Importing data from *.asc (ncols, nrows, xllcorner, yllcorner, dx, dy and Z hight points)

[Piotr Karczewski]

Hi,
I'm trying to perform a terrain data file *.asc (Arc/Info ASCII grid) file to create terrain model.
I tried to perform a Grid Methody Entry, but it goes with typing manualy point after point.


It looks like this:


What should I do to transform it to Vectorworks friendly/understandable form?
any ideas?

[Jeff Prince]

That looks like a raster representation of a 3D surface.  Have you heard of DEM (digital elevation model)?  Basically they are grey scale images where the intensity of grey represents height.  GIS software can use that information to create a representative surface or hillshade effect.  I’m not sure if QGIS can import your file, but if it can, you could generate points or contours in there and export to a suitable format Vectorworks can understand.

 

alternatively, if you have information about where this property is, what the bounding corner coordinates are of this file, and some elevation information… it may be possible to process it within excel to convert the cell values to coordinates and elevation.  There may be an online converter somewhere that will geodetic the data if it is a DEM.

 

If you can’t make progress, feel free to PM me this weekend and I’ll see if I can help further.