Civil 3D: Can I xref only specific data points?

[hmoobvue]

So I have a road (Timm Road) that was topo from road A to road B. I took a copy of that drawing and started designing on it. Additional topo on the same road now from road B to road C was collected after i started on the design and was inserted into the original drawing. The design that i'm working only have portion from road A to road B not the complete file from road A to road C.

If i xref the complete original file to my design copy, would there be duplicate data points i nthe design copy from road A to road B? Or is there a way to xref only portion from road B to road C and certain specific data points into my design file? 

[rl_jackson]

Hard to say, I don't know where A-B is or B -C is in your scenario. A picture is worth a thousand words.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the above, but It might be as simple as updating the data reference.  Add the new points or data into the reference and the surface should update.

Hope that helps,

[AllenJessup]

It's a little hard to follow what you're trying to do. Xrefs have very little to do with Surfaces. They don't add any data to a Surface.

What I find is the most effective way to handle existing Surfaces in a Design Drawing is to:

Create the Surface in it's own Drawing.

DRef the Surface into the Design Drawing.

Update the data in the Surface drawing as needed. That will update the DRefed Surface in the design drawing.

Also. For any large surface I tend not to insert the Cogo Points into the Surface drawing. I create a Points drawing and create a Point Group of all the points I want to use in the Surface. Then I export those points to an ASCII file. I use a .CSV format. Then I attach the ASCII points file to the Surface in the Surface Drawing..

If I get additional field data. I import that into the Points Drawing, create another Point Group, export that group to a point file and attach that file to the Surface. I also create Featurelines for Breaklines in the Points Drawing and copy them to the Surface Drawing.

The only Xref I use is I might Xref the Points Drawing into the Surface Drawing for a visual reference of point elevations and descriptions.

[hmoobvue]

Again, topo was completed for just portion A to B and design started on that portion. Once design has already begun, more topo was taken and inserted in to original copy as shown below. the question is if i xref the original into the design copy, would i be creating duplicate data points for portion A - B ? 

Picture: 

[AllenJessup]

Again. Not sure of what you mean by "if i xref the original into the design copy, would i be creating duplicate data points for portion A - B ?" Xrefs don't bring in point or surface data. You need to use Drefs for that.

So if you're question is exactly as above. No. You won't create any duplicate data. You won't create any data at all. 

[rl_jackson · Accepted solution]

I think @AllenJessup just summed it up. What you need is 3 separate drawings.

1. Plan drawing of improvements (your xref, that does not contain a surface)

2. A surface drawing (this is just to create the contours and this is your data reference)

3. Design Drawing.

If design drawing A-B needs to only show A-B then you use a clip of your xref and dref to minimize the data shown.

[aaron.tw]

Hey @hmoobvue -

I did a quick edit to your post title to make it easier for our experts to find and help get you a solution, and also for customers in the future that have the same issue to find an answer. Hope that's ok 🙂 

Old title: xref drawing

-Aaron

[santhoulakis · Accepted solution]

The simple answer is no, with xrefrencing no data is transmitted. You will only get an "image with grips" of the drawing you are xreferencing , not its data and elevations.

So, if you xref a drawing containing a surface with contours, labels,etc., all these features can be shown in the destination drawing, but that's about all you get. Actually, it is not a surface any more, it is just an "image" of the surface, not including any of the surface's elevation. The whole xrefed "image" will function like an object, similarly to an attached JPEG, with the difference that its looks can be changed by changing the source drawing.

However, if you want to insert the surface with all its data (so that you can be be able e.g. to add an label showing the elevation of the surface on a point of your drawing) you will need to work with data shortcuts (or data references or drefs - they all refer to the same thing) which is a whole different concept (and process). 

[AllenJessup]

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@hmoobvue wrote:

would i be creating duplicate data points? 

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Are you working with non-Civil 3d objects? IOW. What is your definition of "Data Points"?