Proposed Surface Points

[hkaplan1227]

I'm using Civil3d 2014 and have built a proposed surface from a corridor.

I had edited the surface by adding points at somepoint. Now there was a redesign and the grades changed.

My problem is that the points i added did not get updated when the redesign happened.

My question is, is it possible bylayer to distinguish the difference between the points created by the surface vs. the points I added manually?

Now I have to look thru all the points to see what is correct and what needs to be manually edited

Any input would be greatly appreciated

[doni49]

When you say "points created by the surface", what do you mean? 

When I add points to a surface, I do so by creating Cogo points and then adding those points (either by creating a Point Group that includes them and adding the group or by actually adding the points).  If that's what you did, then you should see cogo points at those locations. 

The only other way (that I know of) to get points into the surface is to add breaklines.  Every vertex of the breakline(s) will be represented by a point.

EDIT:  By creating the surface from a corridor, the corridor created the breaklines and added them to the surface for you.

[hkaplan1227]

Under Surface Properties you can toggle points, triangles, etc on and off.

You can edit a surface and one of the options is to add, remove or edit a point.

Those are the points I'm refering to, not cogo points.

Thanks, Howard

[doni49]

Ok.  I see where you're at.  I don't use that "Add Points" option often so I had forgotten all about it.

I think I would edit the surface properties so that the "Add Point" lines are the only things checked.  This will turn off everything EXCEPT the points that you added.  Then you can modify them as needed.

I can imagine that it would be helpful while making these edits to see what the surface would look like without these points.  If so before doing that, copy the surface on top of itself.  Then remove these points from the copy.

[AllenJessup]

The only thing I can think of is to look on the Definition tab of the Surface Properties. In the lower pane you can see the coordinates of the points you've added. You can copy those to a text file to copy paste the coordinates to a Zoom Center command or type them in.

Painful at best but I can't think of another way to do it.

Allen

[doni49]

Attafhed is a quick example I made for you.  First I created a surface with a bunch of rectangles added as breaklines.  Then I added 3 points to the surface.  Then I copied the surface on top of itself (Right click on the surface in toolspace and click select, COPYBASE, choose 0,0 as the basepoint, then paste it in at 0,0 a copy of the surface will be created).

Then I turned off "Add Breaklines" in the definition tab of the first surface.  Then I deleted the points from the second surface (again in the definition tab -- right click on "Add Points" and remove from definition.

Having done this, I would be able to manipulate the "ADDED POINTS".

Here's an image of what the surface looks like with everything EXCEPT "Add Points" turned off.

[hkaplan1227]

Thanks for the Input Guys. Allen I think your suggestion would be the easiest.

Doni, your suggestion sounds like a lot of work for a large job.. What I did not mention is that this job I'm working on is just about 1 mile long with a cul-de-sac, a traffic circle and numerous parking pockets. You suggestion would be easy on a small job.

I was hoping I could just change the point style or color of the points that were added manually.

I'll have to make a suggestion on the Wish List.

[doni49]

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@hkaplan1227 wrote:

Thanks for the Input Guys. Allen I think your suggestion would be the easiest.

Doni, your suggestion sounds like a lot of work for a large job.. What I did not mention is that this job I'm working on is just about 1 mile long with a cul-de-sac, a traffic circle and numerous parking pockets. You suggestion would be easy on a small job.

I was hoping I could just change the point style or color of the points that were added manually.

I'll have to make a suggestion on the Wish List.

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That's effectively what this does.  The only thing the first surface is showing is the points that were added manually.  You can assign them to whatever color you like.  The second surface is showing everything EXCEPT the added points.  I think getting the coordinates of each point and manually zooming to each of them will be extremely painful -- especially on a large job (I'm assuming that means there will be lots of points to manipulate).

[doni49 · Accepted solution]

Ok.  I took it a step further and improved it a little bit.  The original surface has the breaklines turned off on the definition tab (so the only things it includes are the "manually added points".  Then In the copy of the surface, the manually added points have been removed and I've pasted the original surface into it.  Thus the copy contains the breaklines AND the points.  So you can see how your changes effect the surface.

Notice in the image the contours do reflect both the breaklines AND the points?  Notice that ONLY the manually added points (yellow) are visible?  (I added the yellow circles to the image to highlight the points.)

Manipulate the manually added points as desired.  Then when finished, go back to the definition tab and turn everything back on.  Delete the copied surface.  Back to normal.

[hkaplan1227]

Ok, I see what you did. I'll give that a try

Thanks for the Help!

[doni49]

Glad to be of assistance.  Sometimes you need to use the tools in ways other than how they were intended so you can get at what you need.  This is one of those cases.

[Joe-Bouza]

Hi Howard

As tempting as it may seem to add "TIN" point to edit a surface I would strongly suggest you don't use that technique, for reasons you are discovering.

Also, I would equally or if I could, with greater emphasis, dissuade you from manually adding or editing data to a corridor surface. Build your corridor surface, and paste it into an empty surface (FG), make additional surfaces as deemed necessary and paste into FG.. The definition tab of FG would only contain pasted surfaces and is much easier to track, and will be dynamic to the changes of the others. Not to mention it makes it infinately more possible for more than one user work on a surface (especially when it gets larger)