Convert Point Block References to Civil Points

With today’s wide variety of file formats, data collectors, different point properties, etc. it’s easy to imagine that you may see this issue down the road if not already. You have a drawing with points imported from Trimble or some other data collecting device. These points are shown in Civil 3D as Block References and if you check the Properties you will see a similar entry .

 

To convert these points into Civil Points which you can then use to create Surface, you would first need to explode these objects. SELECTSIMILAR and QSELECT commands come handy in this case. After the explode, these Block References will become AutoCAD points. You will also notice FEATURE_CODE entries on your drawing which are just attribute definition coming from Block References after the explode. Select one FEATURE_CODE object and use SELECTSIMILAR to select them all and just delete them. Your points will be intact.

Then in order to avoid getting prompted every time the point is being created set command to automatic

 

Then use Convert from AutoCAD Points command to convert these points to Civil points.

 

Confirm that all points are in there

 

Now your points are Civil points and you are free to use them.