Anyone know Civil 3D?

vthi wrote:Hi again Sparky,
Just to define the problem a bit. We need to grade existing ground under (to match bottom of footing) and around our bridge abutments and to clear the underspans near the abutment. 4' clear around the abutment structure and slope is 2:1. After clearing about 4' below the underspans, it goes to match existing. I calculated about 7300 CY long hand for cut.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Regards,
Vivian

Do you have any proposed surface for this project yet? If so, for now create a new site for the grading to isolate your work and not force updating the entire model while working on this area. Probably this is a good idea anyway for the future. OK, I am old AND slow and a refresh shows more information . . . make the new site anyway. It sounds like either your corridor or the existing surface is diving to zero in some critical areas - don't take it personal - it happens all the time especially with imported surfaces. The quick and dirty way to address this is to turn off the corridor and hover the cursor over the offending area. If the elevation starts diving the surface has the hole - just add a point at a reasonable looking elevation into the surface inside the hole (surface > properties > edits > add points). You need to change the display style of your surface to show surface points and triangles before you can add the point. After filling up the hole, turn everything back the way it was in your display settings and rebuild the corridor. If you still have a hole we will have to look at the corridor itself.
The grading itself can start out with just drawing a plain old line where you want the grading to begin. You can turn this into a Feature Line and let it derive the elevations along it from the starting surface. The prompts will lead you through the steps to get it into the correct site and get you started. There is a lot more this will get you to a good starting point and I am expecting more questions before you get to this point.
I will ask Michael who he was working with. Even after 3 1/2 years he remains only an SOS call away. He has provided a selection of tutorials covering a variety of Civil 3D tasks for free download. They are big files and some of the earlier ones are a bit rough but still good information.
http://www.primeservicesglobal.com/tutorials.htm

Hi Sparky,
Thank you! I will try this out and I will look at the tutorial link.
And yes, I think you're right about questions.
Thanks again.
Regards, Vivian

I noticed that this project has been pushed aside for now. Just let me know when you need any further advice and we can continue.

Hi Sparky,

My apologies and Thanks! Funny thing is this project got pushed (right choice of words! ) aside by itself. The problem I posted re text style is for the same project but different phase. Schedules (sigh). Always getting adjusted. (double sigh).
But I will get back to you.
Regards, Vivian

If those styles you are trying to change reside in Civil 3D labels, you may actually be in luck. You would still probably have to open each drawing but withing the project settings for styles one can change all of the label styles including all existing over rides with one operation. Caution - this will eliminate EVERY style over ride including any you might wish to keep.
Right click on the drawing name in the settings tab of ToolSpace. Go to "Label Style Defaults" and for the style specify the desired text style you have set in your drawing. Any over rides are indicated by a blue arrow in one of the next two columns. Clicking the blue arrows and APPLY will eliminate any of those over rides for every style in the drawing.

There is also one thing I would like you to try to fill up the holes in your surface. Since you seem to have more time you can try to export the point from the XML file into a regular point file. You can then use that point file to build a new TIN surface that will be more accurate than the XML that will also fill those holes properly rather than with a quick and dirty hack job.