Import survey points from a file or from Excel

Both ways land in the Point Manager (Civil › Points › Point Manager…). Imported points are added to the point database and drawn on the canvas. Easting is X and Northing is Y.

From a file

Import reads .csv, .txt and .pts. Lines that start with # or ; are comments. The decimal separator is always ..

1. Open Civil › Points › Point Manager….
2. Click Import.
3. Choose the file. Set Format, or leave Auto-detect (by column count). Tick Skip first line (header row) when the first line is column names.
4. Type a Point group name when the new points should be filed together. Leave it empty to add them only to All Points.
5. Read the preview of the first lines, then click Import.

Column orders the format list accepts:

• P, N, E, Z, Desc — number, northing, easting, elevation, description
• N, E, Z, Desc — northing, easting, elevation, description
• N, E, Z — northing, easting, elevation
• P, E, N, Z, Desc — number, easting, northing, elevation, description
• E, N, Z, Desc — easting, northing, elevation, description
• E, N, Z — easting, northing, elevation

Auto-detect chooses a format from the number of columns. Compare the preview with the file before Import, and confirm which column is easting and which is northing.

Import points from ASCII and create a surface shows this import, then builds a TIN from the points.

From Excel

Paste works on the All Points tab. Copy rows in Excel or LibreOffice Calc. The columns are Number, Easting, Northing, Elevation, and an optional Description, separated by tabs. A header row is skipped. A point number that already exists is skipped.

1. In the spreadsheet, select the data rows.
2. Copy the selection.
3. In Point Manager, open the All Points tab.
4. Click Paste.

Paste points from Excel shows the copy and paste.