Surfaces

Components for reading, creating, and analysing Civil 3D TIN surfaces, volume surfaces, and their boundaries, breaklines, contours, and earthwork volumes.

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Civil3d Bounded Volume

Civil3d › Surfaces · Introduced v1.1.19

Calculates cut and fill volumes inside a custom polygon boundary on a Civil 3D volume surface. Draw a closed polygon over the region you care about and feed it in to measure earthwork only within that footprint, rather than across the whole surface. An optional elevation datum lets you measure volumes relative to a chosen reference level. The net volume is reported as cut minus fill.

Inputs

Outputs

Exceptions

Level	Message	Cause & fix
Warning	No volume surface provided	No volume surface was supplied. Connect a volume surface to the Volume Surface input.
Warning	No boundary curve provided	No boundary curve was supplied. Connect a closed polygon to the Boundary input.
Error	Boundary curve must be closed	The supplied boundary is open. Provide a closed curve that fully encloses the region.
Error	No document available	The drawing containing the surface could not be found. Make sure the source drawing is open.
Error	Boundary must have at least 3 points	The boundary did not produce enough points to form a region. Supply a polygon with at least three corners.
Error	Failed to read Volume Surface	The referenced volume surface could not be read. Confirm it still exists in the drawing.
Error	Civil 3D error: {message}	Civil 3D reported an error while calculating the volumes. Check the boundary and surface and try again.
Error	Error calculating bounded volumes: {message}	The volume calculation failed unexpectedly. Verify the boundary lies over the surface.

See also

Civil3d TIN Volume Surface, Create Civil3d TIN Volume Surface, Civil3d Volume Properties

Civil3d Surface Boundary

Civil3d › Surfaces · Introduced v1.1.19

Breaks a Civil 3D surface boundary down into its individual properties. Use it after pulling boundaries from a TIN surface to read each boundary's role, outline, and name. The type tells you whether the boundary is an outer limit, data clip, hide, or show region.

Inputs

Outputs

Exceptions

Level	Message	Cause & fix
Warning	No boundary provided	No boundary was supplied. Connect a surface boundary to the input.

See also

Civil3d TIN Surface, Civil3d Surface Contour, Civil3d Surface Breakline

Civil3d Surface Breakline

Civil3d › Surfaces · Introduced v1.1.19

Breaks a Civil 3D surface breakline down into its individual properties. Use it after extracting breaklines from a TIN surface to read each breakline's type, its curve, and its name. The type indicates whether the breakline is standard, a wall, or non-destructive.

Inputs

Outputs

Exceptions

Level	Message	Cause & fix
Warning	No breakline provided	No breakline was supplied. Connect a surface breakline to the input.

See also

Civil3d TIN Surface, Civil3d Surface Boundary, Civil3d Surface Contour

Civil3d Surface Contour

Civil3d › Surfaces · Introduced v1.1.19

Breaks a Civil 3D surface contour down into its individual properties. Use it after extracting contours from a TIN surface to read each contour's type, its line, and its elevation. The type tells you whether the contour is a major or minor line.

Inputs

Outputs

Exceptions

Level	Message	Cause & fix
Warning	No contour provided	No contour was supplied. Connect a surface contour to the input.

See also

Civil3d TIN Surface, Civil3d Surface Boundary, Civil3d Surface Breakline

Civil3d TIN Properties

Civil3d › Surfaces · Introduced v1.1.19

Extracts individual values from a Civil 3D TIN surface's statistics package. Feed it the properties bundle produced by the Civil3d TIN Surface node to read the surface name, its elevation range, the extent of its bounding area in X and Y, and the style applied to it.

Inputs

Outputs

See also

Civil3d TIN Surface

Civil3d TIN Surface

Civil3d › Surfaces · Introduced v1.1.19

Extracts information from a Civil 3D TIN surface. Connect a surface to read back its identity, its statistics bundle, and its boundaries, contours, and breaklines, along with a Rhino mesh of the surface for use in Grasshopper. Pass the statistics output into the Civil3d TIN Properties node to read individual values such as elevation range.

Inputs

Outputs

Exceptions

Level	Message	Cause & fix
Error	No document available	The drawing containing the surface could not be found. Make sure the source drawing is open.
Error	Failed to read TIN Surface	The referenced surface could not be read. Confirm it still exists in the drawing.

See also

Civil3d TIN Properties, Civil3d Surface Boundary, Civil3d Surface Contour, Civil3d Surface Breakline, Create Civil3d TIN Surface

Civil3d TIN Volume Surface

Civil3d › Surfaces · Introduced v1.1.19

Extracts information from a Civil 3D TIN volume surface, including its volume statistics. Connect a volume surface to read its identity, name, volume statistics bundle, and the two underlying surfaces it compares. Pass the statistics output into the Civil3d Volume Properties node to read individual cut, fill, and net values.

Inputs

Outputs

Exceptions

Level	Message	Cause & fix
Error	No document available	The drawing containing the volume surface could not be found. Make sure the source drawing is open.
Error	Failed to read Volume Surface	The referenced volume surface could not be read. Confirm it still exists in the drawing.

See also

Civil3d Volume Properties, Civil3d TIN Surface, Create Civil3d TIN Volume Surface, Civil3d Bounded Volume

Civil3d Volume Properties

Civil3d › Surfaces · Introduced v1.1.19

Extracts individual values from a Civil 3D volume surface's statistics package. Feed it the properties bundle produced by the Civil3d TIN Volume Surface node to read raw (unadjusted) cut, fill, and net volumes, the cut and fill adjustment factors, the adjusted volumes, and the applied style.

Inputs

Outputs

See also

Civil3d TIN Volume Surface

Create Civil3d TIN Surface

Civil3d › Surfaces · Introduced v1.1.19

Creates a Civil 3D TIN surface from a Rhino mesh. Feed in a mesh and the node builds a surface in the drawing, optionally naming it and applying a surface style; if no name is given, a unique one is generated automatically. It returns the new surface, its name, and its drawing identifier so you can pass them on to other nodes.

Inputs

Outputs

Menu & behaviour

• Right-click Replace Previous Object (on by default) — deletes the objects this node previously created before making new ones, so editing inputs updates the drawing in place instead of leaving duplicates behind.
• Right-click Save Connection Between Sessions (on by default) — remembers the link to created objects when the Grasshopper file is saved and reopened.
• Right-click Clear Connection — forgets the tracked objects without deleting them from the drawing.
• Skips re-creating objects when inputs are unchanged (shows the remark "No change in inputs, reusing last created"), and defers one solve after a Rhino undo/redo to avoid a Civil 3D crash.

Exceptions

Level	Message	Cause & fix
Error	No active AutoCAD document available	No drawing is open or could be resolved. Open a drawing or connect a Document.
Warning	No mesh provided	No mesh was supplied. Connect a mesh to the Mesh input.
Error	Mesh must have at least 3 vertices	The supplied mesh is too small to form a surface. Provide a mesh with at least three vertices.
Error	Failed to create TIN Surface. The surface name may already exist.	The surface could not be created, often because the chosen name is already in use. Use a different name or leave it blank to auto-generate one.
Error	Civil 3D error: {message}	Civil 3D reported an error while building the surface. Check the mesh and style and try again.
Error	Failed to create TIN Surface: {message}	The surface creation failed unexpectedly. Verify the mesh is valid.
Error	Failed to create TIN Surface	The surface could not be created. Check the inputs and try again.

See also

Civil3d TIN Surface, Create Civil3d TIN Volume Surface

Create Civil3d TIN Volume Surface

Civil3d › Surfaces · Introduced v1.1.19

Creates a Civil 3D TIN volume surface by comparing a base surface against a comparison surface, then reports the resulting earthwork volumes. Use it to measure cut and fill between two states of terrain, such as existing versus proposed ground. It returns the new volume surface, its name and drawing identifier, and the cut, fill, and net volumes.

Inputs

Outputs

Menu & behaviour

• Right-click Replace Previous Object (on by default) — deletes the objects this node previously created before making new ones, so editing inputs updates the drawing in place instead of leaving duplicates behind.
• Right-click Save Connection Between Sessions (on by default) — remembers the link to created objects when the Grasshopper file is saved and reopened.
• Right-click Clear Connection — forgets the tracked objects without deleting them from the drawing.
• Skips re-creating objects when inputs are unchanged (shows the remark "No change in inputs, reusing last created"), and defers one solve after a Rhino undo/redo to avoid a Civil 3D crash.

Exceptions

Level	Message	Cause & fix
Error	No active AutoCAD document available	No drawing is open or could be resolved. Open a drawing or connect a Document.
Warning	No base surface provided	No base surface was supplied. Connect a TIN surface to the Base Surface input.
Warning	No comparison surface provided	No comparison surface was supplied. Connect a TIN surface to the Comparison Surface input.
Error	Failed to create TIN Volume Surface. Check that the base and comparison surfaces are valid.	The volume surface could not be created. Confirm both source surfaces are valid and overlap.
Error	Civil 3D error: {message}	Civil 3D reported an error while building the volume surface. Check the source surfaces and style.
Error	Failed to create TIN Volume Surface: {message}	The volume surface creation failed unexpectedly. Verify the inputs.
Error	Failed to create TIN Volume Surface	The volume surface could not be created. Check the inputs and try again.

See also

Civil3d TIN Volume Surface, Create Civil3d TIN Surface, Civil3d Volume Properties, Civil3d Bounded Volume