Fixing an existing topography map help

Hello all, I have a topography map that came from a former student that was done in autocad. I transferred it to rhino and now but there is an issue with the topo lines themselfs, The lines are broken and split, some dont fully connect because their elevation mark is inbetween the lines. I was wondering if there was an easy way to rebuild and connect the curves. Then after that if the data is lined up perfectly is there a smooth way to surface all of them together making a nice topography map?

Below is 2 images to explain the problem and the rhino file,

Thank you,

Patrick Losure.

Attachments:

Topography.JPG, 292 KB
Problem.JPG, 177 KB
Topo.3dm, 2.4 MB

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Hannes Löschke on April 6, 2013 at 4:13pm

Since your topo lines have z coorinates, you might have a chance.

Group all curves by z coodinate, connect all endpoints on each level and cull all lines longer than a given length (the cutout for the numbers). Proximity components should do just that.

This isn't 100% foolproof but should work for most cases.

Permalink Reply by alex jenter on April 6, 2013 at 4:15pm

this helps a little... first join as many curves as possible, find start and endpoints, sort them by height, run a proximity... you will still have some unwanted curves, but for a first pitch this will get you somewere

Best

Alex

Attachments:

topo.gh, 57 KB

Permalink Reply by Patrick Losure on April 6, 2013 at 4:56pm

Thanks for the responses, Alex I appreciate the start. I have never used the the Dcon, Mindex, or the Prox component yet so Im trying to break down the logic in it so I can advance it into surfaces.

Permalink Reply by Mateusz Zwierzycki on April 6, 2013 at 6:22pm

1. Divide all curves with "divide length", use "delaunay mesh". The resulting mesh :

2. If you want to take this mesh and convert it to surface, the fastest would be to render Z depth channel (some rendering software), and then use it to generate "heightfield" surface in rhino.

Permalink Reply by Diego G on April 6, 2013 at 6:56pm

I would second the delaunary mesh suggestion. In my personal experience it is the best way to create a topography from topography lines, which tend to be quite messy and disrupt the surface generating components.

Also, even after running the line cleaning scripts you would still need to spend a considerable amount of time cleaning manually those lines.

My suggestion is to use the cleaning scripts, bake the new geometry and in real time modify the lines while watching the delaunary mesh output until you get to a good enough result for the scale of your project.

Hope it helps.

Permalink Reply by Patrick Losure on April 7, 2013 at 1:11pm

Where do you find these line clean up scripts at?

Permalink Reply by Diego G on April 7, 2013 at 6:01pm

Well I was talking about the definition posted by Alex Jenter and the tips of Hannes Löschke. let us know how you progress with the cleaning and the meshing.

Permalink Reply by David Stasiuk on April 7, 2013 at 1:47am

And if you want the to get back topo curves, then just section the resulting mesh/nurbs surface.

Permalink Reply by Mikel on April 7, 2013 at 4:17am

Rhinoterrain is a good plug-in to create meshes from contours or point clouds. It will create a Delauney mesh and the plug-in has commands to repair or make changes to the mesh. You can also make cross sections of the terrain. However you have to pay for it or use the evaluation version.

Alternatively you can use the plug-in Lands Design. I haven't got much experience with this plug-in myself but I think you can create surfaces and terrains from contours. And you can download it for free.

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