How to Create Profile from non-C3D drawing?

[Scotty]

Hey, I've just received a drawing from a contractor for a subsea pipeline, the problem i'm having is the drawing is of 2 lines, a profile of the seabed and of the proposed trench, made in normal ACAD. Is there a way to make C3D think its a profile that it created? i'm looking to try and design a template for a trench to run along the proposed pipeline and get some cross-sections and volume calcs done. Any Ideas?
Thanks,
__________
Scott Warren
Hydrographic Surveyor
www.harbourdev.com

[brainman1000]

The first thing you will need to regardless of how the profile is created is create an alignment. Once you have the alignment, you should be able to draw a profile view over the profile you received and then trace in the profile by creating a profile by layout. I'm not sure if there is a way to convert a pline into a profile.

[Scotty]

i had a crazy idea of taking the 2 lines and rotating them so that they were on the x&z axis instead of the x&y axis and somehow turning the 2 lines into sufaces and then create an alignment and create a whole new profile. this would allow me to create a grading or corridor and perform the volume calculations. the profiles are assumed to be the same z value along the y axis. Any thoughts, the applications for C3D that i learned in school didn't cover having to work with very poor data.

[sinc]

I'm not sure if there is a way to convert a pline into a profile.

There's a command in the Sincpac-C3D (http://www.quux.biz) that will do that. Create your alignment and profile view, then position the polyline on the profile view. Then run the PLPROFILE command. The command is not part of the Free Edition, but it is in the 30-day trial version.

[Scotty]

Easy!
thanks for the tip, now i got to figure out the best way to do volumes between 2 alignments using a template. :S