Are you having trouble deciding when to use spot elevations versus contour lines to determine your breaklines? Well, don't worry because you're not alone. We are often confronted with that question and are here to help you figure it out.

Breaklines are essential for creating a precise 3D surface model. Breaklines connect data representing specific features on a surface, such as the centerline of a road, a ridgeline, or a ditch's flowline. Whether to use spot elevations or contour lines to determine your breaklines is not always clear. Here, we help shed some light on the differences between contour lines and spot elevations and provide guidance on when to use which one.