Burners' Backyards: Veggies, Gardening, Landscape & Design

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
What current format? I think it is easy but not sure. I have the same in some unreadable to me surveying format, cad and pdf.
 

creaky

XMAS Plumper
@Freediver

The contours would have been in cad (or some surveying software with cad export) originally, then converted to pdf. The pdf would likely have lost the correct coordinates etc so maybe they are quoting to digitise (trace or import line work) and then georeference it into the correct projection system to boundary lines etc.

Whilst it may not be much work, they probably see $600 as cheap given their admin time + a couple of hours work.

What do you want the cad file for?
 

Freediver

I can go full Karen
Mainly need it for my architect and working out earthworks for a build. When I get my head around it I'll use it for designing other things around the block like an XC eliminator track.
 

creaky

XMAS Plumper
Mainly need it for my architect and working out earthworks for a build. When I get my head around it I'll use it for designing other things around the block like an XC eliminator track.
Definitely worth getting it done by a registered surveyor then as you will want to get the earthworks volumes right for quoting at least.
 

Freediver

I can go full Karen
Definitely worth getting it done by a registered surveyor then as you will want to get the earthworks volumes right for quoting at least.
The topo map was done by a surveyor, it's just that it was for the previous owner of the block. Luckily the surveyor was happy to send me a PDF but wants to sting me $600 to convert that map into a CAD file.
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
The topo map was done by a surveyor, it's just that it was for the previous owner of the block. Luckily the surveyor was happy to send me a PDF but wants to sting me $600 to convert that map into a CAD file.
It wont be a conversion. As @creaky said a lot of information is lost when it is printed as a pdf, think of it as a jpeg it just contains lines and location on a sheet not real information. What he wants to do is charge you to release the original file that he already has. Converting that to a cad format is as simple as saving as in the software.

When we bought our lump of dirt we had a soil test done as a prepurchase condition. The people who did that included a contour map of the property for a few $, certainly not $600. I have somewhere the file straight off the total station because at the time the company I was with had the same machine and software to interpret the data. I had one of our guys create the cad file for autocad by loading the total station file and saving it in a compatible format. He also saved a pdf for me. I just used the pdf for all my various earthworks and house location etc. I dumped the cad file into my autocad and dropped the house in place etc but that was about all.

You can probably (maybe) import the pdf into autocad and use it as a flat background and still be able to layout on top. Not sure it has been a long time since I did any of this and I no longer autocad or equivalent.
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
My understanding of all this is very limited but I assumed the contour lines would have been the information to turn it 3D.
Maybe but I dont think so. How big is the pdf file? That will give you an idea of how much data is contained in the file.
 

David2406

Blueeeeeeeey's on!
I imported one of our of survey plans back into Autocad last night, it does work. The only thing is the text isn't able to be edited as it is now lines not text. It is only a 2D file as well.

Email it over to me, I can convert it and if it's no good then you might have to contact the other surveyor
 

David2406

Blueeeeeeeey's on!
It wont be a conversion. As @creaky said a lot of information is lost when it is printed as a pdf, think of it as a jpeg it just contains lines and location on a sheet not real information. What he wants to do is charge you to release the original file that he already has. Converting that to a cad format is as simple as saving as in the software.

When we bought our lump of dirt we had a soil test done as a prepurchase condition. The people who did that included a contour map of the property for a few $, certainly not $600. I have somewhere the file straight off the total station because at the time the company I was with had the same machine and software to interpret the data. I had one of our guys create the cad file for autocad by loading the total station file and saving it in a compatible format. He also saved a pdf for me. I just used the pdf for all my various earthworks and house location etc. I dumped the cad file into my autocad and dropped the house in place etc but that was about all.

You can probably (maybe) import the pdf into autocad and use it as a flat background and still be able to layout on top. Not sure it has been a long time since I did any of this and I no longer autocad or equivalent.
This is right I converted one of our survey files back into Autocad and it is just lines, the text is no longer text
 

fjohn860

Alice in diaperland
Roughed out a plan (mostly for the missus to visualise it) a fire pit area with 5 sided (lol) hexagon seating. Will set 5 100x100 posts in concrete for the bench seating uprights, then once the seating is done, will most likely concrete the whole area with some brick paver accents.

Compress_20230313_114024_4584.jpg
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
Roughed out a plan (mostly for the missus to visualise it) a fire pit area with 5 sided (lol) hexagon seating. Will set 5 100x100 posts in concrete for the bench seating uprights, then once the seating is done, will most likely concrete the whole area with some brick paver accents.

View attachment 397792
Hexagon is a dumb idea. Go for a pentagon instead.
 
Top