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Thread: Using feature lines vs polylines

  1. #1
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    Default Using feature lines vs polylines

    Today a coworker of mine had a discussion with me using feature lines and utilizing them in site grading designs versus drawing polylines as contours.

    He told me drawing in polylines is what he is used to doing and been doing this for many years now and is trying to understand the benefit of using them versus using feature lines.

    I tried to make him understand that making changes is much easier and the surface will update automatically. I said I believe it's much more efficient and cuts time down on having to make revisions later.

    He seems to disagree with me that using feature lines and grading groups is the way to go. As a newer employee with this FEMA, just looking for some advice as to what I may say.

    I'd appreciate any feedback.

    Thanks

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    Default Re: Using feature lines vs polylines

    I'll use the best item for what I'm trying to design and represent.

    Commercial: Curb faces, building pads, walls get turned to feature lines and used with grading groups to build the surface of all the uniformly graded areas. This surface is supplemented with polylines for those free flowing curvy/smoothy areas (berms, swales, lawn areas and such) Polylines may also be added within the feature line defined areas in order to smooth a jagged surface contour if adding a spot grade here and there doesn't do it.

    Residential: Corridor the road. Build from that with feature lines for uniformly graded areas. (building pads, driveways, drainage basins) Supplement with polylines to fill in all the smoothy areas.

    Other: (in a stream or ditch, dredging, mining, stock piles, etc) Feature lines to get the bulk of it, supplement with polylines if needed.

    The single house/small area/no surface needed: Polylines.

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    Default Re: Using feature lines vs polylines

    I meant to say in my first post that I am a "newer employee of this company", not "FEMA".

    We are currently working on commercial site development plan and he wanted to argue that there was no difference in creating surfaces using polylines and points versus utilizing the feature line and grading group features of Civil 3d.

    I went on to tell him that utilizing feature lines and grading groups cuts down design time tremendously versus having to do calculations by hand. Civil 3d for the most part does a lot of the calculations for you and there is a lot less room for error. He wanted to argue with me about the point that we seal these plans and "who is supposed to check CAD" to make sure it is calculating correctly. I was baffled and didn't have a response for that.

    I also made the point that these features help with having to make slight changes in the future with little effort and can do so automatically and will update the surface within seconds. Apparently he did not find this to be believable.

    I didn't know if anyone had any good support information or data that would help support the idea that utilized these features in CAD is extremely beneficial when developing plans in the long run.

    I do not plan to design any differently than I have in the past which is utilizing the feature line and grading group features to the fullest capability. However, I do not feel he is a believer of this method.

    Thanks

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    Default Re: Using feature lines vs polylines

    Grading projects, are always being revised. Using the feature lines, allows surfaces and grade breaks to be visualized and labeled on the fly, much easier if you have polylines you have to create a zenith values than attach the node to adjust a grade. If you have utilities, that need to be rearranged, its much fast to raise or lower the grade with the edit feature line in the table, and can create additional VPI if needed very simple.

    We do large site development, and I have 15 years in design for BOR projects. Every site project is dynamic. Did 16 miles of design for an irrigation canal, with massive drainage issues. Every road crossing and utility crossing can present challenges, utilizing feature lines allows your site plans to be edited on the fly, without having to explode and or break a polyline, and or create a z value then attach the polyline. Hope this helped.

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