Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD - FAQs: Terrains ("Professional" edition only)

Introduction

• Objective of this section
  • To learn how to get 3D Points from elevation services, create 2D or 3D Contours and create Terrain 3D models

• Topics in this section
  • Obtain elevation 3D Points in the drawing from elevation services for any earth area
  • Create 2D or 3D Contours from 3D Points
  • Set Contour options such as density, colors, layers, labels, etc.
  • Create Terrains models from 3D Points and select object type for new Terrains (AutoCAD 2010 and upper)
  • Configure any 'Background Map' and related options to project and fit it on one or more Terrains (AutoCAD 2012 and upper)

Note: Some components in the images on this page (providers, names, windows look, etc.) may be slightly different from those that will appear on your computer

How can I get elevation 3D Points, create Contours or Terrain 3D models?

Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD includes the 'SPMTERRAIN' command that allows you to create Terrains and other related objects. Three options are available when this command is executed:

• 1 Elevations, which is a shortcut to get 3D Points on your drawing from Internet elevation providers in any earth area
• 2 Contour, which is a shortcut to create 2D or 3D Contours in your drawing from 3D Points. Below you can review the options available for this function
• 3 Terrain Wizard, which allow you to access the Terrain wizard in order to run one or more Terrain chained processes (Obtain elevation 3D Points, and/or create Contours, and/or create Terrain 3D models, and/or project any 'Background Map' to Terrains)

As you can see in the following image, these options are found on any application interface component ready to run separately

What are the contents of the different sections in the Terrain wizard?

The Spatial Manager™ for AutoCAD Terrain wizard includes three sections (see the image below):

• Source - Starting data. Select one of the following options:
  • Select points from drawing. Allows you to select any number of Points in your drawing in order to:
    • Create Contours (Polylines) for this point cloud, and/or
    • Create one Terrain 3D model (Mesh or Polyface) for this point cloud, and/or
    • Apply (project and fit) a Background Map texture to the Terrain
  • Elevations from online services. Allows you to define an rectangular area in your drawing for any earth location in order to:
    • Create a 3D Points grid from Internet elevation providers in the selected area
    • Create Contours (Polylines) for this point cloud, and/or
    • Create one Terrain 3D model (Mesh or Polyface) for this point cloud, and/or
    • Apply (project and fit) a Background Map texture to the Terrain
    • Notes:
      • You can choose the grid resolution in meters. Available values are proposed and limited according the resolution returned by the elevation service
      • The drawing must be geolocalized before using this option
  • Terrain. Allows you to select one or more Terrain 3D models in your drawing in order to:
    • Apply (project and fit) a Background Map texture to the Terrain(s)
• Processing options
  • Reduce points to evaluate
    • If you selected 3D Points in the previous section (from the drawing or by creating a grid), here you can reduce the number of points used in the calculation of objects in the next section (3D Points and/or Contours and/or Terrain)
    • A reduction of points will improve the speed of object generation but will result in objects with simpler geometry
  • Elevation exaggeration
    • This factor will multiply the resulting Z coordinates of objects calculated in the next section (3D Points and/or Contours and/or Terrain)
    • The exaggeration does not affect the numerical values that may result from the calculation, such as the elevation labels or the values in the elevation table of the contour lines (see next article)
  • Note: You will see at the top of this section the total number of objects currently selected
• Objects to create - Resulting objects. Depending on the option you have chosen in the first section, you will be able to select one or more of the objects to be created in the process
  • 3D Points
  • Contours. See the "Contour options" in the next article
  • Terrain. You can choose what AutoCAD 3D object will be used to create the Terrain 3D model
  • Apply map texture to terrain. You can select any available Background Map (preset or user-defined) whose images will be projected an fitted to one or more Terrains, as well the desired map resolution
    • Notes:'
      • If any Background Map is shown on the drawing, this will be automatically selected though you can select any other
      • The drawing must be saved before selecting this option. A "material" PNG image of the map will be saved in the same folder as the drawing

'Terrain' wizard window

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Creating Contours options