Updating Civil Point Object Elevations

[JJJ]

Is there a way to update existing point (Civil Point Object) elevations by adjusting the surface to which they are associated? After rebuilding a surface from breaklines we frequently have to update spot elevations to match the new surface. Can this be done without editting each point or recreating the points?

[rustysilo]

I believe in Land Desktop you have to recreate them.

[BOB'27T]

Are you trying to adjust all of the points at once? I'm not sure about LDD, but in Civil 3D you can raise/lower them all at once very easily.

[JJJ]

I'm not raising or lowering them all together. The surface to which they are associated gets changed so some move up, others move down.

[JJJ]

I have a "working" solution, however, it may not take advantage of built-in fuctions to accomplish the same thing:

1. Create all the points necessary to accurately depict the surface.
2. Export (CSV) the points to a point list.
3. Extract the X and Y coordinates.
4. Build a script file (around the extracted coordinates) which carries out the process of creating points.
5. Remove the existing points (or isolate them on a seperate layer).
6. Edit the surface as necessary.
7. Run the script to recreate the points.

Notes:

• Steps 3 and 4 can be worked out inside of Excel. Once a procedure is established to format the script, this process is fairly simple.
• The production efficiency of this approach obviously increases with the number of points involved. We frequently see 300 to 500 points requiring adjustment.

I'm still looking for a program solution.

[rustysilo]

Or just upgrade to Civil 3D. Then, as BOB'27T said, you just modify the surface and the spot elevation labels will automatically update.

Of course this is an expensive option.

With your idea you might consider separating your existing and proposed with point groups. I believe you can export points by point group if I'm not mistaken.

[JJJ]

We have Civil 3D but our projects are interdisciplinary and in order to coordinate with several other companies we need to keep the solution within LDD capabilities.

Point groups is an excellent tool. In addition, we've established layer, numbering and description conventions to manage points.

Thanks so much for everyone's expertise and insight. Just knowing how others think is very helpful!

[rustysilo]

Do the other companies also use Land Desktop? If not why couldn't you do this in Civil 3D and then export to other formats as necessary? Heck if you set up your eTransmit then it will perform the export process during an eTransmit alleviating you of the burden.

[JJJ]

To expedite design we exchange:

• LDD database files (back and forth with design updates - highly interactive)
• LAS files for layer state management
• FLT files for DTM earthwork equipment
• GIS shape files and associated support files

We need to work to the lowest common resource.

[rustysilo]

Understood.