I am trying to color or shade a topo surface to show me different colors based on different elevations. So far I have found discussions about changing the contour line colors but not the surface itself. For example, I have a surface that is partially above a plane, I would like to graphically see the portions/locations that are above my plane and below.
Can anyone lead me in the right direction?
Thanks,
Rick

TopoLT is an application for those who design topographical or cadastral plans in digital format.
 
Trial: http://www.cadware-eng.ro/licentiere/3d_space/topolt.html
 
 

We have created a new tool for such color analysis - DTMcol. You can download it free from Download.
 
See the tip:
http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/how-to-color-3d-topo-surface-model-by-elevation-tip8406

This does not seem to work with Civil 3D 2010, I am unable to selct surfaces. Maybe this is more fitted to LDD versions. I cannot seem to find the wayn to do it C3D 2010.

Yes, the DMTcol tool is intended for plain AutoCAD - there is no need to use it in Civil 3D as it already contains this functionality (hypsometry).
 
You can use DMTcol even in Civil3D when you explode the native surface to a series of 3DFACEs.

Thank you for the info. Can you lead me in the right direction how to do this? I am drawing a blank, I have a surface created, just cannot find how to create the 3D faces. I expect then I will be able to have the color by elevation options available.

If I understand you completely, you are trying to find a way to run an elevation analysis on your surface and then display it with a range of colors. I do this often for both elevations and slopes. Once I run the analysis from the Surface Properties dialog box, then I select a Surface Style to display it in the colors needed.

That is what I would use.