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contours around curves

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Message 1 of 8
wbrustle
1844 Views, 7 Replies

contours around curves

wbrustle
Advocate
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I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to evenly space contours around a curve in a surface.

Many times I have a steep area in a surface that needs to be displayed using 1 foot contour intervals, and in certain areas the contours are crossing each other around curved areas, like a curve in a ditch. Is there a way or a setting I am missing that may help to alleviate this problem. In the past i have had to "fudge" the surface a little to get the contours to look correct.

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contours around curves

I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to evenly space contours around a curve in a surface.

Many times I have a steep area in a surface that needs to be displayed using 1 foot contour intervals, and in certain areas the contours are crossing each other around curved areas, like a curve in a ditch. Is there a way or a setting I am missing that may help to alleviate this problem. In the past i have had to "fudge" the surface a little to get the contours to look correct.

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Message 2 of 8
neilyj666
in reply to: wbrustle

neilyj666
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Do you have any sort of smoothing applied to these contours?

neilyj (No connection with Autodesk other than using the products in the real world)
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Do you have any sort of smoothing applied to these contours?

neilyj (No connection with Autodesk other than using the products in the real world)
Did you find this post helpful? Feel free to Like this post.
Did your question get successfully answered? Then click on the ACCEPT SOLUTION button.

EESignature


AEC Collection 2025 UKIE (mainly Civil 3D UKIE and IW)
Win 11 Pro x64, 1Tb Primary SSD, 1Tb Secondary SSD
64Gb RAM Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-11855M CPU @ 3.2GHz
NVIDIA RTX A5000 16Gb, Dual 27" Monitor, Dell Inspiron 7760
Message 3 of 8
wbrustle
in reply to: neilyj666

wbrustle
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yes, I have it set to the maximum it can be

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yes, I have it set to the maximum it can be

Message 4 of 8
BrianHailey
in reply to: wbrustle

BrianHailey
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Mentor
Accepted solution

Contours should never cross each other in a TIN surface. If you smooth the contours, you are sacrificing the accuracy of the contours so they "look pretty". Instead of smoothing the contours, try smoothing the surface.

 

I wrote about it on my blog HERE.

Brian J. Hailey, P.E.



GEI Consultants
My Civil 3D Blog

Contours should never cross each other in a TIN surface. If you smooth the contours, you are sacrificing the accuracy of the contours so they "look pretty". Instead of smoothing the contours, try smoothing the surface.

 

I wrote about it on my blog HERE.

Brian J. Hailey, P.E.



GEI Consultants
My Civil 3D Blog

Message 5 of 8
wbrustle
in reply to: BrianHailey

wbrustle
Advocate
Advocate

thank you so much. Our company moved from LDD 2008 right to Civil 3d 2013 with no training....is smoothing a surface new or was it always available? I didn't even know there was a command for that. I had always just smoothed contours. I can't wait to try this!!!! These discussion groups have been a tremendous help. I usually get a reply to a posted question within minutes and most of my questions are answered so thanks again to all the experts.....we all know how frustrating it is when something does not work the way its suppose to 🙂

thank you so much. Our company moved from LDD 2008 right to Civil 3d 2013 with no training....is smoothing a surface new or was it always available? I didn't even know there was a command for that. I had always just smoothed contours. I can't wait to try this!!!! These discussion groups have been a tremendous help. I usually get a reply to a posted question within minutes and most of my questions are answered so thanks again to all the experts.....we all know how frustrating it is when something does not work the way its suppose to 🙂

Message 6 of 8
wbrustle
in reply to: wbrustle

wbrustle
Advocate
Advocate

one more question about smoothing suface...............what point interpolation/exreapolation output location is recommended?

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one more question about smoothing suface...............what point interpolation/exreapolation output location is recommended?

Message 7 of 8
Neilw_05
in reply to: wbrustle

Neilw_05
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I usually go by trial and error. Try a setting and see if it gives satisfactory results. Assign an area that encompases the problem and apply. You DON'T want to smooth the whole site as smoothing adds processing time.

 

If you are only concerned about the pretty picture and don't need a precise surface in that area, try bumping down your contour smoothing to half. Using full contour smoothing almost always results in crossing contours.

Neil Wilson (a.k.a. neilw)
AEC Collection/C3D 2024, LDT 2004, Power Civil v8i SS1
WIN 10 64 PRO

http://www.sec-landmgt.com
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I usually go by trial and error. Try a setting and see if it gives satisfactory results. Assign an area that encompases the problem and apply. You DON'T want to smooth the whole site as smoothing adds processing time.

 

If you are only concerned about the pretty picture and don't need a precise surface in that area, try bumping down your contour smoothing to half. Using full contour smoothing almost always results in crossing contours.

Neil Wilson (a.k.a. neilw)
AEC Collection/C3D 2024, LDT 2004, Power Civil v8i SS1
WIN 10 64 PRO

http://www.sec-landmgt.com
Message 8 of 8
wbrustle
in reply to: Neilw_05

wbrustle
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Advocate

ok...I will try that....thank you!

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ok...I will try that....thank you!

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