Creating a New Point File Format
In this tutorial, we’ll be creating a new PENZD (comma delimited) point file format as an example.
In the Toolspace panel, click the Settings tab and expand the Point collection, and then Point File Formats.
Right-click the Point File Formats collection and select New…
Select User Point File in the Point File Formats - Select Format Type popup window and click OK.
In the Point File Format window, name your point format in the Format name field. We’ll set our name to “PENZD (comma delimited)”
Set the Default file extension to .csv using the drop-down.
You can set the Comment Tag to something like a ‘#’ symbol - This will be used to define comments within your points files. Lines starting with the Comment Tag you define will be ignored when importing points.
Under the Format options section, select the Delimited by option and enter a single comma “,” symbol (without quotation marks). This tells Civil 3D that a comma will separate each value in the points file.
Leave the Coordinate zone transform, Read no more than, and Sample every boxes un-checked.
The next panel down shows a row of column headers, all set to <unused>. Click on each column header set its contents. These columns define the data contained in the points file, and in which order.
For our example, we’ll click the Column name drop-down menu and select Point Number for our first column. Click OK to confirm.
Repeat for each column, selecting Easting, Northing, Point Elevation, and Raw Description to make up the PENZD format.
Click OK at the bottom of the Point File Format window to create your new point file format.
Notes:
This new point file format can now be used when importing points.
This property will also be available for selection when composing point label styles, allowing this property to be added to point labels for display.