You can create a surface that comprises a combination of points, breaklines, boundaries, and contours.
When you create a surface, the surface name is displayed in the 
Surfaces collection in the Prospector tree so that you can perform other operations, such as adding data and editing the surface.
Initially, the surface may be empty and not be visible in the drawing. Once you add data to the surface, the surface becomes visible in the drawing in accordance to the display settings specified in the referenced surface style. See Surface Styles and Display.
Tutorial: Creating and Adding Data to a Surface
Topics in this section
- Creating a TIN Surface
A TIN surface comprises the triangles that form a triangulated irregular network.
- Creating a Grid Surface
A grid surface comprises points that lie on a regular grid.
- Creating a TIN Volume Surface
A TIN volume surface is a composite of points in a base surface and comparison surface .
- Creating a Grid Volume Surface
A grid volume surface is a difference grid surface based on user-specified base and comparison surfaces as well as grid spacing and orientation.
- Creating a Surface From a TIN File
Use the Create Surface From TIN dialog box to create a surface by importing TIN format data.
- Creating a Grid Surface from a DEM
Use the Grid Surface From DEM dialog box to create a grid surface.
- Creating a Surface Reference
You can create a reference to an existing surface in a data shortcut or a Vault project.
- Creating Surfaces from GIS Data
Import GIS (Geographic Information System) data to create a Civil 3D surface.