error creating surface from GIS

[Anonymous]

This is my first time trying out this feature and I'm not having much luck.

WHen I get to the Data Mapping page of the GIS data wizard the shapefile that I specified in the connect to data page shows there but there is nothing in the Civil3D Property column. WHen I click in the blank space a pulldown appears with Elevation showing. I select elevation then I get an error that reads "failed to map the property, please check the data type!"

Any help would be appreciated.

[KirkNoonan]

Make sure that the elevation field that you're trying to map from the shapefile is in the correct format, ie. 152.35 and not 152.35'. If it is a string, then Civil 3D won't know what to do with it, it has to be a numeric data type.

[Anonymous]

I am having the same issue. How do you check that on the shapefile if it's already created? And how would I change it if that's the issue?

[KirkNoonan]

Probably the easiest way to check is to do an FDO connection using the MAPCONNECT command. Connect with the shapefile, and click on the drop-down arrow next to 'Add to Map' and select 'Add to Map with Query'. Then, in the window that pops up, click on the 'Property' button in the top left corner. The list that drops down is organized by data type - text, numeric, geometry, etc.

If your elevation field shows up in any group other than numeric, you can fix it by opening the .dbf file of the shapefile with OpenOffice Calc (not the only choice, just what I use) and change the header of the elevation field. The format is (Field Name),(Data Type),(Precision),(Scale). Try using (FieldName),N,6,0. Save the file and try to create the surface again.