topography

[tect75]

ok, working on a site plan. have to hand draw the topo based on a 2d survey dwg. doing fine for the first three contours. able to merge them and they look right. the fourth contour wont join because it doesnt have any sides in common. i followed the contours, and the actual surface neither way worked to get a common side. it worked for the first 3 levels. also why doesnt the topo follow the contour line exactly, why does it square it off and can i get it to not do that

[Revitator]

Hi tect

I'm not an expert but I've been working with topos a bit recently.

What workflow are you using?

If you just start a new toposurface, use the Point tool, set the Elevation to that of your first contour, and pick points along the contour; then change Elevation to the next contour, pick points, etc. How does that work?

Stop at any time, Finish the surface and save the project. Then later Edit the toposurface and add more contour points. No need to merge.

I'm not sure what you mean by "square off"?

Sometimes, I've had to add a couple of extra points to get the Revit contours to follow the survey contours exactly: Revit's contour algorithm is different to our surveyors'.

You'll also find that the surface will 'fill in' any concavities in the outline of the survey, but you just have to Split the surface along your survey boundaries to trim off the excess.

[Max Lloyd]

ok, working on a site plan. have to hand draw the topo based on a 2d survey dwg. doing fine for the first three contours. able to merge them and they look right. the fourth contour wont join because it doesnt have any sides in common. i followed the contours, and the actual surface neither way worked to get a common side. it worked for the first 3 levels. also why doesnt the topo follow the contour line exactly, why does it square it off and can i get it to not do that

If you have got a 2d dwg with contours, I would suggest this: Open up the file in acad, then contour by contour (it helps if the contour is a continuous plyline), raise them to their appropriate heights. Once this is done, put all the elevated contours onto one unique layer (such as 'elevated contours')

Then re-import to revit. This time simply use the 'toposurface', 'use imported' command. Select the dwg, then filter it to only use the 'elevated contours' layer.

I find it much quicker to do this in acad, then re-import to revit.

Hope this helps.

Max.