Topography into sketchup

Gaieus

Wow, that's insane! How are you supposed to know the z-value of all those points (texts do not import afaik and I cannot even see text).

Could you ask them to provide the text file of the co-ordinates they most probably got as a raw result of the survey? That would perfectly work with Didier's script. (There are some 2600+ component instances in the file!)

Mr S

Hi,

Well, I could ask my company to purchase Simu Terra, but I have no experience of this program and would be reluctant to ask them to pay for something i don't know anything about. I'll look in to this more.

I wanted to attach the .dwg file which does have text and colours and does provide more info. When imported in to SketchUp all that info especially the text seems to be lost.
Can I upload the .dwg file where you guys can download it?

Thanks.

Mr S

Hi,

If it helps any, i have uploaded the .dwg file here:

http://www.evilshare.com/44313196-279d-102b-b213-000b6aa2a5f8

Any further ideas or info appreciated.

Thanks

Mr S

Mr S

A thought has just occured to me.

Would using 3D Studio MAX help in any way?
Some of our other offices have this and I am sure I could gain access to it.
Does 3DS MAX have more powerful tools to handle this type of thing?

I was thinking that it may be possible to:

Import the .dwg file in to MAX.
Use the tools (which ones?) within 3DS MAX to create the terrain.
Simplify the mesh.
Export back to SketchUp.

Is this worth exploring or am I clutching at straws?

Thanks

Gaieus

You can also get SketchUp to display the items coloured by layer...

The problem here is that all the mesh data is at 0 z level and I don't know how to move those points up to the appropriate height (at least other than manually).

Whoever drew the dwg file must have worked from some kind of a datanase of the points. You should get access to that database. I think Max could also only draw a flat mesh from these points.

TIG

Here's an AutoLisp tool I wrote a while ago (it's zipped as .lsp files can't be uploaded 'raw'). Obviously you'll need AutoCAD with AutoLisp enabled to Appload and then run it on the DWG file BEFORE trying to import it into SUp. Basically it takes any selected Text such as Z-heights in metres, works out what the text is in real numbers, and then moves them in their Z to suit (this version takes m heights and moves in mm, BUT it's easy adjusted to do other unit combos), it then adds a 3D-point at the Text's origin - you might need to move the 3D-points over the +markers... For more info see the first few lines of the .lsp file itself... you can open it in a plain text editor (like NotePad.exe)... That's how I wrote it !!!

text2d3d[m].zip

Gaieus

TIG, I can't believe you have a tool (weapon) for everything.
Thanks a lot for all this care!

Kaladar

@gaieus said:

Normally a stamped surface is horizontal (and a single face only) that you should be able to paint separately.
Are you sure you are not talking about the drape tool?

Gaieus

Thanks for the reply. I used both the drape and the stamp tools over many faces and the stamp seemed to work better. But supposing I do use the drape tool, is there a way to fill the different areas with textures for roads, grass, etc?

Kaladar

Gaieus

Well, make sure to smooth the surface first and apply the drape tool second. If everything works well*, the draped lines separate the surfaces and you should be able to select/paint them separately.

*sometimes the drape tool won't precisely work and you may need to find the gapes between line segments and close them manually. In these cases turn on hidden geometry to see the original TIN as well and to be able to close them correctly.

Mr S

Hi,

I decided that the best solution, suggested by Gaieus, was to go back to the Data Survey company and ask them to send me data suitable for use in a 3D package. I mentioned that I may be able to use a tool that works with a simple text file.

I downloaded and installed Cloud V6 with its example.dat file.

Below I show samples of the example.dat file and the simple text file I was supplied with.
As you can see they are similar, but Cloud V6 won't process the survey file.
Error: "Only 1 data per line"
Any ideas? Any help appreciated.

Example.dat file:

-4290.989333,29509.42004,17271.801618
-4274.989333,29511.005136,17286.136452
-4289.989333,29488.014542,17264.960225
-4289.989333,29466.389034,17268.746701
-4275.989333,29491.061477,17295.038726
-4274.989333,29469.013192,17287.431288
-4273.989333,29448.496995,17278.538275
-4241.989333,29453.771813,17323.717654
-4242.989333,29494.627943,17327.292103
-4242.989333,29473.248948,17328.260914
-4226.989333,29474.834044,17342.595748
-4209.989333,29476.41914,17356.930583
-4225.989333,29430.887233,17333.782246
-4225.989333,29454.714121,17337.286444
-4239.989333,29409.851506,17322.714357
-4240.989333,29428.782607,17317.272535
-4223.989333,29412.202646,17336.406403

Site Survey.txt file:

017,NORM
001FORMAT(3D23.17)
003,ORDR,4=1,1,2,3,
080,B000, ,5= 0.0, 0.0,100007703
0.49837422321267177D+040.49869317927816728D+040.67812740300658106D+02
0.49794159350231557D+040.49846097107062114D+040.67878910415849163D+02
0.49776537255463436D+040.49836638683515694D+040.67878910415849163D+02
0.00000000000000000D+000.00000000000000000D+000.67878910415849163D+02
080,B001, ,5= 0.0, 0.0,100007703
0.49547870430138828D+040.50609582792710808D+040.65732765063426058D+02
0.49568466124033775D+040.50566385791095627D+040.65813697637536023D+02
0.49590731422961362D+040.50519860486242706D+040.66166417278662365D+02
0.00000000000000000D+000.00000000000000000D+000.66166417278662365D+02
080,B002, ,5= 0.0, 0.0,100007703
0.49512690401388672D+040.50511415069123086D+040.65929156188998277D+02
0.49550570526746833D+040.50527709423329316D+040.65901904671221885D+02
0.49558844990824973D+040.50510189197858554D+040.65944131344513437D+02
0.49520964865466813D+040.50493894843652324D+040.65971382851789116D+02
0.49512690401388672D+040.50511415069123086D+040.65929156188998277D+02
0.00000000000000000D+000.00000000000000000D+000.65929156188998277D+02
080,B003, ,5= 0.0, 0.0,100007703
0.49547896016676204D+040.50609597659579667D+04-.99900000000000000D+03
0.49605844595099497D+040.50638011225230885D+04-.99900000000000000D+03
0.49683981386075220D+040.50676027706360901D+04-.99900000000000000D+03
0.00000000000000000D+000.00000000000000000D+00-.99900000000000000D+03

Regards
Mr S

Anssi

Mr S,

It seems to me that Didier's script expects commas as the break symbol and uses a dot as a decimal symbol. Your file has some other method of distinguishing the x, y, and z coordinates, represented, perhaps, by the characters D+0. You might try opening the survey file with Notepad, and replacing all "D+0" s with commas. Maybe all the lines that clearly don't represent 3D coordinates should be deleted too.

Just a suggestion

Anssi

Edit: now that I look at it closer, I am not so sure about how the format could be figured out... Maybe you could ask the supplier.

GreyHead

It looks to me as though these lines parse into three numbers: so

0.49837422321267177D+040.49869317927816728D+040.67812740300658106D+02

becomes

0.49837422321267177D+04 0.49869317927816728D+04 0.67812740300658106D+02

The data in the elevation file looks like this (from a random point):

4968388, 4982342, 0

add back in the elevation for this point and you get

4968388, 4982342, 68.0

These are like the numbers from the data file so maybe the D+02 is an exponent (a decimal scaling factor). If so then the data file now reads:

4983.7422321267177, 4986.9317927816728 67.812740300658106

Roughly scaling off a building it looks as though these are in units of meters or thereabouts.

I pulled out the valid points (those with three non-zero entries) and parsed them into this format in a text editor. The result is in the attached data file which will import into SketchUp with Didier's cloud script. The result is not exciting - there are eleven almost coplanar points - but looks OK.

Bob

elevations.txt

Gaieus

Seems to be logical (though I'm not sure about them).
Now can you make an automated way for doing this with all those thousands of points?

Didier Bur

Hi,
Cloud script assumes that ALL lines of the input file are formatted identical, from line 1 to end line, no matter the delimiter.
So the first line of your file "017,NORM" even if it has a comma delimiter, doesn't have 3 data (x,y, and z) in it.
Sorry but I didn't coded the script as to parse what is a line of 3D coordinates and what isn't...

GreyHead

Hi,

I don't think that it would be too difficult to clean the script into a form that would be usable by Didier's cloud script - for the short sample I just deleted the lines that weren't xyz co-ordinates. For thousands of lines there are a couple of approaches. Manually I'd probably sort the list (the sequence isn't important), then delete the blocks of junk; import into Excel and parse the lines into three columns, do a couple more sort and deletes and that's it.

If the sequence were important, or this were a frequent task then a tool like TextPipe Pro will chew through it.

Bob

PS If someone can send me the full data file, I'll happily give it a go.

Gaieus

I doubt the sequence is important since Didier's sript interprets every line separately and it's all the same which order they are put into the model - the final result will be the same.

Mr S

I think I will give my brain a rest and learn how to read and write in Sanskrit.
Visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit.
Looks a lot easier to me.

Regards
Mr S

boofredlay

If you want to upload the dwg here just put it in a zip folder, or put .rb on the end. Then just tell us you did so and to remove the .rb before opening.

russellbeta

Just found this:

Name: Simplify Contours
Description: Often the site contour data generated by the surveyor is quite dense (more than 5,000 edges). Attempting to generate a surface using the Sandbox From Contours tool may take a very long time. To speed up the process, you may simplify the contours using the SimplifyContours.rb Ruby script.

only problem is, The download doesnt work. am having a hard time finding a working one... anyone have an idea?

Gaieus

Where did you try? At the sketchup.google.com site or elsewhere? You may try it in the Ruby Library Depot - I believe Didier has collected all "freebies" from the web.