surface breaklines

[rwatson654]

I have a breakline in the drawing that I want to locate within the surface definition , how can I do this?

Civil 3D, 2009

Win 7 Enterprise 64bit

8 GB

[darkman257]

Under the Prospector Tab, Expand Surface, Expand the Surface you want to add the breakline too, expand Definition, right click on Boundaries, follow the screen and then hit okay.  Select the line(s) you want and your are done.

[rwatson654]

I already have the breakline defined in the surface, what I want to do is locate it within the surface definition.  I know its location on the plan.

[neilyj666]

It's times like this when explicitly naming breaklines and boundaries as they are added to the surface definition really pays dividends

[rwatson654]

yes, but then I would have to think up unique names for several curb breaklines 

as opposed to calling them curb like I did

[jmayo-EE]

With all layers on and thawed, expand the surface definition in Prospector. Expand the breaklines heading and right click on the breakline you want to locate. Hopefully you name them better than I do in the attachment. 😉 Select Zoom To.

The breakline in question will be in the center of the screen. I there are a number of breaklines in close proximity, Use the Zoom command, center option. When prompted for the center, hit return. Then type in a low value for the height, like 1 or .5 to center the screen on the desired feature line.

[rwatson654]

I know where the breakline (FL) is in the drawing already.  The problem is finding the breakline in the Surface definition.  I knew I could use the Zoom To and be able to match the breakline up with the FL in the drawing.  The problem with using the Zoom To is it takes awhile to sift through all the other curb breaklines (approx 60 of them). I wish there was a highlight feature for breaklines like Figures have.

[troma]

Don't think there is going to be a quiker way than johnm described.  You will have to go through each one and zoomto, check if it is the one you have in mind.  You could start at the top or bottom of the list, depending on whether you think you added it earlier or later to the surface.

If there are a few close together and you need to know which one you have zoomed to, I would suggest using the zoom command, then hit enter to go into <real time>.  With real time zoom (click and drag) you always zoom to the centre of the screen, not where the mouse is.  The breakline you've zoomed to will be right in the centre of the screen.

I agree, a highlighting feature for surface definition objects would be very helpful.

[d_reno]

to avoid this problem - losing track of just which breakline is which, and which ones updated themselves or were completed removed when I do something to them like Trim, or did I forget to add this one? when I was modeling or tweaking an intersection or something - I will isolate the breakline layer, delete all breaklines from the surface (in Prospector), then add them all back in by selecting what is on the screen. I am not a fan of Feature Lines and the way they interact with each other (usually NOT The way I want them to interact, and I don't want 99 Sites to keep them seperate from each other) - so I typically use 3d polys to define breaklines. I create a 3d wireframe model that I know is right regardless of what is in the defintion, then I make sure the definiton uses only what I can see on the screen. 

[brianchapmandesign]

Use visual lisp or .net.  If you don't know it, learn it.

[troma]

bcinnv, can you explain the relavance of lisp or .net to this question?

I thought statistics were like bikinis; what they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital!

(Now I thought that was Mark Twain, but a quick Google prior to posting tells me it's Aaron Levenstein)