Tin Surface

[JoeLondon]

I am trying to build a profile for our existing ground.  Having trouble getting the existing ground line to show in the profile after it is created.  I have a tin surface from surveyor, but it will not recognize it when creating the surface.  How can I create the surface with only from "tin lines" not a tin file?? 

[Jeff_M]

Correct, when all I have are the TIN lines (looks like these were from LDT) then I don't use any breaklines, just the Add Lines method. This should give you the same surface the surveyor had because those TIN lines should have been created based on points and breaklines already.

One of the drawbacks of the TIN surfaces is that a profile will get an elevation for every place it crosses a TIN line.  You can try smotthing the surface, but with a surface of this size it will probably over tax your hardware.

If you have the points, sure you can build a surface from them. However, it will take some time to determine where to add breaklines...time which the surveyor should have already taken when creating the TIN he gave you. ANd remember, the surveyor has seen the site, so he knows where the breaklines should be in the first place. If you were not a part of the survey crew, you can only "best guess" as to where they should be.

[JoeLondon]

Ok I understand what you are saying about knowing where to put the break lines in the drawing.  Now this is where I must be getting confused.  You mentioned to us "Add Lines" method when I am creating my surface.  Where would I find this option?  Is it in the toolspace prospector?

I am trying to get this under control so I don't have to keep bothering anyone on here......

[Jeff_M]

This pic should help....

[JoeLondon]

ok got it....I will give it a try and let you know....

[enderak]

To be fair, the problem with the crossing breaklines is because it looks like he was given tin lines from multiple surfaces all on the same layer. If you use the breakline method in an area that doesn't have the overlapping tin lines, there are no errors at all.

if you add the lines and select to maintain the edges, you will get errors as well because of this. If you don't maintain edges, your surface will not match the original, and you will have to flip a ton of faces because the breaklines used to create the original surface aren't maintained. (see attached screen shot - cyan is new, white is original)

What you need is the tin lines separated, either on different layers or different drawings. Or better yet, the original LDD project or an XML file you can import. The reason you are having so many problems is because what you were sent is crap. You aren't doing anything wrong.

[isaac]

I know this is an old thread, but adding the tin lines I have from an old drawing using the "Add Lines from Drawing Objects" dialog box worked perfectly in trying to blend data from an old Land Desktop drawing with new data in a Civil 3D drawing.  Thank you.