Building Elevations - Some have them others don't

[BrianHailey]

I have a dataset for some buildings and the dataset has an elevation field. Unfortunately, not all of the entries have an elevation. If I tell AIM to use that field for the height of the building, any building that has a zero for the field ends up being a roof on the ground. How can I use that elevation if it's available and then use a default elevation if one isn't available?

Thanks!

[konstantin_baumann · Accepted solution]

I would recommend the following steps:

1. Import your buildings with the "elevation" field mapped (as you already did)
2. select a building with such a "zero height" field and show the feature properties for that building
3. right-click on the "zero height" property and select "select equal" from the context menu
4. now all buildings with "zero" height are selected and you can change the height value to another "default" one
5. press "update" at the top of the "properties" inspector to commit the changed values to the DB
6. the model will regenerated with the new set height values

[BrianHailey]

Select Equal, how awesome is that!? That's almost as cool as the AutoCAD Select Similar (ok, perhaps cooler).

Problem I'm seeing now is after changing the values, the display doesn't change (yes I updated them). If I select an individual building that had a height of 0, it shows the height that I changed it to but the roof is still on the ground. If I select a building and then grab the grip and raise it way up in the air, several of the 0 height buildings will update but not all of them. Any suggestions?

If you didn't follow what I said, here's a video showing what I've done. http://screencast.com/t/K1bXaT44Iw 

p.s. I'll probably be asking a lot of questions as I'm doing a lab at AU on this software. Go figure, huh? They picked my AIM class and none of the C3D classes that I know like the back of my hand. Well, after AU I should be an expert!

[konstantin_baumann]

If for whatever reason not all features get refreshed/regenerated in the 3D scene, you can always force a "regenerate operation" by pressing "F5"... 

[konstantin_baumann]

And BTW: you could also take advantage of the JavaScript scripting functionality during data import:

1. start the data import wizard by selecting a vector data source (e.g. building foot prints)
2. select the data type (e.g., "Buildings")
3. switch to the "Script" tab
4. press the "edit" button
5. use something like the following script:

function Process(SOURCE, BUILDINGS) {
    var height = SOURCE["ROOF_ELEV"] - SOURCE["GRND_ELEV"];
    if(height <= 0.0) {
        height = 30.0;
        BUILDINGS.TAG = "strange";
    }
 
    BUILDINGS.EXTERNAL_ID = SOURCE["FeatId"];
    BUILDINGS.ROOF_HEIGHT = height;
    BUILDINGS.ROOF_SLOPE = 33;
    BUILDINGS.RULE_STYLE = "Facade/Brick/Biron";
 
    return true;
}

 And you can find out the "strange" buildings by looking at or filtering the "TAG" property of the buildings...

[BrianHailey]

F5 did the trick. Thanks!

Also, do you know where I can find more information on the format/language/whatever for using the scripts?

[konstantin_baumann]

The scripts are using JavaScript.

This page would be a good starting point: http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Infrastructure_Modeler/enu/2013/Help/0000-User_s_G0/0024-Procedur24/003... right now there isn't much information available, but since this is a Wiki, you should also be able to contribute and improve on the available knowledge... 🙂