Using Civil3d and SAGA GIS to create .las file for TGC Designer tools

This workflow has come about due to the potential loss of our community golf training facilities and the need to present options for the relocation of the facilities to a new piece of land.

Initially I mapped out a rough concept for a new course by hand on an aerial photo and then draw it up in CAD using Autodesk Civil3d.

Then I cam across TGC-Designer-Tools that allows you to import surface and design information from Open Street Map into the game “The Golf Club 2019” which has designer functions to model up a golf course.

One of the limitations of the TDC-Designer-Tools at this stage is that you can only import .las files of lidar for the elevation data.

There is however a lot of surface elevation data that is freely available on the internet in other formats. Normally in a post processed format from the original lidar data. In order to use this data in a course or surface data from Civil3d it has to be converted into a .las file format some how.

Fortunately there is an open source GIS program “SAGA GIS” that has just the toolsets you need to import surface data in various formats and convert it into a .las file that can be imported into TGC-Designer using TGC-Designer-Tools as a basis for your design.

What follows is the workflow in progress I have developed to take a design surface from Civil3d and convert it into a .las file for import into TGC-Designer.

1. Download and install SAGA GIS
2. From Civil3d export a DEM file of the design ground surface you want to make into a .las file.

3. Dragged the DEM file into SAGA GIS.

4. Using the PointCloud from Grid Points created a point cloud.

http://www.saga-gis.org/saga_tool_doc/2.2.3/pointcloud_tools_2.html

5. View the point cloud data and added a field “Class” for the classification and added 2 for "Ground" for the value of the class

http://www.saga-gis.org/saga_tool_doc/2.2.7/pointcloud_tools_6.html

6. Used the Export .las file to export out the .las file.

7. Imported the the .las into TGC designer tools following this tutorial.

https://chadrockey.github.io/TGC-Designer-Tools/TUTORIAL

Helpful Tutorial on Saga GIS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAUtojgDsTA&list=PLQlQ0PBGc1s9HBXI-YhVRxDu5cEjB7l_D

MapInsert

Reminder remember to self mapinsert command has double i’s “mapiinsert” and is the best way to put tiff’s in dwgs to xref into other drawings.

Google Style Search for Dwg files

No matter how organised your filing and cad standards are there will always be time spent searching for information that has been detailed before and not added to the system or showing new staff where information is located. In this vain I typed google style search engine for dwg’s in google about a month do so ago I came across a program calling Drawing Searcher by Docupoint http://www.docupoint.com/

I downloaded the trail and installed and was impressed at the speed of the indexing and searching. The price was very reasonable as well I thought. Once set up on your server you just can direct users to go to an internal webpage and they can search all the documents quickly on all company servers and archives for what ever they are after.

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Playlist on Youtube

Here is a link to a playlist of videos I have found useful over the years on SSA

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRJtzWYfXIz-sM3FOTH_b8WTcbcQy9eA8

Alt Codes for Use in Mtext to show arrows

From https://www.alt-codes.net/arrow_alt_codes.php

Civil3d Transparent Surface prints Tinn Lines

Reminder to self for some reason when I pdf with a transparent hatch thru Acroplot it prints the Tinn lines in the pdf. For example.

 

but if I print with the plot command and select this option

it prints without the Tinn lines for example

Without the Tinn lines example

this setting in Acroplot helps reduce the lines in plan hatches

https://www.cadzation.com/help/acroplot/why_are_there_lines_showing_in_my_solid_fills_.htm

Getting Open Live Writer Picture Posts Working

To get open live writer working again and posting with pictures refer to this blog

http://www.thanislim.com/2019/03/how-to-fix-open-live-writer-error-400.html

you may get a error 403 as well. Just delete your link to Blogger and setup again.

Copy PDF text to Word keeping Line Spacing

Note to self for some reason when I copy and paste from a pdf or chrome to word I lose all the line spaces in the pdf’s text. If however I open the pdf with Microsoft Edge the line spacing remains after the copy and paste in word.

This method has not been working lately for me maybe due to the pdf being published differently i think. A method that works with these pdfs is to upload the document to google drive and then go open as google doc and then copy and paste the text from the google doc into excel.

Vehicle tracking ‘’atra201_dbx failed to load’’ error

On some computers when you click a button on the vehicle tracking ribbon you will get this error

You do not have to uninstall the software and reinstall as suggested here by Autodesk I have tried and does not work)

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/civil-3d/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/atra210-DBX-failed-to-load-error-Autodesk-Vehicle-Tracking-2017.html

You just have to type appload and browse to the location of the atra201_dbx file and select it and load it.

Converting Large SSA model from Rational to SCS TR 55 Hydrological Method

Here is a workflow to change a large model from one Hydrological method to another. You may want to do this for a number of reasons. But SSA has very limited tools for bulk updating of data, given below are some work arounds to speed up the updating of data.

1. In SSA Change the Hydrological Method

a. Go to Input-> Project options. Change the hydrological method from Rational to SCS to Tr 55.

b. This will change the settings available under each subbasin, allowing a Curve Number (CN) to be entered.

2. Update the Subbasin Curve Numbers (CN)

Now you have to update the CN numbers for each Subbasin Unfortunately SSA does not provide a method to do this in bulk that I know of. To enter the curve number quickly to a large amount of sub basins you change use the SSA export to GIS tool and then edit the subbasin shp file data in Map 3D and reimport the subbasins.

To do this.

In SSA

a. Go to file export GIS export.

b. Choose file locations.

c. Select the sub basins only.

d. Select all properties.

e. Click export.

In Civil3d

a. In Civil 3D / Map3D type “mapwspace”.

b. Choose data connect. Show grounds to the shape files in connect.

c. Select everything in the drawing an Checkout all the information for editing.

d. Turn on the table of object data.

e. All the sub basin objects again.

f. Select to check all the updated objects into the shape on again.

g. Close the updated file.

Returning to SSA

a. Delete the existing sub basins by using the Polygon Selection tool. Draw a polyline around all the subbasins right click, and select done. To close the polygon.

b. Now do a group delete go to the edit menu with selection Polygon still showing and select “group delete” second from the bottom on the menu.

c. Choose to delete subbasins only.

Import Updated Subbasins from Shp file.

a. Go to file import GIS import.

b. Browns to the updated shp files of the sub basins and choose import.

c. The sub basins will import with the new CN values you assigned. To the right object data fields.

3. Update the Time of Concentration

a. You may have noticed that the time of concentration has been updated or set to zero for all your Sub-basins to fix this do a group edit.

b. Use the Polygon selection tool again to select all Sub-basins.

c. Go to edit group edit third from the bottom.

d. Choose sub basins time of concentration replace with say 10 minutes.

4. Assign Rain Gauges to Subbasins

Now to get SCS TR-55 method to run you have to assign Rain Gauges to each Sub-Basin. Again there is no command to do this in bulk in SSA. You can use the following work round if you like:-

a. Create a Rain Gauge.

b. Copy the Rain Gauges name

c. Export your SSA file to a swmm file.

d. Open the swmm file in notepad.

e. Search for the Sub Basin Section in the text file.

f. Do a find and replace on the * with the sub basin name copied above.

g. Save the updated file swmm .inp file.

Return to SSA

a. Go file import browse to the updated swmm file in and import.

You should now have a file with subbasins assigned rain gauges and should be able to run an analysis.

3D polylines from Civil3d pipe network for machine guidance

Most contractors like to get 3d lines of Civil3d pipe networks for machine control but there is no command built in Civil3d to do this. This post in the forums gives an easy work around solution that uses script files.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/civil-3d-forum/3d-polylines-from-pipe-network-for-machine-guidence/td-p/7377187

a bit more help on script files can be found in this post

https://thecadgeek.com/blog/creating-script-files-with-excel/

A couple of things that were not that clear in the forum comments when I tried the work around were that:-

1. You need to delete the “line,” i.e line with the , and replace with the word line with a space in front to represent the enter key being pressed in front of the line command “ line”.

2. That all you need between both sets of co-ordinates is a space so the double ,, in the csv file can be replaced.

Also you need to set osmode to o and have the .scr file in a location with a short folder path as the run script command is old and use to short paths and will fail to load the file if a long path.

Using Desktop Divider App to add regions to multiple monitors for Dialog Boxes

Found this helpful program the other day to divide your screens into regions so you can have windows dialog boxes re size quickly and placed at specific areas on you screens.

Here is a link to the website

https://www.actualtools.com/multiplemonitors/features/multi_monitor_desktop_divider/

and a quick video on how to set the program up to divide up you monitors

https://www.screencast.com/t/77Np6nOVGJ

Fixing and Redirecting Data shortcuts

Here is a link to a great video by Jeff Bartell on how to fix various issues that can come up with Data shortcuts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7drQbOtIpk&feature=youtu.be