Creating a mesh/surface/solid from a topo survey?

[brady_grove]

I am trying to convert a poly line topo survey to either a mesh, surface, or solid object. The topo has been imported with differing Z values per line. I am using AutoCAD to modify these poly lines to some sort of 3D object that is recognized by another software, and the other software will recognize any of these 3 objects properly. Is there any "easy way" to do this with the attached file?

[pendean]

You need to have used 3DPolylines to use the built-in tools to convert as you wish: it appears your DWG file only contains 2D Plines (well, there is one)

if you have access to Civil3D...

https://help.autodesk.com/view/CIV3D/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-B58D3998-8452-41B1-BFA8-24293B41B094

[brady_grove]

I am using Civil3D and can convert those 2D lines to 3D, but the following tools still seem to have no effect: Convert to Solid, Convert to Surface, Convert to Mesh. Is there a different tool I need to be using? I still need the entire model to be one 3D object that the polylines are connected to make one large slope.

[autoid374ceb4990 · Accepted solution]

If this will help, attached is your drawing converted to 3DFACES.    I used a program that I wrote many years ago to convert contour lines to 3DFACES. What is the "other software" for which you are converting, and what type of file will it accept?

[brady_grove]

Oh wow, this is great. This seems to work perfectly! Is the process of changing contour lines to 3DFACES complicated enough that you built an entire program for?

The "other software" I am using is Slide3, a RocScience program. Which can import dxf files, so I got it from here. Thanks for taking the time to do that! I only expected instructions, not someone to commit real time to fixing my problem for me!

[autoid374ceb4990]

Glad the 3DFACES worked for you.  Many years ago (Apple II era) my wife (electrical engineer) and I (civil engineer and land surveyor) started our own company.  There was hardly any software available, so I wrote my own.  The code evolved over the years and was last written in 'C' code for AutoCAD R14.  I never converted it to any of the later AutoCAD versions because I did not like their rental licensing. The code for converting contours and survey points to 3DAFCES and all the other mapping functions is probably several thousand lines now.