Using contours to make a model??

Hi folks, Im a bit new to this so bare with me. I was told the best place to go was on the net so I'll try to explain my problem. Im looking to create a flythrough of a golf course. I already use a program called teramodel visualiser, but I've gone as far as I can go and its limited software. I have all of the contour plans drafted in Autocad 2007, with eastings, northings and elevations. Now when I import into 3ds max (2009) I can see all my lines but I cant seem to make it into a mesh, or a surface, they are just floating lines.

I have tried numerous turorials, but none of them seem relevant to my version of 3ds max. I was also told it would be better to do the model in autocad but I spent two days on it and it seems im going nowhere. Can anyone advise me the best way to convert my contours into a solid surface. Any hhelp would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Tom

Have you seen this tutorial: http://www.cadtutor.net/tutorials/3ds-max/creating-terrain-objects.php. It was written for Viz, but the procedure is basically the same for Studio Max.

Hi cad 64, thanks for the promp responce, yes I have seen this tutorial. And i thought I'd hit the jack pot. But I hit my first snag when it comes to clicking on "AEC Extended" - I dont not have a "Terrain" button, all I have is - Foliage, Railing and Wall to choose from.

I have a friend whos helping me with the texturing, adding trees, and rendering etc, but as hes a building architect he's never had to ues a lot of contours, as I am used to using, and were both struggling with it.

Any suggestions would be great.

Cheers

tom

I hit my first snag when it comes to clicking on "AEC Extended" - I dont not have a "Terrain" button, all I have is - Foliage, Railing and Wall to choose from.

Ah, ok, that's because it's not in the "AEC Extended", it's under "Compound Objects".

thanks a million, found it. This should keep me occupied.

Cheers mate

A couple of more questions if you've got the time. Thanks to your assistance I can import my plans, change the required areas into terrains, and apply textures and render a very basic model, with a background pic.

Im just wondering is there a way to pelete points off my terrains, and insert points? As I need to thin them out in areas.

Also do you know if any good grass tutorials, Ive seen threads discussing it, but I could find a good tutorial. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Diggers

Yes, you can add and remove vertices from splines.

To add a vertex to a spline, select the spline, right click and choose "Refine". Then just click on the spline in the area where you want the new vertex.

to remove a vertex from a spline, window select the vertex and hit Delete.

There used to be a really good grass tutorial online, but the website it was on is now gone. I've been toying with the idea of writing my own grass tutorial but have not had the time to do it. I guess I should probably stop procrastinating.

I agree, and since your title is super moderator, i really think you should has to come with the title lol

Just wondering, and excuse my lack of correct lingo, but when I delete a point from the terrain I seem to get a hole in the model so to speak, when you say splines do you mean the original contours I used, before making them into a terrain? as I am wondering if I can delete the points directly off the terrain. Or if there was a command to only allow one point withinh a certain distance of another?? Cheers again for your speedy replies, is this your forum??

Yes, when I say spline, I mean the contour line, not the terrain surface. Do you have points on your surface? Can you post a screenshot? Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to do.

No, it's not my forum. I just work here.

Cheers Cad64 I only have points on my surface, when I go to edit mesh, on the chosen terrain. I thought this was the way to modify my surface? but when I do this I notice theres tons of points, especially around the edges of the terrain. Am I doing something wrong here? I've attatched a screenshot.

Also to mention the file size is now at 50mb, do you think Im doing something wrong? thanks again for all your help.

No, it doesn't look like you're doing anything wrong. From what I can tell in the screenshot, that looks like a normal terrain mesh.

Cheers

And is it possible to reduce these points by deleting them? Because when I render the picture there seems to be a hole in the model, Ive attatchd a pic, I was also wondering if there was a command to take a delete points within certain parameters? Or a command to make the model smoother?? As you can see my sand edges are very triangular so to speak.

Thanks again for your help, any suggestions re more tutorials so that im not bothering all the time lol

If you delete a point, it will also delete the edges attached to that point and either create a hole or a flat spot on your mesh. The best thing to do is make sure your contours are simple, clean and continuous in Autocad, before you import them. If your contours have a lot of points on them, or breaks in the lines, this will cause your mesh to be more complicated and problematic in Max.

I haven't got time to create a contour map and play around with it right now, but there are controls in the Terrain modifier rollout that will allow you to adjust and simplify the mesh. And you should be able to smooth it with the Meshsmooth modifier. I don't know why you have a hole in the mesh though. I would need to have your file in front of me to figure that one out. It could be due to a problem with your CAD contours?

Try searching Google for Terrain tutorials:

http://www.google.com/#q=3ds+max+terrain+from+contour+splines&hl=en&sa=2&fp=c78e48b898b2787e

http://www.google.com/#q=3ds+max+terrain+compound+object&hl=en&sa=2&fp=c78e48b898b2787e

thanks mate, the hole in the mesh was caused by deleting that point. Cheers for your help.

Diggers