site manipulation

[lila]

i've been trying to manipulate site contours and it's becoming very slow and ardous to do it by selecting the topo model, hitting "edit" and editing the points, one by one.
i am trying to use the tools under site but just don't really understand what they do or when it would be more appropriate to use one vs. another. creating pads doesn't seem to cut into the topo. i'm trying to cut away from the land and am having a really hard time.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

When you say 'cut away from the land' do you mean you are trying to lower the grade?

If so, you don't need to edit points one at a time. You can select a number of points and then change their properties all at once. You can also delete the points and just add as may as required to establish a topo surface.
To change the outer boundaries of a surface you can do one of two things;
To reduce the surface size, use the split surface tool. Simply select the tool, pick the topo surface, sketch the new boundary, close the sketch and delete the unwanted portion of the surface.
To add area to a topo surface once it is created you must move the boundary points before you can add new points. ie you select existing points, move them to the new boundary location and then fill in with new points.

Give the site tutroials a try and see if that helps you get on your feet.

[lila]

i am trying to lower the grade along an angular path. the existing topography covers the path with about 8' of earth. i'm trying to remove that area off of the path. i did try and selecting a series of points at once but seems to be very slow. perhaps topos are just that way.

[chris.hitchcock.nz]

We do a lot of site work in our office, and yes it can be tedious, especially if you are doing it point by point or a few points at a time, but you quickly get used to it. If you are trying to remove just the area 'above' the path then pads are the way to go, (pads are great once you get used to using them just make sure you check the height they will finish at, and their depth (in construction setup)). But if you have 8' of earth all over the site it will look a little ridiculous with a 8 foot wall of topo down to your path, so editing the topo by point(s) is the way (as HCSL pointed out) to have angles or grades to your topo. that or more than one pad, (to bring the areas beside the path down to by a different ammount), when using adjacent pads, make sure you copy the adjacent lines from one pad sketch, to the new pad so they match perfectly (use Paste Aligned or Same Place)
Hope this helps, let us know or attach some images so we can help you further.
Good luck.

[lila]

thank you for your helpful input. i'll keep cracking at it

[crarchitect]

creating pads doesn't seem to cut into the topo. i'm trying to cut away from the land and am having a really hard time.
Been there, done that. You need to be super careful that you don't have multiple surfaces on top of each other. EX: you are installing a building pad, but the Existing Topo never shows the modification. Solution: hide Existing Topo part using phase or workset controls.

Here's the best technique I have found: Model (e) site in an (e) Phase view, go to a New Construction Phase view, create a Graded Region selecting Copy Internal points- this copies the (e) topo part into the New Phase and sends the old one to the Existing Phase. In your New Phase View you can then modify the New Topo point by point to match the new design. Ffinally insert your building pads into the New Topo part.

I put the building pads in last because once they cut the new Topo surface it is permanent, and you cannot control the topo points which lie inside it's boundary. So once you cut the building pad into your surface, you can never again tweak that surface that lies "under" the pad.

Has anyone else found that they can turn pads on or off? Sure you can hide them- but the surface is still cut away. Sending them to a later phase has no effect, the surface cut away remains. Any ideas on how to control those pads would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I wasn't kidding about all that Phase controlled view stuff, you really have to be careful otherwise you end up with multiple topo surfaces and no idea what is what. ymmv

[brantfetter]

Has anyone else found that they can turn pads on or off? Sure you can hide them- but the surface is still cut away. Sending them to a later phase has no effect, the surface cut away remains. Any ideas on how to control those pads would be greatly appreciated.

No. I've had the same experiences. In my opinion not being able to remove a pad and/or change topography in the pad volume is a real problem. I may be incorrect in how I'm doing it but I haven't found a good way to do it.