Site contour lines

[ericmau]

I wonder if I can get some feedback on site contour lines. The architectural "standard", I believe, is to show existing contour lines as dashed. New contour lines are typically shown as solid. When we modify an existing toposurface, the modified lines are shown as dashed - which we consider backwards. How are people showing existing and modified contour lines?

[sbrown]

Actually what you should be seeing is the "demo'd" lines as dashed and the new as solid. Maybe you have your phase settings wrong.

[ericmau]

what about the existing contours that do not change?

[Gadget Man]

what about the existing contours that do not change?

That depends on your settings for graphics overrides, view's phase and the filters setup.

E.g. if your view is set to New Construction and your filter for that view is set to Show Final (as it's called in my settings), than New is showing "By Category", Existing (which is NOT demolished) is showing "By category" (depending how you set up Topography category - it could be dashed lines if you want), Demolished is "Not Displayed" (doesn't exist anymore on the final day of your work) and Temporary is also "Not Displayed" (it also doesn't exist anymore on the final day of your work).

Another example: if your view is set to New Construction and your filter for that view is set to Show All, than New is showing "By Category", Existing (which is NOT demolished) is showing "Overriden" (depending how you set up your overrides - usualy it's set to grey), Demolished is "Overriden" (depending how you set up your overrides - usualy it's set to dashed red) and Temporary is also "Overriden" (it also depends how you set up your overrides - usualy it's set to dashed blue).

Hope it helps. If not, let me know and I will attach some screenshots...

[Steve_Stafford]

Hey Eric...long time no see...

I used two views, overlay on a sheet to do what you guys do (what I used to do when I was there too). I attached an image of them overlaid on a sheet.

[patricks]

Guys, the problem is that existing un-touched contours are shown as solid, because they're part of the toposurface on the New Construction phase.

We typically show grading plans set to Show All so that New, Existing, and Demo all display (then use a Site Demo workset so that other demolished site elements do not display).

The only way I've been able to get a grading plan to show with the civil/architectural "standard" of ALL existing topo lines dashed and only new disturbed contours as solid is this way:

1. Create a new graded region from your existing (demo'd) toposurface.
2. Split the new surface to only the area you're actually grading.
3. Hide the remaining portion of the new surface that will not be disturbed (I would not delete it, just hide in view).

That should get you pretty close to the "standard" way of showing things.

[ericmau]

hey Steve. Good to hear from you. I hope your family is doing well.

Unfortunately, the pic you attached is backwards from what we're looking for. Our final drawings should show the existing, unchanged, contours as dashed and the new, revised, contours as solid. We can kind-of accomplish that by showing the new graded region as transparent - BUT, then we cant do a colored subregion for parking, driveways, etc.

Any ideas?

[Gadget Man]

hey Steve. Good to hear from you. I hope your family is doing well.

Unfortunately, the pic you attached is backwards from what we're looking for. Our final drawings should show the existing, unchanged, contours as dashed and the new, revised, contours as solid. We can kind-of accomplish that by showing the new graded region as transparent - BUT, then we cant do a colored subregion for parking, driveways, etc.

Any ideas?

Sorry to chip in for Steve like that, but back to my original post here - why don't you just change the overrides to show the opposite? I mean, if by default demolished is shown dashed you can change it to show continuous. Then in the Object Styles change Topography contours (Primary and Secondary) to dashed and you have it. Save it in your template and Bob's your uncle...

[patricks]

Sorry to chip in for Steve like that, but back to my original post here - why don't you just change the overrides to show the opposite? I mean, if by default demolished is shown dashed you can change it to show continuous. Then in the Object Styles change Topography contours (Primary and Secondary) to dashed and you have it. Save it in your template and Bob's your uncle...

I still don't think that would get it.

As the OP said, existing contours before new work is typically shown with dashed lines. This existing surface is demolished in Revit, and most people already have the Demolished override to show dashed lines. So that part is good.

The problem is that the standard has always been to show only the new disturbed contours with solid lines. If you create a graded region from your existing surface in Revit, then the entire surface shows with solid lines. The undisturbed areas have solid lines overlapping the dashed lines of the existing surface.

Since there is no way to hide only parts of contour lines, really the only way to make this work is to split the new surface to be only the areas you have graded, and then hide the remaining new surfaces. The problem with this method is that sometimes Revit will shift contour lines when a surface is split. Revit interpolates points along the split edge between each contour line, and sometimes those extra points make the lines do weird things.

Really there is no perfect solution.

[mollybachelor391340]

Okay, reviving a very old thread here, but I think I just figured out a way to do this without the finickiness of splitting surfaces. I started with an existing and a new topo, with my topography object style set to transparent so I could see both of them. I usually leave my existing topo as undemolished and then just hide it where I don't need it. The trick to get the lines to dash correctly is to make a second copy of your existing topo (so you end up with three topos total). Override the projection lines of this second existing topo to be dashed and white. This will give the effect of regular dashed existing topo lines (you may have to play with which of the two existing topos you do this to). You do also have to print raster using this technique to preserve the effect.