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Create a TIN surface from a point cloud in Civil 3D, and then add elements to improve the surface quality.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
3 min.
Transcript
00:04
In Civil 3D, you can create a triangulated irregular network (TIN) surface from point cloud data.
00:11
Once the surface is created, Civil 3D also provides tools to improve the quality by adding elements to its definition.
00:21
Before you export your point cloud from ReCap Pro, it is helpful to isolate your ground points using Ground Classification.
00:30
Import the point cloud project into Civil 3D, and then, from the Home tab, Create Ground Data panel,
00:38
expand the Surfaces drop-down and select Create Surface From Point Cloud.
00:43
In the Create TIN Surface from Point Cloud wizard, on the General page, enter a Name and Style.
00:52
Click Next to switch to the Point Cloud Selection page.
00:55
From here, you can choose the distance between two points.
01:00
If you choose a small distance, the surface will be very precise, but heavier.
01:06
If you choose a larger distance, such as 10 meters in this example,
01:11
the surface will be lighter, but less precise compared to the point cloud.
01:16
Click Next to switch to the Non-Ground Point Filtering page.
01:21
Since this point cloud contains only ground points, you can select No Filter.
01:27
Click Create Surface.
01:30
In this example, the surface is created quickly,
01:34
since you chose 10 meters as the distance between two points.
01:38
Once the surface is created, it is possible to improve the surface quality by adding elements to its definition.
01:46
You can add boundaries, drawing objects, points, files, or breaklines.
01:54
In this example, these white lines are 3D polylines, extracted from Autodesk Docs.
02:01
Once added to the surface definition as breaklines,
02:05
new faces are created, and the surface is now a very accurate representation of the curve.
02:11
Here are some examples of using Civil 3D elevation tools that can be helpful when creating 3D entities from a surface
02:19
originally created from a point cloud:
02:22
You can create coordinate geometry (or COGO) points on the surface.
02:27
There are several ways to create Civil 3D points,
02:31
such as by getting the elevation of the surface, no matter where you place it.
02:36
You can move blocks or multi-view blocks.
02:39
This changes the elevation of the blocks and adds it to the surface elevation.
02:45
You can change the elevation of a feature line to stick it to the surface and insert intermediate breakpoints
02:51
where the feature line crosses an edge of the surface.
Video transcript
00:04
In Civil 3D, you can create a triangulated irregular network (TIN) surface from point cloud data.
00:11
Once the surface is created, Civil 3D also provides tools to improve the quality by adding elements to its definition.
00:21
Before you export your point cloud from ReCap Pro, it is helpful to isolate your ground points using Ground Classification.
00:30
Import the point cloud project into Civil 3D, and then, from the Home tab, Create Ground Data panel,
00:38
expand the Surfaces drop-down and select Create Surface From Point Cloud.
00:43
In the Create TIN Surface from Point Cloud wizard, on the General page, enter a Name and Style.
00:52
Click Next to switch to the Point Cloud Selection page.
00:55
From here, you can choose the distance between two points.
01:00
If you choose a small distance, the surface will be very precise, but heavier.
01:06
If you choose a larger distance, such as 10 meters in this example,
01:11
the surface will be lighter, but less precise compared to the point cloud.
01:16
Click Next to switch to the Non-Ground Point Filtering page.
01:21
Since this point cloud contains only ground points, you can select No Filter.
01:27
Click Create Surface.
01:30
In this example, the surface is created quickly,
01:34
since you chose 10 meters as the distance between two points.
01:38
Once the surface is created, it is possible to improve the surface quality by adding elements to its definition.
01:46
You can add boundaries, drawing objects, points, files, or breaklines.
01:54
In this example, these white lines are 3D polylines, extracted from Autodesk Docs.
02:01
Once added to the surface definition as breaklines,
02:05
new faces are created, and the surface is now a very accurate representation of the curve.
02:11
Here are some examples of using Civil 3D elevation tools that can be helpful when creating 3D entities from a surface
02:19
originally created from a point cloud:
02:22
You can create coordinate geometry (or COGO) points on the surface.
02:27
There are several ways to create Civil 3D points,
02:31
such as by getting the elevation of the surface, no matter where you place it.
02:36
You can move blocks or multi-view blocks.
02:39
This changes the elevation of the blocks and adds it to the surface elevation.
02:45
You can change the elevation of a feature line to stick it to the surface and insert intermediate breakpoints
02:51
where the feature line crosses an edge of the surface.
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