XREF and Surface Data Shortcut From Same Drawing are Offset

[Anonymous]

Civil 3D 2019.3.2 on Windows 10 (version 13.0.1417.0)

I have a survey basemap that I'd like to use for the surface created by the surveyor as well as in an xref for the linework. I started by creating a data shortcut of the surface, brought that into another drawing, and then added the survey as an xref. Both are coming from the same exact drawing and I'm using the same coordinate system in both drawings, but the xref and shortcut are offset by about 2.6 ft. You can see the offset contour lines in the screenshot below.

What's going on here? I'd suspect a US vs international foot problem given the offset, but everything is in WA83-SF using US survey feet. The surface is a TIN from cogo points, so it's not a raster centroid vs corner problem, which I've seen before. Any ideas on where the offset could be coming from and what can be done to correct it?

[Jeew-m]

Contour lines of surface are generated from Civil 3D.

Survey contours are something else.

Sometimes the contour interval may be different in survey and surface.

One method to identify the issue in any would be this.

Using inquiry tool get the surface elevation on survey drawing contour line.

Check the elevation if it is same as elevation of contour line.

[Anonymous]

The survey file does contain points, breaklines, and a TIN surface. After posting I exported the points, brought them into another drawing and then built a surface from them and it lines up with the data shortcut surface perfectly. The XREF drawing appears to be the part that's offset.

[LucasHicks · Accepted solution]

Have you looked at these variables?

[Anonymous]

That was it, INSUNITS was set to 2 (feet) and setting to 21 (US survey feet) corrected the offset xref and it all lines up nicely now. Thanks!

[levibarton]

In which drawing file did you have to change the INUNITS variable? Do they both just need to match?

[Pointdump]

Hi @levibarton,
Short answer, yes, they need to match. You can also set this with Command UNITS.
Dave