From the course: Autodesk Civil 3D 2021 Essential Training

What is survey data? - AutoCAD Civil 3D Tutorial

From the course: Autodesk Civil 3D 2021 Essential Training

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What is survey data?

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- [Instructor] In this chapter, we'll be talking about survey data. So a good place to start is what is it and how does Civil 3D handle it? Survey data in this context is point data that came from a professional surveyor taking measurements in the field. In Civil 3D, we handle this data a bit differently because it's very important that its accuracy and integrity remains intact. A surveyor's reputation and career depend on these considerations. To accomplish this, survey data is stored in a survey database outside of the Civil 3D drawing file. To see this, I can click on the Survey tab and you can see all the different survey databases that I currently have access to. You probably won't see these right now in your instance of Civil 3D but as you work through the videos that are coming up, you'll be able to see these databases. Now, these databases, as I said, are actually external to what's stored in the drawing but of course the drawing can communicate and pull data back and forth from this database. Another important aspect of this database being separate is that we can place it in a folder that maybe only the survey department has access to and the rest of the company does not. Another unique thing about survey data is that the objects that represent it have their own special editing commands. So for example, one of the survey points in this drawing, like this X, I'm unable to click and drag it and move it because it's locked in the survey database. In order to edit that, I have to use a special survey point editing command and that will give me access to that point but only if I have access to the survey database. So that's how this data is protected so that it's not accidentally modified by the people who didn't create it in the first place and who aren't ultimately responsible for its accuracy. Now that you've learned a little bit about survey data, let's create your first survey database in the next video.

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