How to make a terrain from contours and points

Panga · 2 Jul 2008, 18:38

Hi everyone,

Just a simple question...it that possible to make a terrain with sandbox or any other script from contours and points at the same time. The sandbox of sketchup only recognizes contours, and I have some isolated points that I want to join to the terrain, but the sandbox ignores them !!

I tried to convert my contours (level lines) in points, with success, but when I made the triangulation of all my points, i'ts a real mess...it do not respect the original path of level lines...

So, is there any way to make a terrain from contours and points simultaneously ??
Thanks for your ideas !!

Panga.

remus · 2 Jul 2008, 18:57

I dont think it can be done using the sandbox tools. Theres a ruby over at smustard that joins all points with the same z height, im not sure ho well it works but its probably worth a try.

Once youve run this script you should be able to use the native SU sandbox tools.

Panga · 2 Jul 2008, 18:59

I'm gonna try right know.

Thanks.

Panga · 2 Jul 2008, 19:11

Ok Remus,

This script is fine, but not useful for me because I already have contours and points. And the only thing is to find a way that the sandbox or any other script picks all of them to make the terrain, but thanks anyway.

Any other ideas ?

Chris Fullmer · 2 Jul 2008, 20:01

What types of "points" do you have? Is there a way to turn them all into really small line segments? Maybe that will help.

Chris

Panga · 2 Jul 2008, 20:49

Hi Chris,

My points are "guide points". And yes, I thought about replacing my points by small lines...but my model will be too complex after that...

I join my skp file and a screenshot, in order you can check it if you want.

Thanks.

relief.skp

Panga · 3 Jul 2008, 05:23

Hi people,

I found a solution, so here it is :

Because the sandbox do not recognize points, we have to use lines, this is a problem. As you said Chris, replace the points by small lines could help but it also will make my model too complex...But there's another problem boring problem with the sandbox : sometimes it ignores some lines, or line vertex because they're too close or...too far ! And here is the solution.

I made long lines from my points in the Z axis, and when I use the sandbox, it picks the top of each line (which is my original point), and it ignores the other extremity of the line, too far below !!

So sometines one defect can be useful to avoid another one !!

Hope that'll be useful for everyone.

See u.

Chris Fullmer · 3 Jul 2008, 06:19

Hey, thats really interesting. Thats the kindof trick that might come in handy repeatedly. I'll play with tomorrow,

Chris

Gaieus · 3 Jul 2008, 07:34

There is points_cloud_triangulation.rb by Didier in the Ruby Library Depot . it "Creates triangles starting from a construction points selection. Requires delaunay2.rb (optimized delaunay triangulation). Useful to create terrains starting from points cloud data."

You may have some success with it.

mozzie · 3 Jul 2008, 08:34

My guess is that Panga wanted to use the points cloud triangulation - trying to covert lines to points, for example. I've had this problem with survey data, so I was interested in finding a solution.

I thought the problem could possibly be helped by creating lines between points - these would not be true contour lines, but would produce the desired surface. This does require a little care with the lines but works OK. I searched for a ruby file to do this (Join selected points with lines) but came up empty.

His solution gives a better result, I think. It is a bit more work to do manually , but probably simple enough to script. I'm no programmer - but I'll give it a shot.

Panga · 3 Jul 2008, 10:35

Hi Mozzie and Gaieus,

First, points_cloud_triangulation.rb is only taking points for triangulation, and it ignores completely the path of level lines during the triangulation...too much work after to correct the errors.

If you organise well your file before importing in skecthup, it's not more work using my procedure. I work with autocad files, and all my points are instances of the same block. Sketchup automatically converts each block in a component, so in sketchup I have instances of the same component.
I just have to edit one of them, to draw a line on the z axis, and i'ts done !! Then I explod all the components, select all my contours lines and my new "vertical lines", and use the sandbox.

gksl4 · 3 Jul 2008, 18:50

Have a look for Simuterra at

http://www.compuneering.com/

Panga · 4 Jul 2008, 05:19

Thanks for the info, I think I already found int the past that plugin, but I completely forgot it !!

mozzie · 4 Jul 2008, 12:43

Thats great!
I always learn something new here.

Thanks Panga.