does anybody actually use Survey Figure lines

[McQueen960067]

We are finding that Survey figure lines are becoming more and more of a problem especially since we made the jump to 2010 which as our Autocad Dealer told us was a "finished product" Several my fellow drafters have sat for endless periods of time cussing as they go through a dozen steps to save a single drawing back so that our Registered Surveyor can have something that will open in an older version or so that an Engineer or and EIT can have something that they can poke around in. In the end we find that the Figures always seem to be the Devil that makes life difficult. I myself have found it just as fast to immediately delete them or explode them and flatten them into 2d poly lines so i don't have to listen to others complain. so my question is this does anybody actualy use these things or are the survey figures a failed attempt that should be ignored and worked around?

[sinc]

How are you using Survey Figures?

We use them for field data. The field surveyor collects linework using appropriate codes, and all the linework is auto-drawn when we pull the survey data into our drawing. We then create breaklines from the Survey Figures, and have a finished surface. (Well, at least that's the theory - in practice, we end up finding and fixing coding errors, among other things, so it's not quite that simple.)

We don't use Survey Figures for anything else. But they seem to work well for this.

[McQueen960067]

We are suppose to correct them and use them to create the surface, much the same as you. however then we are suppose to flatten them and use them in the drawing that is the actual linework. The problem lies when the Registered Surveyor wants to see things before we start drawing so he can make a decision about where the property lines go. Per IT he is only allowed Land desktop to work with. When we go to export stuff back to him to make boundar decisions for those figure lines don't translate they just turn into proxy objects. to make it usable for him they have to be exploded to 3d polylines, then flattened to 2d poly lines then moved to 0 elevation, finally saved back from 2010 to LDD 08 or earlier. it's a long painful process that HAS to be done so he can do his job.

[brian.hailey933139]

I know this isn't helpful and I don't want it to come accross as being mean or anything like that but a really bad analogy popped into my head when I read your last post and it made me laugh so I thought I would share:

I'm a mechanic for Ferrari Racing and we have a brand new Ferrari. Unfortunately, the driver isn't allowed to drive anything other then a 6 cylinder engine so I need to pull out the V10 and put in a 6 cyl. It's a pain but it's what I have to do so he can drive.

With that being said, here's something usefull:

Change your figure line style so that it displays at a zero elevation and then use the export to AutoCAD command (click the big red C in the top left and select export and then export to AutoCAD). Even though the figure lines are being displayed at a zero elevation, when you add them to your surface, they will use the feature line elevation.

http://i37.tinypic.com/10gmfcx.png
http://i36.tinypic.com/rsek4z.png

[Spell]

Thanks Brian. I work with Ed, and we are able to use the export function, but I think there are number of problems surrounding our scenerio. #1 Surveyors using Data Collector cant see linework, so the effort to carry line codes is rather difficult on their end. Most lines are perfect, but about 5% zig whey they should have zagged, and alot of the curves have little bubbles and what not. I would attribute this to the way the TDS software is set up on their Tremble devices.

I would like to leave figures live in the topo, but they arent right enough. We use the live figures to create surface in EG.dwg and then flatten them to 2d Plines in topo.

Much of our frustration has dissolved in the acceptance of this workflow. (Plus hatching with 3D Figures is borked as well)

Thanks for the replies though. (I use car analogies all the time, that and Grain in wheelbarrows vs dumptrucks )

[sinc]

You can hatch a 3D Survey Figure, but you have to pick the Survey Figure. You can't use the option to pick an "internal point".

What do you mean by "We use the live figures to create surface in EG.dwg and then flatten them to 2d Plines in topo"? What is "topo", if your EG is in "EG.dwg"?

We leave everything in 3D, and flatten nothing except fences and utility lines, which we'll convert to 2D polylines so we can use linetype generation (the lack of ltgen on Survey Figures and Feature Lines has been a long-standing major problem in C3D that hopefully Autodesk will address before too many more years go by).

[Capn]

Absolutely - then I blow them away.

Once imported if a correction is required modify the figures with the Survey Figure Properties dialog. The next step is to apply a quick select for all Survey Figures. With that selection run the isolate command, Xplode, _AeccConvert3dPolys, Flatten, end object isolation and finally - select similar for all polylines and enable the linetype generation. (Tip: make the order of commands available in quick access toolbar)

If creating a surface be sure to create breaklines (from within the survey database) prior to converting figures to polylines or it will result in an import of survey figures on top of those polylines.

One last comment. A survey figures 3D Geometry needs to use figure elevations in order to work properly with the Survey Figure Properties dialog.

[scooper]

I know this is way past what the last post was but im sure that someone will be looking at this like i was.

We actually use them in their entirety. You can edit them almost as easily as a polyline. Blowing them away and replacing them with lines or breaklines (now feature lines) makes twice the work. For the surface i have informed my users to create the surface in a separate file so that you can modify them best for the surface and in the base file you can do whatever you want for presentation.

As for older version users using the export command is best but if its someone in your company they can easily upgrade to the newer versions, sometimes you just have to make them :)