I worked on a lot of urban projects where at the intersections with tight radii and sidewalks with planters and not much else. So as you would model an intersection the and curb returns, the resulting sidewalk would sometimes result in a fan shaped area and if you let the sidewalk slope govern, the result resembled spiral staircase. Remember, this was Ss2 so you couldn't model a terrain and apply a surface template. What you do is look at the elevations at each end and try to determine good elevation for all of the points to share. Then I use a fixed elevation with a zero grade. You do have to use other controls to bring the transition in and out to those same elevations. Sometimes I use parametric constraints. Sometimes I need to transition widths and slopes.
Also, if there is an area where the are bump-outs along a curbed area, the simple sidewalk slope often creates a wavy far edge of the sidewalk, so you can give a fixed slope from one point to another flattening out some of the wavy-ness.
Also, if there is an area where the are bump-outs along a curbed area, the simple sidewalk slope often creates a wavy far edge of the sidewalk, so you can give a fixed slope from one point to another flattening out some of the wavy-ness.