Extracting curve data from 3D Polyline

[CCarleton]

Hello all,

Our company has recently started working with HDS and the point cloud data that comes with it. We scanned a slide and we're trying to figure out to extract the radii from the curves. The Point Cloud Software (Leica's Cyclone Program) allowed me to take shots along the slide every foot like a surveyor would, I exported those points as a CSV file, and imported it into CAD. So now I have a fancy 3D Polyline (exploded the survey figure into it) with its curves along the Z axis, but I have zero experience with 3D drafting so I have no idea what to do with it.

The bottom line is I have a 3D Polyline in CAD and I have no idea how to get this thing turned into a curve and then able to annotate it to see the curve data. If I could flip this thing to be on the X and Y axis I think I could create arcs from it, but I've been flailing with the 3DROTATE command.

Drawing attached.

Thanks

[remi678731]

if you have 3d polyline there is a tool in the grading objects to convert it to a 2d polyline it you can label. Warning you will need to check for non-tangent curves

[Opie]

3D polylines do not allow for curves. Vectors only.

[rkmcswain]

.....with its curves along the Z axis, but I have zero experience with 3D drafting so I have no idea what to do with it.

What do you want... to do with it?

It's a straight line in plan view, with varying elevations along the line.

The bottom line is I have a 3D Polyline in CAD and I have no idea how to get this thing turned into a curve and then able to annotate it to see the curve data.

Curve data is generally associated with horizontal curves, of which this entity has none.

3dstr.png

[CCarleton]

What do you want... to do with it?

It's a straight line in plan view, with varying elevations along the line.

Curve data is generally associated with horizontal curves, of which this entity has none.

3dstr.png

Like I said we need(ed) to get the curve data from it, but like you said curve data is associated with horizontal curves, of which this is not horizontal. So when I originally posed this question I was basically trying to figure out if there was a way to flip it to be horizontal or something, because I figured I'd be able to do something with it at that point. This is basically what ended up happening, which I'll explain below in case anyone finds themselves in a similar situation.

Like I said the points/line in that CAD dwg was made by taking shots in Cyclone, but I ended up changing how I extracted the data from Cyclone. Instead I created a one foot wide mesh (What Cyclone calls a surface), brought it into CAD and drew an alignment through it, and created a profile (with no exaggeration) of it. After that it was a simple manner of tracing the profile's arcs and making the arc line up as best as possible. Point Cloud data is incredibly precise so there is no possible way you could ever get the arcs to line up perfectly with it, but it's as precise as you could ever hope to get it as opposed to doing something like trying to take field measurements.

[remi678731]

I don't understand do you have a 3d polyline or an alignment? Also why don't you use best fit arc by points ?

[CCarleton]

Sorry, my last post might have been unclear (I have a knack for that).

Initially I had a 3D polyline, but I went back to Cyclone and created a one foot wide surface instead since that was what one of my co-workers suggested to do instead. Then I drew the alignment through the surface, created the profile view, and manually traced the arcs.

I checked out the best fit arc command and it asks how it wants to do it, the default being by cogo points, however the surface I have doesn't actually have points as far as CAD is concerned and I couldn't get the command to work. In Cyclone I used a sample grid tool that placed a point every foot along the slide, and then I took two rows of those points and created a mesh out of them. The creation of the mesh essentially deletes those points. The mesh then gets exported as a landxml file and I bring it into CAD.

Either way we ended up getting the data we needed.