Ground Wireframe

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am very new to using AutoCAD Civil 3D. I understand you can create a TIN surface which uses a whole load of triangles. Iv created them using points but Im finding that there is too much triangles involved and is slowing everything down on my computer and eventually just crashing all together. Iv been trying to get it so rather then aload of small triangles just have squares like a surface or mesh in standard AutoCAD but cant seem to find a method. Iv searched a lot online and came across converting to a surface but that just ends up crashing everytime I try it.

Im just wondering is it possible in civil 3d to create a ground surface that looks like the image iv attached either from points or contour lines? Is there a software that can do this?

Thanks

Shane

[Todd_Rogers]

If you want to see the TIN lines in a surface you need to turn them on.  Click on one of your contours, right-click, and choose Edit Surface Style.  On the Display tab, toggle on Triangles.

You can also use the option LEVELOFDETAIL to cut down on surfaces eating up your resources.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Shane, welcome to Civil 3D.  For as frustating as it may sometimes be, it's an incredibly useful piece of software.  Let me try to offer some of what I've learned in working with the program - hopefully that can answer some of your questions...

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@Anonymous wrote:

I understand you can create a TIN surface which uses a whole load of triangles. Iv created them using points but Im finding that there is too much triangles involved and is slowing everything down on my computer and eventually just crashing all together. Iv been trying to get it so rather then aload of small triangles just have squares like a surface or mesh in standard AutoCAD but cant seem to find a method. 

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If you are creating a surface in Civil 3D, the short answer to this is no.  All surfaces are generated using the TIN (triangular irregular network) method.  There's lots of information on the web that will delve into the methodology if you're interested, but the software uses it to interpolate what happens between points on your surface.  You can modify which points are connected by the TIN lines, but they will always be triangles.  Put another way, a triangle will always have a flat planar face regardless of the elevations of the 3 points - Civil 3D uses this plane to interpolate the elevations within the triangle.  A square with four different elevations...could be doing anything in the middle - the program wasn't designed to work with those constraints.

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Im just wondering is it possible in civil 3d to create a ground surface that looks like the image iv attached either from points or contour lines? Is there a software that can do this?

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Again, the short answer is no.  Your image appears to be a mesh sphere.  In Civil 3D, surfaces may only have one elevation (z-value) for any location in the X, Y plane.  That said, two surfaces would be used to model this sphere of any similar object.  Using this method facilitates the program being able to perform other functions (i.e. volume calculations between surfaces, etc.).

If you're finding that your computer is slowing down or crashing due to the number of TIN lines created when generating a surface, there could be a number of methods to try.  Many of which have been posted in the forums in the past and on other websites.  To name a few - look into what your computer specs are vs what is recommended; is hardware acceleration on/off; are there points that have multiple elevations assigned to them; what is the size of the surface you're creating - perhaps look into creating smaller surfaces or removing unnecessarily dense information/points.

Hope this helps...

[neilyj666]

Also, as @bfontes has alluded to, be aware the surfaces in Civil 3D and surfaces in Vanilla AutoCAD are totally different in all but name and and are not directly interchangeable.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your replies. They where helpful indeed. Il eventually get used to the look of these triangles as seen as the mesh cant be created out of it, just gotta rap my mind around what im actually viewing haha.

Thanks again and for the warm welcome 🙂