Survey Import Points file formats

[civil3d.wishlist1941]

Summary: I would like for Civil 3D to be able to import / export points and survey chains (figures) with a flexible file format interface similar to the capability in Autodesk CAiCE.

Description: I would like for Civil 3D to be able to import / export points and survey chains (figures) with a flexible file format interface similar to the capability in Autodesk CAiCE.

How Used: To import/export a wider variety of ASCII data points and figures that provides the user greater formating control (i.e printf/scanf formatting) for better interoperability with other systems.

Feature Affinity: Import/Export

Submitted By: Bruce Dana on March 6, 2008

[bruce.dana]

Some additional clarification:

CAiCE (an Autodesk Product) has the ability to read/write point data, and read/write chain data (figures in Civil 3D parlance) where the format is flexible and can be user defined. It uses the C-like construct of "printf" and "scanf" functionality to let the user set the formatting (even very complex formatting). In this way a file could contain newlines, various placeholders, etc.

Given this, output can be written (or read) like (example GEOPAK input format shown):

STO POI B1 N 1027413.851000 E 901013.110000 EL 209.808900 RUN CAICE GEOMETRY P ATTRIBUTE G FEATURE CMON DESC "KOGER-5 "

STO POI B2 N 1027551.631000 E 901013.110000 EL 213.104700 RUN CAICE GEOMETRY P ATTRIBUTE G FEATURE STMD DESC "KOGER-8 "

STO POI B3 N 1027384.695000 E 900826.100000 EL 212.086600 RUN CAICE GEOMETRY P ATTRIBUTE G FEATURE STMD DESC "KOGER-7 "

STO POI B4 N 1027441.897800 E 900690.006700 EL 220.687500 RUN CAICE GEOMETRY P ATTRIBUTE G FEATURE NL DESC "TRAV-1 "

STO POI B5 N 1027614.739300 E 900156.826200 EL 203.670000 RUN CAICE GEOMETRY P ATTRIBUTE G FEATURE STMD DESC "LEO-115-FLDNR "

STO POI B6 N 1027405.401800 E 900991.744300 EL 210.400000 RUN CAICE GEOMETRY P ATTRIBUTE G FEATURE NL DESC " "

STO POI B9 N 1030265.928800 E 901434.243300 EL 211.171000 RUN CAICE GEOMETRY P ATTRIBUTE G FEATURE STMD DESC " "

STO POI B10 N 1028034.534300 E 900604.037100 EL 219.133600 RUN CAICE GEOMETRY P ATTRIBUTE G FEATURE NL DESC "TRAV-2 "

STO POI B11 N 1027706.282300 E 900954.176000 EL 218.564600 RUN CAICE GEOMETRY P ATTRIBUTE G FEATURE NL DESC "TRAV-2 "

Because you have nearly complete control over how the data is read for each key variable (X, Y, Z, or Lat, Long, Name, Description, whatever) the data can be formatted nearly any way and read in, or exported to many ASCII formats including many kinds of delimiters.