Create proposed profile from surface profile

[TonyLeggieri3279]

We have an engineer who is taking an existing surface and wants to show a proposed road 2" higher than existing.

I told him to simply adjust his assembly for his corridor to account for the 2" difference, but the County agency needs to see a profile.

My questions:

1) Is there a way to easily copy a profile made from a surface and "convert" it to a proposed profile?  If we copy and explode, it turns into hundreds (thousands?) of tiny pline segments and it would be a mess to convert all those to a profile 1 by 1.  If we make the corridor, and choose "profile from corridor", we do not have an option that could be used to represent the centerline. 

2) Other than loss of dynamic updating), would it make sense to adjust the assembly so the top surface would be accurate, then copy the profile, explode the copy to a block and simply shift that (as essentially basic linework)?

Any help/opinions would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Tony

[Neilw_05]

I haven't tried it but can you export it to LandXML and re-import as a design profile? I also don't know if you have to edit the XML file to change it to a design profile prior to import.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

DO you want another surface 2" higher or a profile 2 inches higher?

If surface, copy the surface and raise it 2"

If Profile, create an EG profile, copy it and use the editor to raise all pts 2"

[Neilw_05]

I didn't realize that a sampled profile behaves the same as a design profile as far as labeling and editing. So as was suggested, make a copy of the surface profile and raise the vertices by the desired amount using the Profile Edit Geometry tools. You must make the profile static (in profile properties) before you can edit it.

[Anonymous]

This is how I always get my first run at a design profile when building something like a road where the surface is generally a consistent height above the ground...

Then I can tweak it for variations.

[Joe-Bouza · Accepted solution]

To convert a surface profile into a layout profile do the following:

1. create your surface profile and view (call it eg temp) and make it static

2. create a layout profile say (fg(x))

3. draw an arbitraryl line (doesn't matter how long or where), exit the profile layout tool

4. edit eg temp geometry and press copy

5. select overwrite existing profile and select fg(x) from the pop down

6. go back to eg temp and make it dynami again is needed

[TonyLeggieri3279]

Perfect!  Thank you everyone!  It was that Dynamic to Static change I was missing!

[Joe-Bouza]

Please select "accept solution" so other readers may be aware of your solution

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the info.. This procedure works great for copying an OG profile to create a proposed profile. However, all the vertices are carried from the OG profile to the new proposed profile and I end up with all kinds of labelling on my new profile (see attachment). Is there a way to make it label only the vertical curves? I realize it probably doesn't recognize the vertical curves.

[Anonymous]

Any idea why I would get a message "no layout profile exists"??? I followed the steps you provided and it works great, when it works! I got it to work in one drawing then tried a few others and keep getting the error message "no layout profile exists". I deleted the profile where I got it to work, went through the steps again but "no layout profile exists"???

[Joe-Bouza]

are you sure you didn't miss step 3 ?

[Anonymous]

I was picking the wrong profile to edit in Step 4......duh!!!! Sorry. However, this procedure will be very helpful when trying to match existing ground in design. Thank you very much again!!

[Joe-Bouza]

hth

Good luck

[Anonymous]

Joe, your method is quite ingenious, have a kudo, most of the posts i've read don't seem have any solution to this issue, it seems to be a quite challenging problem...............I had created a profile from file n followed your steps to create a layout profile from it bt one thing though, when i want to change the update mode of the new profile to dynamic in profile properties->profile data->update mode the tab is either blank or only has the static option...........is there anything i'm missing when it comes to setting a profile to either static or dynamic?     Thanks in advance

[Joe-Bouza]

Hi Razz, Thanks

Layout profiles are not dynamic by defintion thats why the box is greyed out. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?

[Anonymous]

Hi Joe, sorry for the delay but what i was trying to accomplish was importing an existing ground profile from file as well as a finished ground profile from file into the same profile view and then have civil 3D recognize them as existing ground and finished  ground respectively when i'm generating the incremental station elevation difference report for setting out data.

Thanks,

Razz

[Joe-Bouza]

Hello Razz

If you ignore the eg surface dialog the report will give the data, no? I just named the profiles appropriately from profile properties

[Anonymous]

Thanks alot,  assigned the profiles their appropriate styles in profile styles i.e. design profile and EG ground respectively and was able to come up with the report. I was in doubt at first because i thought the profile style properties only affect the visual appearance of the profiles such as colour, thickness e.t.c as in the traditional autocad. So they are also reflected in the reports as EG and FG? 

If you don't mind, could u please have a look at this thread about a best fit alignment and see what you come up with.

Thanks alot man, Cheers!

[Joe-Bouza]

I tried it too and couldn't get it to work. I dropped in, on the side a few random points of my own and it did work. You should open an SR
Sorry

[WyldeParnelle]

I had a tough time making this work until I read it over and over as I tried. Realized my error and worked like a charm Thanks 🙂 Saving this for future use.