FYI (SOLVED) -- blocks inserting at grossly incorrect scale

[camptech]

Just a quick note.  Apologies in advance if this has been discussed somewhere else... I could not find it in the forums (nor via Google).

Alternate title:  Bit in the ass by 0SNAPZ (again)...

Problem description:  When inserting blocks into a drawing, after snapping to a NODE location, opportunity to specify scale was not given... symbol was inserted at an ungawdly large scale.

Solution:  Checked OSNAPZ setting.  It was 0.  Setting OSNAPZ to 1, and then inserting the block worked as expected:  select location for insertion, then use mouse (or keyboard) to specify scale.

Background:  I had completed most of a 3 acre topographic site plan.  But needed to go back to the field and locate more trees that my client had specifically requested.  Yesterday morning I spent a few hours on the drawing.  I had previously shot each tree with two shots:  one shot at the trunk, and a second shot at the field observed drip line.  I could insert TREE3C blocks for a pine tree no problem by snapping to a survey point NODE, then pulling the mouse until the tree block drip line was roughly at the DL (dripline) observation point.  All good.

Then I went to the field and shot everything the client wanted.  Came back to the office and proceeded to edit that day's shots into an ASCII point file (for that day only), then import the points into the survey database just as I had done the previous three days.  BUT, when I went to insert the tree blocks at my new points... the first sign of trouble was the symbol was NOT scaling uniformly -- it was scaling the X-direction first.  I fought with that for a while, and finally did something (what it was, I do not know0 that got C3D from scaling X first.  BUT... then when I inserted the TREE3C block at the tree location by snapping to NODE... the tree was coming in at a HUGE size.  Inspecting the block properties, I noted that the X and Y scales (possibly also Z) were almost identical to the elevation.  (First hint, but I didn't pick up on it.)  But not identical -- they different in at least the thousandths and ten-thousandths decimal points (possibly the tenths and hundredths, but I don't recall.)

At this point I started searching Google and this forum, with no success.

I did notice that inserting a TREE3C block by just clicking on a point in the model window resulted in the block inserting as one would expect, and I could specify the block size by dragging the mouse, then clicking, then dragging to affect block rotation, then clicking.

It finally dawned on me that this *might* be OSNAPZ related.  Sure enough, OSNAPZ was set to 0.  Perhaps I had restarted Civil3D at some point yesterday, and OSNAPZ had defaulted to 0.  I dunno.

But with OSNAPZ set to 1, I was able to insert all the TREE3C blocks I wanted by snapping to a survey point NODE and dragging the mouse to specify block size.

Hopefully this writeup helps someone in the future, and perhaps, just perhaps, saves the lives of a few keyboards.

FWIW.

[rl_jackson]

I would ask why your inserting tree blocks, when description keys can do all of that and could even be set to code the scale etc. and many other options and a dripline could even be coded as a figure to be drawn in the drawing. There are a lot of discussions here about Trees and Description Keys.

[tcorey]

Hello @camptech Thank you for relating your anecdote and happy for your positive outcome. I am here to pile on the advice, as offered by @rl_jackson previously. If this is a job you need to do often, you should learn to use Description Keys. Manually inserting blocks to place symbols on COGO Points is time-consuming to the extreme. Use of Description Keys can save hours, days, weeks of work.

[camptech]

I can and do use description keys and survey figures all the time.  I used survey figures to outline all the scrub oak, for example.  A pity, though, that C3D cannot code a 2pt circle via description keys.

Please explain to me how I can scale a tree symbol using a second shot at the dripline or canopy edge.  I'd really like to learn that trick.

[Pointdump]

Hi Stephen,
Rick @Anonymous has a really neat trick of a 3-point circle survey figure. That would automatically size your trees. You'd use a revcloud-like linetype.
Dave

[tcorey]

That takes a dynamic block. A workflow is outlined here:

Tim's Civil 3D blog: A dynamic block that reads tree trunk and drip diameters from Civil 3D COGO Poi...