Technical data

Chapter 5 Working with Surfaces
190
Creating Finished Ground Data
for Surfaces
AutoCAD Land Development Desktop has many commands that you
can use for creating finished ground data to use for surfaces. The
following table summarizes a few of the point, 3D polyline, and
contour grading methods you can use for creating finished ground
surface data.
Methods for creating finished ground surface data
Point Grading 3D Polyline Grading Contour Grading
Create points at the
vertices of a 3D polyline
Create 3D polylines by
specifying an elevation or
a slope
Create contours along a
proposed slope or grade
Create points where two
slopes or grades intersect
Fillet 3D polylines Create multiple offsets of
a contour at a specified
interval and grade until a
specified distance or
elevation is reached
Interpolate points between
two selected points, based
on total distance
Offset existing polylines in
your drawing and apply
elevational changes to the
offset polylines
Copy existing contours
that you can update with
new grading data
When you are ready to create the surface based on this grading data
using the Terrain Model Explorer, you must add the surface data to
the surface folder. The following table shows how to process each type
of grading data.
Processing different types of surface data
Object How to Process as Surface Data
2D Polylines Select as contours
3D Polylines Select as breaklines or as contours
Points Select as point groups