Skip to main content
Question

Creating a 3D terrain/surface from a grid of points with z values


Forum|alt.badge.img
I have several .tab files each with a grid of points (in British National Grid) each point has a height value. I want to make these into a 3D surface/terrain that i can use in sketchup but do not know how

 

(The files were generated from photogrametry by the company who supplies our aerial photography)

 

 

I have tried SurfaceModeller, SurfaceDraper, RasterDEMGenerator, DEMGenerator and TINGenerator but none of these have created anything 3D just a load of points or a flat grey square.I did not know what kind of writer to use so have just been using the inspector as output

 

 

Eventually I want to put buildings on to the terrain. I previousely used Extrude to make the building outlines 3D but I want these to sit on the terrain (at the moment they are all at one level not on the hill like in real life). Each building has a height value for extruding and a Z value indicating its height above sea level which i took as an avarege of the height points in the building footprint. I dont know if i drape these 3D buildings over a 3D terrain then they will appear at the correct height (not inside the hill) or if there is another way of making the buildings appear at the correct z value spatially. Can anyone advise please

2 replies

david_r
Celebrity
  • April 23, 2015
Hi,

 

 

have a look at this article for some tips and ideas: https://knowledge.safe.com/articles/Samples_and_Demos/3D-Terrain-Model-with-Buildings-from-Point-Cloud

 

 

David

Forum|alt.badge.img
  • Author
  • April 24, 2015
Thank you David, I had been using the 3D tutorials but had missed out the 3D forcer. My buildings are now floating at the correct height

 

 

Unfortunately my point heights will not turn into a TIN, the output is always just a flat square. Maybe it is in the wrong format? It is just a .tab file with a grid of points each with one attribute of 'elevation' (I did try using the coordinate extractor to give it x and y attributes also but that didnt make any difference)

Cookie policy

We use cookies to enhance and personalize your experience. If you accept you agree to our full cookie policy. Learn more about our cookies.

 
Cookie settings