Surface Adjustments

[sduffin]

We have an existing drone surface that we are using on a project.  We are moving into a different area which does not have topo coverage so I used the ArcGIS Connector to pull in the 3DEP Bare Earth topo to supplement.  The problem is that there needs to be a vertical adjustment to keep the two surfaces to be approximately at the same vertical datum.  I tried to adjust the Z value of the 3DEP Bare Earth surface, but when I do, it swings the surface wildly up or down.  How do I make incremental, small adjustments to an imported surface?  Why is the Z value adjustment not working -- it seems to work well with other GIS data?  See the screenshot. 

Thanks in advance for helping me to understand how to make this work as needed!

[sduffin]

We have an existing drone surface that we are using on a project.  We are moving into a different area which does not have topo coverage so I used the ArcGIS Connector to pull in the 3DEP Bare Earth topo to supplement.  The problem is that there needs to be a vertical adjustment to keep the two surfaces to be approximately at the same vertical datum.  I tried to adjust the Z value of the 3DEP Bare Earth surface, but when I do, it swings the surface wildly up or down.  How do I make incremental, small adjustments to an imported surface?  Why is the Z value adjustment not working -- it seems to work well with other GIS data?  See the screenshot. 

Thanks in advance for helping me to understand how to make this work as needed!

[Karsten.Saenger]

Hi @sduffin ,

I'm not sure if I understand your issue correctly.

Especially, the screenshot you have attached is confusing, because it shows a vehicle floating a bit in the air.
It could be the case that it's an issue with that vehicle as I've seen that before.

Or are you talking about two different surface data sources that don't line up vertically?

Regards,

Karsten.

[Karsten.Saenger]

Hi @sduffin ,

I'm not sure if I understand your issue correctly.

Especially, the screenshot you have attached is confusing, because it shows a vehicle floating a bit in the air.
It could be the case that it's an issue with that vehicle as I've seen that before.

Or are you talking about two different surface data sources that don't line up vertically?

Regards,

Karsten.

[sduffin]

Thanks for the response.  The fire truck was inserted at a fixed elevation in both screenshots.  I have two different surfaces from different sources that don't quite line up.  I need to adjust one surface up a few feet to match the other one.  When I adjust the Z through the data source configuration panel it drops the surface down to zero elevation or disappears to who knows where!  Is there a way to make small vertical adjustments to the entire surface?  This is really a datum issue between two data sets and I need a way to get them on the same datum.  Does that make more sense?  Thanks!

[sduffin]

Thanks for the response.  The fire truck was inserted at a fixed elevation in both screenshots.  I have two different surfaces from different sources that don't quite line up.  I need to adjust one surface up a few feet to match the other one.  When I adjust the Z through the data source configuration panel it drops the surface down to zero elevation or disappears to who knows where!  Is there a way to make small vertical adjustments to the entire surface?  This is really a datum issue between two data sets and I need a way to get them on the same datum.  Does that make more sense?  Thanks!

[Karsten.Saenger · Accepted solution]

Hi @sduffin ,

thank you for the explanation, it makes sense to me now.

First of all - before I forget to mention - if it's a vertical datum issue, then there is good news. It will be possible to use and also transform between different vertical datums in the near future.

I must say, that terrain data sources cannot be configured the same way you can with for example 3D Model data sources. The XYZ shifting doesn't work.

The workaround is to shift the data sources of the terrain (=raster files) vertically before you import them. 

You can use any GIS program to do that (i.e. QGIS).

Or you create a terrain from data source 1 and export it to IMX. 

Then create a terrain from data source 2 and export it to IMX.

Import both IMX into Civil 3D and adjust the elevation there.

Export the Civil 3D surface(s) as LandXML and load them into InfraWorks.

Regards,
Karsten.

[Karsten.Saenger · Accepted solution]

Hi @sduffin ,

thank you for the explanation, it makes sense to me now.

First of all - before I forget to mention - if it's a vertical datum issue, then there is good news. It will be possible to use and also transform between different vertical datums in the near future.

I must say, that terrain data sources cannot be configured the same way you can with for example 3D Model data sources. The XYZ shifting doesn't work.

The workaround is to shift the data sources of the terrain (=raster files) vertically before you import them. 

You can use any GIS program to do that (i.e. QGIS).

Or you create a terrain from data source 1 and export it to IMX. 

Then create a terrain from data source 2 and export it to IMX.

Import both IMX into Civil 3D and adjust the elevation there.

Export the Civil 3D surface(s) as LandXML and load them into InfraWorks.

Regards,
Karsten.

[sduffin]

Thanks for your input and work-around - I am looking forward to the new functionality! What is the timing of that enhancement?
I appreciate your help!

[sduffin]

Thanks for your input and work-around - I am looking forward to the new functionality! What is the timing of that enhancement?
I appreciate your help!