Sometimes a client requests all entities in the drawing to be 2d zero elevation with text annotating the levels and contours. Do people here ever send in drawings completely 2d?
Also for people that always complete the drawing in 3d, how do you deal with reflector-less shots and walls, buildings, poles etc.. Do you place those at 0 elevation and just have your break-lines and spots on 3d co-ordinates?
I always place ALL cadastral elements at elevation 0.000. Points, lines, arcs, text, all of it. If its cadastral in nature its at 0. I have had CADD techs and end users measure things in a 3d design file where one end of the line is at zero and the other is at ground elevation and naturally the length of the element is off.
For the building corners you speak of: again if it is for a cadastral survey, its at 0. If its for a topo, each corner is at the ground elevation OR if I taped it in or used reflectorless without and accurate HR, I have used the FFE and assigned that elevation to every corner, or if I didn't get that either, then I put the shots at zero. If I didn't collect an accurate elevation, I want it to be obvious to me, CADD techs, and end users alike.
CB
My special line types do not come through in 3-d.
Construction / engineering: 3D for 95% of the work, 2D for cosmetics.
3D for ground features
2D for Boundary features.
Reflectorless - the shot gets an HR of zero in the field, and we manually deal with it in the office.
I'm not going to lie - sometimes you just want to snap a distance from one edge of the pavement to the other, and when they are at elevation, the operator needs to take care.
Long story short, the operator still needs to intervene, and not let the software do it all.