Civil3d already has best fit 2d line and best fit 2d arc tools, but it lacks a best fit plane and best fit 3d line tool. I see with interest that you have been creating pipeline design tools, and in that vein, may I suggest these tools mentioned above would be of use to surveyors and designers in the pipeline industry.
I work in the pipeline industry as a surveyor and use Civil3d for the majority of the survey calculations and reductions. A big part of this work is tying into existing works.
One job is to measure between existing pipe flanges and then calculate the pipe that is required along with the bends and angles of the flanges at either end. This is then sent to be manufactured so that the pipe can just be bolted on at an appropriate time.
The process is to measure a number of points on the flange and then generate a best fit plane. This enables the calculation of the angles of the flanges to each other.
This is typically done as discrete points by total station and not by scan so the points we observe end up as COGO points. (Scanners simply do not have the accuracy for this.) It's important to get a best fit plane as small errors on the flange propagate to large errors at the other end of the pipe. To achieve this, I would like to see a screen like the best fit line tool where residuals can be viewed, and bad observations skipped. The result from the tool would be a named UCS of the plane and perhaps a best fit metric like an RMS along with individual residuals.
The second request is a best fit line tool, but it creates a best fit line in 3d rather than the 2d version. This helps in measuring pipes and determining how they are really sitting in space.
I would also like to see a best fit circle tool that would work on a UCS plane from COGO points.
I look forward to seeing this functionality in Civil3d sometime soon.
