Knowledge Base

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Exporting a LandXML Surface File from Terrain to Civil 3D

Updated August 22, 2019

Download the files for the example HERE 
(Note: it is a .zip file, you will need to save and extract the files first)

Figure 1: Working with Civil 3D

In this example, we use a topographic survey file of a road project in *.terx format. The following steps explain how to create a landXML file (*.xml) in Terrain and then import it into the Civil 3D.

• Open the attached file, Road Surface.terx.
• Select Terrain Modeling tab and click on Generate TIN button.
• In the Terrain Calculation, accept the defaults and press OK.

Figure 2 – Terrain Calculation Dialog

• File| Save as. Change type of file to Landxml (*.xml) and write Topo1 as a file name.

• Start Civil 3D (Imperial version), select Insert tab and then in the Import tab, click on LandXML and open the Topo1.xml file. By importing a new Landxml file, Civil 3D automatically adds a surface to the current project. The new surface name is road surface.

Figure 3 – Importing a LandXML file into Civil 3D

 The surface display settings such as contour intervals, ranges, colors… can be set. To change the style of the surface, first select the surface and then right-click on the screen and select Edit surface style. It is also possible to add triangles, slopes… to the surface by turning on them in the component list in the Display tab.

Figure 4 – Edit Surface Style in Civil 3D

Figure 5 – Editing surface style in Civil 3D