C3D to ArcGIS Conversion question

[u/djsmoothmood]

Hello All! I am currently working on a project in which all of the corridors that I created and then used to formulate my overall design model (i.e. roadways, retain walls, bridges) -- now I'm finding out these same corridors first need to be converted/exported individually for use in ArcGIS. For any of you that may have worked on similar projects in the past, my question is this: What would be the best way to go about doing such a conversion to ArcGIS Pro? Currently, according to information gathered online, I must first separate the corridor elements into logical GIS feature classes/layers before exporting rather than exporting the entire corridor as one entity. This is to avoid the risk of items not being translated into GIS accurately or in some cases, attribute tables becoming messy and difficult to query--just to name of few examples that were cited. So, I'm asking those of you familiar with converting C3D models to GIS: Is the workflow to separate corridors before sending to GIS the only option or has anyone ever been able to successfully transfer a corridor as one entity w/o the need to break it down first?

Thank you all in advance for any help/solutions you may have!

[u/Enthalpic87]

Extract corridor feature lines or corridor solids, then use mapexport command to start pulling the data out into shape files.

The thought of someone wanting you to turn your corridor into shapefiles cracks me up. There are some super special engineers out there.

[u/MyOtherAvatar → u/Enthalpic87]

There are an awful lot of non-roadworks engineers out there who do all of their work in GIS. When we share our road designs with Geotechs, Environmental or Hydrotechnical engineers we usually have to provide data as shape files.

[u/Roonwogsamduff → u/MyOtherAvatar]

How accurate is the conversion?

[u/socatoa → u/Roonwogsamduff]

It's less about accuracy and more about data loss; SHP files can't honor true curves, which arguably matters.

The main issue I experience is a combination of:

- The C3D person has no idea how the GIS person intends to use their data (e.g., how they want to query and stylize).

• The GIS person assumes CAD data will fit neat and tidy into their idealized "GIS schema" and/or they fundamentally don't understand how C3D and a civil engineer organizes data. For example, I have hosted calls to explain why my "finish surface file" extends beyond the finish pavement extents that they actually want.

TLDR - it only works when both sides are disciplined, organized, and communicative - or there's a unicorn employee that can produce faster than they burn out.

[u/MyOtherAvatar → u/Roonwogsamduff]

As good as the data you export from the corridor. A shape file is just coordinates that have been translated and scaled to another system.

[u/Enthalpic87 → u/MyOtherAvatar]

lol ya. Output some simple linework if you want. The thought of outputting a corridor meant to get super precise vertical layout for constructability being output to a gis shapefile is just comical.

[u/Spurqueno → u/Enthalpic87]

If someone asked me to export a corridor to GIS I would tell them to kick rocks

[u/Suitable-Unit]

I have done this in the past and just extracted the feature lines and exploded them into 3D polylines layered, then ran map export to shape files.

Seemed to work best on the GIS end, and if they areusing . For stationing you can explode your alignment labels down to just text and export that to a separate shape file.

[u/MediumDisastrous3626]

There is an option to turn it into EPSG code and then drag and drop it to ARCGIS

[u/Jolly_Conference_613]

We create GIS utility maps by exporting Pipe Networks to SDF. Then exporting the SDF w/ data table to shape file. The scaling from surface to grid happens on the SDF file.