topic Re: Topo Map - PDF w/dashed lines to solid contours? in Collaboration with other software

Topo Map - PDF w/dashed lines to solid contours?

Anonymous — Thu, 12 May 2011 00:33:05 GMT

This may be a little out of place as it's more of a problem I can't solve.

I have a PDF topo map that I want to use in Archicad as a mesh. The topo map is drawn with dashed lines and when I convert it to a PDF ith Illustrator, I get a million individual lines and not continuous contours.

I'v tried "join" paths and will work individually but in a bath it just makes the program crash as there are thousands of paths to join.

any suggestions if you've dealt with this?

thanks.

Re: Topo Map - PDF w/dashed lines to solid contours?

Dwight — Thu, 12 May 2011 02:28:28 GMT

Since the source material is inappropriate for a direct data translation, you might consider this adaptation:

Place the PDF image at the correct scale in a plan view.
Draw a mesh to the image extent.
Place a grid over the image.
Locate contour lines adjacent to each grid point.
Apply the height to a new mesh point.
In places where the slope is low, a large grid is suitable.
For steeper places or special site features, make the grid interval smaller to better describe them.

I know it sounds wacky, but this is the way to make a smooth contoured site without excess polygons/nodes, etc.

Re: Topo Map - PDF w/dashed lines to solid contours?

Anonymous — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:08:56 GMT

I may have to do that but I'm trying to avoid redrawing the map as it is very large and each contour is at 1' intervals.

I'm wondering if there is someway in Illustrator or photoshop to easily convert the individual dashed lines to continuous contours. Something like, applying a filter to the pdf to make the lines extend over eachother and get illustrator to recognize the continuous lines.