Importing Topographical data

[Anonymous]

There are lots of times when the designer needs to design a building in an area where the terrain is not flat. What I would like to know is whether or not Archicad 20 is capable of importing files with this type of data. And if so, in what format should the file(s) be in. It would be even better if Archicad was capable of importing this type of data from Google Earth. My current process is to save a picture from Google Earth which I then merge into Archicad and scale it so it provide a 1:1 scale. This is great for locating the building on the site but it lacks the necessary terrain data. Any info on how I might be able to add the terrain data is greatly appreciated.

Mike

[sinceV6]

Hi.
If you want to import terrain data from Google Earth, you can first use Sketchup to set the project location, which will grab terrain information; then merge that into AC. Beware though that GE information that gets imported to Sketchup lacks precision.

If you need more precision, you could look up DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data and cartographic information for the site and use a GIS program (like ArcGIS or Free Open source QGis) to manipulate the info.

Nothing beats a site professional survey. You can get XYZ data that can be easily turned into a mesh.

Best regards.

[gpowless]

Discussed here: http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=258162#258162

[rgarand]

We draw all of our sites 100% in 3D using the topo from our Civil consultants. I have never tried a point cloud or importing the civil points directly.

We find that if we magic wand the civil topo lines ArchiCAD has trouble because there is to much info.

We "trace"/redraw over the civil topo with less points and this allow us to have a workable 3D mesh. We can then establish Top of Walls etc which are very accurate for our building team.

[rjwilden]

Given how smart Archicad is supposed to be, this method of creatimg a 3D mesh from a contoured site seems very outdated. I too have to redraw the lines due to the problem of magic wand creating too many points. On a large site this is a lot of work. Come on Graphisoft how about a new tool or a way of combining points along a contour.

[Richard Morrison]

rjwilden wrote:
how about a new tool or a way of combining points along a contour.

How about learning the tools that are already there? Design>Magic Wand settings.

[rgarand]

The magic wand tool works as intended and makes things very easy...although it picks up too many points along the polyline and adds lots of info to the mesh. We find the meshes become hard to manipulate the more points a mesh has.

The sites I deal with are not overly large...6-10 acres but the meshes become very hard to manipulate if they have too many points at this size.

[Richard Morrison]

rgarand wrote:
The magic wand tool works as intended and makes things very easy...although it picks up too many points along the polyline and adds lots of info to the mesh. We find the meshes become hard to manipulate the more points a mesh has.

You can set the spacing of the points you want the magic wand to create. If you are getting too many points, adjust the settings for a wider spacing or larger deviation. Take a few minutes to read the reference manual and try out some different options.

EDIT: Another technique you can try is using "Best Match" and converting polylines into a spline. Then, switch back to "Linear Segments" and set the spacing to something appropriate and magic wand a polyline elevation onto the spline. You can get 4 points/contour line if you want.

[rgarand]

I have read the manual for the magic wand and I have played with the settings...

The files we get from our civil engineers, which are probably pretty standard, have many segments along the polylines (see attached for the number of points). The settings within the magic wand do not have any effect when I change them. The only way they would have an effect is if I decreased these settings, which would be counter productive because I am trying to decrease the number of points along these lines.

...please do not assume all of us here jump on the forum without doing proper research and troubleshooting.

[Richard Morrison]

Please see my "EDIT" above.