Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Jumpy Topo lines while edit or add Points

b8dnbbr

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Joined: Thu, Feb 19, 2009
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I'd call this a workflow or workspace type question.

As add toposurface points, revit assumes the contour that connects adjacent points (and revit also assumes which two points are adjacent). The result is jumpy contours dodging about. It's difficult to see which lines may be folding under others.

I wonder if there's a hidden setting to reduce the jumping sensitivity. As i create a point, i'd like the lines to be be shown more predictably, as in plines or splines in 2d cad.

Also, i thought i read of a way to color different increments (intervals) differently. for example, 2 foot color green. 5 foot increments color red. 10 foot color blue. (and i'd expect the earlier in list should have color override priority over lower in list. in example, contour 20' is colored red)

rac 2009 or 2010,

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WWHub

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Joined: Tue, May 16, 2006
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Color and linetype - settings / options / topography - primary and secondary contours.

You set which interval they are under settings  / site .

CAD is a better place to do topograpy lines.  REVIT just doesn't support CIVIL ... but use the REVIT topography for model views.

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b8dnbbr

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Importing from CAD causes a similar problem as the jumpy topos, in my limited experience.

First time i traced contours, I spent a lot of time in autocad, mousing very close using splines, then export to r12 dxf .. that hwole routine found by google. very time consuming. then when i imported to revit, it looked OK.. except that there were numerous of those zigzagging contours. some of them angled down far below the lowest contour elevation. I gave up, and did the rest in cad. (class assignment, btw. but at least I learned it's good enough to trace over less accurately and to use plines)

Maybe I should have tried deleting a few of the points that seemed to cause the erratic zigzags, but spotting the bad points wasn't so obvious (at that time)

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WWHub

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You did not need to do what you did for your import from CAD.  I don't know what you found on Google - why didn't you use your HELP first?  Just import the topography following what you read in your help.  It is very easy.

However, as far as the topo line drawing - don't do it in Revit.  Use the cad drawing period!  Turn off the topo and use the linked CAD drawing or print it straight from CAD.

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b8dnbbr

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Google found the "save as R12 dxf to convert from acad splines" procedure. This is performed after tracing contours in acad. But the dxf save is unecessary because (IIRC) tracing with plines is more direct and economical of time & megabits.

Next step was normal import dwg into revit. (per revit's chm, etc)

Unfortunately, the result had similar problem in that some of the (imported) lines went zigzag all over. So from there, I have the same trouble of trying to adjust Points, hoping to coerce the contours to "pop" into proper place.

And yes, the main value of 3d topo is to drop in masses, for visualization/presentation. You can't design grades in revit or acad. It's got to be done on paper (& calcs), then shoved into acad. I've never tried c3d or the terrain (whatever they call it) in vectorworks. (don't have access to vw or c3d, anyway). Maybe there are good apps for grading?

Attached Images

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Edit Topo Boundries

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Elevation of Topo points

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Toporegion, Lines, Points, ACAD (REVIT 9.1)

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Revit 2017 - Topography contour lines visibility

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Topo Lines part 2

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