best practice for multiple isolated terrain areas?

The best way would be for your surveyors to take the time to code them in as separate fieldbooks...

I'll be interested to see what the suggestions are. I've seen a few surveys like this, and I'd like to know if there are tips I can pass along to the survey companies to make my life easier.

Thanks, Mary!  I'm interested in the responses as well.  I am always reluctant to "offer suggestions" to field teams about changing their behavior in the field.  I'm hoping there's an easy backoffice step.  

I hadn't ever thought I needed a Create From Graphic filter against a Selection Set, but that seems like it would be easy and straightforward.  Less straightforward, but maybe a better paper trail and updateability:  a bunch of file fence to dgn and then Graphic Filter (each new file). 

Maybe having each <island terrain>.dgn have the terrain and its graphics in it is okay (though I do like the ideal of terrian files only hold terrains....

I can agree with you that I would prefer topography linework in a drawing separate from the terrain. But if the area is relatively small and the result is significantly better, it might be worth it.

I also understand the reluctance to debate with the surveyors. I feel that the fact that we are the client for their services is often overlooked. When I do my design work, I have to give the client what they ask me for, in the format they want. Most of the survey departments I've worked with...don't see it that way. Great guys! but definitely set in their ways.

I can change my typing and mouse behavior comparatively easily.  Motor skills and physical process is much tougher for me.  Just TRY to teach me a dance step (oh, the humanity!).  Putting additional decisions in an outdoor free-for-all environment or asking something that takes additional time per shot is a big ask with potential quality concerns. KISS.   I used to think surveyors were the most stubborn, but now I argue that it's drainage guys.  If you show a surveyor a better way, they are more likely to adopt it than a drainage designer ("Yep, that's better, but I'm still going to do it on my monster spreadsheet"). 

Hello,

Y can provide you the procedures I follow for that.

For a surveyor should not be an issue to provide you separate models for each patch.

If surveyors provide you with a monolithic finished model ( any kind of DTM), I load it and create trim terrains for each via individual poligonal fences. Is quite fast, and usually brings no issues.

If they provide only the graphical components (points, breaklines, etc ...), then create individual terrains for each patch. One graphic filter will do the trick.

Of course, I create each model in individual files and reference them in a federated model.

If you need that a corridor interact with some of them, the procedure I use is defining each one as a target aliasing, so you can easily update or replace the different patch if  needed (different execution phases over time, for example), without the mess of upgrading or recreating a complex model every time.

Best regards.