mesh contours

[Ben Cohen]

hello

Is it possible to create contour lines on meshes, at a nominated height? Similar to the way you can create roof level lines. From what I know it cant be done.

I imagine being able to input heights from a site plan at measured but random points then have archicad do the interpolation to find the contours
Might be one for the wish list if there is no work around

any thoughts or suggestions??
Ben

[Anonymous]

To find the mesh contours:

1. Magic wand a slab to the mesh outline

2. Multiply vertically at the contour interval

3. Subtract the mesh from the slabs

4. View the slabs (only) top down in 3D wireframe

5. Copy and paste the lines

6. Clean up the excess lines

Not as quick as a pupose built command, but not bad if you don't have to do it too often. (If you do have to do it often use ArchiTerra.)

[Karl Ottenstein]

Matthew wrote:
To find the mesh contours:

1. Magic wand a slab to the mesh outline

2. Multiply vertically at the contour interval

3. Subtract the mesh from the slabs

4. View the slabs (only) top down in 3D wireframe

5. Copy and paste the lines

6. Clean up the excess lines

Not as quick as a pupose built command, but not bad if you don't have to do it too often. (If you do have to do it often use ArchiTerra.)

Strangely clever, Matthew. I had to try it, and agree, it doesn't take much time at all for steps 1 through 5 ... but step 6 is a real pain.

See the attached images. I made the slabs 1' thick and set for 5' contours. The SEO subtract leaves a angled/beveled edge to the slab - which results in parallel lines as well as all kinds of internal facet lines. Shame. Making the slab very thin makes these seem to go away, but of course they're still there. (Good enough though, probably.)

I thought: hey, when you trim a slab to a roof, you get a plumb cut edge (and so there would be no duplicate lines in wireframe top view). So, I repeated your steps with 0 pitch roofs - did the SEO subtract on them - then multiplied slabs - and tried to trim the slabs to the roofs - but trim-to-roof does nothing when the roof and slab are coincident. Oh well.

Good tip.

Karl

[Anonymous]

See the attached images. I made the slabs 1' thick and set for 5' contours. [/quote wrote:


I think it would work better if you make the slabs as thick as the contour interval!

[Anonymous]

HANIEL wrote:
I think it would work better if you make the slabs as thick as the contour interval!

This works well as long as you dont mind the duplicated lines. Maybe delete duplicates would do the trick.

Hey, wait a minute, if the slab thickness is equal to the contour interval and they are spaced at twice the interval then there should be no clean up necessary.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Matthew wrote:

HANIEL wrote:
I think it would work better if you make the slabs as thick as the contour interval!

This works well as long as you dont mind the duplicated lines. Maybe delete duplicates would do the trick.

Hey, wait a minute, if the slab thickness is equal to the contour interval and they are spaced at twice the interval then there should be no clean up necessary.

Well boys, that just doesn't do it as the attached image demonstrates. If the slabs are the thickness of the contour interval (5 feet for the site attached and in the message further back) - you basically get something worse than the original mesh! Because the entire mesh is now modeled onto the full mass of slabs, you get all of the original mesh contours and facets...as well as additional lines for the new slabified contours.

I think Matthew's original idea is a quick and dirty workaround, but using the thinnest slabs possible and saying to heck with the duplicate lines and the teeny tiny contour lines (exagerated in my previously posted screenshots). They'll increase the file size a small amount, but you'll never see them when printing if the slab is thin enough.

Another, more tedious way would be to change the end of Matthew's method. Instead of using wireframe, top down view, reverse the order of all of the slabs (rearrange vertically in 3D window), and use hidden line, top down view of that - and you'd have just the contours and nothing duplicated.

Karl

[Anonymous]

Good points Karl.

I think we have pretty well explored the limits of this work around.

[Ben Cohen]

great work around mathew, this will have to do until we get "mesh level line" saves me 175 euro as well
thanks guys, this forum is cool!!

[Ben Cohen]

4. View the slabs (only) top down in 3D wireframe

5. Copy and paste the lines

6. Clean up the excess lines

Hi guys, me again. I got around to trying out mathew's method but I have had trouble with the last 3 points.
on point 4. do you mean view the MESHES only??
on point 5. copy and paste, this creates a picture yes then clean up the excess line in photo editing software??

or am I missing something

cheers

Ben

[Anonymous]

Point 4: View the slabs top down in 3D. This will provide the contour lines.

Point 5: Use the 2D marquee to select and copy the linework from the 3D into the plan view. Chose to copy as scaled drawing in the dialog so you get editable lines rather than a bitmap image.

The clean-up is necessary because the 3D view will include more lines than just the contours.