Pipe Network As-Builts

I’ve read some posts in the discussion groups about wanting to do pipe as-builts from survey shots taken in the field or plans. While it is easy enough to layout pipes in Civil 3D its not always easy to enter data at an exact elevation or slope. It gets a bit frustrating going into each pipe or structure and change the information. I was thinking about this for a local project that we didn’t get, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on ways I was thinking about:

1. Create a tool for editing pipes and structures similar to the Quick Elevation Edit tool for feature lines. This wouldn’t be that hard, depending on the complexity wanted. I may do a rudimentary post on how to do it at a later date.
2. Create a program that imports the pipe network from an Excel spreadsheet. I guess you could also use a third party software. I haven’t used it, but I understand Steltman Software Solutions provides such a product.
3. Create a Custom Pipe Rule that prompts you to enter the pipe slope, invert, rim elevation, etc. as you layout the pipe network. You could also use a cover value to set the invert of the pipe, if needed. You can check out the AU session I did in 2007, the various posts I’ve done or my VBA book for Civil 3D for the steps on how to create your own custom rules to do this.
4. Use the pipe list and structure list in Prospector. I find this difficult since I don’t always know which pipe/structure I’m changing.