Creating XYZ file from Long section

[swartaZ6NR2]

Good day,

I have a dwg file containing a water pipeline in plan view and a long section which looks like it was created in Civil 3D a long time ago. Can I extract XYZ values from the long section? I clicked on the pipeline line on the plan view, but it does not contain Z elevation values. It seems to be a 2D line only. 😞

So I only have the long section from which I can get Z values. I think I will be able to figure out how to get XY values from the 2D line.

I also see that there are points on the model space along the line, however it is not contained in a point group.

So do I have to manually capture each point, or is there a quick way?

Your help will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[ianjchap]

Hi,

Regarding the Water Pipeline, if when selected it shows up as a 2D line then you wont be able to extract anything from this other than XY information. Check to see if there are either a Pipe Network or Pressure Network in place shown in the Prospector. If so there'll be information here you can extract. If not, you could reproduce the pipe networks if you have the elevations in profile view, that way you can then schedule all the information.

Regarding the points, even if they dont have a specific Point Group created, they should show inde 'All Points' once you expand the point group icon. From here you can extract the point information a few different ways.

[brian.strandberg]

You can view the section line group in project explorer, and export that data to a table.  

If I export to excel it will look like this- with data for each sample line.

[swartaZ6NR2]

Hi Ianjchap,

Thank you for your quick reply and advice.

Unfortunately there are no points inside the 'all points' either.

Even though this drawing is about a pipeline, it does not have any pipe networks or structures added. Its really just a normal cad line drawn in plan. Its quite long and will be quite a tedious job to manually enter a point along the line to capture XY. I will however try to redraw the line into a 3Dpolyline and then if needed make it a feature line and/or alignment from which I can extract XY points. 

How should I go about reproducing the pipe network from the profile view. (Apologies, I'm a relative beginner with Civil 3D)

Thank again!

[brian.strandberg]

Got you - if you can share the drawing I may be able to take a look at it this morning.  I assumed from your description of a section that it was a civil 3d section object. 

[ianjchap]

Hi,
If you need to produce the pipeline in Civil 3D then you might as well use this to extract any information once complete. However the method you mentioned would work if you need something without remodelling the pipe work. If so, the first thing to understand is which type of network, ie. Pipe Network - gravity system with Pipes and Structures or, Pressure Network - Pipes/Fittings/valves (non gravity fed)? 

Regarding the points, if they're not showing up in the 'All Points' group in C3D then they're probably not 'Cogo Points' which Civil 3D uses. However, it could be a standard Autocad Point in which case you can export the information using the DATEXTRACTION command.

[AllenJessup]

Use Civil 3D Point Tools to set points at the vertices at the elevation. You may have to make an alignment and profile. I'll see if I can test later.

[brian.strandberg]

Thats a good tip - I never noticed the polyline vertices option to add cogo points.

[swartaZ6NR2]

Hi Brian,

I attached the drawing. If you could take a look, I would really appreciate it. The "pipeline" line is the blue line in the C-ROAD-CNTR-N layer. It starts at the top left hand corner, when you open the drawing and look in model space.

The Profile is at the top in the model space. 

I don't know why this drawing doesn't "talk" to civil 3D, because it looks like it was prepared in Civil 3D, but somehow the data got 'lost' or just converted to 2D autocad entities... If thats possible.

Thanks again!

[teerawat.pSCHYQ]

Hi, you say that you have long section, I guess this is profile that along your water pipeline, then you can go this way, by create Points from Profile Geometry Points, after that you will have points in each geometry points, it based on your vertical profile geometry, then finally, you will have Cogo Points. 

[swartaZ6NR2]

Good day,

I have tried to create a line from which I can extract XY coordinates in 200m intervals, however I cannot seem to get it done. Unfortunately the lines from which I worked were segmented and I could not get it joined.

Thus all the lines I tried to create, such as feature line or alignments are segmented. I did use the Kobi Toolkit to 'join' all the alignments and if I click on it it selects one alignment (1) and highlights the entire line, which sounds great, but in reality, the alignment is not there for me to choose and extract coordinates from...

Attached is the drawing with all the lines created. If you select close to the start of the line (top left corner) then you will select the alignment which should be one 'joined' alignment for the entire line, but getting anything extracted from it is impossible, it seems. I will appreciate anybody's help with this. I really just need that line's XY coords in 200m intervals, then I will manually enter the Z values (which I will take from the profile) in excel - if needed.

Thank you

[Pointdump]

Hi Aneska,
Thanks for posting your drawing.
"...the lines from which I worked were segmented and I could not get it joined."
There's an arc at the end of each polyline. Explode to lines, delete the arcs, and then use PEDIT to convert the lines to polylines and join. (Use Jointype "Both") Then you can extract the vertices. You'll need to create a surface to get Z values.
Dave

[Pointdump · Accepted solution]

Aneska,
I had some time, so here's a workflow to get an XYZ file.
1. WBLOCK out the Polyline as DXF.
2. Open the DXF in QGIS and use Extract Vertices to get X and Y. (In AutoCAD you'll need to use a Lisp or Add-On.)
3. In Civil 3D, create a surface by adding the 3D Faces.
4. Import point file from the QGIS vertices extraction.
5. Assign elevations from surface to the COGO points.
Bam! Done! Attached.
Dave

[swartaZ6NR2]

Dear Dave,

I cannot thank you enough! This is a huge help! I appreciate your effort!

I recently learned about QGIS and I did think that this software might come in handy. I will definitely try to learn more about it.

Just a quick question on your workflow:

Could you perhaps elaborate a bit on point 3. Create surface by adding 3D faces.

Not sure what you mean by 3D faces?

To be honest, I wish I could see how you did this step by step, as this is really very useful for future projects.

Thank you so much!

Aneska

[Pointdump]

Aneska,
Use command QSELECT to see what sorts of objects are in your drawing. The Blocks in your drawing also had useful elevation data, but the 3D Faces covered the entire project, so I used them.
In Prospector, right-click Surfaces and select "Create Surface..." to create a new TIN Surface. In the new Surface, under Definition, right-click "Drawing Objects" and select 3D Faces. (Click on "Maintain edges from objects") To assign surface elevations to your COGO Points, use Modify>>Points>>Elevations from Surface.
Dave