MULTIPLE SURFACES IN INFRAWORKS

[jsbillingsley]

Hello all, thanks in advance for any responses.....I have an issue on a project I'm currently working on. I just recently discovered this fantastic software (Infraworks) and would like to know if it's possible to "layer" multiple surfaces. I'm designing multiple phasing plans for a landfill using C3D and have an existing topo (which I have already brought into IW) and I will have multiple 'phases' or fill sequences. I just finished the first phase and am having trouble figuring out how to (or if it's even possible) to layer my design over the existing topo and ortho. Infraworks is such a powerful visualization tool, that I would be heart broken to find this isn't possible. I've tried everything I know and everything I can google and/or forum search. The only other thing I can think to do, that I'm sure will work, is to combine the existing and phase designs in civil, export to IMX, import into IW, drape the ortho and use a generia land covering over the design area to block out the ortho imagary, but in my mind this seems time consuming and I am working against a tight deadline.....any thoughts? THANKS!

S.B.

[BrianHailey · Accepted solution]

Hi S.B.

Doing a little bit of testing, it looks like Civil 3D will export all surfaces as one surface in the .imx file. Doesn't make sense to me that it would do that but it does. So, here's what I did. I saved my drawing as PHASE1.dwg, deleted all the surfaces but phase 1, and exported that. I did an undo to get the surfaces back, saved as PHASE2.dwg, deleted all the surfaces but phase 2, and exported the .imx file again. Repeat for each surface you need.

Back in InfraWorks, you can select all the .imx files at once when you import and this will create seperate surfaces. You can then control the display order of the surfaces by going into the Surface Layers tool.

If you have any imagery in the file, the display order can be displayed in the exact same dialog (I just don't have any images in this model).

[DMFACER · Accepted solution]

Civil 3D does export all surfaces into one IMX file, but when you import and configure the IMX in the Data Panel in InfraWorks, you can choose which surfaces to import.  What we've done to import Civil 3D surfaces is to import the IMX file multiple times, only choosing certain surfaces for each import (for example, one import for existing surface, one import for proposed surface).  Then you can use the Surface Layers tool to control order and visibility of each imported surface.

With that said, you mentioned you were trying to create different phases for your project.  InfraWorks gives you the ability to create multiple Proposals in one model, allowing you to show multiple design options, or phasing of one site.  Look for the pull down at the top of the screen that most likely says "master".  This pull-down will let you create a new Proposal for each phase of your project.  And one tip for using Proposals, when you create a new one, it will make an exact copy of your current Proposal, so you could create an "existing" Proposal, then create a Phase 1 Proposal, and when that's completed (and active), create a new Phase 2 Proposal to copy everything from Phase 1 as a base for Phase 2. 

Hope this helps.

[neilyj666 · Accepted solution]

I also extract the surface boundaries for the various scenarios from civil and mapexport as sdf. These can be brought in as coverages and styles applied to show the proposal.

[jsbillingsley]

Thank you all for your input, it was a combined effort from all of your input, hence the correct answer for your replies. I ended up importing a combined existing_phase surface for each phase. Used MAPEXPORT to write out .shp files for areas I wanted to show grass, soil and proposed road. It turned out great, should be presenting to the client soon....attached is a gif of the results. Cheers!

[jspeed]

I like this but I am running into the issue that my shp file doesn't show the elevated contours from Civil3d..i get the coverage area but no elevations.....it is just draped on the existing ground...any ideas?