million per area. This method isn't dynamic though as far as I can see.

 

Kevin

Message 7 of 15
sboon
in reply to: neilyj666

What I'm saying is that if I understand it correctly the cropped surface is equivalent to a data reference.  You get a copy of a part of the source surface, which will be current to the last time the source file was saved.

 

Steve
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Steve
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Message 8 of 15
cattjake
in reply to: rl_jackson

So here is the issue I have with Crop Surface.

 

Say I have the Orginal EG and create a Clipped EG in a new drawing. Then data reference that Clipped EG into a production drawing. If the Orginal EG changes (say we get more detailed topo in a specific area that is incorparated) then I have to manually go into the Clipped EG surface drawing and update it before the data reference production drawing will update.

 

So... Original EG > Data Clip to new drawing > Clipped EG data reference to Production Drawing means the production drawing is not dynamic to the Original EG since the Clipped EG is not dynamic to Original EG.

Message 9 of 15
Neilw_05
in reply to: cattjake

I haven't run any tests with the cropped surface tool but as Steve notes, it should be linked to the original. Thus it could be updated when the source changes. If this is the case then it better than making static copies.

As you note however, there would be a need to update the cropped surface manually if it is used as a DREF.

Perhaps a workaround would be to create the cropped surface in your production drawing and eliminate the intermediate surface.

Some experimentation seems in order.
Neil Wilson (a.k.a. neilw)
AEC Collection/C3D 2024, LDT 2004, Power Civil v8i SS1
WIN 10 64 PRO

http://www.sec-landmgt.com
Message 10 of 15
jmayo-EE
in reply to: Neilw_05

I agree Neil. Paste EG into EG-Clipped in the same dwg with autorebuild left on. Dynamic all the way.

John Mayo

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Message 11 of 15
cattjake
in reply to: cattjake

I found some time to do a little test and I don't think the create cropped surface function is what I am looking for. My reasoning below.

 

  • If you crop the Orginal EG you can not crop it into the Orginal EG drawing
  • If you copy and paste the Cropped EG back into the Orginal EG drawing the snapshot has an error and can't update
  • Even if you have autorebuild turned on you have to manualy right click definitions and rebuild snapshot to update cropped surface

 

I will hopefully have time to test Kevins method (creating a new surface > edit > paste Orginal EG > add data clip to top of defintion) today at some point.

Message 12 of 15
cattjake
in reply to: ksorsby

Using Edits>Paste Surface>Boundaries>Data Clip does not result in a clipped surface as far as I can tell. The full extents of the Original EG are still shown on the Clipped EG.

I adjusted the definition order of the data clip and the surface paste, it has not affect.
Message 13 of 15
ksorsby
in reply to: cattjake

You're quite right, plus I hadn't quite described it properly!

It does work for me, but my original surface comes from a data linked model and is using a lidar .asc file as a definition. So I'm wondering whether the dataclip works in my case because it's a data file, but not in your case because its generated from polylines/features etc.

 

Sorry I can't be more help!

 

Kevin

Message 14 of 15
Neilw_05
in reply to: ksorsby

I have attempted to apply data clips to DREFs of surfaces created from a points file. I have not been able to get it to clip. I don't think that is the answer.

The inability to apply clips to DREFs is partially discussed in this thread which also covers the Crop Surface tool.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D-General/Create-Cropped-Surface-from-Dref/m-p/4637279/...

Neil Wilson (a.k.a. neilw)
AEC Collection/C3D 2024, LDT 2004, Power Civil v8i SS1
WIN 10 64 PRO

http://www.sec-landmgt.com
Message 15 of 15
Neilw_05
in reply to: cattjake

The workflow that was discussed in the thread I posted just previous is to use the Crop tool to create a new surface. The new surface is stored in a new file by the Crop tool. Supposedly (according to the help file) if any changes are made to the original, the cropped surface will reflect the changes when it is rebuilt.

It is important to note that Cropping is NOT the same as clipping.
Neil Wilson (a.k.a. neilw)
AEC Collection/C3D 2024, LDT 2004, Power Civil v8i SS1
WIN 10 64 PRO

http://www.sec-landmgt.com

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