Just for fun, can someone produce for me an accurate site plan drawn in 3D?
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Then when you are all done, I am going to flatten it to a piece of paper and give it to the survey folks.
We've done a few usinf LDT in combination with EaglePoint and LFM. And they are quite useful as background xref's for other disciplines in plain old AutoCAD without flattening.
Fair enough, but by the time it hits the paper, it has been effectively flattened. In this instance, the product is the piece of paper, not the drawing file itself. In fact, we are chagrin to even do a site plan, the piece of paper, being required by the local authority. It makes absolutely no difference if it is done topographically correct, with 3D apperturances and subterranian items indicated.
I can assure you that I can draw a parcel of land, using distances and bearings, much faster in 2D than even the best 3D modeler is capable of doing.
I think it boils down to "how complex is the drawing" and "does it merit doing a 3D model". Many times I have found myself doing a 3D model of a log home because of the intricate nature of the specific construction. One of the biggest problems I have found with doing this however, is that whenever the elevations are generated using a slice of the model, they are never correct because of the shape of the logs, the way AutoCAD handles the solids, and the fact that, as far as I know, you cannot create a slice across multiple planes in the same view i.e. I need the elevation view to cut 180
o for 48' and then 225
o for 30' then 135
o for 24', otherwise the elevations are misleading.
