How to handle huge surveyors drawings

TechTip Contest Winner of the month of June, 2002

Submitted by Roberto Corona, Italy

Have you got the site drawing with contour lines from your Surveyor with millions of points - that would take hours to render - that you don't need?

You would like to get rid of most of them?

Then follow these simple steps:

Import the drawing with the Contour lines
Select the Spline Tool and use the Magic Wand to make the Contour Lines into Splines.

In order to use the Magic Wand, hold down the Spacebar while clicking on the lines, or activate its button in the Control Box.
Now Open the Magic Wand Settings from the Tools Menu, choose the Segment Length method, and enter the smallest segment length that you want to have [for this example 1000 mm].
Select the Mesh Tool and draw a mesh that fits on the outer contours of the site.
Select the mesh and click the Magic Wand one-by-one on each of the Splines. A dialog box will pop up - choose always "No Surface Fitting" from the options.
The final result will look like this on the Floor Plan:
After you're finished select these Contour Lines one-by-one then click on them with the Mercedes cursor: a palette will pop up from which you can adjust the height of these points. Enter the height of the Contour Line as given by the Surveyor.

Be sure to check the Apply to All checkbox in the left bottom corner!
Once you've done this with all splines, check the mesh in 3D. Depending on the geometry you might have to adjust the height of some edges manually.
Voila! Your simplified site is ready in a few minutes!

You can use the method described above in 2D only. In this case simply use the Magic Wand with the Line Tool in order to have less lines in your drawing.

Page last updated: Thursday, September 16, 2004