About Surfaces

A surface is a three-dimensional geometric representation of an area of land, or, in the case of

volume surfaces, is a difference or composite between two surface areas.
Surfaces are made up of triangles or grids, which are created when Autodesk Civil 3D connects
the points that make up the surface data.
To use a surface in your drawing, you can create an empty surface and then add data to it. You
can also import existing files containing surface information, such as LandXML, TIN , or DEM
files.
Points or contours are usually a primary part of the original surface information and are
supplemented with breaklines and boundaries.
Boundaries define the visible area of a surface. Only the area within the boundary is included in
calculations, such as for total area and volume. You can also define masks to hide or show parts
of a surface for editing or presentation purposes, while still including that area in calculations.

Surfaces displaying boundaries, contours, and elevation analysis

Breaklines are used on TIN surfaces to define linear features that triangles cannot cross, such as
retaining walls or streams. Breaklines affect triangulation of the surface.
You can define different sets of contours, for example, for different intervals. Smoothing is
provided for the surface object as a whole, which gives better results than simply smoothing the
contours. In Autodesk Civil 3D, the build process for surfaces is incremental. Whenever data is
added or corrected, the surface is updated. Each surface has a definition list. This list contains all
the operations performed on the surface. By turning the operations on and off, you can return a
surface to a previous state or modify it to support different types of analysis.

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About the Surfaces Collection (Prospector Tab)
Use the Surfaces collection in the Prospector tree to access the surfaces in a drawing. As surface
objects are created, they are displayed as named surfaces under the Surfaces collection.
Right-click the Surfaces collection to do the following:
 Create a new surface.
 Import DEM data to create a surface.
 Import TIN data to create a surface.
 Turn on or off the surface preview. A check mark is displayed next to the Show
Preview menu item when the preview option is selected.
 Export surface data to DEM.
 Export the surface to LandXML format.
 Refresh the view of the Surfaces collection in the Prospector tree.
If you have added a surface to the current drawing, you can expand the Surfaces collection to
view the names of the surfaces or select surfaces to display a tabular list of the surfaces in
the Prospector list view.
Expand an individual surface name to display the surface components, including its masks,
watersheds, and definition.
Expand the Definition collection to view and add data for the surface, such as breaklines,
boundaries, and contours. The data items that are displayed depend on the surface type.

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About the Surface Collection (Settings Tab)
Use the Surface collection in the Settings tree to manage surface settings, surface styles, surface
label styles, surface table styles, and surface command settings.
Right-click the Surface collection to do the following:
 Edit the surface feature settings.
 Edit the surface label style defaults.
 Refresh the display of the settings tree.
Expand the Surface collection to display and edit the styles and command settings that are
available for surfaces.
About the Surface Definition
A surface definition is a collection of a surface build, data, and edit properties, as well as a list of
the operations that you have performed on the surface. The type of definition data items that a
surface can have depends on the surface type.
The Definition collection under a surface in the Prospector tree provides access to the surface
possible data and edit definition items.
Data Definition
The data definition for a surface comprises the data components that you can add to a surface.
The following table illustrates the data categories that are supported for each surface type. If the
surface type does not support a data type, the data type is not available in the
surface Definition collection in the Prospector tree.

TIN TIN Volume Grid Grid Volume

Category
Surface Surface Surface Surface

Boundaries Yes Yes Yes Yes

Breaklines Yes No No No

Contours Yes No No No

DEM Files Yes No Yes No

Drawing
Objects Yes No No No

Point Files Yes No No No

Point groups Yes No No No

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Edits
Data edits are operations that are not added to any of the existing data components; rather, they
are added to a surface definition as edit operations.
Operation List
The surface build process is incremental. Every time when you add data to a surface or edit the
surface, the surface is updated. When data is removed, the surface is rebuilt.
To support the incremental build process, a surface has an operation list, which is a sequential
list of all operations performed on the surface in its current state.
Order of Data in a Data Definition Operation
When you add point data to a TIN surface, the result can be affected by the order in
which Autodesk Civil 3D processes the points. You cannot control the order in which Autodesk
Civil 3D processes points in a single operation; Autodesk Civil 3D adds points to the surface in
an order that minimizes the time to perform the operation. The following are two ways the
processing order can affect the resulting TIN surface:
 The order can affect the outcome when four points are co-circular (the circle determined
by any three of them passes through the fourth). In this situation there are two ways to
make a Delaunay triangulation of the four points, and the two triangulations could make
the surface contours noticeably different. You can use the Swap Edge command to correct
any problems of this sort.
 A second way is when two or more points are close together (less than .0001 units
apart). Autodesk Civil 3D treats two such points as the same point, and whichever one
gets processed second does not get added to the TIN. If the two points have different
elevations, the order will therefore affect the resulting surface; in such a situation Autodesk
Civil 3D will post a message to the Event Viewer. You can use the Modify Point command
to assign the correct elevation to the point.
Effect of the Order of the Operation List
The order in which surface operations are performed can impact the resulting surface. Because
of the incremental way a surface is built or rebuilt (the operations are performed one at a time in
the order that they appear in the operation list) the order of the operation list is very important.
You determine the order by the sequence of the commands you use to define the surface data.
You can later modify the order in the Surface Properties dialog box. The following is a suggested
order:
1. Add breakline and contour data.
2. Add point data.
3. Add any necessary boundaries, outermost first.
4. Perform any necessary edit operations.

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About Adding and Editing Surface Data
You can edit and add data to a surface after you create it.
Surface data categories include:
 Boundaries. Polygons that define outer, hide, and show surface boundary types.
 Breaklines. Includes standard, proximity, non-destructive, and wall breaklines. You can
define breaklines from objects in the drawing or import them from a file.
 Contours. Includes contour data that you can define from polyline objects.
 DEM files. Includes USGS Digital Elevation Model DEM files.
NOTE: To use SDTS files, first convert them into DEM files.
 Drawing objects. Includes Line, Point, Block, Text, 3D Faces, and Polyfaces. Used for
creating surface points from AutoCAD entities.
 Point files. Includes ASCII point files.
 Point groups. Includes previously defined point groups.
 Point survey queries. Dynamic references to the points that are included in survey
queries.
 Figure survey queries. Dynamic references to the figures that are included in survey
queries.
About Creating Surfaces
You can create a surface that comprises a combination of points, breaklines, boundaries, and
contours.

When you create a surface, the surface name is displayed in the Surfaces collection in
the Prospector tree so that you can perform other operations, such as adding data and editing
the surface.
Initially, the surface may be empty and not be visible in the drawing. Once you add data to the
surface, the surface becomes visible in the drawing in accordance to the display settings specified
in the referenced surface style.
Autodesk Civil 3D supports several types of surfaces:

 TIN surfaces. Formed by triangulating an arbitrary set of points.

 Grid surfaces. Formed from points that lie on a regular grid (for example, Digital
Elevation Models (DEMs)).

 TIN volume surfaces. A composite surface created from a combination of points in a

top (comparison) and base surface, also known as a differential surface.

 Grid volume surfaces. A differential surface based on user-specified top and bottom
surfaces with points on a user-specified grid.

 Corridor surfaces. A corridor surface is a surface created using data extracted from
an underlying corridor model.

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About Creating a TIN Surface
A TIN surface comprises the triangles that form a triangulated irregular network.
TIN lines form the triangles that make up the surface triangulation. To create TIN lines, Autodesk
Civil 3D connects the surface points that are closest together. The elevation of any point in the
surface is defined by interpolating the elevations of the vertices of the triangles that the point lies
in.
TIN surfaces are most useful for:
 Mapping highly variable surfaces with irregularly distributed sample data representing the
influence of streams, roads, and lakes.
 Examining localized areas (large-scale maps)
TIN surfaces generally take longer to build and require more disk space than grid surfaces.
When Autodesk Civil 3D creates a TIN surface from point data, it computes the Delaunay
triangulation of the points. With Delaunay triangulation, no point lies inside the circle determined
by the vertices of any triangle.
Breakline data (from breaklines, contours, or boundaries) influences how the surface is
triangulated. A breakline edge between the points causes the program to connect these points
with a triangle edge in the TIN, even if doing so violates the Delaunay property.
A TIN surface with contour lines:

To Create a TIN Surface

1. Click Home tab Create Ground Data panel Surfaces drop-down Create
Surface Find.
In the Create Surface dialog box, in the Type list, select TIN Surface.

2. Click to select a layer. For more information about layers, see Object Layer dialog box.
NOTE: If you do not select a layer, the surface is placed on the current layer.

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 3. In the properties grid, click the Value column for the Name property and enter a name for
the surface.
NOTE: To name the surface, click its default name and enter a new name, or use the Name
Template. For more information, see Name Template dialog box.
4. To change the style for the surface, click the Style property in the properties grid and
click in the Value column.
The Select Surface Style dialog box is displayed. For more information, see About Surface Styles
and Visualization.
5. To change the render material for the surface, click the Render Material property in the
properties grid and click in the Value column.
The Select Render Material dialog box is displayed. For more information, see About Object
Rendering.
6. Click OK to create the surface.
The surface name is displayed under the Surfaces collection in the Prospector tree. For
information about adding data to the surface, see About Adding and Editing Surface Data.
To Create a Surface From a TIN File
Importing a TIN file creates a surface object on which you can perform all the standard data
operations and editing. The import operation is displayed as the operation type Import Surface.
See About the Surface Definition.
You can use this command to import a TIN file from an Autodesk Land Desktop project. To import
the TIN file, the accompanying PNT point file must exist in the same source directory.
1. Click Home tab Create Ground Data panel Surfaces drop-down Create Surface
From TIN Find.
2. In the Create Surface From TIN dialog box, browse to the location of the TIN file and select
it.
3. Click Open to add the surface to the current drawing.
The surface name is displayed under the Surfaces collection in the Prospector tree. For
information about adding data to the surface, see About Adding and Editing Surface Data.
About Creating a Grid Surface
A grid surface comprises points that lie on a regular grid.
You can create a grid surface or import it from a DEM file.
Use grid surfaces for:
 Mapping more uniform surfaces with evenly distributed sample data
 Examining large study areas (small-scale maps)
Grid surfaces generally load quickly and require less disk space than TIN surfaces.

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To Create a Grid Surface
1. Click Home tab Create Ground Data panel Surfaces drop-down Create
Surface Find.
In the Create Surface dialog box, in the Type list, select Grid Surface.

2. Click to select a layer. For more information about layers, see Object Layer dialog box.
NOTE: If you do not select a layer, the surface is placed on the current layer.
3. In the properties grid, click the Value column for the Name property and enter a name for
the surface.
NOTE: To name the surface, click its default name and enter a new name, or use the name
template. See Name Template dialog box.
4. To change the style for the surface, click the Style property in the properties grid and
click in Value column.
The Select Surface Style dialog box is displayed. See About Surface Styles and Visualization.
5. To change the render material for the surface, click the Render Material property in the
properties grid and click in the Value column.
The Select Render Material dialog box is displayed. See About Object Rendering.

6. Set the Grid Parameters, such as spacing and orientation. Enter their values or click to
use the drawing area to derive these values.
7. Click OK to create the surface.
After the surface is created, the surface name is displayed in the Surfaces collection in
the Prospector tree, so that you can perform other operations, such as adding data and editing
the surface.
To Create a Grid Surface From a DEM
DEM files come in several formats. You can import either USGS DEM, ESRI Arc Grid, or GeoTIFF
files.
TIP: You can also import DEM files into an existing surface. For more information, see To Add
DEM Files to a Surface.
1. Click Home tab Create Ground Data panel Surfaces drop-down Create Surface
From DEM Find.
2. In the Grid Surface From DEM dialog box, browse to the location of the file.
3. Select the DEM (.dem), GeoTIFF (.tif), ESRI ASCII Grid (.asc or .txt), or ESRI Binary Grid
(.adf) file. The filename is displayed in the File Name field.
NOTE: SDTS (Spatial Data Transfer Standard) DEMs are not supported in Autodesk Civil 3D.
4. Click Open.
About Creating a TIN Volume Surface
A TIN volume surface is a composite of points in a base surface and comparison surface.

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A TIN volume surface provides an exact difference between the base and comparison surfaces.
Therefore, the Z-value of any point in the volume surface is precisely the difference between the
Z of the comparison surface at that point and the base surface at that point. This is true whether
the comparison and base surfaces are both grid surface, both TIN surfaces, or one of each.
A volume surface is a persistent surface object. Therefore, you can display cut and fill contours,
cut and fill points, and add labels to it. You can view volume properties (cut, fill, net) of a volume
surface by selecting Surface Properties. For more information, see To Edit and View the Surface
Definition.
To Create a TIN Volume Surface
1. Click Home tab Create Ground Data panel Surfaces drop-down Create
Surface Find.
In the Create Surface dialog box, in the Type list, select TIN Volume Surface.

2. Click to select a layer. For more information about layers, see Object Layer dialog box.
NOTE: If you do not select a layer, the surface is placed on the current layer.
3. In the properties grid, click the Value column for the Name property and enter a name for
the surface.
NOTE: To name the surface, click its default name and enter a new name, or use the name
template. For more information, see Name Template dialog box.
4. To change the style for the surface, click the Style property in the properties grid and
click in the Value column.
The Select Surface Style dialog box is displayed. For more information, see About Surface Styles
and Visualization.
5. To change the render material for the surface, click the Render Material property in the
properties grid and click in the Value column.
The Select Render Material dialog box is displayed. For more information, see About Object
Rendering.
6. Click the Base Surface property to select the base (bottom) surface. Enter the surface
name or click to open the Select Base Surface dialog box where you can select the
surface in the list.

NOTE: Select a surface in the drawing by clicking and following the instructions at the
command line.
7. Click the Comparison Surface property to select the comparison (top) surface. Enter the
surface name or click to open the Select Comparison Surface dialog box where you
can select the surface in the list.

NOTE: Select a surface in the drawing by clicking and following the instructions at the
command line.
8. Click OK to create the surface.
The surface name is displayed under the Surfaces collection in the Prospector tree. For
information about adding data to the surface, see About Adding and Editing Surface Data.

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About Creating a Grid Volume Surface
A grid volume surface is a difference grid surface based on user-specified base and comparison
surfaces as well as grid spacing and orientation.

A grid volume surface is an approximation of the difference between the base and comparison
surfaces. It is formed by making a grid from points whose Z values are the differences between
the Z values of the comparison and base surfaces. Therefore, the grid volume surface gives the
exact difference only at the grid points. This is true whether the comparison and base surfaces
are both grid surfaces, both TIN surfaces, or one of each.
Grid volume surfaces enable you to generate a volume quickly, which is useful for iterative site
design.
NOTE: Grid spacing has a direct correlation as to how quickly grid volumes generate.
A volume surface is a persistent surface object. Therefore, you can display cut and fill contours,
cut and fill points, and add labels to it. View a volume property (cut, fill, net) of a volume surface
by selecting Surface Properties. For more information, see To Edit and View the Surface
Definition.
To Create a Grid Volume Surface
1. Click Home tab Create Ground Data panel Surfaces drop-down Create
Surface Find.
In the Create Surface dialog box, in the Type list, select Grid Volume Surface.

2. Click to select a layer. For more information about layers, see Object Layer dialog box.
NOTE: If you do not select a layer, the surface is placed on the current layer.
3. In the properties grid, click the Value column for the Name property and enter a name for
the surface.
NOTE: To name the surface, click its default name and enter a new name, or use the name
template. For more information, see Name Template dialog box.
4. To change the style for the surface, click the Style property in the properties grid and
click in the Value column.
The Select Surface Style dialog box is displayed. For more information, see About Surface Styles
and Visualization.

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 5. To change the render material for the surface, click the Render Material property in the
properties grid and click in the Value column.
The Select Render Material dialog box is displayed. For more information, see About Object
Rendering.
6. Click the Base Surface property to select the base (bottom) surface. You can enter the
surface name or click to open the Select Base Surface dialog box where you can select
the surface in the list.

NOTE: Select a surface in the drawing by clicking and following the instructions at the
command line.
7. To set the grid parameters, such as spacing and orientation, enter their values into
the Values column or click to use the drawing area to derive these values.
NOTE: The grid spacing parameters determine how precise a surface volume is. For example,
small grid spacing creates a precise volume measurement (but may increase the loading time).
8. Click the Comparison Surface property to select the comparison (top) surface. Enter the
surface name or click to open the Select Comparison Surface dialog box where you
can select the surface in the list.

NOTE: Select a surface in the drawing by clicking and following the instructions at the
command line.
9. Click OK to create the surface.
The surface name is displayed under the Surfaces collection in the Prospector tree. For
information about adding data to the surface, see About Adding and Editing Surface Data.
To Create Surface References
You can create a reference to an existing surface in a data shortcut or a Vault project. The surface
reference is a lightweight read-only copy of the original, but it gives you access to surface data
for other objects such as alignments and profiles.
NOTE: A surface reference has no data definition, but has masking and watershed analysis
functionality.
To create a reference to a data shortcut surface
1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, in Master View, ensure that the correct working folder
is identified on the Data Shortcuts node.
2. Expand the Data Shortcuts Surfaces collection, right-click the desired surface, and then
click Create Reference.
The Create Surface Reference dialog box is displayed, in which you can optionally change
properties of the reference surface, as described in the following steps.
3. In the Create Surface Reference dialog box, change the source of the reference by
selecting a source in the Source Surface drop-down list.

4. Click to select a layer. For more information about layers, see Object Layer dialog box.
NOTE: If you do not select a layer, the surface is placed on the current layer.

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 5. In the properties grid, click the Value column for the Name property. Enter a name for the
surface.
NOTE: To name the surface, click its default name. Enter a new name, or use the name template.
For more information, see Name Template dialog box.
6. To change the style for the surface, select the Style property in the properties grid.
Click in the Value column.
The Select Surface Style dialog box is displayed. For more information, see About Surface Styles
and Visualization.
7. To change the render material for the surface, select the Render Material property in the
properties grid. Click in the Value column.
The Select Render Material dialog box is displayed. For more information, see About Object
Rendering.
8. Click OK to create the surface reference.

The surface name is displayed in the Surfaces collection in the Prospector tree with a next to
it.
To create a reference to a surface in a Vault project
1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, in Master View, expand the Projects <project
name> Surfaces collection, right-click the desired surface, and then click Create
Reference.
The Create Surface Reference dialog box is displayed, in which you can optionally change
properties of the reference surface, as described in the following steps.
2. In the Create Surface Reference dialog box, change the source of the reference by
selecting a source in the Source Surface drop-down list.

3. Click to select a layer. For more information about layers, see Object Layer dialog box.
NOTE: If you do not select a layer, the surface is placed on the current layer.
4. In the properties grid, click the Value column for the Name property. Enter a name for the
surface.
NOTE: To name the surface, click its default name. Enter a new name, or use the name template.
For more information, see Name Template dialog box.
5. To change the style for the surface, select the Style property in the properties grid.
Click in the Value column.
The Select Surface Style dialog box is displayed.
6. To change the render material for the surface, select the Render Material property in the
properties grid. Click in the Value column.
The Select Render Material dialog box is displayed.
7. Click OK to create the surface reference.
The surface name is displayed in the Surfaces collection in the Prospector tree with a next to
it.

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To Create a Surface From GIS Data
Autodesk Civil 3D enables you to connect directly to a GIS datastore and import GIS data, such
as contours and point collections, without any intermediate data or file conversion.
1. Click Home tab Create Ground Data panel Surfaces drop-down Create Surface
From GIS Data Find.
2. On the Object Options page of the Import GIS Data wizard, specify the standard
properties for the new surface object.
3. On the Connect to Data page, specify the data source type and the GIS datastore
connection parameters:

 If you select the SHP file as the data source type, click to specify a single shape
file or click to specify multiple files in a folder.
 If you select ArcSDE- or Oracle-based datastores, specify a path and user login
information. Click Login.
IMPORTANT: If you connect to a datastore using ArcSDE connection, you must install three DLL
files. For information about installing the DLLs, see "Working with ESRI ArcSDE Data" in the
AutoCAD Map 3D User’s Guide.
4. If connecting to Oracle or ArcSDE datastore, specify the datastore and click Connect to
Datastore.
NOTE: The connection to the datastore is terminated after the import GIS data operation is
completed.
5. On the Schema and Coordinates page, specify the GIS schema.
NOTE: The schema Default is always used for SHP files.
6. Optionally, assign the coordinate system, which may differ from the current Civil 3D
drawing, to the GIS feature class. In this case Autodesk Civil 3D performs coordinate
transformation.
7. Select a GIS feature class from the list.
8. Optionally, click Restore the Original Coordinate System to revert to the default setting.
9. Optionally, on the Geospatial Query page, select Define Area of Interest By or and select
the geospatial query boundary type:
 Polygon: Retrieve all objects in a defined polygon.
 Fence: Retrieve all objects that are crossed by a defined line.
 Circle: Retrieve all objects in a defined circle.

Alternatively, click to select an object in the drawing or specify the query area manually.
10. On the Data Mapping page, preview the results of the geospatial query where the GIS
feature attributes are displayed in the GIS Field column and assign a corresponding Civil
3D object property to each field.
11. Click Finish.

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To Create a Surface from Point Cloud Data
You can create a TIN surface from points within RCS format point cloud scan files and RCP format
point cloud project files created with Autodesk® ReCap™.
You can use the Create Surface from Point Cloud command to create a surface from several
point clouds, selecting only the areas that you want to include and filtering out non-ground points
so they are not included in the resulting surface. When using this command, you can select entire
point clouds or areas of point clouds to include in the surface. You can select areas of point clouds
by using window selections, by defining polygon areas, or by selecting existing closed polylines
in the drawing.
If the quantity of points in all the selected point cloud areas exceeds two million points, then the
areas are subdivided for faster point cloud processing.
1. Attach one or more RCS point cloud scans or RCP point cloud projects to the drawing.
For more information, see About Working With Point Clouds and To Attach a Point Cloud
to a Drawing.
2. Click Home tab Create Ground Data panel Surfaces drop-down Create Surface
From Point Cloud Find.
3. Select a point cloud, or use one of the command line selection options to select an area
of one or more point clouds. The Create TIN Surface from Point Cloud wizard is displayed.
4. On the General page, specify the surface creation details.
5. On the Point Cloud Selection page, refine the selection of the point clouds and point cloud
areas.
6. On the Non-Ground Point Filtering page, specify options for filtering out non-ground
points.
7. Click Create Surface.
About Creating a Cropped Surface
Use the Create Cropped Surface command to create a surface that is a copy of a polygonal area
of a source surface.
Each cropped area becomes a separate surface object (a new surface) that you can manage and
manipulate.
When you create a surface by cropping the source surface, or when you rebuild the new
surface, Autodesk Civil 3D creates a copy from the saved version of the source surface. If you
modify the source surface and want the changes to be reflected in the new surface, save the
drawing containing the source surface before you rebuild the new surface.
NOTE: When a new surface is created, Autodesk Civil 3D takes a snapshot of the new surface.
To rebuild the new surface, you must first perform the Rebuild Snapshot command and then
the Rebuild command.
To Create a Cropped Surface
1. Click Home tab Create Ground Data panel Surfaces drop-down Create Cropped
Surface Find.
2. In the Create Cropped Surface dialog box, Crop Information section:

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 1. Click to select the source surface to crop.

2. Click to specify the crop area in the drawing using the selection window, by
drawing a polygon, or by selecting objects.
NOTE: If you use the select objects option, click inside the polygon you want to use. The specified
crop area is highlighted.
3. Specify the new surface information:
1. Specify a destination for the new surface. You can place it in a new drawing, in
any existing drawing, or in the currently active drawing.
2. Enter the surface name and description.
4. Depending on the type of drawing that you selected in the previous step, specify the
destination drawing for the cropped surface.
5. Optionally, modify the surface style. By default, Autodesk Civil 3D applies the standard
style to the created surface.

6. Click to assign a layer for the cropped surface.

If you chose to create a new drawing file for the cropped surfaces, this drawing is saved in the
directory where the source drawing resides.

About Surface Boundaries

A boundary affects the visibility of the surface triangles inside it.

When you create boundaries, you specify whether they use arc tessellation and non-destructive
breaklines.
Surface boundaries are defined from closed polygons, such as a closed polyline or a parcel, or
from surfaces. Surfaces may be selected as boundaries when the Hide boundary type and
the Non-destructive breakline options are both selected.
The surface definition displays the numerical ID and a list of vertices for each boundary.
Boundary Types
Autodesk Civil 3D supports the following types of boundaries:
 Outer. Defines the outer boundary of the surface; all triangles inside it are visible and all
triangles that are outside it, are invisible.
NOTE: The outer boundary may be affected by subsequent edit operations, such as Add
Breaklines. You may need to move the Add Boundary operation to the bottom of the list to achieve
the expected result.
NOTE: You can define multiple outer boundaries, but only the last defined outer boundary is
displayed. You can use the surface definition to switch between multiple outer boundaries.
 Show. Displays all triangles inside the boundary; you can use it to create visible areas
within hide boundaries.

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NOTE: The effect of adding multiple boundaries to a surface is dependent on the order in which
they are added. The effects of a boundary can be wholly or partially overridden by a subsequent
boundary.
 Hide. Masks areas of the triangulation, and therefore contours are not visible in the area;
used to punch holes in a surface (for example, a building footprint).
A hide boundary created using non-destructive breaklines:

NOTE: When you use a hide boundary, the hidden surface area is not deleted. The full surface
remains intact. If there are surface TIN lines that you want to remove from the surface, then use
the Delete Line operation. For more information, see To Delete TIN or Grid Lines.
 Data Clip. Creates a surface boundary limited by a polygon object from the drawing, such
as 2D and 3D polylines, feature lines, survey figures, parcels, and circles.
You can add more than one data clip boundary to a surface. When you add data, only the most
recent data clip boundary is affected. A data clip boundary does not affect the visible part of the
surface, but acts as a filter on all data, such as points and breaklines added to the surface after
the creation of data clip. For example, if you add a breakline to a surface following the creation of
a data clip boundary, only the part of the breakline that is inside the data clip boundary is added.
About Adding Boundaries to a Surface
Use the Prospector tree to add boundaries to a surface.
When you add or remove boundaries, the surface is modified and the modification is added to the
definition list for the surface.
Surface boundaries are defined from closed polygons, such as a closed polyline or a parcel, or
from surfaces. Surfaces may be selected as boundaries when the Hide boundary type and
the Non-destructive breakline options are both selected.

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NOTE:When defining a boundary from a polygon, if the polygon is not closed, the boundary
definition forces a closed polygon.
The following illustration shows an example of using a corridor surface as a hide boundary for the
existing ground surface:

Areas hidden by boundaries are not included in calculations, such as total area and volume.
When creating a boundary, you set arc tessellation and specify whether the boundary uses non-
destructive breaklines.
Arc Tessellation
When you use polygons/polylines that contain curves for boundaries or breaklines, set the mid-
ordinate distance of the chord segments, which is used to tessellate the arc segments of the
boundary polygon/polyline:

Non-Destructive Breaklines
Specify whether a boundary uses non-destructive breaklines when you create it by selecting Non-
destructive breaklines in the Add Boundaries dialog box.
NOTE: You cannot add non-destructive breaklines to a grid surface.

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When you create a boundary with non-destructive breaklines along the edges of the boundary,
the triangle edges are clipped exactly where they cross the boundary:

If you create a boundary without non-destructive breaklines along the boundary edges, only
triangles that are completely within or outside the boundary are affected:

To Add Boundaries to a Surface

NOTE:If you are planning to use a surface (for example, "Corridor-Top") as the boundary for
another surface (for example, "EG"), it is recommended that you create a copy of EG using the
Paste Surface command before adding Corridor-Top as a boundary. To do this, create a new

92
surface (for example, "EG-Copy") and then paste EG into EG-Copy using the Paste Surface
command to create the copy. Then add the Corridor-Top surface to EG-Copy as a hide boundary.
1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the surface Definition collection, right-
click , and click Add.
2. In the Add Boundaries dialog box, enter the boundary name in the Name field.
3. Select the boundary type from the Type list. See About Surface Boundaries.
4. Optionally, select Non-destructive breakline to specify that the boundary uses non-
destructive breaklines.
NOTE: This option is unavailable for grid surfaces or when Data Clip is selected as a boundary
type.
For a hide boundary, a surface may be selected as the boundary for another surface when the
option to use non-destructive breaklines is also selected.
5. Optionally, if the polygon from which you are creating a boundary has curves, either enter
a value in the Mid-Ordinate Distance field or click to specify a distance in the drawing
area.
6. Click OK.
7. Do one of the following:
 Select one of the following to define the boundary:
 An existing polyline
 An existing polygon, such as a circle object
 An existing parcel
 If you are defining a hide boundary and the option to use non-destructive
breaklines was selected, you can enter S for Surface and select an existing
surface in the drawing.
8. The boundary is created and added to the surface Boundaries collection in
the Prospector tree.
To Apply a Data Clip Boundary to Imported Surfaces
You can apply a Data Clip boundary to surfaces created from imported data files, including TIN,
LandXML, grading, or corridor surfaces.
1. Create a surface from imported data (TIN, grading, or corridor). See To Create a Surface
From a TIN File, To Create a New Grading Group, To Work With Creating Corridor
Surfaces.
2. Add the Data Clip boundary to the surface. See To Add Boundaries to a Surface.
3. In the Prospector tree, expand the Surfaces collection, right-click <surface name>
Surface Properties.
4. In the Surface Properties dialog box, click the Definition tab.

5. Select the Add Data Clip Boundary operation and click to move it to the top of the list.

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 6. Click Apply.
7. In the message box, click Rebuild the Surface.
To Insert Boundary Data Into the Drawing
Insert boundaries into the drawing as AutoCAD polylines. If you deleted the original AutoCAD
entity and did not update the surface, you may need to insert boundaries into the drawing. In this
case, you can import the boundary from the boundaries collection.
1. In the Prospector tree, click the surface Boundaries collection.
The boundaries appear in the list view in the Prospector tab.
2. Right-click a boundary in the list view and click Insert Into Drawing.
 If the boundary does not exist in the drawing, it is added as a polyline object.
 If the boundary exists in the drawing, a message box is displayed stating that no
boundaries are inserted into the drawing.
To Edit Boundary Properties
1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the surface Definition collection and
click Boundaries.
The Prospector list view displays the following:
 The name of the boundary
 The boundary type: Outer, Show, or Hide
 Whether the boundary is trimmed with non-destructive breaklines
2. In the list view, right-click a list item.
3. Click Properties to open the Boundary Properties dialog box where you can edit the name
of the boundary. All other fields are read only.

About Breaklines

Breaklines are critical to creating an accurate surface model because it is the interpolation of the
data, not only the data itself, that determines the shape of the model.
Use breaklines to define features, such as retaining walls, curbs, tops of ridges, and streams.
Breaklines force surface triangulation along the breakline preventing triangulation across the
breakline.
NOTE: You can add breaklines only to TIN surfaces.

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Breakline Types
 Standard. Defined by selecting 3D lines, grading feature lines, 3D polylines, or splines.
 Proximity. Defined by drawing or selecting a grading feature line, polyline, or spline in the
drawing within the extents of the surface boundary. The XYZ coordinates of proximity
breakline vertices are determined from the surface TIN points that are in closest proximity
to the corresponding vertices of the defining points or entity.
NOTE: To specify breaklines from points, first convert the points into 3D or 3D polylines using the
’PN command. For more information, see About Transparent Commands.
 Wall. Defined using grading feature lines, 3D lines, 3D polylines, splines, or by specifying
points. A wall breakline is stored as a standard breakline, but defined differently: you
provide an offset side for the entire breakline, and an elevation difference for each vertex,
or for the entire breakline.
 Non-destructive. Defined using grading feature lines and open or closed AutoCAD
objects. A non-destructive breakline maintains the integrity of the original surface.
You can also import breaklines from ASCII FLT files into the surface definition.
Breakline Definition Options
When you define a breakline from a polyline with curves, specify a mid-ordinate distance, which
is used to tessellate the arcs in the polyline:

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Access global breakline definition options in the Build options property group on the Definition
tab of the Surface Properties dialog box.
The breakline definition options include:
 Convert Proximity Breaklines. Automatically converts proximity breaklines to standard
breaklines when they are created.
 Allow Crossing Breaklines. Allows breaklines to cross each other.
About Creating Standard Breaklines
Use the Add Breaklines dialog box to create standard breaklines.
You can use 3D lines, grading feature lines, splines, and 3D polylines as breaklines. The X, Y,
and Z coordinates of each vertex on the polyline that you select are converted into TIN vertices.
For 3D lines, each line that you select is defined as a two-point breakline.
IMPORTANT: If you select a 2D polyline with a zero elevation, then it is saved with that elevation.
Use proximity breaklines if you want the elevations calculated automatically.
To Create Standard Breaklines
1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the surface Definition collection, right-
click , and click Add.
2. In the Add Breaklines dialog box, enter the breakline description in the Description field.
3. Select Standard from the Type list.
4. Optionally, if the object from which you are creating a breakline has curves, enter a value
into the Mid-Ordinate Distance field or to select a distance in the drawing area.
The Add Breaklines dialog box closes and you are prompted to select an object.
5. Select the object to define the breakline.
The breakline is created and added to the surface Breaklines collection item in
the Prospector tree.

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About Creating Proximity Breaklines
Use the Add Breaklines dialog box to define proximity breaklines that reference surface points in
proximity to the vertices of the polyline that you select as the breakline.
Surface points are any surface data points used to create a TIN that are in proximity to the vertices
of the polyline that you select as the breakline.
You can define proximity breaklines quickly because you do not have to precisely snap to the
surface points that you want to use for the breakline. You can pick locations that are near the
points that you want to use. The breakline vertices automatically snap to the nearest surface point
when the breakline is added to the surface:

Define proximity breaklines by selecting a polyline or spline. You do not have to draw the original
object precisely between surface points. The breakline definition automatically snaps to the
surface point that is nearest each object vertex when the breakline is added to the surface.
Proximity breaklines are 2D polylines with elevations of 0. The northing, easting, and elevation
are calculated for each vertex according to the closest surface point. By default, proximity
breaklines are converted to standard breaklines when added to a surface. You can disable the
automatic conversion of proximity breaklines to standard breaklines by setting the Convert
Proximity Breaklines To Standard build option to No in the Definition tab of the Surface
Properties dialog box.
To Create Proximity Breaklines
1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the surface Definition collection, right-
click , and click Add.
2. In the Add Breaklines dialog box, enter the breakline description in the Description field.
3. Select Proximity from the Type list.
4. Optionally, if the object from which you are creating a breakline has curves, enter a value
into the Mid-Ordinate Distance field or click to digitize a distance in the drawing area.
The Add Breaklines dialog box is closed. You are prompted to select an object.
5. Select one or several objects to define the breakline.
This creates breaklines and adds them to the surface Breaklines collection in the Prospector tree.

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About Creating Wall Breaklines
Use the Add Breaklines dialog box to define features, such as retaining walls or curbs as
breaklines.
By creating wall breaklines, you can more accurately represent the surface. For example, for a
retaining wall, you can define the differences in elevation between the material on both sides of
the wall in order to represent elevations correctly.
Define wall breaklines by selecting an existing polyline, spline, or grading feature line. The polyline
is extended by creating new polyline segments and vertices parallel to the original polyline, but
offset at an incremented distance to represent the differences in elevation between the material
on either side of the wall:

There are two methods used to define wall breaklines:

 Define by object vertex (Individual). Select a polyline, or line, and select the offset side.
For each polyline vertex, you select either the vertex elevation (Existing Vertex Elevation
is the default) and the corresponding offset vertex elevation (the default is Existing Polyline
Vertex) or the corresponding offset vertex elevation difference. If an elevation difference
option is selected, the difference value is the default for each subsequent vertex.
 Define by object (All). Select a polyline, or line object, and select the offset side. Then,
enter the difference elevation to be applied for all offset vertices.
To Create Wall Breaklines
1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the surface Definition collection, right-
click Breaklines, and click Add.
2. In the Add Breaklines dialog box, enter the breakline description in the Description field.
3. From the Type list, select Wall.
4. Optionally, if the object from which you are creating a breakline has curves, enter a value
into the Mid-Ordinate Distance field or click to digitize a distance in the drawing area.
The Add Breaklines dialog box is closed. A message prompts you to select a polyline.
5. In the drawing, select the object to define the breakline.

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 6. Select the offset side for the wall breakline. This is the side for the new offset line that
represents the elevation of material on the other side of the wall.

A message prompts you to specify the wall height with one value for all the points (Define By
Object) or to specify values for individual points (Define By Vertex).
7. Do one of the following:
 To define the wall breakline by object, specify All and enter the amount to add to
elevation at each point.
 To define the wall breakline by object vertex, specify Individual at the prompt and
enter the elevation or delta for each vertex.
The prompts provide two ways to define elevations for each offset point: as an elevation
(Elevation) or as the elevation difference (Delta) between the control point and the offset point.
Deltas may be either positive or negative values.
8. The breakline is created and added to the surface Breaklines collection in
the Prospector tree.

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About Creating Non-Destructive Breaklines
Use the Add Breaklines dialog box to create a non-destructive breakline from either a grading
feature line or an open or closed AutoCAD object.
When defining a non-destructive breakline, surface points are created at each vertex of the object
and at each intersection of a surface triangle edge and the non-destructive breakline object. The
new points create additional surface triangles. Non-destructive breaklines are often needed when
deleting surface areas where a clean TIN edge does not exist.
The elevation for each new point is extracted from the original surface triangle, therefore
maintaining the integrity of the original surface.
To Create Non-Destructive Breaklines
1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the surface Definition collection, right-
click , and click Add.
2. In the Add Breaklines dialog box, enter the breakline description in the Description field.
3. From the Type list, select Non-destructive.
4. If the object from which you are creating a breakline has curves, enter a value in the Mid-
ordinate distance field or click to digitize a distance in the drawing area.
5. Click OK.
The Add Breaklines dialog box closes. A message appears prompting you to select an object.
6. In the drawing area, select the objects.
7. Optionally, select other objects or press Enter to end the command.
The breakline is created and added to the surface Breaklines collection in the Prospector tree.
NOTE: The Description column in the Prospector list view displays the ID of the breakline that
was added to the surface. To view information about the breakline vertices, open the Breakline
Properties vista.
To Import Breaklines From a File
1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the surface Definition collection, right-
click , and click Add.
2. In the Add Breaklines dialog box, enter the breakline description in the Description field.
3. Select From File from the Type list.
4. Select the file link option.
 Maintain Link To File. Reads the breakline from the FLT file when they are added
and when the surface is rebuilt. If you edit or delete the source FLT file, the Import
Breakline File operation is marked as out-of-date. With this option, you cannot list
individual breaklines, view them in the Breakline Properties vista, or import them
into the drawing.
 Break Link To File. All breaklines in the FLT file are copied into the surface as Add
Breakline operations. The FLT file is no longer referenced. When you rebuild the
surface, the internal copy of the breakline is used. The breaklines have the full

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 functionality of other breakline types. You can see the breaklines listed in
the Breakline Properties vista, you can pan and zoom to them, and import into the
drawing.
5. Click OK.
The Import Breakline File dialog box is displayed.
6. Select the file to import. It must have an .flt extension.
The breakline is created and added to the surface Breaklines collection in the Prospector tree.
NOTE: The breaklines are imported and grouped by type according to their order in the .flt file.
To Create Breakline Data in a Text File
Use a text editor to create a breakline file manually. You can then import this text file to use as
breakline data for building the surface. For more information, see To Import Breaklines From a
File.

1. Open an ASCII text editor, such as Notepad or Wordpad.

2. Create the file using the following structure:

 Use the (#) symbol as the first character in a comment line.

 Use one of the letters P, S, W, L, R, N (or ND) at the beginning of the line to describe the
breakline type. These letters stand for Proximity, Standard, Wall, Wall Left, Wall Right,
and Non-destructive. Identify a breakline type for each new breakline.

 Enter the X, Y, and Z coordinates separated by a space.

 A description of the breakline can follow the first coordinate of the line.

 To create another breakline, enter the breakline type letter at the beginning of a line. In the
following example, an S is placed at the beginning of line 8 of the file. All the points from
this point until the next breakline letter modifier are in one breakline. This breakline is called
EOP.
3. Save the file with an .flt file extension.
The following is an example of a breakline file:
# Autodesk User-Defined Breakline File
P1542.258750 179.318779 0.000000 Flow_Line
1190.721102 350.527660 0.000000
860.816542 446.044194 0.000000
588.600214 619.055276 0.000000
608.430540 743.406990 0.000000
565.164367 925.429066 0.000000
S1529.639450 179.318779 100.250000 EOP
1188.918348 357.736453 101.420000
1021.998725 330.653391 103.530000
594.008485 610.044279 102.870000
761.574952 744.929530 104.780000
610.233298 754.220180 103.410000
570.572642 923.626865 100.980000
P1542.258750 179.318779 0.000000 Flow_Line
1190.721102 350.527660 0.000000
860.816542 446.044194 0.000000
588.600214 619.055276 0.000000
608.430540 743.406990 0.000000

565.164367 925.429066 0.000000

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To View Breakline Information
1. Expand the surface Breaklines collection in the Prospector tree.
The breakline operations are displayed in the Prospector tree and list view.
2. Right-click a breakline operation in the Prospector tree or list view and do one of the
following:
 Click Zoom To or Pan To to see the location of the breakline operation in the
drawing.
 Click Properties to display the Breakline Properties vista, which displays the
individual breaklines as well as a list of vertices and the coordinates and elevation
for each vertex.
3. To zoom or pan to an individual breakline vertex, in the Breakline Properties vista, right-
click the vertex and click Zoom To or Pan To.
About Editing Breaklines
Edit any breakline that you have defined by selecting it in the drawing. You can insert, move, and
delete vertices, as well as redefine the elevation at a selected vertex.
Use any AutoCAD editing commands, including:
 Properties command (editing vertex elevations)
 Change command
 Pedit command (graphical editing of polylines)
 AutoCAD grip editing
The surface stores an ID for each of the objects that are defined as breaklines. Therefore, if you
modify any of the breakline objects using any of the mentioned commands, the surface is marked
as out-of-date until you rebuild it.
NOTE: You can rebuild a surface automatically by toggling the check mark next to the Rebuild -
Automatic menu entry available on the surface context menu in Prospector. For more information,
see To Rebuild a Surface Automatically.
To Change a Breakline Vertex Elevation or Location
1. Select the breakline either graphically or by using an AutoCAD command, such as
Properties Edit (Pedit) or Change.
2. Perform the edit to the breakline.

If the breakline and surface definition become out-of-date, a is displayed next to its node in
the Prospector tree.
3. Rebuild the surface to update the breakline definition by right-clicking the surface in
the Prospector tree and clicking Rebuild.
NOTE: You can rebuild a surface automatically by toggling the check mark next to the Rebuild -
Automatic menu entry available on the surface short-cut menu in Prospector. For more
information, see To Rebuild a Surface Automatically.

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To Change the Description of a Breakline Operation
1. Click the surface Breaklines collection in the Prospector tree.
The breakline operations with their descriptions and types are displayed in the Prospector list
view.
2. Click the breakline operation description in the list view and enter a new description.
NOTE: You cannot rename individual breakline descriptions. They are named based on the
breakline operation description.
About Inserting Breakline Data Into a Drawing
Insert breaklines into a drawing as polylines.
NOTE: You cannot insert into the drawing breaklines that you have imported from an .flt file
(ASCII file format), unless you used the Break Link To File option. For information, see To Import
Breaklines from a File.
You may need to insert breaklines into the drawing if you deleted the original entity and did not
update the surface. In this case, you can import the breakline from the breakline collection.
If any of the selected breaklines exist in the drawing, a message box is displayed stating that no
breaklines are inserted into the drawing. Polyline objects are created on the current layer.
In some situations, the surface keeps breakline or contour data (a list of their point coordinates),
but does not associate them with an object. This may happen, for example, when you deleted an
entity that the surface depends on, but the Copy Deleted Dependent Objects option on
the Definition Tab of the Surface Properties dialog box is set to Yes. In this case, the surface
simply converts its reference from a drawing entity to a list of points defining the object’s geometry.
To restore the reference to the object entity, you can insert the data associated with the deleted
breakline.
To Insert Breakline Data Into a Drawing
1. Click the surface Breaklines collection in the Prospector tree.
The breaklines with their descriptions and types are displayed in the Prospector list view.
2. Right-click a breakline operation in the list view and click Insert to Drawing.
 If the breakline objects in the breakline operation do not exist in the drawing, they
are added to the drawing as polyline objects.
 If the breaklines exist in the drawing, a message box is displayed stating that no
breaklines are inserted into the drawing.

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About Using Contour Data in Surfaces

Contours are graphical illustrations of surface elevation changes. You can create a surface from
contours drawn as 2D or 3D polylines where each unique polyline contains points that are all at
the same elevation.
The following illustrations show polyline data (1) that has been added to a surface (2) whose style
is set to display contours, triangles, and the surface boundary.

Contour data can be added only to TIN surfaces.

To Add Contour Data to a Surface
You can add contour data to an existing TIN surface. For best results, add the contour data in a
single operation.
1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the surface Definition collection, right-
click Contours, and click Add.
2. In the Add Contour Data dialog box, enter the contour description in the Description field.

3. Enter the distance and angle weeding factors in the corresponding fields or click to
digitize a distance or angle in the drawing area. For more information, see About Weeding
and Supplementing Factors for Contours.
4. Enter the distance and mid-ordinate distance supplementing factors in the corresponding
fields or click to select a distance or mid-ordinate distance in the drawing area.
5. Select options for minimizing flat areas in the surface. For more information, see About
Minimizing Flat Areas in a Surface.
NOTE:You can specify these options when adding the contour data, or you can check for contour
problems later. For some contour data sets, the Check for Contour Problems command reports
large numbers of errors if you add the contour data to the surface without specifying Minimize Flat
Areas By options.
6. Click OK.
7. Select the polylines to define as contour data and press Enter.
TIP:Optionally, before selecting the Add command, you could use the QSELECT or
SELECTSIMILAR command to create a selection set of polylines that you want to add as contour
data.
The contour data is created and added to the surface Contours collection in the Prospector tree.

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After you have added the contour data, verify the contours visually and correct any contour issues.
Add additional contours where needed, and add spot elevation points or breaklines only where
they are required to correct a specific issue. For information about repairing contour issues,
see About Supplementing Missing Contour Information, To Check a Surface for Contour
Problems, and To Minimize Flat Areas in a Surface.
After you have repaired any issues with contours, add additional surface data such as additional
spot elevation points and boundaries. Add surface boundaries last. Add boundaries starting at
the outside of the surface and working toward the inside.
About Weeding and Supplementing Factors for Contours
Use weeding and supplementing to add or remove vertices along a contour.
Set the weeding and supplementing parameters when you add the contour data to the surface
definition in the Add Contour Data dialog box.
Weeding Factors
Weeding reduces the number of points generated along the contours. The weeding factors ignore
both vertices that are closer together than the distance factor and vertices that deflect less than
the angle factor. A larger distance and deflection angle weeds a greater number of points. The
distance factor is measured in linear units, and the angle factor is measured in angular units. The
weeding factors must be less than the supplementing factors.
A point on the contour is weeded by calculating its location in relation to the vertices before and
after it. If the length between these three points is less than the weeding length value, and the
deflection angle is less than the weeding angle value, then the middle point is not added to the
contour data file.
Examples of weeding factor parameters:

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Supplementing Factors
Supplementing factors add vertices along contours.
The supplementing distance is the maximum distance between vertices. If the distance between
vertices on a contour is greater than the supplementing factor, then points are added along the
contour at equal intervals that are less than or equal to the supplementing distance. The smaller
the distance, the greater the number of supplemented points.
Example of the distance (SD) parameter with supplemented vertices:

The mid-ordinate distance is the distance from the midway point of an arc to the chord of the arc.
The mid-ordinate distance is used to add vertices to a polyline curve, creating an approximation
of the curve using straight line segments. The length of these segments depends on the value of
the mid-ordinate distance.
Example of the mid-ordinate parameter:

About Supplementing Missing Contour Information

When you create a model from contours and then generate contours from this model, in some
cases, Autodesk Civil 3D may not generate the same set of contours.
In the most common situation, surface data is missing in either a low or high area, such as near
the top of a hill, at the bottom of a valley, or on the edge of the site.

106
To correct this problem, place spot elevations or another contour line near the place where the
surface data is missing. For example, if a contour line is missing along the top of a hill, place a
new contour, breakline, or spot elevation at the estimated maximum elevation of the hill. The
recommended practice is to place any interpolated data, points, or contours on a separate layer.
If you create a surface using only contour information, you may need to place breaklines or spot
elevations in areas where the contour line changes direction drastically. Areas where this is likely
to happen include: a crowned roadway, a swale, or a ridge. In these places, contours tend to
triangulate onto themselves. In most instances, the Minimize Flat Areas operation resolves this
problem. For more information, see To Minimize Flat Areas in a Surface. In severe situations, you
may need to add additional point or breakline data.
For best results, follow the suggested order of operations for adding contour data to a surface.
For more information, see To Add Contour Data to a Surface.
To Edit Contours
1. Select the contour graphically or by using an AutoCAD command, such as PEDIT or
PROPERTIES.
2. Perform the edit to the contour. You can insert, move, and delete contour vertices, as well
as redefine the elevation at a selected vertex.

If the contour and surface definition become out-of-date, a is displayed next to its node in
the Prospector tree.
3. Rebuild the surface to update the contour definition by right-clicking the surface in
the Prospector tree and clicking Rebuild.
TIP: You can update the surface automatically by turning on Rebuild – Automatic.
About Inserting Contour Data Into a Drawing
Insert contour data into the drawing as AutoCAD polylines using the Insert to Drawing command.
In some situations, the surface keeps breakline or contour data (a list of their point coordinates),
but does not associate them with an object. This may happen, for example, when you deleted an
entity that the surface depends on, but the Copy Deleted Dependent Objects option on
the Definition Tab of the Surface Properties dialog box is set to Yes. In this case, the surface
simply converts its reference from a drawing entity to a list of points defining the object’s geometry.
To restore the reference to the object entity, you can insert the data associated with the deleted
contour.
To Insert Contour Data Into a Drawing
1. In the Prospector tree, expand the Surfaces collection <surface name> Definition.
2. Click the Contours collection.
The contours with their descriptions are displayed in the Prospector list view.
3. Right-click a contour operation in the list view and click Insert To Drawing.
 If the contour objects in the contour operation do not exist in the drawing, they are
added to the drawing as polyline objects.
 If the contours exist in the drawing, a corresponding message is displayed.

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About Adding Surface Data From a Point File
If you have point data files that you created either manually or by downloading a data collector,
you can use the point data as surface data.
Any point file format that can be imported to create Autodesk Civil 3D points can be used to add
points to surfaces.
The following is an example of the PENZ space-delimited format, which is just one of the point
file formats recognized by the surface Add Point File command.
A PENZ space-delimited point file contains: point number, easting (X), northing (Y), elevation (Z)).
Within the file, the following syntax is used for each point:
[Point Number] [Easting (or X)] [Northing (or Y)] [Elevation (or Z)]
An example of the contents of a PENZ space delimited format point text file:
26303 315872.971714 4838799.938284 111.250000
26304 315876.474880 4838813.524640 111.280000
26305 315873.911320 4838829.056520 111.950000
26306 315861.792509 4838799.287159 112.060000
26307 315855.883079 4838798.942969 114.160000
26308 315855.585197 4838811.389822 114.080000
26309 315861.566272 4838812.001057 111.920000
There are several supported point file formats. If your point files use a format that is not recognized
by the surface Add Point File command, you can convert the files to a supported format.
First, you create a point file format that describes the layout of the data in the point files. Then,
using the point file format, you convert the files to a supported format using the Transfer
Points utility.
To Add Surface Data From a Point File

Tutorial Exercise: Adding Point Data to a Surface

1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the surface Definition collection, right-
click , and click Add.

2. In the Add Point File dialog box, select the format of the point file or click to create a
point file format that describes the layout of the data in the point data file.

3. Enter the point file path and name into the Source File field or click to browse and select
the point file.
4. Click Open to add the point file to the surface.
If the point file contains a line with bad data, an error (including the line number) is posted the
Event Viewer and the operation continues.
The point file is added to the Point Files item view.

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To Create a Surface Point File Manually

Create a PENZ space-delimited point file containing point information and use the file to create
or add data to a surface in Autodesk Civil 3D.

1. Open a text editor, such as Notepad.

2. Enter the point number, easting, northing, and elevation values. Separate each value by one
or more spaces.

3. Enter the information for each point on a separate line. For best results, do not include extra
spaces at the end of a line or blank lines at the end of the file. The file should consist entirely
of point data. However, you can add a comment line by entering a # sign at the beginning of
a line.

4. Save the file as a text file.

An example of a PENZ space-delimited point file:
# Autodesk Point File Format
3 379.910000 511.270000 227.620000
4 393.880000 497.100000 225.750000
5 382.640000 464.050000 223.890000
6 403.690000 429.340000 222.880000
103 190.080000 307.560000 194.250000
104 182.090000 322.940000 194.940000
105 174.100000 338.320000 195.630000
106 142.910000 340.320000 203.030000
107 117.470000 342.780000 208.460000
108 124.430000 394.400000 208.410000
109 137.700000 400.690000 205.430000

To Add Point Groups To a Surface

1. Create a point group if needed.

2. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, right-click the surface Point Groups collection and
click Add.

3. In the Point Groups dialog box, in the list of available point groups, select the point group
to add to the surface.

4. Click OK to add the point group to the surface.

The point group is added to the Point Group list view in Prospector.

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Exercises

Creating a TIN Surface

In this exercise, you will create an empty TIN surface in a new drawing.

To Create a TIN surface in a new drawing:

1. Click New.

2. In the Select Template dialog box, browse to the tutorial folder. Select Surface.dwt.
Click Open.

3. Click Home tab Create Ground Data panel Surfaces drop-down Create
Surface Find.

4. In the Create Surface dialog box, for Type, select TIN surface .

NOTE:

By default, a new Surface Layer will be created named C-TOPO- followed by the name you enter
in the Name cell. You can also click to specify an existing layer for the surface.

5. In the Properties table, specify the following parameters:

 Name: EG

 Description: Existing Ground surface from imported point data

 Style: Points and Border

TIP:

To select the style, click the Value cell, and then click to display the Select Surface Style dialog
box.

 Render Material: ByLayer

6. Click OK.

7. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the Surfaces collection.

The new surface name is displayed in the Surfaces collection in the Master View of
the Toolspace on the Prospector tab, but this surface does not contain any data.

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Adding Point Data to a Surface

In this exercise, you will import point data from a text file into the current drawing.

To Import point data into the current drawing:

1. Open drawing Surface.dwg file with empty surface definition.

This drawing contains an empty surface definition, which is named.

2. Click Modify tab Ground Data panel Surface Find.

3. Click Surface tab Modify panel Add Data Point Files Find.

4. Under Selected Files, click .

5. In the Select Source File dialog box, browse to the tutorial folder. Select Surface-1A-
PENZD (space delimited).txt. Click Open.

6. In the Add Point File dialog box, under Specify Point File Format, select PENZD (Space
Delimited).

7. In the Add Point File dialog box, click OK.

8. At the command line, enter ZE.

The surface, which contains the imported point data, is displayed in the drawing.

Adding Breaklines to a Surface

In this exercise, you will cause the surface to triangulate along a linear feature.

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Breaklines are used to define surface features and to force triangulation along the breakline.
Surfaces do not triangulate across breaklines, creating more accurate TIN surface models.

In this exercise, you will create breaklines along the edge of pavement for an existing road.
Breaking the surface along features produces a more accurate surface rendering.

Display the source polylines and change the surface style

1. Click Home tab Layers panel Layer drop-down. Next to

the _EG_BREAKLINES layer, click .

The 3D polylines that represent the edge of pavement (EP) of an existing road are displayed on
the east side of the site.

2. Select the surface. Right-click. Click Surface Properties.

3. In the Surface Properties dialog box, on the Information tab, for Surface Style,
select Contours and Triangles. Click OK.

The surface now shows contours and triangles that illustrate the EG surface triangulation.

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Create breaklines from the polylines

1. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the Surfaces EG

Definition collections. Right-click Breaklines. Click Add.

2. In the Add Breaklines dialog box, for Description, enter Edge of pavement - existing
road. Use the default values for the other fields. Click OK.

3. The Select Objects prompt becomes active. While in this command, use the Zoom and
Pan commands to locate the two blue 3D polylines on the east side of the site.

Zoom in close so you can see that the triangles cross over the polylines.

4. Select the polylines. Press Enter.

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The surface triangulation is modified. The edge of pavement breaklines are applied, and the TIN
surface is adjusted along the breakline edges, modifying the surface triangulation.

5. Click View tab Navigate 2D panel Extents.

The drawing window zooms to the extents of the surface. With the breakline data added, the layer
that contained the source data for the breaklines can be frozen.

6. Click Home tab Layers panel Layer drop-down. Next to

the EG_BREAKLINES layer, click .

Further exploration: Notice that, along some portions of the polylines, the surface triangulation
incorrectly crosses the breakline. This happened because the surface contours also act as
breaklines. The new breaklines are not added because the contours are already acting as
breaklines, and the current surface setting does not allow more than one breakline to affect the
surface at a given point. To override this behavior, you can perform any of the following tasks:

 Build the surface with contours and breaklines: In the Surface Properties dialog box,
on the Definition tab, expand the Build collection. Set Allow Crossing Breaklines to Yes,
and then set Elevation to Use to Use Last Breakline Elevation at Intersection.

 Modify the surface: Use the DeleteSurfacePoint command to delete surface points that
are located exactly on the polylines.

 Modify the polylines: Add a vertex to the polylines at each location where it crosses a
surface contour.

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Adding an Outer Boundary to a Surface

In this exercise, you will create an outer surface boundary from a polyline.

To Create an outer boundary from a polyline:

1. Click Home tab Layers panel Layer drop-down. Next to the _EG-BNDY layer,
click . Click in the drawing to exit the Layer Control list.

A blue polyline, which represents the extents of the site, is displayed. This polyline was imported
with the original surface contours.

2. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the Surfaces EG

Definition collections. Right-click Boundaries. Click Add.

3. In the Add Boundaries dialog box, specify the following parameters:

 Name: EG - Outer

 Type: Outer

 Non-Destructive Breakline: Cleared

 Mid-Ordinate Distance: 1.000

4. Click OK.

5. Select the blue polyline.

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The boundary is added to the surface definition, and the surface display in the drawing is clipped
to the area that is defined by the new outer boundary.

Hide the polyline and change the surface style

1. Click Home tab Layers panel Layer drop-down. Next to the _EG-BNDY layer,
click .

2. Select the surface. Right-click. Click Surface Properties.

3. In the Surface Properties dialog box, on the Information tab, for Surface Style,
select Contours 5' and 25' (Background). Click OK.

In the selected surface style, contours are displayed in muted colors at broad intervals. This
display allows the major surface features to remain visible while you focus on other aspects of
the site design.

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Generating Surface Volume Information

This tutorial demonstrates how to create a composite volume surface from a base surface and a
comparison surface, and then perform composite volume calculations.

A volume surface is similar to other surface objects, in that you can display cut and fill contours,
cut and fill points, add labels to it, and add it to a project. The cut, fill, and net volumes are
properties that can be viewed by selecting Surface Properties.

The composite volume method uses the points from two surfaces, as well as any location where
the triangle edges between the two surfaces cross. The cut, fill, and net volumes are calculated
based on the elevation differences between the two surfaces.
Cut and fill conditions

About Calculating Volumes With the Volumes Dashboard

Use the Volumes Dashboard to analyze volume surfaces and bounded areas within those
surfaces.
Using the Volumes Dashboard you can:

 Calculate volumes in multiple volume surfaces and in bounded areas within the volume
surfaces.

 Save volume information between drawing sessions. The entries you make in the Volumes
Dashboard are persistent between drawing sessions.

 Select multiple surfaces and bounded areas to show in the total volumes graph.

 Insert a summary of the volumes into the drawing.

 Generate a volumes report.

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Each volume surface and bounded area that you add to the Volumes Dashboard has a check
box next to it in the Volumes Dashboard. Select the check box next to a volume item to include
the item in the total volumes graph, a report, or a cut/fill table.

NOTE:The total volumes graph does not display a representation of the volumes if no surfaces
or bounded areas are selected, if both a volume surface and an associated bounded area of that
volume surface are selected at the same time, or if any of the selected volume surfaces are out
of date.

To Add a Volume Surface to the Volumes Dashboard for Analysis

There are two ways to add surfaces to the Volumes Dashboard. You can create a new volume
surface to analyze, or you can add an existing volume surface to the Volumes Dashboard to
analyze.
To create a new volume surface in the Volumes Dashboard

1. Click Analyze tab Volumes and Materials panel Volumes Dashboard Find.

2. In the Volumes Dashboard, click Create New Volume Surface.

3. Use the Create Surface dialog box to set up the volume surface and click OK.

NOTE:You can set the default volume surface type that is used in the Create Surface dialog box
for this command by changing the Volume Surface Creation settings in the VolumesDashboard
command settings.

NOTE:Data-referenced volume surfaces cannot be added to the Volumes Dashboard directly.

However, you can create a volume surface in the current drawing that uses data-referenced
surfaces for the base and/or comparison surfaces.
To add an existing volume surface to the Volumes Dashboard

1. Click Analyze tab Volumes and Materials panel Volumes Dashboard Find.

2. In the Volumes Dashboard, click Add Volume Surface.

3. Select the volume surface and click OK.

After you add a volume surface to the Volumes Dashboard, you can add a bounded area if
needed.

Each volume surface and bounded area that you add to the Volumes Dashboard has a check
box next to it in the Volumes Dashboard. Select the check box next to a volume item to include
the item in the total volumes graph, a report, or a cut/fill table.

NOTE:The total volumes graph does not display a representation of the volumes if no surfaces
or bounded areas are selected, if both a volume surface and an associated bounded area of that
volume surface are selected at the same time, or if any of the selected volume surfaces are out
of date.

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To Add a Bounded Area to the Volumes Dashboard for Analysis

After you have added a volume surface to the Volumes Dashboard, you can add a bounded area
by selecting an existing object in the drawing to define the boundary.

1. Click Analyze tab Volumes and Materials panel Volumes Dashboard Find.

2. In the Volumes Dashboard, select a volume surface.

3. Click Add Bounded Volume.

4. Select the boundary in the drawing.

NOTE:The boundary can be a polyline, 3D polyline, 2D polyline, lot line, feature line, circle, ellipse,
survey figure, or parcel.

The bounded area is added to the Volumes Dashboard as a subentry beneath the volume surface
you selected in Step 2. Click the plus sign next to the volume surface to view the volume
information and properties for the bounded area.

Each volume surface and bounded area that you add to the Volumes Dashboard has a check
box next to it in the Volumes Dashboard. Select the check box next to a volume item to include
the item in the total volumes graph, a report, or a cut/fill table.

After you add a bounded area, you can re-select the boundary by clicking in the Boundary
column of the table. You can also specify a Mid-Ordinate Distance for a bounded area's
breaklines.

NOTE:If the boundary object is erased from drawing, the corresponding entry for bounded area
in the dashboard is removed.

To Generate a Volume Report From the Volumes Dashboard

1. Click Analyze tab Volumes and Materials panel Volumes Dashboard Find.

2. In the Volumes Dashboard, select the volume surfaces and bounded areas you want to
include in the report so they have a check mark next to them.

3. Click Generate Cut/Fill Report.

NOTE:The default location for the stylesheet that is used for this report is
C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\C3D <version>\enu\Data\Cut Fill Report\. The file name is
CutFillReport.xsl.

To Insert a Volume Summary Into the Drawing From the Volumes Dashboard

1. Click Analyze tab Volumes and Materials panel Volumes Dashboard Find.

2. In the Volumes Dashboard, select the volume surfaces and bounded areas you want to
include in the summary so they have a check mark next to them.

3. Click Insert Cut/Fill Summary.

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 4. Select the location in the drawing where you want to insert the table.

The summary is created as a block and does not update dynamically if the volume information
changes.

To Specify the Volumes Dashboard Command Settings

1. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab, expand Surface Commands. Double-
click VolumesDashboard .

2. In the Edit Command Settings - Volumes Dashboard dialog box, specify the default
settings to use for the Volumes Dashboard command. The Volumes Dashboard
Command Settings control the default settings used in the Volumes Dashboard, such as
cut and fill factors and the colors used to highlight the surface and bounded areas in the
drawing. For more information about the settings in this dialog box, see Edit Feature
Settings - Surface Dialog Box.

About Composite Volumes

The composite method triangulates a new surface, based on points from both surfaces.
This method uses the points from both surfaces, as well as any location where the edges of the
triangles between the two surfaces intersect to create prismoidal segments from composite TIN
lines.

The new composite surface elevations are calculated based on the difference between the
elevations of the two surfaces, as follows:

This method gives accurate volume measurements between the two surface definitions.

About Surface Stage Storage Volumes

Using the Stage Storage command, you can calculate incremental and cumulative volumes of a
basin.
The storage volume at each depth (stage) is calculated from the input and the cumulative volume
is totaled.

To define the basin, you can use one of the following:

 An existing surface.

 Selected contours within an existing surface.

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  Existing polylines in the drawing. These must be lwpolylines, such as created with the
PLINE command.

 Contour elevation and area data that you enter into a dialog box.

To use either a surface or contours within a surface, contours must be visible.

To Display Contours for Surface Stage Storage Volume Analysis

Display surface contours in the drawing to define the basin from a surface or surface contours.
This is a prerequisite if you want to use the Define From Entities option in the Stage
Storage dialog box.

1. Open a drawing that contains a basin you would like to study.

2. To view surface contours, right-click on the surface, and click Edit Surface Style.

3. In the Surface Style dialog box, on the Display tab:

 Set Major Contours and Minor Contours to be visible.

 Optionally, set User Contours and Watersheds to be visible.

 Click OK.

To Calculate Surface Stage Storage Volumes

To calculate stage storage volumes

1. Turn on the visibility of contours for the surface if you are going to use a surface or contours
to define the basin.

2. Click Analyze tab Design panel Stage Storage Find.

3. In the Stage Storage dialog box, enter Stage Storage Table Details.

4. For Volume Calculation Method, click Average End Area, Conic Approximation, or Both.

5. For Basin Definition Options, do one of the following:

 Select Define Basin From Entity, click Define Basin, and define the basin using all
the contours in a surface.

 Select Define Basin From Entity, click Define Basin, and define the basin using
polylines or selected contours extracted from a surface.

 Select Use Manual Contour Data Entry and click Define Basin to manually enter
contour elevations and areas.

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To define the basin using all contour data from a surface object

1. In the Define Basin From Entities dialog box:

 Click Define Basin From Surface Contours.

 Click Define.

2. In the drawing, select the surface (“1” in the following illustration) and right-click or
press Enter.

The surface object data is extracted, and listed in the Stage Storage Volume Table. This option
uses all the contour data from the surface.

3. Save the results.

To define the basin using polylines or selected surface contours

1. In the Stage Storage dialog box, under Basin Definition Options:

 Click Define Basin From Entity.

 Click Define Basin.

2. In the Define Basin From Entities dialog box, click Define Basin From Polylines.

3. Optionally, if you want to extract polylines from surface contours to define the basin,
click Extract Objects From Surface, and then select the surface in the drawing and press
Enter. When you click Define in the Define Basin From Entities dialog box, you can then
select the polylines that were created to define the basin.

NOTE: Whereas the Define Basin From Surface Contours option uses all of the surface contours
for the input data, you can use the Extract Objects From Surface option to extract data from
selected contours, for example, the contours that define a depression.

4. Optionally, clear Change Selected Entities To The Following Layer.

If you select Change Selected Entities To The Following Layer, for Basin Polyline Layer, enter
the layer to which you want the polylines to be moved.

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 5. Select Delete Unselected Entities On Selected Layer.

TIP: This option cleans up the drawing by deleting any polylines that were created by the Extract
Entities From Surface button, but which you do not select with the Define button.

6. Click Define.

7. Select at least two polylines. In the following illustration a third polyline (3) is included.
Either right-click or press Enter.

NOTE: The polylines must be lwpolylines (created with the PLINE command, for example).

The polyline data is extracted and listed in the Stage Storage Volume Table.

8. Save the results.

To define the basin by manually entering surface contour data

1. In the Define Basin From Entered Data dialog box, enter contour elevation and area data
for at least two contours.

2. Click Add To Table.

The information is added to the Stage Storage Volume Table, with volumes calculated.

3. Save the results.

To Save and Display the Surface Stage Storage Volume Analysis

To save and display the volume results

1. Calculate stage storage volumes.

2. In the Stage Storage dialog box, click Save Table.

3. In the Browse For Folder dialog box:

 Select the folder in which you wish to save the table.

 Click OK.

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 4. In the Save A Stage Storage Table dialog box:

 Enter a File Name for the table.

 Click Save.

The volume table is saved as an AeccSST file. You can click Load Table to import the saved data.

5. In the Stage Storage dialog box, click Insert.

6. Click in the drawing to insert the table.

NOTE: The stage storage tables are not dynamic. To update the table, you must recalculate the
data and re-insert the table.
To save and display a stage storage volume report

1. In the Stage Storage dialog box, click Create Report.

2. In the Save A Stage Storage Report dialog box:

 Select the folder in which you wish to save the report.

 Enter a File Name for the report.

 Click Save.

The report is saved as a TXT file and opens in your default text file viewer.

About Surface Stage Storage Volume Calculation Methods

You can use either the Average End Area or the Conic Approximation method, or both, to
calculate volumes for the stage storage table.
Average End Area Method

The Average End Area method calculates the volume between two cross sections; the cross-
sectional areas are averaged and multiplied by the distance between cross sections to determine
the volume.

The Average End Area method is expressed by the following equation:

where V is the volume, calculated from the two end areas A1 and A2, and the distance L between
the two areas.
Conic Approximation Method

The Conic Approximation method calculates the volume between two sectional areas; the two
areas being added along with the square root of their product and multiplied by a third of distance
between the areas to determine the volume.

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The Conic Approximation method is expressed by the following equation:

where V is the volume, calculated from the two areas A1 and A2, and the distance h between the
two areas.

About Analyzing Surfaces

You can perform many types of surface-related analysis, including contour, directions, elevations,
slopes, slope-arrows, watersheds, and water drop path.
Surface analysis types include:

 Directions. Used for aspect analysis. Renders surface triangles differently according to
the direction they face.

 Elevations. Used for elevation banding analysis. Renders surface triangles differently
according to their elevation range.

 Slopes. Renders surface triangles differently according to the slope range they fall within.

 Slope Arrows. Used for slope direction analysis. Places a slope directional arrow at each
triangle centroid. The arrow color is based on the color assigned to a slope range, similar
to slope analysis.

 Contours. Renders contour lines differently in according to their elevation range.

 User-Defined Contours. Renders user-defined contour lines differently according to their

elevation range.

 Watersheds. Renders watersheds differently according to their type.

 Contour Problems. Used to locate problems with contours that are drawn according to
the surface style contour settings.

 Water Drop. Used to trace the path that water would take across a surface.

Use the Analysis tab in the Surface Style dialog box to control the display and styles for direction,
elevation, slope, and slope arrow analysis. Contours and watersheds have corresponding tabs
(Contours tab and Watersheds tab), where their style and display are controlled. Use
the Analysis tab in the Surface Properties dialog box to create the actual analysis.

To check for contour problems using a separate utility, click Analyze Ground Data panel
Contour Check Find.

To perform water drop analysis in a separate utility, click Analyze Ground Data Water
Drop Find.

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To Perform a Surface Analysis

1. In Toolspace, on the Settings tab, right-click the Surface Styles collection and click New.

2. In the Surface Style dialog box, click the Information tab and assign a name and
description to the style.

3. Click the Analysis tab and modify the properties as required.

4. For contour analysis, to modify the default analysis values, click the Contours tab and
modify the Contour Ranges property group as well as the Major and Minor display
settings.

5. For watershed analysis, click the Watersheds tab and modify the properties as required.

6. Click the Display tab and modify the display settings so that the analysis is displayed
correctly.

7. Click OK to save the style and close the Surface Style dialog box.

8. In Toolspace, on the Prospector tab, expand the Surfaces collection, right-click the
surface for which you want to create an analysis, and click Properties.

9. In the Surface Properties dialog box, click the Analysis tab and select the analysis that
you want from the Analysis Type list.

NOTE: The Analysis tab displays varying fields and options depending on the type of analysis
that you select.

10. Optionally, select a legend style.

11. Modify the range or watershed parameters as required and click to generate the
analysis.

12. Optionally, modify the details of the analysis by editing the fields in the Details table. For
more information, see the Analysis tab.

About Checking a Surface for Contour Problems

Use the Check for Contour Problems utility to identify problems with contours that are drawn
according to the surface style contour settings.
NOTE: The Check for Contour Problems utility operates on TIN surfaces only.

The utility takes into account the base elevation and interval specified in the surface style. When
the utility encounters an invalid condition, a warning is displayed in the Event Viewer.

The utility looks at every surface point that falls on a contour. For each point, the utility counts the
number of neighboring points (that is, points to which it is connected by an edge or a point that
lies on the opposite side of a triangle that it belongs to) that fall at the same elevation. If the
number of same-elevation neighbors is one, the warning “Contour ends at [x,y,z]” is displayed in
the Event Viewer. If the number of same-elevation neighbors is more than two, the warning

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“Multiple contours at [x,y,z]” is displayed in the Event Viewer. In the second case, if the point is
on the border of the surface, the warning “Multiple contours at border point [x,y,z]” is displayed.

The “contour ends” condition can mean that a gap in the data contour was too wide for the
triangulation process to connect the ends with an edge. You can fill this gap by creating and
adding a breakline that connects the two ends.

The multiple contours condition, which occurs when a point has more than two neighboring points
with the same elevation, generally happens in a flat area of the surface. When this condition is
detected, you can use the Minimize Flat Areas operation to correct the problem. If the point is on
the surface border, the flat area can simply be an unintended artifact of the triangulation process.
You can remove these unintended triangles by using the Delete Line operation or by adding a
hide boundary.

If no contour problems are found, a message is displayed in the Event Viewer stating that no
problem were found for the surface style setting for contour base elevation and interval.

NOTE: All contour problems occur when the elevation of a data contour point is the same as the
elevation at which a contour is drawn. If no points in the surface are at contour elevations, there
will be no problems with drawn contours. It is often possible and acceptable to adjust the contour
base elevation value to create a condition where no points fall on surface contours, thus avoiding
contour problems entirely.

To Check a Surface for Contour Problems

1. Click Analyze tab Ground Data panel Contour Check Find.

2. If more than one surface is available in the drawing, click the surface on which to perform
the check or press Enter to select a surface in the Select A Surface dialog box.

3. Click OK.

Any detected contour problems are displayed in the Event Viewer.

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About Drawing Surface Water Drop Paths

Use the water drop utility to trace the path that water takes across a surface.
The utility draws a 2D or 3D polyline that represents a flow of water and also marks the start point
of the path. If a channel splits, then new polylines are drawn to follow each water drop path.

For example, multiple water drop paths can be drawn from a contour line to illustrate the water
flow at different points along the contour:

You can use either a 2D or 3D polyline to draw the flow line. The line type that you use depends
on your analysis requirements. Following are usage examples for each line type:

 2D polyline. Delineate an area that represents a drainage area for water runoff analysis.
You create a closed 2D polyline using AutoCAD editing commands. You can use the
resulting closed 2D polyline to query the area and perform other analysis.

 3D polyline: You want to perform visualization and drape the lines over the surface. You
can also create grading feature lines from the water drop lines for grading purposes.

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To Draw Surface Water Drop Paths

1. Click Analyze tab Ground Data panel Flow Paths Water Drop Find.

2. If more than one surface is available in the drawing, click the surface on which to perform
the water drop analysis or press Enter to select a surface in the Select A Surface dialog
box.

3. In the Water Drop dialog box, in the properties grid, click the Value column for the Path
Layer property. Enter a name for the layer on which to draw the water drop polyline or
click to select a layer.

4. To specify the type of polyline to use for the water drop path, click the Path Object
Type field. Select the type.

5. To specify whether to draw a marker at the start of the water drop path, click the Place
Marker At Start Point field. Select either Yes or No.

6. To set the style for the start point maker, click the Start Point Marker Style property.
Click in the Value column.

The Point Style dialog box is displayed.

7. Click OK.

NOTE: To be certain that any changes that you make to the water drop settings persist, ensure
that the drawing setting Save Command Changes To Settings is set to Yes. For information,
see To Specify Ambient Settings.

8. Click a point on the surface for the start of the water drop path.

9. Click another point to draw another water drop path or press Enter if finished.

About Calculating Surface Catchment Areas

Use the Catchment Area command to analyze water runoff and display the surface drainage area.
The command defines the surface region with a depression low point (catchment point),
delineates the region with a boundary, and calculates the area of the catchment region.

NOTE:Use the Create Catchment From Surface or Create Catchment From Object command to
create catchment objects which can be exported to Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis for
review.

You can use a water drop path utility to determine an accurate placement of catchment regions
and catchment points.

NOTE: The Catchment Area command performs the analysis only on the selected surface region
and does not account for overflow situations occurring in the neighboring surface regions.

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To Calculate Surface Catchment Areas

1. Locate an area of interest in the drawing.

2. Optionally, perform the following steps:

1. Click Analyze tab Ground Data panel Flow Paths Water Drop Find.

This command creates a polyline that represents the water drop path from a point on the selected
region to the depression point in this region.

2. Select the water drop path polyline, right-click, and choose Properties.

3. In the Properties manager, under Geometry, navigate to the last vertex and copy
and paste the X- and Y-coordinate values (comma-separated with no space) into
a text file.

3. Click Analyze tab Ground Data panel Catchments Catchment Area Find.

4. In the Catchment Area dialog box, click the Value column for the Catchment
Layer property and click to select an existing layer, or create a layer in the Create Layer
dialog box.

Best Practice It is useful to place the catchment region on a separate layer. Then you can control
visual style elements, such as color and line types.

5. Click the Value column for the Catchment Object Type, and select a line type.

TIP: If you select 2D Polyline, you can use the AutoCAD Area command on the catchment region.
If you select 3D Polyline, you can use the elevation values of the polyline vertices for analysis.

6. Click the Value column for the Catchment Marker property, and specify whether you want
to mark the catchment point.

7. Click in the Value column of the Catchment Marker Style property, and then select a
style in the Catchment Marker Style dialog box. Click OK.

8. If more than one surface is available in the drawing, click the surface on which to perform
the catchment region analysis, or press Enter to select a surface in the Select A
Surface dialog box.

9. Specify a catchment location. You can either paste the coordinates that you copied in Step
2 or click in the desired location.

The catchment region boundary appears on the drawing, and the value of the region area displays
at the command line.

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To Identify the Shortest Vertical Distance Between Two Surfaces

1. Click Analyze tab Ground Data panel Minimum Distance Between

Surfaces Find.

2. In the drawing, select the first surface or press Enter to select it from the list.

3. Select the second surface or press Enter to select it from the list.

4. In the displayed prompt, select Y or N to specify whether you want to draw the marker line
connecting the two points that lay at the shortest distance from one another.

If the surfaces are flat and there is more than one location with the shortest distance, the output
is represented by a series of points, a line, or an area displayed as a closed polyline.

About Surface Breakline Tools

Use the Autodesk Civil 3D breakline tools to find, report, and correct intersecting breaklines in a
survey database or in a surface to which the breakline geometry has been added.
Any invalid conditions in breakline geometry can cause issues in surface creation.

The following drawing shows an example of two crossing breaklines that create an invalid
condition when two elevations exist at the intersection point of the breaklines (1 and 2).

The breakline tools enable you to:

 Identify crossing breaklines in a survey database, survey figure, or a surface created from
survey data.

 Edit breakline elevations to resolve issues caused by crossing breaklines.

 Create reports on crossing breaklines or breaklines that fall outside of specified ranges.

To Find and Fix Crossing Surface Breaklines

1. Click Analyze tab Ground Data Resolve Crossing Breaklines Find.

2. At the dynamic input prompt or at the command line, specify the location to look for
crossing breaklines: Survey Database, Figure, or Surface.

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 3. In the Crossing Breaklines vista that displays, view the list of intersecting breakline data,
for example:

Elevation
Breakline 1 Breakline 2 Easting Northing
Difference

Slopes Dirt Road 2449329.6678’ 6934649.2363’ -2.498'

Slopes Gravel Road 2449426.7324 ' 6934651.3785’ 3.604'

4. To view the crossing breaklines in the drawing, click an item in the list and then click Zoom
To.

NOTE: If Auto Zoom is selected, the intersection point of the selected pair of breaklines is
automatically centered and zoomed to.

The breakline with lower elevation (1) appears in red. The blue color identifies the breakline with
higher elevation (2).

5. To fix breakline issues, do one of the following:

 To resolve elevation differences of the crossing breaklines, under Crossing

Resolution, specify the elevation option (higher, lower, average, or new elevation)
to use for each point of intersection in each breakline pair.

 To resolve errors related to breakline length, click Trim and follow on-screen
prompts to trim the breakline segments.

6. Click to close the Crossing Breaklines vista.

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To Work With Surface Breakline Reports
To generate a crossing breakline report

1. In Toolspace, click Toolbox tab Reports Manager Breakline Crossing Breakline

Report.

2. In the Create Reports - Crossing Breakline dialog box, select Survey Databases, Survey
Figures, or Surfaces as the objects to analyze for crossing breaklines.

If the selected object exists in the drawing, survey database, or survey figure, the object is
displayed in the list.

3. Select the boxes in the Include column beside the objects that you want to have analyzed.

4. Optionally, click Check All to select or deselect all the entries in the list. Only the selected
objects are analyzed.

5. Under Report Settings, click to specify the location for saving the report.

6. Click Create Report.

To generate an invalid breakline conditions report

1. In Toolspace, click Toolbox tab Reports Manager Breakline Breakline Check.

2. In the Create Reports - Breakline Check Report dialog box, select Survey
Databases, Survey Figures, or Surfaces as the objects to analyze for the specified
breakline conditions.

If the selected object exists in the drawing, survey database, or survey figure, the object is
displayed in the list.

3. Select the boxes in the Include column beside the objects that you want to have analyzed.

4. Optionally, click Check All to select or deselect all the entries in the list. Only the selected
objects are analyzed.

5. Under Report Settings, specify the query conditions for breaklines. See Create Reports -
Breakline Check Report for setting descriptions.

6. Click to specify the location for saving the report.

7. Click Create Report.

To Create an Earthwork Construction Plan

You can use the Earthwork Plan Production command to insert labels in a grid and tables that
contain information about the volume of the earthwork between two TIN surfaces. The following
illustration shows an example of the grid, labels, and tables that are inserted into a drawing when
using this command.

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 1. Click Analyze tab Volumes and Materials panel Earthwork Plan
Production Find.

The Create Earthwork Construction Plan dialog box is displayed.

2. Select the existing ground TIN surface.

3. Select the finished ground TIN surface.

4. Optionally, select a grid point. This point specifies how the grid lines are positioned. When
the grid is created, one of the grid intersection points will be created at this location if it is
inside the specified surfaces.

5. Optionally, select a 2D polyline as a boundary.

TIP:To extract a polyline from a surface to use as a boundary, you can use the Extract
Objects command to convert the boundary of the surface to a 3D polyline and then use
the Convert 3D to 2D Polyline command to convert it to a 2D polyline.

6. Specify the following Grid Line parameters:

 Horizontal Interval: Specifies the horizontal length of the each grid cell.

 Vertical Interval: Specifies the vertical length of the each grid cell.

 Rotation Angle: Specifies the rotation angle for the grid cells.

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 7. Specify the following Component Visibility parameters:

 Statistical Table: Displays the total cut and fill values and totals for each row and
column of the grid.

 Distance Label: Displays the grid interval values.

 Grid Line: Displays the grid lines.

8. Select an Algorithm:

 Accuracy Method: Calculates the volume from a volume surface that is created
between the two TIN surfaces. This is the default method.

NOTE:This method should be used in cases where the grids are cut to irregular shapes at the
surface boundary.

 Triangular Prism Method: Calculates the volume from triangular prisms. The area
to be calculated is divided into triangular prisms, and the volume is calculated for
each triangular prism and then summed.

NOTE:This method should not be used in cases where the Horizontal Interval and Vertical
Interval are set to different values.

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  Cuboid Prism Method: Calculates the volume from cuboid prisms. The area to be
calculated is divided into cuboid prisms, and the volume is calculated for each
cuboid prism and then summed.

9. Click in the Settings row to open the Display Settings dialog box.

10. In the Display Settings dialog box, use the options at the top to specify layer, text, and
location settings. The following illustration shows how various labels appear in the
drawing:

11. Select the Volume Text Boundary check box to insert a boundary around the volume label
text, as shown in the following illustration:

12. Under Irregular Cell Label Options, you can specify settings that are used when the edge
of the selected boundary causes a grid cell to have an irregular shape.

NOTE: These options are used when a boundary is selected in the main dialog box.

 Boundary Point: Specifies that when the shape of a grid cell is irregular, a symbol
label is used, the original elevation labels are used, or no elevation labels are used.

If you select Symbol Label, symbols are inserted at the locations where cells are irregular and
information about those points is inserted into a table in the drawing.

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  Boundary Volume: Specifies how the volume label is placed when the shape of a
grid cell is irregular.

If you select Original Label, the label is placed at the center of the irregular grid cell area, as
shown in the following illustration.

If you select Whole Grid Label, the label is placed as if the grid cell was whole, as shown in the
following illustration.

13. Click OK to close the Display Settings dialog box.

14. Click OK in the Create Earthwork Construction Plan dialog box to create the earthwork
construction plan in the drawing.

TIP:You can click Delete in the Create Earthwork Construction Plan dialog box to delete all
components of an existing earthwork construction plan from the drawing.

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