Have you ever exaggerated a Surface vertically?
If not, it can be a very powerful visual analysis tool whether you are working with an Existing or Proposed Surface.
This is because the exaggeration accentuates vertical changes within the Surface which can help identify areas of concern.
In other words, low spots become very easy to see which might indicated a problem with proposed grading.
Sharp edges in areas that don’t make sense might indicate a problem with how the Surface was created.
Small indentations or hills spaced in large grid pattern could indicated a problem with how the Surface data was collected. (Bad rod height)
I could give you a list of 10 more but I’m sure you get the idea. In any event, all of these issues may be very subtle when looking at a Surface at normal scale. So subtle that they could easily be overlooked. On the other hand, once the Surface is exaggerated, issues like these become very easy to identify.
Exaggerating a Surface vertically is something that Civil 3D folks have been able to do for years. However, many folks may not know that it can also be accomplished in InfraWorks.
As a bonus, scaling Surfaces in InfraWorks also provides the added benefit of quickly identifying the limits of a particular Surface within a model containing multiple Surfaces.
Check out the video below to see how it works.
-Jerry
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