LandXML Surfaces and Civil 3D Data

LandXML is the open exchange format for civil survey data. A LandXML file carries surfaces, breaklines, alignments, parcels and points in a way that Civil 3D and other civil design, grading and machine control software can read directly, without redrawing.

Darling Geomatics delivers survey surfaces as LandXML so your engineers and contractors can start designing from them the day they arrive, with the same coordinates as the field survey.

What a LandXML delivery can include

• Existing ground surface (TIN) from the topographic survey or LiDAR
• Breaklines at curbs, edges, ridges and channels
• Survey points with descriptions
• Proposed surfaces for comparison, when you provide the design

Why it matters

• No retyping or digitizing of survey data
• Surfaces load directly into design and machine control software
• One surface for designers and contractors, so quantities agree
• Repeat surveys can be compared surface to surface

Getting surfaces into design and construction

Design teams lose time when survey data arrives as drawings that have to be rebuilt into surfaces, or as surfaces in a format their software reads badly. LandXML avoids both. The surface, its breaklines and boundary, and the survey points travel in one file that Civil 3D and most civil design and grading packages import directly.

For earthwork, a LandXML existing ground surface can be compared with the design surface to compute cut and fill, and with later surveys to measure quantities moved. Contractors can use the same surfaces for machine control, so the survey, the design and the equipment in the field all work from one model of the ground. Darling Geomatics delivers LandXML in your project coordinate system and units.

Point and surface names, descriptions and layers follow your conventions, so the files are easy to find and use in your design templates.