ADDING POINT DATA OF A DIFFERENT COORDINATE SYSTEM INTO CIVIL 3D

(This paper assumes the user knows how to import points and create a surface in Civil 3D 2012)

TARGET or BASE drawing = original drawing (must have known coordinate system defined)
SOURCE = drawing or data to be imported into the target or base drawing (must know coordinate system)

Beginning with the TARGET or BASE drawing, the coordinate system will need to be defined. This will be
done by clicking on the small 3D down arrow on the upper left button on your screen that has the big red
“C” and select ‘Drawing Utilities’, then ‘Drawing Settings’ OR on the ‘Toolspace /Settings Tab’ (Master View)
by right clicking on the ‘Drawing Name’ and selecting ‘Edit Drawing Settings’.

This will open the Drawing Setting dialog box. Pick the small arrow on the right to see the different
options. The scale (upper right) does not affect the transformation of other coordinate systems. The
base drawing is ready for the points to be imported and surface developed. Once this is completed, save
the drawing. The TARGET or BASE drawing is now ready for the SOURCE data

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The image above represents the TARGET drawing w/defined coordinate system and surveyed points in
blue.

We will want to add or reference the data points from the SOURCE coordinate system and transform them
into the TARGET coordinate system.

There are many ways to import and transform coordinate systems into a drawing of a different coordinate
system. This reference guide will show 2 options. Option 1 will show how to import and transform data
through ‘Points Clouds’ and Option 2 will show how to import and transform data through the ‘Import Points’
and a new point file format. Both Options have pros and cons which will be shown at the end of this guide.

Tip: If you opened a drawing and are not sure what the coordinate system is, you can change your
workspace to ‘Planning and Analysis’ and select the ‘Map Setup’ tab. Next select ‘Assign’. This will show you
the current coordinate system or allow you to assign one to the drawing at this time. If the TARGET
drawing never had a coordinate system assigned you can assign one to it as long as it is, in fact, drawn in a
known coordinate system.

The following Options (1 and 2) can be done in the Civil 3D workspace.

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OPTION 1

At the command line type ‘MAPWSPACE’ and select <ON>. This will turn on the ‘Task Pane’ window. Check
the box next to Map Base (this is saying that this is the TARGET drawing).

Right click on the ‘Data’ icon and select ‘Add Point Cloud Data’, then ‘Create New Index’.

This opens the Point Cloud Manager dialog box. You must know the coordinate systems of the SOURCE
data. Add file by clicking the “+” sign. Click in the Coordinate System box and then the 3 dots to the right
and select the coordinate system from the list of options. Select ‘Generate Index’ button. Once the index
is generated, select ‘Add to Map’.

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The following shows the SOURCE transformed points in red and the TARGET points in blue. The points
were added in the Task Pane as well. This is where you will turn the points on or off, by checking or
unchecking the box.

On the ‘Prospector Tab’ on the ‘Toolspace’ select the “+” sign next to ‘Point Clouds’. Right click on the point
cloud created and select ‘Add Civil 3D Properties’ <yes>.

This will open the Point Cloud properties dialog box.

The information tab will allow you to rename the cloud data to something that would make sense, (example:
utm _pnts_xyz) and the description could be filled out if necessary. Then select <ok>. Right click on that
renamed point cloud and select ‘Add Points to Surface’.

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This will bring up another dialog box.

There are 2 options, creating a new surface or adding to an existing surface. Follow the wizard through to
create the desired surface. NOTE: Suggestion only – create the LiDAR (or whatever the data is) as a new
surface. You can then create another surface that combines both surfaces. This allows you flexibility to
have separate surfaces of the original data set and the source data.

Once the surface is created (as shown in image above) you can uncheck the point cloud data in the Task
Pane (mapwspace) to turn them off.

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OPTION 2

Begin by ‘Importing Points’, but this time you will have the box checked next to ‘Do coordinate
transformation if possible’. However, in order for this to work, both the TARGET and SOURCE coordinates
needs to be defined. It is assumed we already have our TARGET drawing with defined coordinate system
created. With this box checked, when you import points, Civil 3D will transform the points into the
coordinate system of the TARGET drawing.

Seem simple enough? Well yes and no. A new point file format may need to be created. The most
important thing to remember is to make sure that the columns for easting is set to Grid Easting and
northing is set to Grid Northing, otherwise this will not work!! Note: This has something to do with
telling what kind of point it is…a grid point.

To create a new point file format it is easiest to copy an existing one. First, click the icon to the right of
the exisiting point file formats.

Then select the format that matches your SOURCE data format if possible. In this example we will assume
an ‘ENZ (comma delimited)’ format as a base for the xyz data file of LiDAR points. When we select that
format we then select ‘Copy’ on the right side. This will open the Point File Format wizard.

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Give the Point file format a name that you will understand. (Note: If this is a format that will be used
often, it is recommended creating this point file format in your template drawing). I like to name my point
file format similar to the coordinate zone for future use. You must check the box for the coordinate zone
and then select the world icon to the right and choose the SOURCE coordinates. Select Easting Column
heading, with the down arrow on the right choose Grid Easting, repeat with Northing. Select <ok> and your
new format is finished.

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Now that the point file format is set up you can browse to
your point file, select the format you just created, add the
points to a group if you choose to, and make sure the box is
checked for ‘Do coordinate transformation if possible’ and
that should be it!! NOTE: This method will not transform
the elevation from meters to feet.

There is an Advanced Option that says ‘Do elevation

adjustment if possible’ – this does NOT refer to
transformation from Meters to Feet or vice versa. It has
to do with things like thickness of topsoil or stuff of that
nature. This box does not need to be checked.

The following image shows the imported points from the SOURCE data that was transformed in the new
point file format that was just created. From here a surface can be created and surface simplified, if
necessary.

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The pros and cons about the 2 Options that were learned along the way. Blue point is survey point in
TARGET drawing (State Plane Coordinate System).

OPTION 1 (black lines) OPTION 2 (red line)

Pros Pros
• Points are referenced • Points are added to
and not imported into the drawing which can
OPTION 2
the drawing through add flexibility.
the point cloud which However, if there are
means smaller drawing a lot of points, this can
size make a difference of
• Transformation does drawing file size, (so
not require a new point this could be a Pro or
file format OPTION 1 Con)
• Transformation will
also transform the Cons
elevation • Transformation will
NOT transform the
elevation.

NOTE: In this example, using the large point data source only and using in both Options, file size of
drawing for Option 1 (Point Cloud) was 1.5 MB but the file size for Option 2 (Import Points) was 20 MB.

Something to be aware of…this caused me hours of pain. When exporting the xyz data from ArcMap and
opening into Excel to edit and save as a comma delimited file, I found that the xy columns were not
formatted as numbers and when I copied the elevation column to the “C” column, I did not have that
formatted as a number either. Make sure all columns are numbers before trying to doing anything in Civil
3D with the data.

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