Export to shape file from Civil 3D 2010

[jlj]

Hello all,
I have what I hope is a relatively easy problem. I have a job that involves finding abandoned mine features (mainly adits and shafts) and surveying them by handheld GPS. (Pretty fun work in Boulder County, Colorado!) The client wants me to "provide GIS shapefiles giving any property features referenced in the final report (mine adits/tailings piles, trash dumps, etc.). These points are to be provided in NAD 1983 HARN State Plane coordinates only."

I have familiarized myself with the MapExport command and worked through the bug of the bad mapexport.ini file.

I plan to draw a simple rectangle (for example, 10 feet x 10 feet) and give it the proper elevation to represent a shaft or an adit. My problem is I can't figure out how to send a label with the line work. I tried making the rectangle into a block and giving is a blockname like "Adit#5-10x10x20", since "blockname" is one of the attributes you can select. However, when I try to MapExport a block as a "line", I get the error message "No Entity to Export". When I export the rectangle alone as a "line", it seems to work fine.

Part of the problem is that I am GIS ignorant; I have ArcExplorer to look at the shape file, and I can see that it is a rectangle, but that's about all I can tell.

Any thoughts? Do I have to export two entities, one a rectangle and one a text label?

Thanks in advance,


John L. Jankousky, P.E.
EME Solutions, Inc.
15248 W. Ellsworth Dr.
Golden, CO 80401
Phone: 303-279-1707
Fax: 303-279-1795
email: JLJ@eme-solutions.com
www.eme-solutions.com

[rkmcswain]

Have you tried attaching the necessary data as Object Data (OD) on the entities?
Then as long as you tell Map to export the OD with the shape file, then this data will be part of the SHP file database and the GIS operator will be able to easily label the objects in ArcMap.

[jlj]

Thanks, RK, you are right on target about the Object Data, and many thanks to Todd at Comm-Tech, my reseller, who saw the post, called me up, and walked me through the process.

As usual, I found out that there are a ton of features in Civil 3d and Map that I know nothing about.

John


John L. Jankousky, P.E.
EME Solutions, Inc.
15248 W. Ellsworth Dr.
Golden, CO 80401
Phone: 303-279-1707
Fax: 303-279-1795
email: JLJ@eme-solutions.com
www.eme-solutions.com

[sinc]

So did you run into a problem on this mine where the mine has been historically surveyed using a standard control network, ignoring the curvature of the Earth, and now that you're using GPS, nothing fits together?

Here lately, I've heard of a couple of mines where that problem has cropped up.

[jlj]

I am an engineer and not a surveyor. I am just using a handheld Delorme PN-40 to get approximate location. The surveyors here in general tell me that the old markers are pretty accurate when they can be found, but of course there are problems.

Thanks,

John Jankousky