I need to produce river long and cross sections that can be output to HEC-RAS, Flood Modeller and MIKE format. I currently use Carlson survey OEM but I probably need to use something like Carlson Civil or Autocad Civil 3D to produce the required outputs.
Is anyone doing this type of work on a regular basis that can point me in the right direction for software? Thanks.
You are going to want to read over this page. In the past I have successfully used the USACE Survey Data Format and the CSV Format described here. The CSV seemed to be what the engineers/modelers preferred.
I'll also add this paragraph from some old manual that I no longer have a full copy of:
"Each cross section in a HEC-RAS model is identified by a river, reach, and river station. The cross section geometry is described by entering the station and elevation (XYZ data) from left to right, with respect to looking in the downstream direction. The river station may correspond to stationing along the channel, mile points, or any fictitious numbering system. The numbering system must be consistent in that HEC-RAS assumes that higher river stations are upstream and lower river stations are downstream. Each data point in the cross section geometry is given a station number corresponding to the horizontal distance from a starting point on the left. Up to 500 data points may be used to describe the cross section geometry. Cross section data are traditionally defined looking in the downstream direction. The program considers the left side of the stream to have the lowest station numbers and the right side to have the highest. Cross section data are allowed to have negative stationing values. Stationing must be entered from left to right in increasing order. However, more than one point can have the same stationing value, as in the case of a vertical wall. The left and right stations separating the main channel from the overbank areas must be specified for the cross section. End points of a cross section that are too low (below the computed water surface elevation) will automatically be extended vertically and a computational note indicating that the cross section has been extended will show up in the output for that cross section."
I have been a Carleson user for 20 years and have always used ACAD as my drafting interface. I currently run C3D as my CAD platform in SurvCad and if C3D provides you the option to export your point data in the needed format, you are good to go. SurvCad also gives you the option to export point data in different formats.