can i work on the autocad file that has contours and point in civil 3D?

[me_ramsundar]

I always get the autocad file with contours drawn using a DTM software by importing the survey datas and I'm supposed to draw the existing ground surface at different points along with the cross sections. I have this software and I can create the sections and profile view but it is not dynamic unlike civil 3D and whenever the position of my structure changes I have to redraw the sections and profile all from the start. I'm wondering if I can work on this drawing file in civil 3D to make the profile, cross sections or even a road design if necessary? I'm new to civil 3D and I'm using 2009 ryt now.. can anyone help me with this??

[BIGAL]

Have a look at the "help" regarding profiles there are tutorials supplied with CIV3d

[CyberAngel]

It sounds like you want to create a surface from the contours, rather than having contours created from the point data. With a surface, your profiles and sections should update themselves every time you rebuild the surface.

[me_ramsundar]

Have a look at the "help" regarding profiles there are tutorials supplied with CIV3d

Thanks for the reply i tried n went thru the help tutorials bt dnt seem to find a clue then i searched in youtube for the tutorials on it and I figured it out yestrday... thanx for the reply anyway and now I'm stuck with the units in my drawing. I wana change the units into SI ( in meters) but everytime I do, the unit is stil in feet..Wats the procedure to change the units into meter???

[me_ramsundar]

It sounds like you want to create a surface from the contours, rather than having contours created from the point data. With a surface, your profiles and sections should update themselves every time you rebuild the surface.

Its this way actually. the survey has been done and they provided me with the autocad file with the contours created from another software by importing the survey data. In the autocad file provided to me, I have got points as well as contours... I gues i have found a way to work this file in C3D and im regenerating contours using drawing objects. Am I doing it right??

[CyberAngel]

Its this way actually. the survey has been done and they provided me with the autocad file with the contours created from another software by importing the survey data. In the autocad file provided to me, I have got points as well as contours... I gues i have found a way to work this file in C3D and im regenerating contours using drawing objects. Am I doing it right??

What type of "contours" did they provide you? Are they polylines or AECC objects?

Well, it doesn't really matter. You can't manipulate AECC contours, you can only explode them, which gives you polylines. You can add those polylines to your surface definition.

As for the drawing units, have you tried the UNITS command?

[sinc]

It is very strongly recommended that you do NOT try to work in that drawing that was provided to you. Instead, create a new drawing from your template (or possibly something like the "AutoCAD Civil 3D (Metric) NCS" template, if you haven't created your own template yet), then pull in the linework from the drawing provided to you. That way, you'll have a properly-configured Civil 3D drawing, with all the units and Styles the way they should be. Just make sure you start with a Metric template, and not an Imperial template. This is very important, as all the Styles are defined quite differently in Metric vs. Imperial templates.

If you are working in a georeferenced coordinate system like State Plane or UTM, you can also set that coordinate system in your Drawing Settings.

To pull the linework from the provided drawing into your new C3D drawing, you can use one of several methods, such as:

• Open both drawings in C3D, and copy-and-paste between drawings, or
• Insert the provided drawing into your new C3D drawing, selecting the option to Explode during insert, or
• Use a Map Query.

Some general rules of thumb that can make your life a lot easier in C3D:

1. Always start new drawings from a C3D template.
2. Make sure new drawings are created with the proper units; it is not an easy task to change a C3D drawing from Metric to Imperial units, or vice-versa.
3. If you get a "drawing from others" that was NOT created in C3D, then the best course of action is to create a new drawing from one of your C3D templates, and then pull in the data "from others".
4. Even when they were created in C3D, it can still be helpful to avoid working in "drawings from others". Except, when the "drawing from others" was created in C3D, you may be able to do what you need to do by XREFing and/or creating data references to the C3D entities in the "drawing from others", rather than actually inserting the data "from others" into your drawing.

[me_ramsundar]

It is very strongly recommended that you do NOT try to work in that drawing that was provided to you. Instead, create a new drawing from your template (or possibly something like the "AutoCAD Civil 3D (Metric) NCS" template, if you haven't created your own template yet), then pull in the linework from the drawing provided to you. That way, you'll have a properly-configured Civil 3D drawing, with all the units and Styles the way they should be. Just make sure you start with a Metric template, and not an Imperial template. This is very important, as all the Styles are defined quite differently in Metric vs. Imperial templates.

If you are working in a georeferenced coordinate system like State Plane or UTM, you can also set that coordinate system in your Drawing Settings.

To pull the linework from the provided drawing into your new C3D drawing, you can use one of several methods, such as:

• Open both drawings in C3D, and copy-and-paste between drawings, or
• Insert the provided drawing into your new C3D drawing, selecting the option to Explode during insert, or
• Use a Map Query.

Some general rules of thumb that can make your life a lot easier in C3D:

1. Always start new drawings from a C3D template.
2. Make sure new drawings are created with the proper units; it is not an easy task to change a C3D drawing from Metric to Imperial units, or vice-versa.
3. If you get a "drawing from others" that was NOT created in C3D, then the best course of action is to create a new drawing from one of your C3D templates, and then pull in the data "from others".
4. Even when they were created in C3D, it can still be helpful to avoid working in "drawings from others". Except, when the "drawing from others" was created in C3D, you may be able to do what you need to do by XREFing and/or creating data references to the C3D entities in the "drawing from others", rather than actually inserting the data "from others" into your drawing.

wow that realy elaborate description and thanx alot for that. I wil surely consider what you have suggested while working with the C3D. the things that you hv described were the one which i had been wondering. thanks a lot.. I realy helped me alot. one quick question. I have NCS base, extended and LDT in my metric template. which one is the appropirate template for me?? while copying and pasting from another file do i retain all the features the same??? do I have to paste to the original co ordinate coz while I try to copy and paste it asks for the insertion point???


Thanks a lot once again!

[sinc]

Typically, you'll use your own template. When you're first starting with C3D, you can use whichever one of the default templates seems closest to your needs. But from there, you'll want to customize it, and end up with your own personal (company) template.

As you work, you'll discover you need to create new Styles for various things, or that you don't like something about a current Style and want to change it. Whenever you create a new Style (or change an existing one), it's very important that you get that Style copied into your template. Make sure you do so immediately... If you "wait until later", then there's a good chance you'll never get that new Style moved into your template. A key component of working quickly in C3D is that you need a relatively complete template, with all the Styles you typically use. If you're constantly stopping to create Styles, you'll really slow yourself down.

For the copy-and-paste, I like using "Copy with base point", which you can run by hitting CTRL+SHIFT+C, and then using (0,0) as the base point. Then you can paste into the other drawing, again using (0,0) as the base point. There's also the "Paste to original coordinates" (PASTEORIG), but that used to be problematic and fail to give correct results, so I got into the habit of using CTRL+SHIFT+C instead. I actually haven't really tried using PASTEORIG in several versions of C3D, but I think I heard that the issues have mostly been fixed, so PASTEORIG might work, as well.

[me_ramsundar]

Typically, you'll use your own template. When you're first starting with C3D, you can use whichever one of the default templates seems closest to your needs. But from there, you'll want to customize it, and end up with your own personal (company) template.

As you work, you'll discover you need to create new Styles for various things, or that you don't like something about a current Style and want to change it. Whenever you create a new Style (or change an existing one), it's very important that you get that Style copied into your template. Make sure you do so immediately... If you "wait until later", then there's a good chance you'll never get that new Style moved into your template. A key component of working quickly in C3D is that you need a relatively complete template, with all the Styles you typically use. If you're constantly stopping to create Styles, you'll really slow yourself down.

For the copy-and-paste, I like using "Copy with base point", which you can run by hitting CTRL+SHIFT+C, and then using (0,0) as the base point. Then you can paste into the other drawing, again using (0,0) as the base point. There's also the "Paste to original coordinates" (PASTEORIG), but that used to be problematic and fail to give correct results, so I got into the habit of using CTRL+SHIFT+C instead. I actually haven't really tried using PASTEORIG in several versions of C3D, but I think I heard that the issues have mostly been fixed, so PASTEORIG might work, as well.

yeah u r ryt about the copy to previous coordinate command, sometimes it doesnot works.. and thanx a lot for your suggestions.. I wil surely apply them while working wit C3D. could you suggest me some free video tutorials website i can chekout to enrich my knowledge in C3D besides youtube videos?? thank alot...