Errant Alignment Commands

Ever create an alignment from a PLINE (object) and get what appears to be a glitch when you use the inquiry too?  Maybe it looks something like this……

 Image 1

From the image above you see that the Inquiry Tool is reading from somewhere out in space, when it should be reading perpendicularly off of the alignment (eg.  Red line should be extending perpendicular from Green one). 

To resolve this.......check to see that you the PLINE you created the object from was FLATTENed.  And by FLATTEN, I mean actually go through the process of flattening it.  This was the first thing I happened to check and all elevations were in fact reading “0”.  

 Image 2

However, when I recreated the alignment I still had the same problem.  Then….I actually went through the process of using the FLATTEN command, and when I created the alignment this time, it finally corrected. (Be sure to hit YES to remove hidden lines).

 Image 3

As you see, sometimes in Civil 3D, it’s not enough just to visually check. 

It is best not to create an Alignment from objects, but sometimes you just want a quick and dirty of a previous created alignment.  Possibly you had run this project in Land Desktop previously, but want to make use of some of the Civil 3D functions.

Anyway, hopefully you find this post if you are having trouble using the Inquiry Tools for an Alignment.

NOTE:  ONE MORE THING TO CHECK IS: ENSURE THAT THERE ARE NOT DUPLICATE OBJECTS OVER TOP OF EACH OTHER.