Topo lines too detailed!

[Patrick M]

Anyone have a good workflow for simplifying large/complex topography for quicker modeling? I don't know why surveyors think we would need contour points 1/2" apart, but it makes modeling a mesh TEDIOUS!

I have certainly used illustrator to simplify contour vectors before, but typically end up tracing down overlapping contours or looking for contours that are deviated from their original position too far to be accurate... Obviously I can adjust the magic wand precision, but that only works if there are a lot of curves; in this case all pLines are straight segments... I may be workin on this mesh for days 😞 [thats not even the full survey... I cropped it down to do it in sections, the pLines are so complex AC is glitching with all visible]

 

[SenecaDesignLLC]

I've never done one that big but I to hate this issue, I end up doing a lot of work for a small topo pending the files I get.

[Patrick M]

yeah, this one has been 2 days trying to just get contours traced... and hoping I didn't overlap anything or mess it up in the process, because that's a "start over" situation 😞 Really wish there was an option for mesh like there is for morphs to reduce polygons!

[SenecaDesignLLC]

Just a thought, I used to use morphs to create my topo lines in certain situations Maybe if you used a morph with no thickness to get the initial lines down then reduce the polygons you might be able to then explode the morph and use the magic wand on the mesh with the lines from the exploded morph

[Patrick M]

that could work for sure... but I'd have to elevate each morph vector, which would be as tedious to select and elevate as it is to manually trace... seems any way I skin this, it's either super tedious or super imprecise

[Patrick M]

I have seen some people use Rhino as a way to reduce nodes; I just can't justify the extra cost and learning curve or what would amount to a one trick pony 

[jfaugustine]

While this may not be helpful in your particular application, but I sometimes create a mesh that correlates with the meets and bounds of the property lines.  I then elevate the property corners to their respective elevations, which provides a generalized overview of the site.  I then go back and add selective contours as required for detail in, and around the project area.

[Patrick M]

yes, I would absolutely do this for most work; but some of my clients are dealing in such high end projects on large sites that they really require a full detailed topography for context, visualization, accurate building placement, etc. For this particular client, I even model distant mountain ranges, roads, etc. to full detail for high accurate renderings... but for an average project/client, I definitely would not be modeling 24" contours on a site this large

[ryejuan]

Looking at the contours scared the toot out of me! yeah kinda tedious to do and a bit waste of time. just for a fact that they want to get how much cut and fill they could save for this project other than the design and layout of the sturcture that would utilize the contour.

i have a question, have you asked the surveyor to give you xyz text files?

[jan_filipec]

I'm sure you know this, but contours are already an interpretation of the measured data, meant to visualise the topography on a 2D plan. So if you're going for precision, you shuld go a step back and as @ryejuan says, get the original precise data from the surveyor.

Then you can for example use gratis (and open source) Blender to generate the mesh with exactly the detail you think is adequate for you.

Finally you can generate the contours inside Blender or transfer the mesh to Archicad and generate them there, if you believe you need them.

More here:

https://community.osarch.org/discussion/683/

https://wiki.osarch.org/index.php?title=Blender_Topo_Mesh2XYZ

https://github.com/JanFilipec/Sverchok-Tutorials/tree/main/Mesh2XYZ