Mastering AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010

Chapter 4

X Marks the Spot: Points

The foundation of any civil engineering project is the simple point. Most commonly, points are

used to identify the location of existing features, such as trees and property corners; topography,

such as ground shots; or stakeout information, such as road geometry points. However, points can

be used for much more. This chapter will both focus on traditional point uses and introduce ideas

to apply the dynamic power of point editing, labeling, and grouping to other applications.

By the end of this chapter, you’ll learn to:

◆ Import points from a text file using description key matching

◆ Create a point group

◆ Export points to LandXML and ASCII format

◆ Create a point table

Anatomy of a Point

Civil 3D points (see Figure 4.1) are intelligent objects that represent x, y,andz locations in space.

Each point has a unique number and, optionally, a unique name that can be used for additional

identification and labeling.

You can view and change point properties in the AutoCAD Properties palette, as shown in

Figure 4.2.

Creating Basic Points

You can create points many ways, using the Points menu from the Create Ground Data panel on

the Home tab. Points can also be imported from text files or external databases or converted from

AutoCAD, Land Desktop, or Softdesk point objects.

Point Settings

Before you begin creating points, it’s important to investigate which settings may make the

task easier. Individual point objects are placed on an object layer that controls their visibility,

which you can manage in both the Command settings and the Create Points dialogs. You can

also establish default style, default label style, and default elevations, names, and descriptions in

your Civil 3D template, which will make it easy to follow your company standard when creating

points.

98 CHAPTER 4 X MARKS THE SPOT: POINTS

Figure 4.1

A typical point object

showing a marker,

a point number, an

elevation, and a

description

Description

Point number

Elevation

Marker

Figure 4.2

The AutoCAD Properties

palette

Default Layer

For most Civil 3D objects, the object layer is established in the Drawing Settings. In the case of

points, the default object layer is set in the Command Settings for point creation and can be over-

ridden in the Create Points dialog (see Figure 4.3).

Prompt for Elevations, Names, and Descriptions

When creating points in your drawing, you have the option of being prompted for elevations,

names, and descriptions (see Figure 4.4). In many cases, you’ll want to leave these options set to

Manual. The command line will ask you to assign an elevation, name, and description for every

point you create.

CREATING BASIC POINTS 99

Figure 4.3

You should set the

pointobjectlayerbefore

creating points

Figure 4.4

You can change the

Elevations, Point

Names, and Descriptions

settings from Manual to

Automatic

If you’re creating a batch of points that have the same description or elevation, you can change

the Prompt toggle from Manual to Automatic and then provide the description and elevation

in the default cells. For example, if you’re setting a series of trees at an elevation of 10



,youcan

establish settings as shown in Figure 4.5.

Be sure to change these settings back to Manual before you import points from external sources

that provide a Z elevation. If not, all imported points will be assigned the default elevation regard-

less of the Z provided by the imported file.

Importing Points from a Text File

One of the most common means of creating points in your drawing is to import an external text

file. This file may be the result of surveyed information or an export from another program (see

Figure 4.6).

The import process supports these point file formats: TXT, PRN, CSV, XYZ, AUF, NEZ, and

PNT. The following are the most common formats for imported point lists:

◆ Autodesk Uploadable File

◆ External Project Point Database

◆ ENZ, space delimited or comma delimited

◆ NEZ, space delimited or comma delimited

◆ PENZ, space delimited or comma delimited

100 CHAPTER 4 X MARKS THE SPOT: POINTS

◆ PENZD, space delimited or comma delimited

◆ PNE, space delimited or comma delimited

◆ PNEZ, space delimited or comma delimited

◆ PNEZD, space delimited or comma delimited

Figure 4.5

Default settings for

placing tree points at

an elevation of 10



Figure 4.6

The Import Points tool

in the Create Points

dialog (top), and creat-

ing a point group for the

newly imported points

(bottom)