surface profile

[fruStrated]

Hi,
I'm working in 2004 Land Desktop and am trying to find a way to create a terrain profile. The Quick Section option is nice, but I want to end up with an actual drawing or block that I can insert or xref as opposed to inserting as an OLE. I already have a surface and have tried creating a section from that but I can't find anyway to use more than two points and my profile has multiple points.
I appreciated the help.

[rustysilo]

In your quick section viewer you should have an option under the utilities menu to "import quick section". This allows you to add it to your .dwg and is a simple process. After importing it you may want to add a grid. For this go to the terrain menu > sections > grid for sections > and follow the prompts.

For a real terrain profile have a look at this thread:
http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=16637

[eldon]

Is the profile you mention a horizontal polyline? If so, you can define it as an Alignment, and then Quick Profile should give you the ground level along it :)

[BOB'27T]

Here is a lisp for making a profile by using a polyline. This way you basically have a quick profile, that will be able to moved.

[rustysilo]

Very cool! Does this work with other ACAD versions or just Land Desktop?

[rustysilo]

Another alternative would be to export your model to a .dxf, .xml, or point file, open it in SiteTopo and run a profile in there which will export to .dxf along with the alignment. This really only appears to be good for straight lines though.

[BOB'27T]

Very cool! Does this work with other ACAD versions or just Land Desktop?

It works with any version. All you need is elevations on each line.

[fruStrated]

Thanks for all the help everyone.
I tried doing the actual terrain profile and problem that I ran into is that I don't have "Profiles" on my menu and I can't find it in my menu options either. Does anyone know what's going on with that?
Thanks!

[lpseifert]

It's been awhile (and I don't have access to LDD 2004 anymore), but I think under the Project menu pull-down there is a way to display additional menu pull-downs.

[rustysilo]

Do you have the Civil Design module installed? If not then you're outa luck in that dept. If you have it, install it. If you don't, try one of the other options given in the previous posts... or kindly ask one of us who have it to do it for you and you never know what might happen.

[eldon]

I grabbed this from the Land Desktop 2005 Help files - maybe its the same for 2004

Menu Macro
You can use the Menu macro (MN) to switch between different Autodesk Land Desktop menus.
The Autodesk Land Desktop menu files are as follows:
Acad: shows only AutoCAD menus (File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Draw, Dimension, Modify, Help).
Acmap: shows only AutoCAD Map menus (Map, Help).
Land: shows only Land Desktop menus (Projects, Points, Lines/Curves, Alignments, Parcels, Labels, Terrain, Inquiry, Utilities, Help)
Civil: shows only Civil Design menus (Grading, Layout, Profiles, Cross Sections, Hydrology, Pipes, Sheet Manager).
Survey: shows only Survey menus (Data Collection/Input, Analysis/Figures).
To load a menu
Type MN at the command line.
The following prompt is displayed:
Menu file name or . for none <D:\PROGRAM FILES\Land Desktop
2005\support\acad:
Do one of the following:
Press ENTER to accept the default menu.
Type the name of the menu you want to load, for example, land.
WARNING! If you do not type a menu file extension after the menu name, then the .mnc file is loaded. However, if you type the .mnu extension, a warning dialog box is displayed, informing you that loading the .mnu file overwrites the menu source file (.mns file) and all customization of the menu and toolbars will be lost. Loading the .mnu file can seriously affect your menus and menu palettes.
Type a period (.) to load only the File and Help menus.