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Topography/ grading guidance. Please advise.

seekingguidance

Hi all! I have a little bit of time on my hands and would love to learn from the architecture community. I recently took on a project out of learning sake and curiosity. I also have a bit of drafting/modeling experience from when tigers used to smoke. 

I find myself in a bind when it comes to properly representing topography/grading on my drawings. I've learned I must calculate the average grade and use that when measuring the height of my building from existing/finish grade. I'm at the wall because I don't have information about the existing grade. Without having to communicate with the client, how may I determine existing grade? In my ideal world, I'm crossing my fingers, there is some open source website which could provide such information. Please advise. 

 
Apr 28, 20 7:09 pm
Non Sequitur

please explain these smoking tigers. 

Apr 28, 20 7:15 pm  · 
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seekingguidance

just another way of saying, "once upon a time". Its from Korean folktales...

Apr 28, 20 7:37 pm  · 
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Non Sequitur

I only understand beaver folktales. But to your OP, site information is the responsibility of the client.

Apr 28, 20 7:52 pm  · 
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seekingguidance

Thank you for the insight.

Apr 28, 20 9:26 pm  · 
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jeiffert

Topographic survey... you need one.

Apr 28, 20 7:16 pm  · 
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seekingguidance

I thought that too. However, I'm hoping there is some "google" feature that provides such information since we can almost find anything on the internet these days. Thank you Jeiffert!

Apr 28, 20 7:40 pm  · 
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newbie.Phronesis

Or, a decent number of cities have online maps with grade changes now, usually can find it by searching (city name)map. May or may not be as accurate as properly procured survey, wouldn't advise using it for construction dwgs without checking first...

Apr 28, 20 7:33 pm  · 
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seekingguidance

Yes! This is more like what I aim to find. Thank you for the steer in direction. I will look into the city's website. Don't know why I didn't think of that first. Thank you Newbie.Phronesis!

Apr 28, 20 7:46 pm  · 
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newbie.Phronesis

You're welcome, hope it works out alright :)

Apr 28, 20 11:15 pm  · 
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Bench

there are a few open source options, such as Open Maps (or it’s called something like that), but those are really only appropriate for spec/schematic design... if this is going anywhere close to construction you would definitely need a survey provided by the client...

Apr 28, 20 8:08 pm  · 
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seekingguidance

Noted. I found what I was looking for a handful of minutes ago but I will explore 'OpenStreetMap' next time around. Thank you Bench!

Apr 28, 20 8:19 pm  · 
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Bench

Ah yes, that’s the one I was thinking of. And a useful side note, if you are familiar with rhino / grasshopper, there is an excellent plugin called Elk that ports in the OSM data spatially.

Apr 28, 20 9:47 pm  · 
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seekingguidance

Awesome. I will have to explore Rhino/Grasshopper/Elk down the road. Thank you for the insight!

Apr 28, 20 11:50 pm  · 
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seekingguidance

Alright everyone! I found what I needed. newbie.Phronesis got me there. However, most of your responses have been helpful! I appreciate your time. Thank you all again! 

Apr 28, 20 8:22 pm  · 
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seekingguidance

Just want to follow up with this, if any of you need Revit modeling then don't hesitate to ask.

Apr 28, 20 9:23 pm  · 
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