Ok, today’s tool is really more of a "feature of a workflow" than it is an official tool. :)
Having said this, it helps us do a really cool thing. Create a section style view from Point Objects!!
Some background…
For years, field crews have collected points in a linear fashion to represent cross sections of swales, ditches, roads… Having said this, once the points were brought into Civil 3D, we see only points. If we wanted to see a cross sectional representation of even a single row of points, we needed to create a surface, alignment, profile view…. In short, I for one was always looking for an easier way to quickly visualize my point information.
Today is that day!!
There is a little known option of the Feature Line Elevation Editor that will do exactly what we want. (Create a section type view without having to build a Surface)
You simply connect the points together that represent your section using a 3D polyline, convert that polyline into a Feature line and display a Quick Profile of the Feature Line using the Draw3DEntityProfile option of the Feature Line Elevation Editor dialog box. (Takes longer to read than do!! :) )
Check out the video below to see how it works.
-Jerry
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