Accurate Terrain models
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I have been trying to nail this aspect down for years. Accurate terrain models. I work with 1 to 5 Acre projects and need to show how the buildings fit into the landscape, which at times may be very hilly. I have been using Google Earth but it is to general (even at its highest quality settings). Is there another way to get higher quality topos that show grades, rise and fall, slopes and even verticals, sinkhole...that kind of detail?
My second question is after I have this data, how do I convert it using sketchup. I'm not new to the program so you don't have to into great detail.
Thanks
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If you have digital info - say in a .csv file - you can use various scripts to manipulate this data into a 'cloud of points', and then 'triangulate' these points into a surface. This surface can be adjusted using the built-in Sandbox Tools. There are further scripts to manipulate the surface - such as 'drape cpoints' - which can then get triangulated back as a gridded mesh rather than a triangulated one and others to simplify, add contour lines etc... You can also make surfaces from 3D contours [Sandbox's add-on 'simplify-contours' will make it less intensive !] etc...
To import data from a file as a 'cloud of points' get http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubylibraryDepot/Ruby/em_fil_page.htm [cloud_v6.zip] - it supports various data format - see its pdf help file in the zip...
The script 'points_cloud_triangulation.rb' [which shows in the Plugins menu as 'Triangulate Points'] converts cpoints to a faced mesh - it's here... http://www.crai.archi.fr/RubyLibraryDepot/Ruby/points_cloud_triangulation.rb
Note that this script also requires 'delauney2.rb' - which you can get from here... http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=117071#p117071
'drape_cpoints.rb' makes a surface into a regular meshed set of cpoints that you can reprocess - http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=179421#p179421Hope this kicks you off in the right direction...
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