How can I use *.lin for surface breaklines

[Anonymous]

I have a couple files I want to use to create a surface. One is a points and the other breaklines. They are *.pnt and *.lin. I got the points in fine by creating a 'ENZ' format file. I need to know how to import the breaklines from the *.lin file. A sample of the text in that file is as follows:

2
5740605.66 2104869.50 529.31
5740608.10 2104884.57 529.97
END
2
5740498.00 2105088.57 522.97
5740506.56 2105100.20 525.04
5740517.49 2105107.48 526.91
5740529.75 2105112.19 528.40
5740557.60 2105121.76 533.39
5740564.31 2105123.92 534.56
END
2
5740564.31 2105021.76 528.39
5740544.20 2105034.28 526.44
5740517.43 2105050.94 523.88
5740493.00 2105066.15 521.53
END
2
5740606.93 2104999.98 532.36
5740602.93 2105001.94 531.99
5740570.97 2105017.61 529.00
5740564.31 2105021.76 528.39

[Anonymous]

Doesn't anyone make surfaces from AMBAG data?

[Anonymous]

With a little bit of editing, you could bring the LIN file in as a FLT file.
See the Land help for the FLT file format.

What's AMBAG?

"steve-dude" wrote in message news:6235819@discussion.autodesk.com...
> I have a couple files I want to use to create a surface. One is a points
> and the other breaklines. They are *.pnt and *.lin. I got the points in
> fine by creating a 'ENZ' format file. I need to know how to import the
> breaklines from the *.lin file. A sample of the text in that file is as
> follows:
>
> 2
> 5740605.66 2104869.50 529.31
> 5740608.10 2104884.57 529.97
> END
> 2
> 5740498.00 2105088.57 522.97
> 5740506.56 2105100.20 525.04
> 5740517.49 2105107.48 526.91
> 5740529.75 2105112.19 528.40
> 5740557.60 2105121.76 533.39
> 5740564.31 2105123.92 534.56
> END
> 2
> 5740564.31 2105021.76 528.39
> 5740544.20 2105034.28 526.44
> 5740517.43 2105050.94 523.88
> 5740493.00 2105066.15 521.53
> END
> 2
> 5740606.93 2104999.98 532.36
> 5740602.93 2105001.94 531.99
> 5740570.97 2105017.61 529.00
> 5740564.31 2105021.76 528.39

[Anonymous]

Thanks, if my example file weren't much larger than what I posted, I would do the manual edits. I did see the ASCII format in the help files. My *.lin file is one of 12 for 12 aerial panels. Each file has several thousand breaklines! Manual edits will not do. Especially when find and replace can't grasp paragraph returns. Oh, I shouldn't have referenced AMBAG, it's specific to my region (Association of Montere Bay Area Governments). I should've said Gov't data.

[Anonymous]

A personal rule and good forum conduct, is to post the answer to the question so other people who search for the same issue, can find a solution instead of more people with the same woes. Jeff pretty much had the right idea, formatting. At first I thought that was crazy talk, because the files are so large, but using 'find and replace' automated everything for me, so he really was correct. Below is how to format the file.

What was FILE.LIN looked more like this:

2
5737515.60 2100874.22 421.89
5737495.34 2100874.94 422.32
5737493.00 2100875.02 422.37
END
2
5737532.54 2101180.39 459.01
5737527.41 2101179.87 458.02
5737505.69 2101172.95 454.11
5737493.00 2101168.90 451.87
END
2
5737973.52 2100951.14 507.74
5737939.26 2100958.91 500.55
5737904.99 2100966.67 493.34
5737878.68 2100974.46 487.08
5737852.36 2100982.24 480.80
5737825.86 2100994.17 471.95
5737825.51 2100994.33 471.83
END


So, I renamed the file extension to FILE.FLT and performed the following series of find and replaces...


Find Replace
7 spaces 1 space
3 spaces 1 space
2 spaces 1 space
END blank (meaning replace them with nothing)
2 S (check the match whole word checkbox in settings)
3 S (check the match whole word checkbox in settings)
S^p S
S with 1 space S

That produced a file that looks like this:

S5737515.60 2100874.22 421.89
5737495.34 2100874.94 422.32
5737493.00 2100875.02 422.37

S5737532.54 2101180.39 459.01
5737527.41 2101179.87 458.02
5737505.69 2101172.95 454.11
5737493.00 2101168.90 451.87

S5737973.52 2100951.14 507.74
5737939.26 2100958.91 500.55
5737904.99 2100966.67 493.34
5737878.68 2100974.46 487.08
5737852.36 2100982.24 480.80
5737825.86 2100994.17 471.95
5737825.51 2100994.33 471.83


This tells whatever fault types 2 and 3 to be treated as standard faults. If you have zero elevations, you'll want to replace with P for proximity faults. Good luck! =) Edited by: steve-dude on Aug 12, 2009 4:49 PM

[mjung]

This issue has come up in our office today as well. The posted solution is a little unclear in how the numbers by themselves were removed. Must have been using something other than Notepad to edit the file.....

Does someone know of a better way to get this data into Map or Civil 3D?

Thanks

[Jeff_M]

Wordpad worked on the posted example. Where the 2 is a "word and the "Match whole word" option is checked, it is found and replaced with an S.

Edited because I hit the Post button by mistake....I haven't tested this for C3D, but since C3D uses plines for breaklines you could edit the incoming file to be a script file to draw the plines (2d or 3d) at the specified coordinates.

[TerryDotson]

Does someone know of a better way to get this data into Map or Civil 3D?

These are ESRI Generate Polyline Files and the MapWorks Base module will import them (in batch) and generate 3dPolys as results.