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posted 10/12/06 by Anthony Governanti Survey Database - It's Wicked Cool

I've seen several posts on the Newsgroup now about the "lack of editing" tools in Civil 3D for survey information. I hope to dispell some of those notions, and show you some of the cool things the new survey features in Civil 3D have to offer.

Editing an observation
Probably the first comment I hear from users (and reseller alike) is that they can't edit the points in the drawings because the points came from the the survey database. First off, its not true, you can edit these points, its just not done in the drawing like regular COGO points. This is because the points created from the survey database are locked in the drawing. This is as designed; it prevents a person from inadvertendly "editing" an observed point, which from a sureyors perspective is a coordinate from the field which shouldn't be changed unless the observation that created it is changed.

Ok, so now what if I do want to edit it? This is what's wicked cool; you use the observation editors. We start by selecting a Setup to edit from the Setups collection in Survey toolspace.


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If you select a setup, and right click, you have a couple editing options.

Edit the setup


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This allows you to make changes to the setup that was used to collect observations. Often you need to adjust a target hieht, or maybe adjust the northing and easting to match real world coordinates. Either way, you can use this editor to make the changes, which are then saved to the databse and update the data that is based on the setup.

Edit the Observations


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This is where you make edits to the "points" that are created from the observations in the field. Notice we have many option and thus power here; we can edit the angle, the angle type, the distance, the distance type and so on. And since we are editing the database, this information propegates to all drawings that contain the survey points, not just the current one we are doing the edit in.

"Ok Govna, but what if I don't know the setup a point was collected with?"

Don't you worry my young Jedi, we have a cool tool for that too.

Edit Setups that Observe

This is accessed from the point itself. If you select the Survey Points collection in the Survey Toolspace, then the list view is populated with all the points in the database.


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Simply select a point and right click and choose Edit Setups that Observe. This will jump you to the setup that created or "observed" this point in the field. This makes it very easy to troubleshoot a problem, or make the simple edit you may need on a single point.


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"Ok, so now we know how to edit indivdual points as needed, but what if I need to rotate or move the entire survey?"

We can try to get it rotated by editing the original raw file or FBK file, reimporting, and overwriting the database. But as the Jedi Master Yoda always says "there is no try, only do". So let's do it with the proper editing tools :-)

Edit a Datum
To move an entire survey, say like changing form an assumed datum to a known coordinate system, you can simply edit the Control Points that your survey is "tied into". Again we are going to select the appripriate collection in the survey toolspace, this time, Control Points.


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We right click and select Edit and are presented with this editor:

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We can use the Point Inverse inquiry tool to select the appropriate coodinates for the new location or simply list them from the command line, and copy and paste them into the control point editor Once applied the network, figures, and points are moved, since all the setups and thus observations, where based on that control.

Edit a Direction
Last but certainly not least for today, is the concept of rotating a set of points. A common survey practice is to collect or begin a survey by shooting a direction, and then base the rest of the observations from that observed direction and setup. In this case, often an assumed direction is used, like a bearing of North - zero degrees East. When the data is imported in the office, it maybe determined that the real bearing should have been North two degree East instead. Thus all the points need to be "rotated" two degrees.

You may now be in the habit of selecting a collection in the Survey toolspace and right clicking; its a good habit to be in as we'll do it one last time for the Direction.


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As we edit this collection we get an editor that will allow us to modify the vaule and type of direction used. Again, once updated with the new direction vaule, it will update all the setups, observations and figures that are based on this direction.


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So there we have it, some qucik tips that should get you pointed in the right direction (pun intended :-)) for getting more vaule out of the survey tools included in Civil 3D. I hope this clears up some misconceptions, or at least gets you to take a second look at the tools that are there. For me its all wicked cool stuff, I hope you think so too.

Till next time,
Cheers,
AG

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