By John van Rijn
When you create a project in Civil 3D, you always need a Surface.
Why not shorten your project time by adding a setting to your template, so that you can always use a basic configuration for a beautiful Surface.
How can you do this?
When creating a Surface, this setting is a basic setting within the UKIE template
(create surface, right click “Surface Properties”, tab “Definition”, expand “Build”).
For a complete explanation see F1 help Autodesk or look at the description at the bottom of this document.
The settings we are going to change are: "Use maximum angle" and "Use maximum length".
These two settings affect the display and give the "beautiful surface".
But what do these settings do?
Use maximum angle:
This sets the 'maximum angle' between TIN-line and is therefore removed within this Surface.
Use maximum length:
Similar to the 'use maximum angle', only it responds to the length TIN-line and is also removed within this Surface.
These settings can be customised in the template in a different way and can be found in:
- Settings tab on the Tool space
(under <drawing-name> - Surface
- Commands, right-click
- Create Surface and click Edit Commands Settings
- Build Options
See video:
F1 Help Autodesk
Build
Copy Deleted Dependent Objects
Specifies whether a drawing object is copied to the surface definition item if the object is deleted:
- Yes: Copies the drawing object data to the surface definition if you delete the drawing object data. When you add a surface boundary, breakline, or point group to a surface, the surface definition stores the Object ID. If the drawing object, such as the original polyline used to define the surface boundary, is deleted from the drawing, the coordinates of the polyline vertices are copied into the surface definition and saved. Thus, the surface boundary definition remains in the surface definition.
- No: Deletes the surface boundary, breakline, or point group definition if the drawing object is deleted. The definition item is removed from the surface definition when the surface is rebuilt.
Exclude Elevations Less Than
Specifies whether an elevation less than a certain value should be excluded when the surface is built. Click Yes to exclude elevations less than the value specified in the Elevation < when the surface is built.
Note: The Exclude Elevations Less Than and Exclude Elevations Greater Than settings are not applicable to surfaces created by importing a TIN or LandXML file. These option are inactive when the first Operation Type listed on the Definition tab is "Import XML File" or "Import Legacy TIN".
Elevation <
Specifies the elevations to exclude when the Exclude Elevations Less Than property is set to Yes.
Exclude Elevations Greater Than
Specifies whether an elevation greater than a certain value should be excluded when the surface is built. Click Yes to exclude elevations greater than the value specified in the Elevation > when the surface is built.
Elevation >
Specifies the elevations to exclude when the Exclude Elevations Greater Than property is set to Yes.
Use Maximum Angle
Specifies whether the triangles on the exterior border of the TIN will be assessed to see if they exceed the Maximum Angle Between Adjacent TIN Lines. If Use Maximum Angle is set to Yes, triangles on the exterior border of the TIN are assessed. A triangle is removed from the TIN if the angle which faces to the border edge exceeds the maximum angle specified. This process is iterative so that when a triangle is removed, exposing one or two new border edges, the new border triangles are tested and removed according to the same criterion.
This operation assesses triangles that border exterior boundaries. Triangles on interior boundaries are not affected by this operation.
Note: For an illustration of the effect of this setting, see Edit Feature Settings - Surface Dialog Box.
Maximum Angle Between Adjacent TIN Lines
Specifies the maximum angle to use for the Use Maximum Angle option. A triangle is removed from the TIN if the angle which faces to the border edge exceeds the maximum angle specified.
Note: If both Use Maximum Triangle Length and Use Maximum Angle are set to Yes, then the Use Maximum Angle operations are completed before the Use Maximum Triangle Length operations.
Use Maximum Triangle Length
Specifies whether the surface triangles that exceed the length specified by the Maximum Triangle Length property are removed from the boundary of the surface. Click Yes to remove triangles with a length greater than the value specified in the Maximum Triangle Length when the surface is built.
Maximum Triangle Length
Specifies the triangle length to use when the Use Maximum Triangle Length property is set to Yes.
Convert Proximity Breaklines to Standard
Specifies whether proximity breaklines are converted to standard breaklines when the surface is built. For more information, see About Breaklines. Click Yes to convert proximity breaklines to standard breaklines.
Allow Crossing Breaklines
Specifies whether breaklines can cross each other. Click Yes to enable the correction of crossing breaklines when they occur. If a new breakline touches an existing breakline, you can specify what elevation to use at the calculated point of intersection. The XY coordinate location is calculated and the elevation is set by the Elevation To Use property.
This setting does not apply to breakline intersections that occur at the endpoints of breaklines. You can change the elevation of such points using the surface Modify Point operation. For more information, see To Modify the Elevation of Surface Points.
Elevation To Use
Specifies the elevation to use for the crossing breaklines:
- Use First Breakline Elevation At Intersection: Uses the first breakline elevation to determine the elevation at the intersection.
- Use Last Breakline Elevation At Intersection: Uses the last breakline elevation to determine the elevation at the intersection.
- Use Average Elevation At Intersection: Uses the average of the first and last breakline to determine the elevation at the intersection.