topic Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping in Fusion Design, Validate & Document Forum

Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

ea425019 — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 01:14:45 GMT

So while F360 may not be designed for this, any ideas as to how best to implement this plan? The application is a preliminary assessment of solar cell geometries on a piece of land.

I took waypoints matched to a barometric altimeter for a rectangular plot.

I wish to make a 3d model that appears contoured to the land relative to a flat plane.

I am guessing I can set each waypoint as a cylinder at height. Then loft between them. Is this wise, or anything else seem right? Photo below shows the waypoints, altitudes are recorded but not shown.

Thanks.

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

davebYYPCU — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 02:52:46 GMT

Plot the heights, use spline curves in a layout sketch, use move to lift each spline to height, then see if loft can manage the actual data.

Might help...

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

jodok.schaeffler — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 12:43:28 GMT

I have the exactly same situation: model terrain from a surveyors data. The spline and loft method did not work for me, I always got error messages - either the loft intersecting with itself, or that there were problems with one or more points of the profiles.

How can I model a terrain from height data as is shown here?

Thanks

Jodok

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

davebYYPCU — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 16:19:57 GMT

Are you referring to the original pic in this thread, or something you have but has not turned up in your post?

To be a little clearer, I would have a sketch plane for each layer of height,

project only the points for that height, connect the dots with splines.

If the Loft is not working, Extrude in layers, it may become clearer why the data is self intersecting.

Always easier for us to speak to the data in your file, than speak in abstract terms.

Might help....

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

jodok.schaeffler — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 11:35:05 GMT

I am actually replying to the same type of picture, that's why I did not upload my picture.

You see my picture below.

What I am trying is to define the terrain based on the elevation information in below map.

I would like to use this as an object in a model of the house to be built on this parcel.

The map only shows elevation information in the points that were measured in the field.

I would like to define a terrain that smoothes between these measured points.

The measured points have a defined height, everything in between should be a 3D spline area.

I would like to use Fusion 360 to interpolate between the measured points as described and define

a terrain surface that includes all the measured points.

How do I do this best?

I am also using Twinmotion from Epic Games for visualization.

I would like to export the object that was built in Fusion 360 in a format

that can be imported by Twinmodtion as a 'Landscape'.

This can be

- Heightmaps (.r16, .png)

- Points (.txt, .xyz)

- Meshes (.skp, .fbx, .obj, .c4d)

What would be the best format here, considering that the data volume is limited.

At most you would look at the number of measured points in the high tens.

Thanks for your help!

Jodok

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

davebYYPCU — Sun, 14 Jun 2020 21:23:54 GMT

Once you have your model of those formats listed, you can Export it as obj.

Might help.

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

jodok.schaeffler — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 04:55:43 GMT

Thank you for answering the question on the file format.

However, before I can export the object, I have to create it.

your initial proposal was to use a sketch plane for every height value and create individual height lines for these height values..

in my case there would be several of these sketch planes with only one or two height points in it. I have not tried, but I assume this would not be useful for the loft command.

Could you give me a step by step instruction for creating a mesh between these height points and then converting this mesh into a freeborn object?

Or is there another way to achieve the desired landscape shape?

Best

Jodok

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

jodok.schaeffler — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 04:58:03 GMT

... ‚freeforn object‘... instead of ‚freeborn object‘

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

davebYYPCU — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 09:33:36 GMT

Cant read the height levels - so made them up.

Draw your block outline, and then add construction planes, for the levels you want to sketch on.

Project > Project, the block edges to use and plan points, for the height you are currently working on. Connect the dots with a spline, making sure the spline overlaps the block outline.

Plane and sketch for each layer.

Then Extrude the sketch profile, to the next layer. Repeat.

When you have the layer cake, you change to Surface, > Loft and select the extrude edges (not the sketch lines, because they have to overlap the block.

If you have tight curvature between the contours the loft may fail, these curves worked out ok, but as you see, the colour highlights the areas that may show up with your set of numbers.

Demo file attached, step up the timeline,

Might help...

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

wmhazzard — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 13:45:02 GMT

If you are going to 3d print your landscape, have you looked at this? http://jthatch.com/Terrain2STL/

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

jodok.schaeffler — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 07:57:55 GMT

Thank you again for your help, and sorry for my late response.

Your proposal makes sense, and appreciate your input.

However, the challenge in my case is that the number and distribution of

height measurement points is not very supportive for your proposed method of

creating "lines of equal height".

To demonstrate what I mean by that I attached a f3d file that holds all height measurement points

as 3D sketch points.

I also included a txt file that holds all 3D points in XYZ coordinate format.

If you could help me to find a good way to generate a terrain surface based on these sketch points

I would greatly appreciate.

With best regards

Jodok Schaeffler

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

davebYYPCU — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 09:11:42 GMT

My idea to do Z level sketches need lots of searching and then save small csv file for each height level you wish to do.

I sorted your file to do this and find not enough level points that are common except water level.

So you see I don't know how far to delete points from this list that you want to use.

So 26 points on 395000 is ok, but one point for 397214, means should be deleted. I hope you see the problem....

Might help..

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

jodok.schaeffler — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 19:24:56 GMT

Yes, I see your point.

How about the following approach:
- Take the xyz points to define a mesh with exactly these points as vertices
- convert this mesh into a NURBS surface
- use this surface as terrain

I tried this, but the process requires software like meshlab in addition to Fusion 360 and is not simple.
Do you know any approach that would be less complex?

Regards

Jodok

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

davebYYPCU — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 22:16:20 GMT

I can’t help with a Mesh style workflow.

My overly simplified workaround was as I have already mentioned, find the common Z level points, import them to a planar sketch and approximate the layer cake with extrusions, until you see what you got, you can’t know if the surface tools will take the last step.

Sorry about that....

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

jodok.schaeffler — Sun, 25 Oct 2020 21:22:22 GMT

How can I convert this model, based extruded layers, into a surface?

Using the LOFT command does not work, as the geometry of the landscape generates error messages with the loft command.

Any help appreciated.

Jodok Schaeffler

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

davebYYPCU — Sun, 25 Oct 2020 23:07:54 GMT

Curves are not suitable for Fusion loft, undercuts and details are not smooth enough, got the top 3 hills but others will not form. I don't know any other tricks, @TrippyLighting would be the guy to ask about Blender and other software.

Re: Digital Elevation Model, terrain mapping

TrippyLighting — Sun, 25 Oct 2020 23:20:00 GMT

I would not know how to do this with Blender. This is specific to surveying and I am sure there are specific software packages available for that purpose. Fusion 360 or other generic 3D CAD packages are not the software category that is usually used for this.

Because AutoCAD has been used so long for Architecture I would not be surprised if there is a plugin available that allows doing this.