Importing / recreating 3D countour maps.

[Anonymous]

Hello all,
I've got yet another question for the elders (just to let you guys know, I think I would've been fired by now if it wasn't for all the help ) anyway, so heres my new question, we get our drawings from the land surveyors in 2D DWG format, what, in your opinions would be the best way to go about turning these contour lines into a 3D mesh ? I've included a screenshot of a typical contour drawing, as they are when I get them.

cheers,
Dan

[Anonymous]

Hi link, I was wondering how did you, to have the white contour lines in your mesh, I don't usually use the mesh tool but if I get the same results as yours I guess I am going to take the plunge.

chao.

[Anonymous]

You can ask your surveyor for the DTM file or Data file of points. This often comes over as an ASCI file that you can save as a TXT file in MS Excel. This file is usually X,Y, Z and code format, which is perfect for importing into ArchiTerra. Be careful to find out if the data is coming as x,y or as y,x. It is usually Y,X (Northern,Easting) format.

Some surveyors do not like to release the FULL data file. But after they have produced the topography and poly lines depicting the "Data File", they can with AutoCAD (I have heard) create a new data file just from there Contour Polylines. This file in TXT format can then be imported in to ArchiTerra.

I have also been told that a DXF file of the survey can be directly imported into ArchiTerra, but I have not done this yet.