Creating Surface and Adding Point Data----Civil 3D 2014

Surface is considered as a building block and basic requirement of any Civil 3D project. There are four types of surfaces in Civil 3D: TIN Volume surface, TIN surface, Grid surface and Grid Volume surface. The TIN Volume surface and Grid Volume surface are used for calculating volumes.

In this Blog we will learn all about,

Creating a TIN( Triangulated Irregular Network) surface in Civil 3D.

Adding Point Data File to the TIN surface.

Use the Point file downloaded in the previous blog i.e civil3d_2014_c02_tut02an .txt.

You can download the file from http://www.cadcim.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ISBN=978-1-936646-32-6

After completing the following tutorial the surface image will look like the as shown in  Figure 1.

Figure 1  Surface displaying major and  minor contour lines

Creating the Surface

1.To create a surface, firstly Choose the Create Surface tool from Home > Create Ground Data > Surfaces drop-down; the Create Surface dialog box is displayed.

2. Click in the Value field of the Name property and enter a name of your choice.

3. Choose Add from the shortcut menu; the Add Point File dialog box is displayed.

4. Now, ensure that the TIN surface option is selected in the Type drop-down list of the Create Surface dialog box and choose the OK button; the dialog box is closed, also the surface is created and is added to the Surfaces node in the Prospector tab of the Toolspace palette.

Note : You cannot see the surface at this stage because it is empty and you need to add data to make it visible.

Adding Point File to the Surface

1. Expand Surfaces > EG Surface > Definition in the Prospector tab of the Toolspace palette.

2. Select Point Files from the Definition node and right-click; a shortcut menu is displayed.

3. Choose Add from the shortcut menu; the Add Point File dialog box is displayed.

4. From the Specify point file format list box, select the PENZD (space delimited) option. This file format is used for the point files that are saved with the extension .txt.

Note: If you select the wrong format for the point file from the Specify point file format list box, Civil 3D will display an error message indicating that the wrong file format has been selected.

5. Next, choose the button on the right of the Selected Files list box; the Select Source File dialog box is displayed.

6. Browse to the folder c03 and select civil3d_2014_c03_tut01- PENZD text file and choose the Open button; the file name and path is displayed in the Selected Files list box.

7. Choose the OK button from the Add Point File dialog box; the data is added to the surface.

Viewing the Surface

1. Enter ZE in the command line and then press ENTER; the surface will be displayed with a surface border, major, and minor contour as shown in figure 1. This is due to the default surface style settings of the template file.