Find all featurelines with relative elevation overrides

[Neilw_05]

I have numerous featurelines that are draped on surfaces using relative elevations. I need to determine if any of them have vertices that have Absolute elevations vs. Relative. This can happen if a new vertex or elevation point gets added or if new featurelines get created and not draped with the Relative option.

Has anyone found a way to do this aside from checking each featureline manually one by one?

[tcorey]

Hi @Neilw_05 , post a drawing and I might be able to LISP it.

[ChrisRS]

Project explorer might be of some help. You can report on feature lines compared to a surface.

You could scroll through the list and visually observe the profile image.

you could export a report to Excel and sort/analyze based on compared offset.

Still tedious.

[Neilw_05]

Good to know about this. Looks like I need to get going with Project Explorer.

[ChrisRS]

I do not know much about Project Explorer.

It appears to be pretty powerful.

It is new, so there is not much information available. 

Please consider posting your results so we all can benefit from your efforts.

[chriscowgill7373]

Project Explorer doesnt seem to show if the feature lines are relative or not, if they are relative with a 0 differential, they would appear the same as one that is absolute with a 0 differential.  I dont know that LISP is powerful enough to discern that, or if it is available as information in the .net api.  It would be nice to have a way to highlight those points that are not relative.  Perhaps a wish for the Ideas forum, to add a column within Project Explorer that shows if it is a relative elevation or absolute, like the elevation editor has in it.  The way that ProjectExplorer would make it faster is you can quickly go from FL to FL to FL in one interface.  That might be low hanging enough it can easily be added, assuming the API is there.  I think that a highlight would be useful as well, but may be a little more difficult to develop.

[TerryDotson]

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That might be low hanging enough it can easily be added, assuming the API is there.

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The FeatureLine API is half baked, been that way for a long time and don't expect it to improve.

[jmayo-EE]

If the ultimate goal was to make sure every vertex was relative to the surface I would just reassign the elevation from surface with the multiple option and do it globally. 

[Neilw_05]

That is the way I would typically do this John. However in this case I have some FL that have elevation overrides and variations in offsets so simply re-draping all of them would not be an option. I will put together a sample file for anyone that wants to have a crack at it. I think a tool to identify the FL that have overrides would be important to have in any case.

[chriscowgill7373]

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@TerryDotson wrote:

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That might be low hanging enough it can easily be added, assuming the API is there.

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The FeatureLine API is half baked, been that way for a long time and don't expect it to improve.

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https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/civil-3d/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2021/ENU/Civi...

They made some improvements with the release that just came out on Monday.  No idea what those improvements were, but they made them.

If you click on the link for the see more information, you'll be greeted by a page not found message.

[Neilw_05]

Here is the sample file. Objective: identify the FL's that are draped on the surface (or not-either works).

[AllenJessup]

It looks like you can compare Featurelines to a Surface in Project Explorer. Not too useful on the screen. But if you create a report and open it in Excel. You can arrange the columes to check visually or crate a formula that will report any time the subtraction of the two fields doesn't return 0.

 

[Neilw_05]

I have no experience with Project Explorer Allen. If you find some discrepancies in the spread sheet, how would you identify the featureline in the drawing so you can fix it?

[AllenJessup]

I don't have any experience with it either. This is the first time I've done more than open it for a look. I'll see if I can figure anything out.

[MMcCall402 · Accepted solution]

You could make a label style for the feature lines that labels their segments with their elevations along with a reference text component for the surface elevation.  It would still end up being a visual inspection of each feature line to see where there is a deviation but you would be able to then visually see where and by how much the deviation is.

I wish there was some sort of expression that could be created for the two values to flag where they were.  The only thing I can think of would involve making a surface from the feature lines, make a volume surface, then make feature line labels with reference text to that volume surface to display any elevation other than 0.

[Neilw_05]

Good ideas for workarounds Mike. I might give t a try if nothing better comes along.hem

[MMcCall402]

I suppose with the two elevation method you could stack the two elevations of top of each other, use a dark color for the one on top (based on draw order) and a bright color for the one on the bottom.  When there was a mis-match the bright one would start to show.

[Neilw_05]

I already have surface spot labels at the key locations so it is just a matter of adding vertex elevations to the featureline styles. It is still a tedious process to review them but better than viewing each one in the elevation editor.

Mark, not Mike. Sorry.

[AllenJessup]

In Project Explored you can scroll through the Featurelines and visually spot where the FL doesn't match the Surace. There is a Delta Z column in the lower pane. Select any that aren't 0, right click and select Zoom to Featureline Point. That will zoom your drawing to the vertex in question.

Here's a screencast. It might not be the best because it's difficult to get Project Explorer and the drawing shown at the same time.

[ChrisRS · Accepted solution]

I think that workaround based on the @MMcCall402  idea in post 15 is the easiest.

1. Create a works surface by adding the feature lines in question, "FLs"
2. Create a tin surface comparing "FLs" with the reference surface surface. "vol-FL-off"  
3. Create an spot elevation expression for text height control.
   "hide zero" = (if(ABS({Surface Elevation})>0.0001, 0.25/12,0)   I normally yuse 0.125, so this text will be big. 
4. Option using a spot elevation tied to the design surface
   1. Edit or create a new label style that includes a Surface Reference Text component
   2. Text height  = "hide zero"
   3. Contents = "Off Surface <[Surface Elevation(...)]>
   4. You may want to assign this component an unusual color.
   5. After placing a label, or assigning this style to exiting labels, you will need to assign the reference to "vol-FL-off"
   6. If the spot elevation is on the surface, the label will not show this component. 
      (Label is blank, if this is the only element.)
   7. If you add this component to your normal label style, you will see a warning when the point is off the surface. (This may be what you want. If the point is supposed to be off the surface you can use text edit to delete the warning.)
5. Option using a spot elevation referenced to  "vol-FL-off" 
   1. Create a new label style that includes a surface text component.
   2. Text height  = "hide zero"
   3. Contents = "Off Surface <[Surface Elevation(...)]>
   4. You may want to assign this component an unusual color.
   5. If the spot elevation is on the surface, the label will not show this component. 
      (Label is blank, if this is the only element.)
      This is easier to spot because only the problem point labels are visible. 

You can use the second option with your existing labels. Create the new style. Select an existing label, select similar, change the assigned style and the referenced surface. Fix the FL elevations, then reverse the process.

I like the first option better.

@Neilw_05, I know that you are a very experienced user, and that this level of detail may be excessive for you. This thread seems to have quite a following, so I used a detail level for less experienced users.