It Pains Me to Tell But It's True

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Let's just suppose you have to debug a nasty little points file or fieldbook file in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012.  You're a wiz now and fire up your Survey Db and do to town.

Survey Data Cleanup in 2012

The file(s) includes a bunch of figures that you have figure prefixes in your figure prefix database. The odds are absolute that the field crew didn't do a perfect job with either the order of the points shot, a blown Description Key code, end commands, and the host of other things we have to deal with in field to finish work.

Since you already mastered the new Survey stuff back in Civil 3D 2011 you will now probably use the the Survey Data Import wizard. This will now get you a handy Import Event in your current Survey Db.

Survey Toolspace

The Import Event is a handy separate collection of data from the resolved Survey data you find below in Survey Toolspace.

You can edit stuff here in the Import Event's data, but let's face it tweaking the input files is probably going to happen before you commit the data to the Survey Db. After you edit the text file you need to get the data back in again.

Remember "Right Click is Your Friend"

To do that you remember that Right Click is your friend. Select the Import Event, RC, and use the  Re-import command. 

Import Event Right Click menu

Re-import wipes that last import and reruns the data file with the same basic settings, but the process also gives to the chance to tweak things each time too. Good stuff since you can choose what to concentrate on and how to deal the data during the data cleanup process in chunks and it various ways.

For data jobs with lots of and/or complex figures you will Re-import More than a couple of times.

The Survey Figure Editor got much better in both 2011 and got cleaned up More in 2012. The Figure Editor now allows you to do More of the cleanup work in the Survey Db, but I'll bet you'll still want "clean" text backup out of force of habit.

A Word of Warning

I believe Survey Figures events are only supposed to produce Parcels Features for Figure prefixes marked as such in the current Figure Prefix Db when you Import, Re-import, or Process Linework. 

More Parcels Than You Want

Currently, Survey produces a Parcel in your drawing for EVERY figure it produces. Re-import also does NOT delete these Parcels. Therefore, after a few passes you will have a pile of worthless Parcels in your current drawing.
Deleting Parcels for old import events is (as far as I can tell) impossible from the interface. Taking a Quick Filter or old school FILTER approach to collect these dead Parcel features and erase them may also cause your Civil 3D to tank too. When I say "tank" I mean "By Bye Baby" and no CER data to report either. Ouch!

No Problemo

The simple thing to do is too simply create a brand new drawing to import the cleaned up final figures into after you are done with the raw data cleanup process.
In Civil 3D it's about the DATA in the "model" and publishing that data any way you want.  

Go Way Back

Remember to also backup your Survey Db too. Survey LandXML 1.2 works like a champ.
Survey XML imports is also the only simple way to load Figure Group and Survey Point Group names into your Survey DB when you initially fire it up. Way Cool!

Some Small Pains But Big Gains

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