Topo slabs to Mesh... how to?

[Anonymous]

I have traditionally made my topo maps for 3d viewing by using the slab tool. I want to know the fastest way to convert the slab points to a mesh for a smoother apearence in the 3d and rendering window.

thanks!

[Anonymous]

The only way I know of is to explode the slabs and use the magic wand
to trace the grouped slab lines to create ridge lines and then assign
elevation values to each set of points.
Note that slabs are complete polygons so at the edges of of the stacked
slabs when exploded there are lines staked on top of each other
and these need to be deleted before using the magic wand.
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

To avoid the stacked lines you can space bar click (magic wand) with the polyline tool and then split and delete the outer perimeters to make the contour lines.

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to create a terrain model with the mesh tool if you have the horizontals drawn with polylines? Couls you,please, give a more deatailed explanation how you do this? Thank you in advance!

[Anonymous]

kliment,
Yes it is possible.
It works exactly the same with the polyline tool as it works
with grouped line segments.
Draw a mesh outline with the mesh tool, draw contour lines with
the polyline tool, with the mesh selected click on each polyline
with the magic wand to create ridge lines ,
then select each ridge with the mesh tool
selected and assign a height to each contour.
Thank you,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the nice explanation, Peter!
It works like a charm!