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Creating Contours from shapefiles and alignment use

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  • 06-10-2011 2:41pm
    #1
    parko202
    Registered Users Posts: 200 ✭✭


    I have shapefiles that I took from Arcmap and brought them into cad. They are contours of a site and in GIS they have the elevation information however in autocad they project as a flat surface. Is there a way to have them go to 3d?

    I am asking this because I need to calculate the gradients on a site road. Is it possible to do this without having 3d contours? The site road is only a polyline, very indicative only at this stage.

    Thanks for any help


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    #2
    Boyet
    Registered Users Posts: 16 ✭Boyet


    parko202 wrote: »
    I have shapefiles that I took from Arcmap and brought them into cad. They are contours of a site and in GIS they have the elevation information however in autocad they project as a flat surface. Is there a way to have them go to 3d?

    I am asking this because I need to calculate the gradients on a site road. Is it possible to do this without having 3d contours? The site road is only a polyline, very indicative only at this stage.

    Thanks for any help

    Gradient can be done manually change in hieght/distance, unless you're using Civil 3D or MX Site that could generate gradient/slope at any given 2 points on surface (contours with elevation).


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    #3
    Supertech
    Registered Users Posts: 597 ✭✭✭Supertech


    This may be a bit time consuming, but if you know the elevation value of the contour lines, you could convert them to polylines (if they're not already) and change the elevation properties in the Property Box. The only issue is that you'll probably have to change them individually. If you do that, and plot the road on to these, and then plot the centreline of the road you can insert a point at each contour and join these points with a line. If you select any line between any two of these points you can work the gradient out from the information contained in the properties box (again) by dividing the Delta Z value by the length of the line.


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    #4
    parko202
    Registered Users Posts: 200 ✭✭parko202


    Sorry, should have mentioned I am using Civil 3d. Does anyone have experience of working with contours etc using this?

    This would be a small enough site so do-able manually but I am doing work on a few larger ones and it would be beneficial to have an automated method.


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    #5
    Boyet
    Registered Users Posts: 16 ✭Boyet


    parko202 wrote: »
    Sorry, should have mentioned I am using Civil 3d. Does anyone have experience of working with contours etc using this?

    This would be a small enough site so do-able manually but I am doing work on a few larger ones and it would be beneficial to have an automated method.

    Have you tried using map 3d within civil 3d? Autodesk civil 3d comes with autocad and map 3d, in map 3d you would be able to create surface from shp file within civil 3d environment.


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    #6
    Eurocodus
    Registered Users Posts: 21 ✭Eurocodus


    agree with Boyet. Set Civil 3D to geospatial (Map) import shape file. make a surface. Then toggle to Civil 3D make your road polyline into an alignment. Make a profile (long section) from your alignment and place new road on it, parabolas, vertices, grades &c.


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    #7
    DLz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11 ✭DLz


    Hi Folks,

    any of you know any good online gis tutorials? I've no problem paying fees if they're worth it. Any help appreciated! Thanks


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