DI GI T A L C A R T OGR A P HY

C O N T O U R P L O T T I N G U S I N G L D D



1. Start Autocad Land Development Desktop.
Note: This can be done either by clicking the Acad LDD icon in the desktop window or
from the start menu.




2. Create a new project and start a new drawing choose the File menu and click New. In doing
so, the New Drawing: Project Based dialog box appears.

Figure 1 New Drawing Dialog
3. Enter as the drawing name.
4. In the Project and Drawing Location section, set the Project Path to your project folder.
5. Set Project Exercise_<your name> as Project Name. You just associated your new
drawing to the Project folder you created in the previous exercise. Verify that the Drawing Path
should be C\Project Exercise_<your_name>\dwg\
. Click OK when done.

6. Create a new layer named as topo_points and set this layer as the current layer.
7. Instead of creating points manually, we can import points from existing files from a
database. Acad LDD recognized files having extensions like .txt or .csv. The points can have
the following format:
a. NEZ {Northing, Easting, Elevation}
b. ENZ {Easting, Northing, Elevation}
EXERCISE no.
Edited by Darrel Alvin N. Ong
Originally prepared by Engr. Jessie Linn P. Ablao
08
a Drawing and Import ing Point s
Exercise8_<your name>.dwg
Exercise8_<your name>.dwg
Exercise 8.1: Creat ing
6-2
c. PNEZ {Point number, Northing, Easting, Elevation}
d. PENZ {Point number, Easting, Northing, Elevation}
e. PNEZD {Point number, Northing, Easting, Elevation, Description}
f. PENZD {Point number, Easting, Northing, Elevation, Description}

8. From the Points menu choose Import/Export Points:Import Points. The Format
Manager- Import Points dialog box will appear. Choose the format PNEZD [comma
delimited].
9. Click the icon under Source File and browse for the file .
Click OK.

Figure 2 Format Manager
10. The drawing should look like this.

Figure 3 Imported Topo Points
11. The user may want to change the text and marker format. Again to do this Choose Edit
Points: Display Properties (Similar to the previous exercise)
12. It was explained before LDD points are saved in external database independent from the
point text and marker that can be seen in the drawing. The user may opt to see the list of
points that are now currently shown in the drawing. To do this select List Points from
the Points menu. The List Points dialog box appears.
C:\exercise6_topo pts.csv
topo points.txt
6-3

Figure 4 Point List

In this section, the user will be familiarized with the Terrain Model Explorer, creation of surfaces and
drawing and labeling of contours.
The Terrain Model Explorer enables the user to manage surfaces. From the Terrain Model Explorer
one can open, close, save, copy, rebuild, rename, and delete surfaces. The user can also use commands on
the Terrain menu to select and save the current surface.
A surface is a generated plane built from any combination of point, breakline, boundary, and contour
data that the user adds to the surface folders in the Terrain Model Explorer. A surface should be created
so that the user can create contours, compute volume and draw profiles and cross sections.
To work through this exercise follow these steps:
1. Open your previous exercise if it is not yet open.
2. Click Terrain Model Explorer from the Terrain menu. Single click Manager and choose
Create Surface. A surface with a name surface1 will be created. Rename surface1 to topo_points. To
do this left click surface1 and click Rename. The Terrain Model Explorer should look like this.
Exercise 8.2: Creat ing Surfaces and Cont ours
6-4

Figure 5 Terrain Model Explorer
3. It is required to create a surface containing the imported points from the previous lesson. Double
click topo_points surface then right click on the Point Files option. Choose Add points from
Autocad objects: Points then select the points in the drawing.
4. Right click on the topo_points surface and left click Build. The Build dialog box appears. Click OK
to finally build the topo_points surface.
5. The topo_points surface has been created. The user can now use this surface to create contours
based on the imported topo_points.
6. The Contour Style Manager in the Terrain menu will allow the user to modify the contour
appearance, text style and label position. Adjust the parameter as shown in the figure. Click OK.

Figure 6 Contour Style Manager
7. To create contour select Create Contours in the Terrain menu. The Create Contours
window will appear. Set minor contour to 0.5 and the major contour to 2.0. These contours
will automatically be placed in the CONT-MNR and CONT-MJR layers respectively. Click
OK.
6-5

Figure 7 Create Contours Dialog
8.

Figure 8 Created Contours
9. The user may opt to put contour labels onto the contour. To do this the user should select
Contour Labels: Group Interior in the Terrain Menu. After doing this, the Contour
Labels Increments dialog box appears. Set Elevation increment to 0.25 since the contour
interval was set to 0.25. Then check Add multiple interior labels along each contourand
set spacing to 100.00.
10. The drawing should look like this:
The drawing with the contour should look like this.
You may change the color of CONT-MJR and CONT-MNR in the Utilities>Layer Manager...
6-6

Figure 9
11. Make the 0 Layer as the current layer. Import the corner points
that you created in the previous exercise. This will be the boundary of your contours.
12. Insert the BL template that you created in exercise 5 (Map Template) using the appropriate
scale.
13. Save your work and e-mail it to me.