Site model From TIN

[Steve Riddle]

I nearly always get 3d site data from Engineers and Surveyors as a TIN surface as well as 3d contours, both are converted to 3d polygons via dwg import.

 

The TIN surface file is survey /design accurate from the engineers while the 3d contours are only as accurate as the contour spacing.

 

It would be amazing to have a 1 step process to quickly convert these surfaces into an editable site model without having to convert to 3d loci first then clean up the data into something the site model tool can use. From what I can tell the site model then re-creates its own version of the TIN from the converted source data. In my experience I have found this process creates anomalies in the file, and rarely do I get the site model surface to match the Engineers/Surveyors TIN.

 

It is also very common for these surfaces to contain a lot of polygons and vectorworks struggles to Navigate these files, any improvements to this would be very welcome. 

[Tom W.]

On 6/16/2021 at 1:48 AM, Steve Riddle said:

It would be amazing to have a 1 step process to quickly convert these surfaces into an editable site model without having to convert to 3d loci first then clean up the data into something the site model tool can use.

 

@Steve Riddle can you explain a bit more what you mean: isn't converting a TIN mesh (3D Polys) into a Site Model is a one step process already? What cleaning-up are you having to do?

[AlanW]

@Steve RiddleHi, Have your  surveyor provide you with a .csv file. this data is the rl and eastings and northings from their survey data. They may need to change the file extension to .xyz or zip it up as the computer doesn't like to send program files.

 

So it opens as an excel file and you may have to delete a few columns, the first one is usually numbered points 1-???, delete any that don't match the 3 columns see attached.

then you go to AEC/ Survey import and import survey data, select the .csv file and you will get a whole bunch of 3d nodes, select all and create a site model and you should get a site model.

HTH

Edited June 18, 2021 by AlanW

[Steve Riddle]

Having looked into it further I found that the TIN files imported, but in some files were too complex for vectorworks to convert and navigate effectively .

 

A workaround was to import the engineers strings as 3d poly modifiers over a base survey TIN.

 

Not a fast process as requied some conversion, but the finished model was workable this way.

 

I think what would be helpful in instances such as this is for VW to include a tool where the user can clip and adjust the polygon count of the TIN before converting to a site model