How to import vertical data for an alignment in c3d (.xml)

[WASurveyGuy]

Hi There:

I have a .xml file from a contractor that has a machine control alignment in it (horizontal and vertical).  Vertical data reads fine in our data collector.  How do I get the vertical component to come into c3d?  All I am getting is the horizontal alignment, with no vertical component, which is what I need most.  I've tried messing with the Osnapz value, going through the alignment settings and switching things off and on, but I can't seem to get it to go.  This seems like an extremely easy thing (or should be), especially in the age of machine control.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Jeff_M]

Can you share the xml file?

[WASurveyGuy]

Sure.

[Jeew-m]

Hi,

After importing xml you need to create a profile view. Then you can see the Vertical data.

Thanks

[Joe-Bouza]

The alignment is one thing and the vertical control another; the layout profile. It sound like the xml doesn’t distinguish and tries to apply elevation data to alignment in c3d and there is no place for alignment to hold z data.

if you can extract the station elevation part from the xml to space delimited txt then you can import profile from file

[Joe-Bouza]

Special note: profiles created from file have an insidious behavior. They look like a layout profile design like one edit like one...You can create a DS with them but they will never update

[WASurveyGuy]

Thanks everyone.  It appears C3d doesn't see it as a 3d line (like every other piece of software we have), but views it as separate vertical and horizontal components.  There was a profile and an alignment that came in to the drawing (I finally figured out).  What I had to do was to create a corridor, give it a dummy assembly, and only then could I pull the elevation data that I wanted, at certain points on the line in plan view (by generating a feature line, which included vertical, so I could create points on it, at elevation of the feature line).

Thanks again for all your help!

Paul

[Jeff_M · Accepted solution]

You can create a featureline directly from the alignment and profile, no need for the corridor.

[WASurveyGuy]

Ok.  I'll try to figure out how to do that the next time this comes up.  Thanks!

[Jeff_M]

This should help:

[cwr-pae]

You can label any point on the alignment with the station & profile elevation in alignment labels.