Tutorial: Creating Point Data

This tutorial demonstrates several useful setup tasks for organizing a large set of points.

In this tutorial, you will learn about managing a set of points related to stormwater manholes and detention ponds. You will create description keys and point groups to sort the points as they are imported into a drawing. Then, you will import the points from an existing file.

Description keys can help you automate many point-handling tasks at the time that points are created or imported. A description key uses the raw description code of a point to determine how to process the point. For example, you can configure a description key to apply different styles or place points on different drawing layers.

You can classify a set of points into several point groups, based on the type of point, elevation, date of creation, source, or other criteria. Then you can run various queries or operations for point display against a point group, rather than the whole set.

Points can be imported from a text file or a Microsoft Access database. Data created in Autodesk Land Desktop can be migrated to Autodesk Civil 3D by importing points directly from a project database.

You can create a large point set and organize it later. However, it is usually more efficient to classify points into several groups as they are being created.