Creating a Basic 3D Site Topo

[C W]

I'm working on a plan who's site topography is rather level with the exception of a curved burm and one area with a grade change of a few feet. I've tried working with the Create Terrain tool but am wondering if a simpler/better approach would be to use NURBS and specifically the Loft Surface tool. Any input on approaching this is much appreciated. Thanks.

[Chad McNeely]

My choice would be to create a DTM. Reasonable edit interface, labels, sometimes passable contours, texture pads, are all pluses. Negs are occasional non-usable contours, occasional edge weirdness, and occasional inconsistent or irrational geometry.

Which method are you more familiar with, and which will be more useful to learn for your future projects?

[islandmon]

No matter how you slice it .. data will be required to define the surface discontinuities... it's a "finess issue" .

Try creating a quick 3d vertex Grid ( the grid should match the contour spacing) by duplicate array of a Z value baseline 3d vertex ... then use the OIP ... raise or lower the selected vertices Z values... as required. Once you have the 3d vertices set to the correct elevations ... run the DTM procedure.

[C W]

Thanks guys. And I actually am happy to spend some time uploading some data, but I think I'm missing some of the basic concepts here. I just read the thread in the Landmark discussion area with islandmon discussing something similar and it seems relatively easy but it's not working out for me.

[Jonathan Pickup]

you can create a site model type object by using NURBS, bUT then you loose the site model functions like send to surface (which is very useful).

Site models are easy enough to make, you can place stake objects in plan and then use those to make a site model, you can trace over a scanned image and use that...

if you have my Architect Tutorial Manual you will find instructions on making a site model.

[C W]

Thanks Jonathan. I actually spent the past hour working on my site model and had a few breakthroughs so I'm feeling better about things. I have the tutorials as well... must of skipped that chapter but I'll checkout later today.