This has been discussed before but without any efficient answer I am asking it again in a slightly different manner. We survey large irregular property for a local municipality that requires MicroStation. These sites always require additional topo work to be added after the initial surface is created. A typical request would involve updating the topo to include areas that have changed due to construction or simply expanding the original topo area.
Each time we add data to the existing surface we must RECREATE THE ENTIRE DTM AND RE-EDIT EVERY SINGLE TRIANGLE THAT WAS EDITED DURING THE ORIGINAL SURFACE CREATION. This process can take days to accomplish depending on the size of the site. Some sites are over 5 miles long.
What we need is the ability to add data to a surface without having to re-create it, similar to the the way Civil3d functions. A 30 minute surface addition in Civil3d can take days in Microstation. This is extremely frustrating and adds thousands of dollars and tons of wasted time to these projects. Just yesterday an area was uncovered and it was surveyed. The area consisted of less then 15 points which needed to be added to the existing surfafce. Simple, right? Hell no, we had to recreate the DTM and re-edit the triangles. It took 8 hours to complete what should of taken 15 minutes.
Please do not tell me to 'fix the survey data' or to make every triangle a breakline.. This has nothing to do with bad survey data. I have been creating surfaces for 25+years and each and every surface needs a detailed review and editing of triangles, basically just flipping faces so the surface is correct.
I have mentioned the volatility of triangle "face-flipping" edits in an earlier post.
I am a long time InRoads user and sometimes, this type of edit is needed, even with the best of survey techniques. I've even tried adding breaklines to force the triangles to form and retain edits, but found that other triangles can be effected by the added breaklines and will often change in a manner that requires even more breaklines to be needed.
In Civil 3D, the edits are saved in a sort of audit trail, so if you add to or change the surface, the rebuild process reads the audit trail and preserves (or restores) any flipped faces. InRoads/Open Roads needs to add a similar capability.
Charles (Chuck) Rheault CADD Manager
MDOT State Highway Administration Maryland DOT - State Highway Administration User Communities Page
It was not too many versions ago that there was no Flip Face tool at all! At least, on the InRoads front.
We actually have been using InRoads for all projects, including Land Desktop and Civil 3D, by way of LandXML for the DTM, 2D linework for the figures and a custom XML report to make a PNEZD list for point import.
Since Civil 3D 2010, we have begun some processing of Survey in Civil 3D after getting a clean survey in InRoads. Once all edits were completed, we used a new custom XML report that preserves all of the linking codes with the D of the PNEZD and imported them using a custom Linework Code Set that contains all compatible standard InRoads control codes. As it turns out, we seldom use most of the codes that do not equate 1 to 1 between InRoads and Civil 3D.
I should point out that this only works using the "classic" InRoads Survey and not the Open Roads version. They do not provide the same support for custom XML Survey Reports in it and it is really tying my hands.