Cropping a cloud based surface to permanently get rid of surface data that is not needed and reduce file size.

[tt501613]

What is needed is a way to permanently crop a cloud based surface and get rid of the cloud data that is not needed.  I managed a go-around but it easily took at least 10 steps to accomplish.  Why?

My go-around method was, I cropped the cloud based surface, put that cropped surface in a separate open drawing, used "copy with base point" command, copied and pasted the cropped surface back into my source drawing using the "paste to original coordinates" command.  If this command is not used, for example just pasting the surface into the source drawing anywhere, the cropped surface elevations are changed.  I then erased the original overall cloud surface.  This gave me the cropped surface I wanted and significantly reduced the file size.  So I got the desired result, but look at all the steps to do something that should be much much simpler.

TT

[TerryDotson]

If you were to consider third party software, your source is Lidar and your target is a Civil3D TinSurface then one option available now is the MassPoints Processor in DotSoft's C3DTools.  You can specify a boundary object as a polyline or any closed CAD object, designate classifications like (2=Ground), and optionally filter excess points using various methods.  One dialog, choose files, set parameters and press start.

[TimYarris]

Thank you for your idea. The development team will review the idea while customers continue to add feedback and vote on it.