merge pipe and structure with my surface

[Gabrielrafaelns]

Hello friends.

Can I somehow merge the surface of a pipe and structure with my surface?

The purpose would be that when I created my earthmoving platform, the embankment would go up to my drainage structure, instead of going up to the natural surface.

[Neilw_05]

No. A C3D surface cannot model a pipe or anything else that has 2 elevations at a single point. You will have to use grading techniques to do what you are wanting.

[Gabrielrafaelns]

I understand. I imagined...

What I thought, if it were possible (I didn't test it), would be to somehow extract the solid from these drainage structures and, in some way, merge it with my natural terrain and create my earthmoving platform respecting the elevations of the my manholes.

I didn't get to test it, but when I thought about doing that I would end up losing "synchronization". If there is any revision to the drainage, the same process of extracting the solid and mixing it on the surface would have to be carried out (if possible).

[Joe-Bouza]

I may not be understanding something. Are not your drainage structures referencing you FG surface? There is no pipe / drainage structure surface.

Are you looking to incorporate the trench work into you surface?

[Gabrielrafaelns]

Sorry if I wasn't very clear. I don't know if Google's tradotur is helping me hehe.

But in other words, it would be: mixing, in some way, my drainage (culverts, pipes and structures) with my surface.

The purpose is: I want to make my offset of my earthworks project identify the drainage structure. Instead of my embankment from my earthworks platform going into the natural terrain, I want it to go into my drainage.

I will leave it attached showing what I would like to do. Are there, perhaps, other "easier" ways to achieve this result?

[Neilw_05 · Accepted solution]

How would you distinguish which part of the surface to use, top of pipe/structure or bottom? This is an exercise in futility. Even if you found a way to build a surface from the bottom of pipe/structure, it would not be flat as would be the case in a real world scenario. As I said, you will have to use grading techniques to establish the subgrade. There are corridor subassemblies for modeling pipe trenches. Maybe that is what you need.

[Joe-Bouza]

That looks easy.

use a clipping boundary at the culvert

Or better yet. add a conditional assembly to do it for you

[Joe-Bouza]

Hi Neil

Agreed.

I drafted a profile following the bottom of network to create the trench corridor in 4 of 7. This  was actually a fallout of a fluke.

I was doing PP sheets and have always had to manually adjust the datum to fit the pipe network the the view, annoying to say the least. Then realized the mean check box is the average of All profiles in the view. So a quick layout under the pipe profile forced the pipe profile to be the focus of the view. Worked out perfectly. Then had by default a profile for the bottom of ditch. Slightly conservative excavation QTO but I like a little extra any way

[matt_anderson_pe · Accepted solution]

One typical workflow would be to be either trace the headwall edge with a featureline that can be targeted by the corridor.

[Gabrielrafaelns]

I actually need the top of my drainage devices so that the slopes recognize the drainage devices. As shown in the illustration of a print I posted in one of my responses to colleagues.

[Gabrielrafaelns]

conditional assembly that recognizes my tubes and structure? which would be?

[Joe-Bouza · Accepted solution]

The condition would be a horizontal offset object such as alignments, feature lines, survey figures or a simple poly line. Youwould assign these at your tube locations. Incorporating @matt_anderson_pe  advice  then your headwalls are part of the grading. 

Personally I would figure the feature lines for headwall grading and assign as condition targets, as well as including the headwall FL in the corridor as base lines

[matt_anderson_pe · Accepted solution]

I would use an offset alignment that follows my clear zone offset (at a min) that I would place the headwall, and then grade around that edge outside of the corridor.