Does anyone know how to rotate survey figures in a drawing? Are they locked somehow? Is there a toggle somewhere that needs to be turned off?
For example: I have a drawing that I've run figures on, added lines to, etc. and now I want to rotate it all (some figures, some polylines, some feature lines, etc.).
Is rotating survey figures manually just a no-no?
Well, it kind of seems like Autodesk assumes you won't want to do that... 😉
You might be able to apply a rotation to the data in the Survey Database, and in theory, the data in your drawing will update to match.
We typically do any rotation/translation on the points before we start processing any linework, and try to avoid ever encountering this issue. So far, we've been successful.
Paul,
I use the survey database to draw the lines (survey figures) from a field book then I shatcan the database, IE separate it from the drawing for exactly the issues you are having. I figured a little for us listed below but Im shooting from the hip right now.
So, I could be incorrect, but it seems to me like c3d 2008 and 2009 called the linework created survey figure's but c3d 2010 no longer does. Anyways.
My process was:
- Create figures in a dummy drawing with your template of course.
- Then convert survey figures to 3dpolylines or feature lines preferably. (depends on your goal products and drafting standards I guess.) C3d2010 doesn't require this step.
- Block out linework to your base drawing, also from your template.
- Expoint points from dummy drawing.
- Import points into base drawing.
This may seem like a lot of work for a work around, but I found early on (version 2007, 2008) that for our purposes the survey database was a waste of time, energy, and just an extra LINK that stayed with a drawing. We also found it got real buggy after you ran over 1000 points through it and tried to rotate or translate.
Thanks guys - that's what I was afraid of.
It isn't typically a problem, since I rotate my points before drawing the linework, but as you know, every now and again a BOB changes mid-project. Seems odd though that they made it so that we can rotate the points and surface so easily (even when we might not want to) but now can't rotate the linework.
Jered - I'll give the breaking the database link idea a try - it makes sense to me. Plus we've been having point editing issues (locking up the drawing) which usually seems to happen after we run the linework. It may be those link issues you mentioned.
Maybe they'll fix this in 12 😉
Thanks again!
What will really give you gray hairs is doing a 3D rotate in Civil 3D. I never did figure out how to get that gizmo thing to line up right but I was able to get what I wanted in a two step process.
Thanks for bringing this up so I can anticipate it. I'll usually rotate to make it fit in a viewport but never tried a rotate with lines drawn in.
In C3D, you can use a DView TWist for that.
The problem is when you have a bunch of linework already in a drawing, and you want to change the BOB. That's not easy. In theory, you can just grab everything and rotate/move it. But in practice, that doesn't work so hot. Things like Survey Figures, Survey Points, Parcels, and Grading Objects don't really like being manhandled that way.
I've been arguing that we need a way to do this, but I've had minimal impact on the guys at Autodesk, who mainly seem to want to just avoid and ignore the issue, after dealing with all the headaches caused by the implementation of the old BPNR in Land Desktop.
