Making contours from spot elevations

[Anonymous]

I have a pdf survey with spot elevations and I am trying to make contours from them. The spot elevations, however, are not a format that can be imported. they are just "x" points in a cad file. I don't mind manually adding them into a sheet or a file that can be interpolated in 3D civil to make contours I just need to know how. 

Thank you for looking!

[Pointdump]

Raafat,
Welcome to the Autodesk Forums.
Let's see what you've got. Please post your drawing/PDF.
Dave

[Anonymous]

Hi Dave,

Thank you for looking. I attached two files for your convenience. One the survey with grades and all other layers in imperial units and one in metric including just spot elevations and some contours I started drafting by simple math equations but obviously time consuming. I'm just looking at a way here to interpolate these spots into contours without having to do it manually using math equations. Refer to the contour file first please. 

Best,

Raf. 

[braudpat]

Hello

1) Thanks for your DWGs ...

2) ---- CONTOURS.dwg ---- 

So if I understand WELL, you would like a routine to generate automatically the Blue 2D PLines (you have already drawn) !?

3) Unfortunately, I have not any idea HOW it could be possible !!

Especially from a 2D PDF vectorized DWG !

4) The only solution, I can see :

-- Create many 3D Points XYZ at the right position !

-- Use ACAD CIVIL 3D to generate a 3D DTM and generate 2D Contours PLines ... 

THE HEALTH, Regards, Patrice

[Pointdump]

Raf,
I'm with Pat. Probably no way to do what you want to do. The elevation text in contours.dwg have been 'splodey'ed, so that precludes any method of converting text to elevations. You might be able to use the ALIGN Command to overlay the contour.dwg onto 1513 Merrow Road.dwg. That assumes that there are at least 2 points in common to locate.
Dave

[Pointdump]

Raf,
Here's a way you might approach this. See if the City of Mississauga or Regional Municipality of Peel have available Shapefiles of Parcels and Elevation Data.
Dave

[ChicagoLooper]

The drawing titled contours.dwg is not good. Were the contours.dwg made from the PDF version of the survey? If it was, upload that PDF so all notes, footnotes, abbreviations, symbols, explanations, etc, etc, etc. can be evaluated.

I'm guessing 'not in a format that can be imported' is the reason why the contours.dwg is the way it is. In terms of importing the survey drawing, don't import it. You'd be better off re-creating it. You don't need to re-create every single dot, line, arc, polygon, tick mark, crow's foot, benchmark, etc. just re-create, or copy, the relevant parts of the survey that will produce a SURFACE. Why? Because topographic contours are representations of surface topography. Create the existing ground, or EG, and the contours will be automatic.

You could also get the surface by using spot elevations, but doing it this way requires third party software such as Surfer, from Golden Software. You could also get contours (as others are about to suggest) using Map3D, but Map's contour generation algorithm produces lousy and jagged contours, not the spline-like contours you are probably expecting.

You could, but can't, produce a surface from the angled numbers that are supposed to be spot elevations. Two reasons why you can't:

1. The numbers are not text, they's polylines formed into the shape of numbers. This likely the result of exporting the PDF survey to vectors, such as AutoCad line work.
2. Those numbers don't accurately reference a specific spot 'where' the elevation occurs. The specific spot should be identifiable by coordinates, e.g., Lat/Long, Northing/Easting, X/Y, etc. and represented by a symbol such as an 'X'. They shouldn't point to a general area next to an elevation. 

The PDF version of your survey holds the key. Can you upload it?