Ski lift modelling

[ralstogj]

Hi

I am trying to model a proposed ski chair lift that has various height towers 6 to 18 m. I am looking for the best way to model the varying heights. I have a block for the towers one way I through of doing it is to separate the foundation and head of the tower into two separate parts and then modelling the column of the tower with a pipe connector. If I do this I still want an automatic way to get the foundation height and height of column correct I was hoping that this could be done with a script but can not find and examples of actually setting a foundation level and object height on the net. I would of through setting building levels to a know floor level is something people want to do allot. I am not sure if this is the correct way about getting the towers correct so any other suggestions accepted. I have 80 towers to model so and automated process would be best.

Justin Ralston

[elliott.rosenfeld]

what file format are your ski lift towers? (assuming that you are importing them?)

[ralstogj]

Elliott

The manufacturer supplied the towers and cabins as sketchup .skp files originally. I have converted to .dae files in Sketchup and re exported. I have also imported the sketchup files into Autocad with the sketchup import addon tool from apps exchange so could export from there as another format if need be. I also received some of the terminal buildings as .x_t files which I had to use fusion 360 to convert to .iges files and then import into Civil3d with the igesimport command and then export as .fbx files to get into Infraworks so just about have every file format covered.

For now to get the tower in the correct x,y locations I created points in Civil3d that I then converted to blocks and exported as a .sdf file and imported into Infraworks. In infraworks I then used a script I read about for swappping blocks to cars in DAVID GARRIGUES AU class CV7237-P: InfraWorks: Caffeinated Sites Are So Ex-SITE-ing. I still have to revise the rotation of the towers to the correct orientation of the cable run but should be able to do with a script as David does for the cars hopefully. But not sure about seting the tower base elevation correct with a script if I have that data stored in the Civil3d blocks.

To model the cables I have tried doing with pipes from Civil3d and then importing but they seem to drape to the ground so am going to try a 3dpolyline exported from Civil3d and imported into Infraworks as pipes.

Below are a copy of images of where I am to date.

Thinking more about the building floor levels this is important in flood plain modelling so surely there is away to get a building floor level from a shp file or sdf file and apply to a building of 3d model. If not this should be on the wishlist.

Regards

Justin

[elliott.rosenfeld]

Hi Justin,

So here are a few thoughts (and nice work already!)

1) tower heights:

I am not certain if this will do it, but I have a few scripts that coulllld possibly help you out here:

• Assign roof heights based on an area property that uses square meters: 

  Assuming that you have an attribute with the square meters in your building file you can map the desired area property to a field in the Table tab of the Data Source Configuration dialog box. 

  Note: alter the Roof Height values to customize how the script is applied.

  For example, map the area property to the "ROTATE_X" model property, then replace 

  BUILDINGS.ROOF_HEIGHT = xx;

  with:

  if( BUILDINGS.MODEL_ROTATE_X <= 100)

  {BUILDINGS.ROOF_HEIGHT = 10;

  }

  else if( BUILDINGS.MODEL_ROTATE_X >100 && BUILDINGS.MODEL_ROTATE_X <= 200)

  { BUILDINGS.ROOF_HEIGHT = 20;

  }

  else

  BUILDINGS.ROOF_HEIGHT = 30;

• If you have a floor height property, you could possibly build an expression:

Concatenate (combine) properties in the original data store to map to properties in the model.

• • For example, the model has a property called ROOF_HEIGHT, but the original data source for your buildings only contains values for the FLOOR_HEIGHT and FLOORS properties. To concatenate the FLOOR_HEIGHT and FLOORS properties into a single ROOF_HEIGHT property:
  1. Open the Data Sources panel and double click the desired Buildings data to configure it.
  2. Click the Common or Table tab, then click in the Roof Height field to open the Expression Editor.
  3. Create the following expression for the ROOF_HEIGHT property: FLOOR_HEIGHT * FLOORS and click OK.

2) Lift Lines

I would recommend using extruded SDF profiles via the Custom Profiles tool (as part of a road or railway style).

Here's some more information on that: http://help.autodesk.com/view/INFMDR/2016/ENU/?guid=GUID-D22FACFA-529C-4C8A-9CB5-5A91AF0BEB3F 

If you were to alter the visibility of the tracks in a road or railway style, you could basically create elevated custom profiles above an invisible roadway, and match the height to the height of your towers.

To create the 2D SDF polylines that will represent your ski lift lines, you could create a very short line or a small square (in AutoCAD) and save as SDF, then use that as a custom profile in your road or railway style.

[elliott.rosenfeld]

Oh one more thought.. This won't get you the Floor Levels you're looking for, but it can calculate the area of the 2D footprint.. (i.e. floor area):

In expression editor, calculate floor area with this expression:

SOURCE["Geometry"].Area2d;

Note that the result is signed (depending on the source polygon orientation you get a negative or a positive number).

[ralstogj · Accepted solution]

All

At this stage to get the job done I used 3d polylines exported with mapexport as the cables and as per my first thoughts separated the tower into three sections. Foundation, tower top and column the column is modelled as structures in Civil3d and then exported out to a .sdf file. I briefly tried modelling the tower as a building and stretching int he vertical but this seemed to scale them in all three directions making them in correct in the x,y planebut correct in the z plane.

Regards

Justin Ralston