topic Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg) in Collaboration with other software

Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:38:28 GMT

Hi.

I've been using archicad since the beginning of my studies,
so It's 4 years by now. I'm using ver. 15.

Actually I'm working on terrain model for my graduation project.

Long story's short:
I got map imported from DWG. I already organized layers and isolated points heigth (there are actually text with heigth value only - no geometric points)
(also map doesn't contain height lines).
As for now, I can create a mesh, then draw some lines, after that select each one separately and manually enter desired Z-level for every point.
Problem is, the number of points is 1860 and nobody sane would undertake this.

Question:
Is there a way to automatically add points to mesh from location of the text fields? Furthermore, is there a way to generate point Z-level from the value of number, and make whole geometry from text itself?

I don't have any experience with Surveyors design plugin. Maybe there's a way.

Practically:
It would greatly speed workaday modeling basis.

Looking forward to any experience and ideas,
they would be very appreciated.

Thanks.

Update:

I'm doing some reserches:

I found some script for Rhino. You just load 2D mapped DWG text to Rhino, then use the script which read the text value, then adds a point to each text box, and then sets the point in z-value written in text. Great thing, but I got some problems atm, with the script doesn't want to elevate points.

Is there possibility to write script like that for Archicad? Personally I'm no script writter, but I think many people would be very greatful for the time and work it would save them.

The other think is to generate the mesh from those points in space, but this should be less of a problem.

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:40:36 GMT

Do you know the Design\Place Mesh from Surveyor Data command.
You may get the terrain data in the format it understands and create your Mesh from that.

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 15:40:37 GMT

I considered that, but I don't know any soft (standalone or plugin) to translate text strings (2D DWG) to survey data. Could you give me sime hint?

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Laszlo Nagy — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:04:43 GMT

Sorry, I am not familiar with that.
The Help file only gives this info:

http://www.graphisoft.com/ftp/publishing/ac16_help_INT/Files/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm#href=07_Interoperability.10.47.html#1012229

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 17:51:51 GMT

Look at this tread if you have the original ".dwg" file + AutoCAD or any clone with support for AutoLISP, to export 3D points to a ".toc" file from it.

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=39671&highlight=mesh

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:29:33 GMT

Funny, I found Stefano's Boli blog where the precedure is similar.
First better use oryginal DWG/DXF file because if u opened it in Archicad before and saved to DWG next, it modified text lines for me so you wouldn't be able to export them later from AutoCAD to txt (AutoCAD didn't saw them as text strings). So better to do layer work (deleting everything exept wanted heightpoints) in AutoCAD.
I exported with Cad2File Tool but it only makes CSV file, or space/coma/tab delimited.

Could You gimme example to see how survey .txt file is constructed?
XXX.XXX, YYY.YYY, ZZZ.ZZZ - like this??
from excel CLV i get smoething like this

Start X,Start Y,Start Z,Text Value,
7571195.7510,5544223.8730,0.0000,208.35,

Should I just use some other AutoLisp and get .toc ?

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 20:02:49 GMT

The .txt file with 3D xyz points coordinates looks like this:
P X Y Z
P01 390378.445 96360.296 172.47
P02 390379.748 96367.614 170.42
P03 390381.026 96370.818 171.36
P04 390377.353 96377.913 171.43
P05 390375.685 96381.351 172.52
P06 390376.949 96390.973 171.24
P07 390373.487 96400.761 169.97
P08 390374.776 96411.821 167.19
P09 390383.299 96407.991 166.84
P10 390381.567 96399.676 167.45
......

Your´s values will be :
P0001 7571195.7510 5544223.8730 208.35
......
P1860 XXXXXXX.XXXX YYYYYYY.YYYY ZZZ.ZZ

If you know some other ".lsp" routine that do the same thing, use it freely.

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 10:58:40 GMT

I edited previous scheme to one you mentioned, no now it is:

P X Y Z
P0001 7571195.7510 5544223.8730 208.35
...
P2704 7571445.2543 5543944.7345 202.78

(file is .txt Unicode)

Unfortunatly, when I open it with Design>Place mesh from Surveyors data...
...nothing happens, it won't even open dialog box

I tried your AutoLISP (SURVEYEXPORT) for AutoCAD but when it asks me to select objectss it doesnt seem to see any text strings:
"Select objects: 0 found, 0 total" or
"Select objects: Specify opposite corner: 0 found, 0 total"
despite how I select them

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 11:24:31 GMT

Did you try to make Mesh from the .txt file in that topic:
(ales-1_3D points geo.txt)?

If you get the Mesh from it , then compare .txt with yours to find what´s going wrong.

Or you can post your .txt so I can try to make Mesh from it.

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 12:11:18 GMT

This is just what I did and it works now.

Problem was a bit fishy,
first of all:
the coding of .txt file must be ANSI - I had UNICODE
(that's why Archicad did nothing when tried to open it)
second:
there was no P X Y Z line, and "P" before point number (so no letters, numbers only)
document's first line starting from 1st point
third:
I got spaces at the end of each line.

(I made notepad++ simple macro to delete spaces at the end of each line)

So to do things right I need:
1. DXF/DWG file with heightstrings>
2. AutoCAD (or similar) with AutoLISP support>
3. AutoLISP program to export texstrings to text file (I used "Cad2File")
4. Notepad++ (or other text editor) to make eventually changes

From there just use Design>Place mesh from Surveyors data... and voila!

Many thanks for help and patience,
hope this will help somebody in future.

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 14:12:36 GMT

I´m glad that finaly works!

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

David Maudlin — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 14:20:53 GMT

This is an article I wrote when trying to understand the format that is used by the Place Mesh from Surveyors Data function:

Creating A Mesh From A Txt File

It contains an explanation of the format used by this function.

David

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 18:57:03 GMT

Interesting Article David.
I have attempted to use the X,Y,Z, Code format.

The Points are imported with the correct x,y,z values, but the code (ID) is no where in the mesh file. If the points are defining the location of Landscaping features, Retaining walls or base of structures; the code ID is important. Where or how can the imported text code be found?

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

David Maudlin — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 14:02:27 GMT

Jay:

The Mesh Tool does not support the IDs. One solution would be to write a library part that reads the txt file, line by line, to place text with the ID at the corresponding points. This would be an Object separate from the Mesh but should overlay correctly. I don't have experience with this area of GDL (File Operations), maybe someone else will be able to give you a start.

David

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 14:17:17 GMT

Yes David an object which did such a thing would be perfect. I do not have the skill to do such a thing maybe,but maybe there will be someone that can give me a clue.

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

sinceV6 — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 17:21:15 GMT

Jay wrote:
Yes David an object which did such a thing would be perfect. I do not have the skill to do such a thing...

Hello.
How far would your GDL skills take you?
It's really not that hard what you want to do.

Jay wrote:
..but maybe there will be someone that can give me a clue.

Challenge accepted!

Assuming that your .xyz/.txt file works and you can build your mesh, and you are using spaces as delimeters....

Be sure to have your data file available.

Make a new object.
Just add a parameter, string type, Variable name fileName, and give it a description. In the master script, paste this:


!===CHANNEL OPEN=====
!!!ch1 = OPEN ("TEXT", textFile, "SEPARATOR='\t', MODE=RO, LIBRARY") <--- sample: opening the file, using TAB as separator, loaded in library

ch1 = OPEN ("TEXT", fileName, "SEPARATOR=' ', MODE=RO, LIBRARY")

IF ch1<=0 THEN
	PRINT 	"CHECK THAT FILE IS LOADED WITH LIBRARIES\nOR CHECK FILE NAME IN PARAMETERS"
	TEXT2 0,0,"CHECK THAT FILE IS LOADED WITH LIBRARIES\nOR CHECK FILE NAME IN PARAMETERS"
	HOTSPOT2 0,0
	CIRCLE2 0,0,0.10
	END
ENDIF

!===COUNT NUMBER OF ROWS IN DATABASE=====
dataRows = 0
DO
	dataRows = dataRows + 1
	n = INPUT(ch1, dataRows, 1, notUsed)
WHILE n > -1

dataRows = dataRows - 1 !--it counts 1 extra row
!!!PRINT dataRows
!!!dataRowsText = STR(dataRows,2,0)
!==========================================================================

!===COUNT NUMBER OF COLUMNS IN DATABASE=====
dataColumns=1
rowCounter=0
DO
	rowCounter = rowCounter+1
	n = INPUT(ch1, rowCounter, dataColumns, notUsed)
	IF n>0 THEN dataColumns = dataColumns +1
WHILE n > -1

dataColumns = dataColumns - 1 !--it counts 1 extra column
!!!PRINT dataColumns
!!!dataColumnsText = STR(dataColumns,2,0)
!==========================================================================

!===ASIGN VALUES TO ARRAY=====
DIM data[][]	!--this holds the information, two dimension array

FOR i=1 TO dataRows
	FOR j=1 TO dataColumns
		dataRead = ""
		n = INPUT(ch1, i, j, dataRead)
		data = dataRead
	NEXT j
NEXT i

!!!PRINT data

!===CLOSE CHANNEL=====
CLOSE ch1
!=============================================

xx=1
yy=2
zz=3
id=4

trans=0
FOR i=1 TO dataRows
	ADD data[xx], data[yy], data[zz]
	ADD2 data[xx], data[yy]
	CALL "Coordinate Dimension 18" PARAMETERS ALL \
		bID=1, 		bAddText=1, 	strAddTextContent=data[id],
		bID3D=1,	bAddText3D=1,	strAddTextContent3D=data[id],
		fontSizeHeader_mm=1.75, fontSizeCoor_mm=1.5, fontSizeID_mm=1.5,
		bShowCoorX=0,	bShowCoorY=0,	bShowCoorZ=0,
		bShowCoorX3D=0, bShowCoorY3D=0,	bShowCoorZ3D=0
	
	ADD -data[xx], -data[yy], -data[zz]
	ADD2 -data[xx], -data[yy]
		!<--- not using DEL just to keep this in the masterScript. You should move info to their respective scripts.
NEXT i

save and place in floor plan.
It may ask you for a file name prior to saving, or when placing the object.

For review, this is calling the Coordinate Dimension 18 object from the standard library and giving it the corresponding parameters. You would need to modify the script it to suit your own needs.

The basic workflow routine is used to read any TXT file, as long as data is correctly structured. It has many uses, as it basically reads the file and builds an array that has all the data. you just call it later. I know many people will benefit from it.

Hope this helps a bit.

Best regards.

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 03:32:25 GMT

Rookie Try.
What type of parameter is a "String" type? Is in a "Text" type.

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 03:33:18 GMT

Got this error.

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 03:41:49 GMT

I wanted to attach one of the Text (txt) files, but it is not an allowed extension.

It is a Excel Spreadsheet that is saves as a txt file. The format is columns of x, y, z & Code.

Re: Making mesh from map and text values (imported from dwg)

David Maudlin — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 13:30:20 GMT

Jay wrote:
I wanted to attach one of the Text (txt) files, but it is not an allowed extension.

Try zipping the file (.zip).

David