Discover the step-by-step process of data manipulation and integration in a drawing project. Learn how to create a new surface by merging multiple individual surfaces into a single, cohesive surface for better construction coherence.
Key insights
- The article details how to create a new surface by pasting together multiple surfaces such as dev branch, dev main, and existing highway surfaces into one comprehensive surface. This process aids in better visualizing the project for construction purposes.
- The tutorial also explains how to manage surface properties, specifically how to hide individual surfaces from the display once they are integrated into the cohesive surface. This step simplifies the overall view of the project.
- Additionally, the article guides the reader on how to reference alignments in a project, providing further clarity and structure to the design process.
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In this video, we're going to go ahead and do a little bit of manipulation of some of the data references that we brought in in the previous video. I'm also going to go ahead and bring in a couple more data references into the drawing.
So to do that, what we're going to first do is we're going to create a new surface. I'm going to go ahead and right-click and select create surface. I'm going to go ahead and call this dev combo, and we're going to go as design topo, and I'm going to go ahead and click OK, and then I'm going to click OK here. And so inside of here you'll see dev combo.
I'm going to expand this out, expand out definitions. I'm going to go to edits. I'm going to right-click, and I'm going to go ahead and choose paste surface.
We're going to be creating a surface by pasting together all of our dev branch, dev main, existing highway surfaces into one cohesive surface rather than having all these individual surfaces. We're going to be pasting them together in an order that makes sense for construction purposes. So what we're going to start with is we're going to start with our highway.
Then I'm going to go ahead and right-click paste surface. I'm going to go ahead and paste in my main branch or my main and then my branch. So I'm going to go ahead and go with my main surface.
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Then I'm going to go ahead and right-click. I'm going to paste surface. I'm going to go to my branch surface.
Then I'm going to go ahead and right-click. I'm going to go ahead and paste. I'm going to choose my branch end.
I'm going to go ahead and right-click. I'm going to choose paste surface. I'm going to choose my main end.
Then I'm going to go ahead and right-click. I'm going to go ahead and paste surface. So I've done my branch surface, my branch end.
I've done my main. I've done my main end. I've done my highway.
Now I'm going to go to my intersections. So I'm going to go to my main branch intersection surface. I'm going to click OK.
Then I'm going to go ahead and go to right-click paste, and I'm going to choose highway dev main intersection and click OK. And then now I've pasted in all of these surfaces. So what I can go ahead and do is go to my other surfaces, I can right-click surface properties.
I can drop down and choose no display, apply, OK. I can go to this next one, surface properties, no display, apply, OK.
Surface properties for the next one, no display, apply, OK.
And I'm just marching down through, except for my dev combo and marking them as no displays. So I'm going to go to surface properties, dev main end, no display, apply, OK.
Dev main surface, surface properties, no display, apply, OK. Existing highway, no display, apply, OK.
And highway dev main intersection surface properties, no display, apply, OK.
And so now if I go to dev combo, right-click, and I choose select, I've now selected alignments and all of my corridor surfaces. And then I can go up to object viewer. I can go ahead and bring my object viewer window over, maximize it, rotate it out.
And so you can see all of my roadway pieces all pasted together as a single cohesive surface. So I'm going to go ahead and close this. I'm going to go ahead and escape.
I'm going to go ahead and go to my data shortcuts because I said we were going to go ahead and reference in our alignments. So I'm going to go down. I'm going to expand out Alignments, expand out Centerline Alignments, select Dev Branch, right-click, select create reference.
I'm going to go ahead and choose no site Dev Branch. I'm going to leave it as proposed. I'm going to choose major and minor only for my alignment label set.
I'm going to go ahead and click OK. And so now my alignment shows up for that roadway.
I'm going to go ahead and go to Dev Main and do the same thing, right-click, create reference, no site Dev Main proposed major minor only, click OK.
And my other alignment shows up here. Now I'm going to go ahead and escape. I'm going to go ahead and save the drawing, and then I'll meet you in the next video.
