Topography - tag the elevation value of Boundary points

[HVAC-Novice]

is there a way to tag or show the value of all boundary points? 

I'm not using actually measured data and I'm just eyeballing to get a somewhat decent elevation that shows the grade in an elevation (I'm an MEP engineer, this is just for zoning permit to show how new louvers look like - so I don't do topography for a living and I'm just hacking it for now)

I can see the elevation of each point in "properties". But it would be nice if I could see them so I can start the next point at an OK elevation. i don't want to touch every point to see the elevation. 

There don't seem to be tags for those points and they only show up when I edit the the topo surface, which is fine. 

[ToanDN]

Spot elevation?

[HVAC-Novice]

It seems spot elevation is only available when topography is NOT in edit mode. And then the points are not visible there. So the actual spot number will be a bit off and would require me to manually place many

I would like to display the elevation numbers while I add points and not switch between edit and normal mode to place the spot elevations. Would be nice if I could do a "tag all" or somehow turn the numbers on/off. 

I only do a fake simplified topography up to 10' from the building. so i don't have too many points to deal with on this project. But if I had many points, it sure would be an issue. 

[constantin.stroescu]

you can make Points Visible by using Dynamo and then you'll be able to snap to them so to tag them with Spot Elevation.

[constantin.stroescu]

if you want to make the point permanent even if you will close Dynamo , then you can place a symbol family at these points locations....

If you do not place these families , then , when closing Dynamo the point symbol will disappear but the Spot Elevation will remain at the correct location.

In my example I've placed a plumbing fixture family , but of course , you'll place a more appropriate symbol...

[HVAC-Novice]

Thanks, I'll try that soon. I have a list of "tools" I want to create in Dynamo and will give this a shot when I have time.

I just did a few simple dynamo tools yet. So thanks for showing the code and not just saying "do it in Dynamo" 🙂

I guess some automatically adding elevation annotations would be good. 

[constantin.stroescu]

as a matter of fact Clockwork Package has a node: SpotElevation.ByPoint ... but , I was not able to manage it to work...at least for Toposurfaces....maybe find other node (s)...

[ToanDN]

- add ref planes connecting these points while in topo editing mode, finish

- create subregion and draw the boundary using the ref planes above, finish

- hide the ref planes

- place spot elevation at corners of subregion

[constantin.stroescu · Accepted solution]

I've made some more test and it works 

if you want to place leader to text , then you'll use bend and end , and boolean set to true

[HVAC-Novice]

Thanks for sharing the DYN file.

I tried it out and was able to select the topography, but it doesn't read the points (see yellow nodes where it got stuck). When I opened it , it told me it uses an outdated Python version. not sure if that had something to do with that. 

am I doing something obvious wrong? I hit "select" and then selected the topo surface in Revit (in a floorplan, and a 3D view)

I'm still new to Dynamo and struggle with the many of the packages needing updates with new Revit/dynamo versions (I'm on R2022, and Dynamo 2.12 

[constantin.stroescu]

Maybe it's a problem with your Revit File....have you tried with another one?

I see your are using a newer version of Dynamo....could be a bug?   anyway Topography.Points it's a node in basic core of Dynamo...

 

[HVAC-Novice]

That is the only project I have with topography. I'll look more into that next project I need this. This one was easy since i only need to show the elevation and don't do any actual topography work. So I could hack it. 

I'm new to Dynamo. But one thing I learned it is very sensitive to having the right package, updated package etc. I realize this may not be my issue here. But I'm someone who usually updates software quickly and in case of Dynamo this sometimes is a disadvantage. Sometimes never versions of some packages don't have the old nodes anymore, or use a different name. 

[Martijn.Pater]

@HVAC-Novice I tried the PointCloudToSurface add-on a while back to generate some topography, with it you could reverse this workflow by placing adaptive points at your specific coordinates and generate the surface from those. But tbh this works fine, but in general I'm not pleased with the add-on functionality and i'm pretty sure you can do same with Dynamo just as easily...

@constantin.stroescu Could you maybe also do a graph for point cloud points (place an adaptive point family at pc points) as somewhat related to this question?

[RDAOU]

@HVAC-Novice 

Those nodes are not affected by the Python update and they should work in 2022

1. Under Dynamo tab Preferences, Change the working Range to Large 
2. Delete the node Topography.Points and replace it (right click in the sandbox and type its name)
3. Make sure the selected view under Views node is the active one and its view range covers the whole topo

[HVAC-Novice]

when I open it it tells me Clockwork has outdated python.

But it looks like the "SpotElevation by Point" node is from clockwork. 

And I don't see anything to change the range. But I found the option what python to use, not sure it matters here:

But I actually was able to use it. My original mistake was that i hit "run" and then also hit the "Select" node. what I needed to do was only hit "run" and then the points were highlighted and i was able to snap spot elevations onto them. So all good and this problem is at least partially resolved. 

But is there a way to automatically place spot elevations to all points at once? i see the tope right node says this is for placing spot elevation, but it doesn't do it. Do I need to do something? 

[RDAOU]

@HVAC-Novice 

IP2 hasn't been depreciated/discontinued...it wont be for a while so you can ignore that warning for the time being

Define "All at Once"? and what do you mean by "It Doesn't do anything?" remember for the spot elevation to be placed the toposurface the view range of the view needs to capture the entire surface. Otherwise there will be nothing to place the Spot elevation on and node will return Nulls meaning you should not have this warning in the view

[HVAC-Novice]

it places the generic family on all points (red-circled). But it doesn't place the spot elevations (an actual number). the one shown I placed manually and have to do for each point. what I'm after is to place the spot elevation for all points automatically. 

[constantin.stroescu]

i made a screencast ...I used for this Revit 2022 and Dynamo 2.12 ( I work usually ,at present time, with Revit 2021 and 2.6.1)

Spot Elevation using Dynamo | Revit 2022 | Autodesk Knowledge Network

[HVAC-Novice]

Thanks a lot! I watched it multiple times, but I still only get to the part where it places the families. After that you run the program 2 more times (with boolean set to true, then set to false). I tried to replicate that, but it didn't manage to show any spot elevation numbers.

I saw you are verifying the view range, but i don't think that is my problem. 

[RDAOU · Accepted solution]

@HVAC-Novice 

Placing the families and the spot elevation seems to be too much to process the data simultaneously  ... Too slow

I re-graphed it using a couple of different nodes hopefully @constantin.stroescu  wont mind

• used FamilyInstance.bypoints instead of coordinates
• followed by  Familyinstance.Location used as input for the SpotElevation.byPoint instead of using the initial topography.points

If you want to stick to the initial graph you need to run it twice consecutively (once for the family instances and a second to place spot elevations)

PS: the more points you add the slower and less reliable it will get (in the example below I used 50 points) ... what I would also do edit the graph to control the number of instances/spot elevations  on each contour line..You do not need more than 3-4 spot elevations along each contour, or do you?