I have attached a DWG of a survey I am importing into Sketchup.
I need the resultant import to be 3D in order to run topo shaper and create a visual model of current ground conditions, however it imports as 2D with the exception of some very long lines on the Z axis.
I have a pdf (that is very difficult to read) that contains spot heights and contour levels, but it seems it would be a pointless task to adjust all the contours manually if there is a way of importing in 3D in the first place.
Can anyone shed any light on this for me?
Any help would be gratefully received!
Your map imports as 2D because it is 2D (except for the lines you mention. To make it 3D you would have to move the contours up to their actual z-heights if you know them, the same applies to the building footprints.
When I get a map that has spot heights as text, I usually use, in AutoCad, an AutoLisp routine I wrote that adds to the spot heights a vertical line from the z=0 plane to the actual height indicated by the text. Then, in SketchUp, i can use the Sandbox from Contours tool to put a surface through the top endpoints of the lines. I am not sure of your plan has enough of these spot heights to make an usable surface. I would have tried, but I don’t have AutoCad in my home computer (today is Independence day holiday in Finland).
If you have access to AutoCad, you can try my lisp - I once posted it here
The contour lines are on their own layer so you can separate them out. The DWG also shows what heights they should be. They also appear to be at regular 0.5m intervals.
Once imported into SU, you may need to join up broken lines and create an encompassing plane so that there is a discrete surface area bounded by each pair of contour lines. You can then use Push/Pull to draw them up to the appropriate height. Of course, that would give you an unnatural terraced effect but you may be able to use Sandbox tools or other plugin to smooth things out.