Adjusting stubborn Topography

This trick has a wide range of applications. I have used it before when we needed to move an entire wing of a building by some amount, but couldn't do it within the project because some elements with a vertical workplane prevented us from moving those objects with others horizontally.

In this case it was the opposite. We wanted to move topography vertically, but for some reason, we couldn't. Even if you choose a vertical workplane in a 3D view, topography will still try to move in a horizontal plane. You should be able to move it vertically in a section or elevation, but in our case it wouldn't budge. Also, topography doesn't host to levels, which would have come in really handy in this situation! The last thing we wanted was to edit each point individually or spend a lot of time troubleshooting. So here's what we did:

1. We selected all the elements we wanted to move vertically and grouped them.
2. We selected the group and made it into a link (keep your eye on the Options Bar).
3. Now we were able to move the linked file vertically. We then went in reverse...clicked the option to Bind this linked file (again, eye on the Options Bar).
4. Now it was turned back into a group, so the next step was to ungroup it and delete the unused group.

How many other situations will this technique come in handy to save you? NOTE: Watch out if you're using phasing as you might lose information if you have custom named phases.

Adjusting stubborn Topography