Skinning (rendering) topography maps.

Hello,

I'm not terribly familiar with 3D modeling - so here goes....

I have a topography map. The contours are each assigned a proper Z. So, if you were to change the views to say, NW oblique, you will see the topo/terrain in a kind of 3D. Close to a wire model, but none of the lines cross (as is a rule for topo lines).

I also have a high resolution aerial of the area.

Any pointers (even to further reading) on how I might render the aerial onto the topo? I was considering using Blender, but it has me thoroughly confused ATM.

Thanks for any help.

ACAD 2008

Have a look at this thread. Seems like we had covered that subject. You will need to use those contour lines to create a surface or solid (seems to be more cumbersome for a computer) first. Then you can drape the image on it (ie - use it as a material).

Have a look at this thread.

Search didn't get me to that...Hmmm

Well, it looks worth a try - I'll have to fugure out how to close the topo lines. They are already properly elevated, but there are 100's of them to close. And of course they came out of LD05, so there are some gaps that need to be joined.

Thanks...I'll give it a look.

You could export the contours (only) to a dxf and open in SiteTopo. When it asks if you want to use the lines as breaklines say yes. It will create a tin for you which you can then export 3d faces back out to .dxf and open in AutoCAD without having to worry about those gaps.

Not too sure how to lay the aerial imagery down on it at that point, but maybe some of the other's here might.

I am not familiar with SiteTopo. Is it free? I'm not cheap, just have no way to buy office software without writing up a justification report. I'm pretty sure if I can get a wire tin, I can render it. I may have to bug one of the ESRI users - but I could get it done. Thanks - I'll look at that too