Creating a Topo from Text

[Anonymous]

I have received a survey with only the numbers and no points on it, I am only trying to create a rough topo map with lines in order to export to Revit and test out some buildings on the site. I've followed so many different feeds discussing how to do this and non seem to work for me. I raised the text to the elevation within the text but I don't how how to make contour lines from this point out or what to do next in order to get it to transfer from autocad to revit and use the massing and site to create a topo. HELP I've been at this for hours.

[TerryDotson · Accepted solution]

You had a few pieces of text that were basically data busts, those were removed.  Try inserting the attached contour drawing, created using DotSoft's MapWorks for AutoCAD.

[ennujozlagam]

Have you try to set value of pdmode pdsize and Lt scale and Dimscale and see if the points will appear it should be there. Surveyor drawing always have value of points of X, Y, and Z. Sorry I'm not able to see your drawings I'm in the computer right now. Thanks

[ChicagoLooper]

Your attached drawing appears to consists of elevation 'labels' to survey points. Survey points typically look like this (see image below).

Red plus sign=survey ed point. Green=elevation label (either feet or meters).

In your case, however, someone has deleted the points and left you with the mere labels.  There are many reasons why the point themselves were not provided to you, some of them are legitimate, some legal, some due to liability exposure, some due to all of the above and some due to none of the above. To further complicate your issue, the survey is not 'georeferenced' meaning even if you are able to generate contours, you don't know where on planet Earth they belong. Yes, you may be able to ascertain the 'general' area and physically move the contours in modelspace, but placing them in a 'general area' against the backdrop of a building may expose you or your colleagues, to making critical decisions with adverse consequences. Whether legal, financial, economic or aesthetic, any reasonable designer, drafter or businessperson would not want issues to arise because they relied on contours that were placed in the 'general area.'

You are certainly free to pursue the creation of topographic contours on your own or with the assistance of others you find on a forum, after all it's your prerogative.  But if the deleted points were mistakenly deleted, it would be better, as well as more geospatially accurate, to persuade the surveyor or author for assistance rather than assistance from those recruited from a forum.  

BTW, in the absence of third party software, you'll still need Civil 3D or Map 3D plus a geospial reference, a prj file or some type of equivalent, to create contours. Plain vanilla Cad will not suffice. Good luck.   

[Zlatislav.atanasov · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

I am not sure how you can create contours from those text object using only AutoCAD.
However, if you have AutoCAD Civil 3D it is really an easy job! By going to Modify tab and hitting surface. Then there is an option bring Text to elevation. This will give all your text objects elevations and then create a surface.

I have done this for you this time, the contours are exploded to polylines with elevations.

Note: Be aware since there is no Point Marker,  I am not sure what are the coordinates of elevation points. At the moment all Surface triangles are connected to the text's insertion point.

Note2: I haven't worked on your points much, there are no breaklines or so, that is why the contours may look a little strange. But my laptop at home is really slow and it is a nightmare doing those things.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your advice! We know the text is in the rough area of the points, but we are in the process of receiving a more accurate site survey. I'm just a student so I was tasked with turning this original corrupt file into a rough site plan just to sketch out our preliminary ideas. It doesn't have much variation in the landscape and I was told to just begin with it on a flat site because the area we plan to build within this site is rather small and flat. I will keep what you have said in mind for future projects.