Quickly Create Extent Boundaries from Selected Geometry
Just because some commands are lesser used does not mean that these commands are useless. Take for example the command LINEWORKSHRINKWRAP.
The Civil 3D command LINEWORKSHRINKWRAP was one that was introduced to me by a colleague of mine, and I have regularly used this fantastic command to produce boundaries of objects ever since.
Once the LINEWORKSHRINKWRAP command has been called, simply select a set of geometry and press enter to accept your selection set. The result will be a polyline object at the extent of all geometry selected.
LINEWORKSHRINKWRAP is quick and easy to use, although the name itself may take longer to input than the resulting linework can be created. If you are familiar with the Command Alias in the Express Tools, you can create a shorter keyboard command equivalency to call the command. I personally have shortened mine to be LWSW, as this set of keystrokes is not utilized by default.
LINEWORKSHRINKWRAP is especially useful for creating Civil 3D surface boundary linework, but also for other purposes such as quickly converting circles and ellipses to closed polygonal objects useful for converting to other objects such as WIPEOUT objects for example.
If you are using the BOUNDARY command to create boundaries of internal extents of geometry, make sure to add LINEWORKSHRINKWRAP to your arsenal of commands to get outer boundaries as well.
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