GEOTECH DATA IMPORT FOR SITE MODEL COMPONENTS

[Phillip Tripp]

Curious if anyone has ever tried to use the "Add Geological Survey Points" tool for adding geotech boring test hole data for various soil types and depths.  I created various textures and hatches and materials to represent the geotech report materials, added the components into the site model, and then after adding a single survey point, I realized the OIP options for the survey point appear to only let you edit the thicknesses of the components in the order the components are listed within the site model component window.  In other words, it appears the entire site has to have a uniform layering of soil components where only the thickness of those components varies at each survey point, not the order of the component layers.  In our region of piedmont North Carolina, below the Appalachian Mountains, the soil layer order varies at every survey point, 50 feet apart, pockets of fill dirt versus expansive clays, all useful to a contractor.  I anticipated the site model having to make assumptions between geotech borings to address the mis-match of soil layer order from one geotech boring to another, but it seems that I cannot enter the data to match the geotech report in the first place.  Am I missing a step?  I watched the VW promo video for it and it too shows a perfect site of consistent soil types across the whole model.  I googled images of Autodesk Civil 3D geotechnical module and that appears to accept varying soil component layer sequences at each survey point.

 

Thanks in advance for any input!

[Jeff Prince]

On 11/23/2022 at 12:06 PM, Phillip Tripp said:

I anticipated the site model having to make assumptions between geotech borings to address the mis-match of soil layer order from one geotech boring to another, but it seems that I cannot enter the data to match the geotech report in the first place.  Am I missing a step?

 

I think will be an exercise in futility with regard to the Vectorworks site model.

I wouldn't touch it from a liability perspective, too much could go wrong.  "Drawings do not depict soil conditions - See Geotechnical Report."

 

You could get close to modeling it by create a component profile that has many more levels than you need, zeroing out the value of the levels you do not need.

It would take some consideration of the entire soils report to develop an effective component strategy.  Even then, Vectorworks is just going to connect the dots and you will have to enter a lot of made up geological survey points to get something graphically useful.  Just because you can doesn't mean you should 🙂

 

[Phillip Tripp]

I thought about the "many more levels" approach and "zero out" method and that is when I stopped out of common sense.  Seems like an excessive level of effort for a work around and not sure I will like the end result.  This was a one time curiosity experiment to see if there was any benefit.  In the past, client's trust our judgement without any graphic proof other than plan overlay with boring locations.  Would have been nice for the model to visually point out the obvious potential conflicts of footings and bad soils in a section format.  I was not expecting the model to produce any soil layer volumes and always planned on producing reasonable bad soil volumes using traditional paper/pencil estimates.

 

I do appreciate the feedback!!

[ashot]

If I add survey points manually, the soil layer components will be derived from preferences of site model components and their thickness. You can change the thickness for survey point layers to anything and sometimes to 0 if layer is missing at that spot, but you need to make sure all the layers are defined in Site model components first before adding survey points.

Also after defining survey point, the default layer thickness for site model component no longer applies. The survey point makes new rule and overrides the default.  Even with one survey point, all site model assumes that point to be consistent everywhere. So it is necessary to put as many survey points as you need to mimic existing condition.

Importing survey from survey file is a good approach. However, in my practice soil engineer shows only data for few pits, the rest is assumed from their section diagram. So basically I start with a row of new survey points, make them the same elevation Z. then copy and move to new location and change the elevation for new row, etc.

 

Now I have a question about showing survey points in a Worksheet. Patrick Stanford probably can help here. I can NOT find the criteria to show survey points. Please help.

See attached:

 

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by ashot

[Pat Stanford]

Sorry for the delay in answering.

 

I have no idea what you are doing. I can't find Geological Survey Edit or Add Survey Points in my version of VW using either the Designer or Landmark workspaces.

 

Can you post a simple file with a few of your Survey Point objects and I will see what I can figure out.

[ashot]

First Step is to add Site Model Components

Then you can access Geological Survey Points from the same dialog

 

Attached is Vectorworks 2023 Test file (trimmed)

Check Design Layer Site MODEL

OIP: Edit Geological Survey Points

 

2023-09 VW for Test trimmed.vwx

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by ashot

[ashot]

Can anyone help:

Is there a way to convert Stake Object or 3D Locus into Survey Point, see screenshots of OIP for each

[Pat Stanford]

Based on what I have see, no, there is no way to change between the object types.

 

As far as I can tell, Survey Points are just 3D Loci with a custom record format attached, but both the location of the Survey Points/Loci and the record are buried very deep in side the DTM with no way to access except through the DTM user interface.

 

You MIGHT be able to put locus points on top of the DTM and then Cut/Paste them into the Survey Point group, but it is likely they would not have the appropriate record attached to make them Survey Points.

 

I mentioned yesterday in the Users Group Meeting that you could keep an external file of the Survey Point locations and just edit the data there, delete all the survey points, and reimport. But I just tried on 2023SP4 and when I click the Import button I get the Wait cursor, but it never opens the select file dialog box. After about a minute it goes back to the place Survey Point tool.

 

Hopefully someone else can tell me why I am wrong.

 

Sorry.

[Jeff Prince]

2 hours ago, ashot said:

Is there a way to convert Stake Object or 3D Locus into Survey Point, see screenshots of OIP for each

 

Kind of, using the magic of worksheets....

 

Assuming you are starting with Stakes or 3D Locus that already exist in the file and you wish to convert them...

Make a worksheet that reports each object's x,y,z position values.

Use File / export / Worksheet and export your worksheet in .txt (tab eliminated format)

 

Now, you can use that file to import into Vectorworks while inside the Site Model Settings / Components tab / Edit Geological Survey Points / add survey points / import file.

or

Using the "Import Survey File" tool to bring them in as Stakes or 3D Locus.