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Convert a point cloud or DTM to a surface or solid


Tyke

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I have an ascii file of almost one million points and I can read that into Civil 3D 2011 as a point cloud. This can then be converted into a DTM. I can also read in the ascii file as points and form a DTM from them. The two DTMs are identical and I get so far without any problem. I do some work on the DTM and then I'm ready to finish off.

 

My target is to supply to the client with either a surface or for him preferably a solid, so that he can read that into his software (SolidWorks) and work on it further.

 

My problem is creating a surface or solid from the DTM. I've exported the TIN as 3D faces with no problems. Then I have tried to create a surface from the 3D faces. My computer wasn't finished after 10 hours of processing. So I thinned out the ascii data to 40000 points and repeated the whole process. I have then divided the area into 8 parcels and worked them up individually into surfaces, this takes around two hours processing time per parcel. I then combine the 8 parcels into a single surface. The resulting file size is 75 MB.

 

My questions are:

 

have I gone about this in totally the wrong way, is there a better, easier and quicker way.

 

how can I change this surface into a solid

 

how can I export the finished surface/solid

 

 

Any ideas would be gratefully accepted

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Interesting... This is the first time I've ever heard of anyone trying to use SolidWorks for Civil Engineering....

 

I've never used SolidWorks, and don't know what it's capable of, but my guess is that if it's really suitable for Civil Engineering, you should be able to give your client your TIN Triangles, and then let your client create the Surface in SolidWorks.

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The client is a model maker and in this job he's wanting to model a mountain with a castle on top. The data comes from airborne laser scanning and he wants to model it in SolidWorks (mainly used for solid modelling in the automotive and machine engineering industries, not intended at all for civil engineering) and then have the data that he generates exported in some other format to a machine that cuts the model out of a block at various scales. The guy does not want to get into the data manipulation, hence he called us and said that as we are surveyors that do laser scanning then we can sort it out for him (the easy stuff he can do himself)

 

I now know that Civil 3D can export a solid in a fomat that he can read, but I first need a solid. Also SolidWorks can't deal with a TIN or even a collection of 3D faces.

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Hope your running 64 bit with lots of memory Autocad is a bit nasty with 40,000 points etc dont blink.

 

Anyway why not export out a 3d contour file of plines the router will follow the path of the contours, how intense does the model need to be to give a good shape, will they be able to do a bit of hand smoothing ? Do the castle seperate from the surface.

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Nope, just 32 bit on XP Pro and certainly not enough memory (4GB and Windows only recognises 3GB). 40,000 points is the thinned out version, the full version has just short of 1,000,000 points.

 

I extracted the polylines as my first effort and sent him a DWG and DXF, as he said he could read DWG and DXF files. But it turns out SolidWorks can only 'reference' DWGs and DXFs, not rerad them in. So that failed.

 

He already has a model of the castle, which he wants to sit on top of the mountain when he's modelled it. The area is very steep with near vertical faces and he says he would like the full version ( link to photo: http://www.frohsinn-hagenbach.de/Alben/200907_Dresden/Dresden_Festung_Koenigstein.jpg)

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I would export out the 3dfaces of the model there must be a way of reading them into another bit of software or else cut out the middle man and create the CNC code for the cutter from autocad.

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