Trimble Business Center

Offset elevation needs an option to pull elevation from a selected surface. You could probably accomplish this with a mix of drape objects on surface or a few series of commands with the side slope template such as surface and side slope up but having an option to pull elevation from surface in the offset elevation would be helpful.

 This would be useful in conceptual designs or for entities such as striping or guardrail where the master line may not have a vertical element.

Thank you!

In sideslope - if you have a Surface that you want to extract the Elevation from, then e.g. create a Surface Instruction and add the surface model that you want to extract elevations from to the Sideslope as a Surface Instruction and assign it to a Material Layer like Original Ground.

Now when you want to create an Offset / Elevation instruction where the Elevation is to be computed from the Target Surface you can use the option "From Template Level" in the Elevation Field and select the Material Layer to which you assigned the surface Instruction and it will compute the elevation from the target surface selected at the Station and Offset positions you decide in the sideslope.

This also applies to Corridor Models - the fact you add the surface instruction does not mean that you have to use it for more than just this - if you don't assign a material above it then it will not impact Volumes in Corridors. In Sideslope it is just a reference anyhow since the only thing that is output from Sideslope is the Finish Grade elements only.

For just linestrings from Offset instruction, while getting an elevation directly from a surface would be nice - you can use Change Elevation and then Elevate from Surface to create a linestring that is at the Offset from the source line but elevated to a target surface. 

Alan

The "from template level" command is what I was looking for. Thanks for pointing that out. That will be useful in sideslopes and corridors.