Polyline Tool and missing join command

[tsturm]

Can anyone provide a method of joining multiple polyline segments (imported from survery drawing) into a single polyline.

I can do the autotrace method (space bar + click), but would like to find a way to join two segments without doing a recreation of the whole line's segments.

Trying to set up contours for Mesh Model.

TIA

[__archiben]

tsturm

there is currently no automated way of doing this within archiCAD. your space-click-autotrace method is probably the best way at present.

i see that you've actually added it to one of the wishes, so fingers crossed for the future . . .

~/archiben

[Anonymous]

The alternative is not too pretty:

1. Select the poly-lines.
2. Explode.
3. Reselect the exploded lines & arcs.
4. Ungroup the lines & arcs.
5. Unify the lines & arcs.
6. Curse as appropriate in your local language and/or dialect according to who is within earshot when some of the lines and arcs fail to unify as desired.

I like the space-bar click.

[Petros Ioannou]

In case the survey drawing is not too large you can use the fill tool combined with the magic wand to trace areas between elevation lines. This trace of an area can be extended (select the fill and add areas using the magic wand). Then explode the fill and proceed working with the lines. Success is not guaranteed since the tracing may lead to unaxeptable results.

[Anonymous]

The easiest way, and sometimes the fastest is simply to trace over the survey polyline with a new polyline using Archicad.

While tedious, I have found it to be considerably less frustrating than trying to join surveyors lines, etc.

Grant

[Anonymous]

Petros wrote:
In case the survey drawing is not too large you can use the fill tool combined with the magic wand to trace areas between elevation lines. This trace of an area can be extended (select the fill and add areas using the magic wand). Then explode the fill and proceed working with the lines. Success is not guaranteed since the tracing may lead to unaxeptable results.

Fills won't explode in ArchiCAD (though you can copy/paste to and from PM) so slabs would work better for this.

I generally do as Grant suggests. Tracing what I want with splines and lines I find to be generally faster than trying to use someone else's line work. Many in the 2D CAD world don't draw to the same degree of precision as we modelers have to because, for them, all that matters is that the drawings look good enough on paper.

[Petros Ioannou]

Matthew,
If you create a fill (with an outline pen) and explode it, archicad seperates the outline from the fill. They are grouped together but you can erase the fill and work with the outline only.
As for Grant's method I agree with you. It is the one that someone should try first and saves a lot of time.

[tsturm]

Using the Fill tool to autotrace the contours is a fine idea if your contours as not contorted. My survey drawing is of existing conditions. I have curb cuts, parking lots, walkways and other numerous objects on the survey. To do the recommended method of Space Bar clicking to auto fill the region between would most likely lead to frustration. As most of the auto fills would not fill the entire region. Most would overlap themselves or never to it at all.

I still think that making sure the lines are a continuous connection of segments then Space Bar clicking with the Polyline tool. I recommend the Polyline tool as if the user wants the line to have a texture, such as dashes, then using this tool will reveal the best results. The user could also use the Bezier Tool, but may find the straight sections not so straight.

In my case, I need to be able to Space Bar click on the contours as I am creating a mesh model of the site. So when I go to create the surface cuts on the mesh I need the contours to cut as one line. I was hoping that I could simply select the individual polylline segments and join them into a single line. But I have found that once they are all touching that I can use the Polyline tool to auto trace them and make new ones.

Thank you all for the suggestions. They all seem like they could work, but it would seem they would all take longer to get the same results with the complexity of our site.

TIA

[Anonymous]

tsturm wrote:
Thank you all for the suggestions. They all seem like they could work, but it would seem they would all take longer to get the same results with the complexity of our site.

One thing that occurs to me is that is appears you are not using layers to separate the contours from other site features. Did your surveyor not give you his full DWG? It seems this would make your life much easier.