Creating a 3D Solid by using "LOFT"

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I have a terrain survey of an area, composed of:

POLYLINEs - contours with  co-planer points.

3D POLYLINEs - contours/breaklines with non co-planer points.

I want to create a single 3D Solid by using all of them. (So I can see and "feel" the topography of the area)

I read about "LOFT" command and tried to use it.

The problem is that in the list of "Objects That Can Be Used as Cross Sections"  - 3D POLYLINEs are not found.

Does anyone can help me with this? Is there another method of building a 3D Solid?

Also, another problem I have with "LOFT" is that some of the POLYLINES are open and some close,

and I understand that I can't use "LOFT" with both, only with one kind at a time.

Is there a way of solving this also?

* I use CIVIL3D 2007 (unfortunately...don't have a newer version)

Thanks a lot,

S_G_I

[antoniovinci]

Well, don't use LOFT but just create your surface by contours, then explode it down to 3Dfaces, then _EXTRUDE all.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Thank you very much for your help.

I changed the display settings so I can see the triangles, exploded this Tin surface and got 3D faces.

When I try to use "extrude", I'm asked to specify distance and direction.

However, all these 3D faces are already situated at their true location and I don't want to change it. (Also each one has a different height so I can't extrude more than one at a time).

I want to create a solid/smooth surface (with shadows to indicate hieghts) from these triangles.

What can I do?

Thanks again,

S_G_I

[Sinc]

In your Surface Style, turn on the "Elevations" in the "Display" tab.  You may also want to adjust the settings in your Surface Style -> Analysis -> Elevations, or go into your Surface Properties and adjust the ranges on the Anlysis tab there.

This should apply an appropriate color to each TIN triangle.

[antoniovinci]

---

S_G_I wrote:

all these 3D faces are already situated at their true location and I don't want to change it

---

You won't change anything, here's the step-by-step process.

Assuming you wanna solidify your surface for 250 drawing units in low direction:

1] _EXTRUDE

2] select your 3Dfaces

3] _D

4] 0,0,0

5] 0,0,-250

Since the extrusion involves a lot of memory consumption, first you would practice with a small subset of 3Dfaces.

[Anonymous]

Sinc and Antoniovinci,

Thank you very much for your explanations and advice.

I will try to do as you suggest.

S_G_I