Extract contours from multiple surfaces at once?

[ohmysuzieq]

Does any one know how - or an add-in - that will let you extract contours from multiple surfaces all at once? 

Thanks!•ᴗ•

[ecfernandez]

Hi @ohmysuzieq, I am not 100% sure this would work, but I think you should give it a try. If your surfaces do not overlap, create an empty surface and paste all your surfaces within it. Then, when you have your new composite surface, use the extract contours tool to get the contour polylines.

Another option is to create a dynamo graph that does that job. The Dynamo BIM forum provides guidance on that topic.

I hope this helps. Best regards!

[ohmysuzieq]

Oh hmmm, interesting, thank you, the pasting onto to one surface is a maybe, but for the work flow for this particular problem having the contours separated (by what surface they came from is useful) ( site balancing and other changes ) . The dynamo suggestion is fascinating! I had forgotten about this after hearing about it a long long time ago….. I am tumbling down a rabbit hole now, 

Auto desk  says “Do you love the dynamic relationships of Civil 3D object data, but still find yourself zoning out after a few minutes of doing a repetitive task?”

I will have to learn it hopefully it isn’t too hard to get one running to do this…….

thanks!

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@ecfernandez wrote:

Hi @ohmysuzieq, I am not 100% sure this would work, but I think you should give it a try. If your surfaces do not overlap, create an empty surface and paste all your surfaces within it. Then, when you have your new composite surface, use the extract contours tool to get the contour polylines.

Another option is to create a dynamo graph that does that job. The Dynamo BIM forum provides guidance on that topic.

I hope this helps. Best regards

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[Hisham_Fawzy]

Hi @ohmysuzieq 

assign the required surface style for your surfaces showing the contour lines. then turn off all the layers and then turn on only the contour layers such as (C-TOPO-MAJR, C-TOPO-MAJR-N, C-TOPO-MINR, C-TOPO-MINR-N), then export the drawing as AutoCAD DWG file.

you will get a clean drawing with the contour lines only.

[ohmysuzieq]

Thank you ! I couldn't get this to work, this seems initially interesting thought, if I could get this to work I pull out the areas I need to update!

Thanks, maybe I am doing it wrong,