Exporting trees as 3D points

[philip_hon]

Hi, 

Anyone has a clue to export trees as 3D points (not FBX-model)? 

My workflow now is reading the .sqlite in Civil3D to generate tree points. Unfortunately, these are in 2D.

Would be great if these points can include the terran height from Infraworks.

regards

Philip

[tcorey]

In Civil 3D, use EditPointSurfaceElevs to move those points to the surface elevation.

[philip_hon]

That's what I am doing now and it's kinda painful while you have 20km terrain and 30000+ tree points to handle. 

I just thought these tree points already "given" a height in Infraworks, why cant you retrieve that in a smarter way. 

An alternative is using FME to automate the elevation assignation. Still i want to save these "workaround" processes.  

[Karsten.Saenger]

Hi @philip_hon ,

how about using MAPIMPORT (sqlite) and only import the trees / POIs?
You will get AutoCAD points which you can convert to Civil 3D COGO points with CREATEPTCONVERTADESKPTS.
The COGO point will have the exact XY and Z coordinates.
Only - you will need to enter the point description for each point and confirm with enter. Keeping the enter key pressed will cicle through all your points. I think there is a setting available that skips the point description option in Civil 3D but cannot recall the variable.

Regards,
Karsten.

[philip_hon]

Sounds like a good idea. 
I tried to convert the MAP3D points to COGO points but got a fatal error.

ALso tried to export the points to SDF and then import back for conversion but didnt receive the Z.

ANy ideas?

[Karsten.Saenger]

Hi @philip_hon ,

have you also tried MAPIMPORT? That way no conversion from MAP 3D FDO points to COGO points is needed.

Is it possible to share your Sqlite file?

Regards,
Karsten

[philip_hon]

Couldnt attach a  38mb sqlite here but do you think the file size will affect the result?

I tried with Mapwspace at first to connect sqlite and convert them but realize it wont work.

Now with mapimport and include the object data. Though the imported points doesn't contains any metadata.

And of course conversion to COGO point just result in XY-points.

[tcorey]

@philip_hon I'm seeing what you're seeing. When you Mapimport an SQLite file, even though you tell it to create Object Data, no table is being created, therefore the points do not show the data in Properties.  I was hoping to see the elevation come in as a data field. Once you have that, it's a snap to apply it to the point, using a LISP.

As it appears in InfraWorks that the trees are being draped onto the surface, you could import that surface into your Civil 3D drawing, create COGO Points from the imported AutoCAD Points (_AeccCreatePtConvertAdeskPts), then use the command _AeccEditPointSurfaceElevs. This will move the points to the surface.

It's a workaround.

[Karsten.Saenger]

Hi @philip_hon @tcorey ,

as prrof of concept I only tested with POI's and those have Z data if converted to COGO points.
I can confirm that the trees don't have elevation values with the same process. I believe it's because InfraWorks handles the "stand of trees" as on single object internally.

Maybe, the additional step to export the tree COGO points as .txt or .csv, import them as POI's in InfraWorks and then

load and convert them to COGO points in Civil 3D is worth a consideration.

But using _AeccEditPointSurfaceElevs as @tcorey mentioned, sounds as a much quicker process.

However, it does not solve the missing data table/properties problem.

Regards,
Karsten

[Karsten.Saenger · Accepted solution]

Hi @philip_hon , @tcorey ,

after reading post https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/infraworks-forum/how-to-delete-a-stand-of-trees-in-infraworks-2020/td... - I have an additional step that make live easier:

• Turn off Edit Mode in InfraWorks as mentioned in above post
• Select the "Stand of Trees" object (not a single tree)
• Turn on Edit Mode
• Move the Stand of Tree object 10 meter up and 10 meter down again. This triggers the assignmet of Z elevation to each tree
• MAPIMPORT the trees into Civil 3D - each tree point has elevation now.

Using FDO connection will still only show X and Y, but exported to SDF it will have Z. However, the data table is not converted to SDF.

Regards,

Karsten

[philip_hon]

That's the trick!

Thanks. It can save me a lot of pain with importing a large terrain (200km2) to assign elevation.

And we don't even need to deal with COGO points:)

[tcorey]

Thank you, @Karsten.Saenger . That works perfectly.