Loft

[270]

Greetings, I'm trying to use the "LOFT" command to create a surfact encompassing several map contour lines which are basically one above the other. The contour lines are 1000' elevation difference from each other and the contours are approximately 5500 ft across on an average.

The way I first attempted to do this was to copy the contours out of this drawing and dump them into a new blank drawing. I was successful at getting a complete run only once and I'm pretty sure that the first attempt was done by scaling the contours down to a very small fraction of their original size. When I've tried to duplicate this exercise, using the same steps, my computer crashes. I've tried purging the drawing first, not purging the drawing first, not scaling the contours down or scaling down to different sizes. None of these scenerios has produced a successful run.

I also have resorted to making several duplicate copies of the drawing before trying to use the LOFT command in case the file was being corrupted. So each new run is with an original dwg file, so to speak.

Does anyone have any suggestions that I could try?

Thanks

[270]

AutoCad 2007 is the version I'm using.

Thanks

[mahahaavaaha]

AS it's a map, have you tried moving the graphics closer to the ORIGO? Ie. 0,0. AutoCAD has problems when coordinates are big...

/Petri

[Mr T]

Sounds like the machine may be struggling to compute all that info. Anyway of tilling it ?

Nick

[CADTutor]

Loft does not particularly like very complex modelling (such as the one you are describing). If there's one command that's going to crash AutoCAD, it's Loft - my students are expert at it!

Essentially, you're using the wrong tool for the job. What you need is a terrain modeller such as Civil 3D.