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SimuTerra How-To GuideTopicsGeneral Basics Import Export Objects Polys Entels Layers DTM Roads Views
Where else can I look for assistance? What version of SimuTerra does this How-To guide apply to, and when was it last modified? BASICS How do I select objects? How do I display the Info Panel? How do I change units of measure? How do I create a poly? How do I edit polys? IMPORT How do I import a road? EXPORT How can I export just the changes in the terrain? How can I export road extrusions? How can I export road footprints? How can I export contour lines? How can I export selected points? OBJECTS How do I display labels? How can I assign elevations to polys (e.g. contours) from a 2D source? How can I quickly change elevations with the mouse? How can I place (float) objects on the surface? How can I duplicate objects? How do I use snapping? How can I scale objects? POLYS How do I filter vertices out of polys? How do I join polys? ENTELS How do I adjust the size of an entel? LAYERS How do I work with layers? DTM How do I reduce the polygon count? How can I create a DTM from a SketchUp foam core model? How do I add to or modify a DTM which has already been created? How do I create a building pad? How do I work with the square grid? How do I work with contour labels? ROADS How do I create a road? How can I extrude a cross-section along a road, such as for pavement and curbs? VIEWS How can I get something to appear in a window?
Where else can I look for assistance? * FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). * Troubleshooting. * Movies. * Built-in help. * Help material on web site (same as built-in help). * Help tags (tool tips). * Status bar (in Windows version). (back to top) What version of SimuTerra does this How-To guide apply to, and when was it last modified? This How-To guide applies to SimuTerra version 1.1.20, which was released on May 17, 2005. The How-To guide was last modified on May 12, 2005. (back to top) BASICS How do I select objects? Typically you just click on the object in a 2D view. You cannot select an object in a 3D view. You can select any kind of object with the Selection Tool, which is the topmost tool (just an arrow) in the Tool Palette. You can use a specific selection tool, such as the Point Selection Tool, to limit your selection to a specific type of object. To select a DTM you can either use the general Selection Tool and click somewhere along the hull of the DTM, or use the DTM Selection Tool and click anywhere within the DTM. You can also do a marquee selection: press somewhere in white space, the drag diagonally. Whatever is within the rectangle which you outlined will be selected. Objects on layers which are uneditable cannot be selected, unless you make the layers editable. You can select from within the Layers window (Window > Layers). Select one or more layers, then click the Select Contents button. All objects within the selected layers will be selected (only works on those layers which are editable). And of course there's Edit > Select All, which will select all objects on all editable layers. (back to top) How do I display the Info Panel? You can select exactly one object, then choose Window > Info Panel. Or you can double-click with an appropriate selection tool on the object which you want displayed in the Info Panel. (back to top) How do I change units of measure? You can change the units of measure at any time, and you can do it selectively for different purposes. The data is always stored internally in metric units; the real-world values will not change as a result of your changing units of measure. That means that if you originally have a value of 10 feet, then switch to meters, that value will be displayed as approximately 3.05 meters. Switching back to feet will cause the value to be displayed as 10 feet. * Choose Doc > Units.... * Select the units for the various purposes. You can use the Feet button or the Meters button at the bottom left to set for multiple purposes at once, if those are the units you want. * Click OK. (back to top) How do I create a poly? * Bring a 2D window to the front. * Select the Poly Tool (a red zigzagged line) from the Tool Palette. * Click in the 2D window where you want to place the first vertex. * Repeatedly move the mouse to the next vertex, and click. * For an open poly, to place the last vertex, double-click. * For a closed poly, to end the creation, single click on the first vertex. * Select the Selection Tool so as to avoid inadvertently starting another poly. You can also terminate the creation of a poly by clicking on a tool in the Tool Palette. If you make a mistake while creating a poly, terminate the creation by double-clicking or by clicking on a tool in the Tool Palette. You can then choose Edit > Redo, or you can edit the poly which you created. (back to top) How do I edit polys? By keyboard, you can edit one poly at a time by opening the Info Panel for it, or you can edit one or more at a time by selecting them and choosing Poly > Edit Polys.... You can use the mouse to drag a poly in a 2D view. If you unlock a poly's vertices, then you can drag one vertex at a time. You can drag by using the Drag Tool (a green tool with a horizontal double-headed arrow), or by using the Selection Tool or the Poly Selection Tool. If you use the Raise Tool (a green tool with a vertical double-headed arrow), or hold down the Control key while using the Selection Tool or the Poly Selection Tool, then your up and down mouse movements will cause the selection (or the vertex) to rise and fall. (back to top) IMPORT How do I import a road? You can create the centerline of the road in a program which can export DXF. It may be easier to create the centerline in this fashion, or you may already have the road centerline in another file. In the other program... It is best if that program exports the road centerline as one contiguous POLYLINE or LWPOLYLINE, or as a LINE if it consists of only one segment. If one road is represented by multiple contiguous LINE entities, it will be more difficult to manipulate the road in SimuTerra. SimuTerra does not recognize bulges (arcs of circular curves) in polylines; it will assume a straight segment from one vertex to the next. If in the other program you have such curves, you should somehow emulate the curve with multiple straight segments. The entities in the DXF file should be at the top level, as opposed to being grouped or within blocks, components, or the like. So you may need to ungroup or explode the groups within the other program before exporting. In SimuTerra... You should know what linear unit of measure is used in the DXF file which you are about to import. If it is different than that which your SimuTerra document is set to, then you need to first change the units in SimuTerra. * Choose File > Import DXF.... * Find and select the DXF file. * Click Open. You can observe the progress as the file is read. When SimuTerra is done reading the file, you'll see the results dialog. * Take note of what's in the results dialog. If there is no results dialog, then nothing was recognized by SimuTerra, and nothing was created. If the number of vertices created is exactly twice the number of polys created, that means that every poly is composed of just one leg, with two endpoints, just like a straight line. This is often the case when reading a file exported by SketchUp. * Click OK or Close to dismiss the results dialog. Note that everything that you imported is now selected. In a DXF file, each entity is typically associated with a layer. Those layers were created in SimuTerra as the objects were being read. You can use the Layers window (Window > Layers) to make layers (actually, their contents) invisible or uneditable, for convenience. To make the imported poly(s) serve as a road, do the following. * Select the imported polys, if they aren't still selected. * Choose Poly > Edit Polys.... * In the popup menu/drop-down list near the top left corner of the dialog box, choose Road. * Place a checkmark in the checkbox to the left of the control which you just changed. * Click OK. Now the poly(s), when part of a DTM, will modify the terrain so as to create a road. (back to top) EXPORT How can I export just the changes in the terrain? Create both an Existing DTM and a Proposed DTM, where the Proposed DTM is created by using modifiers such as roads and building pads. Then choose File > Export DXF > Proposed Minus Existing.... The result will be a collection of triangular-shaped 3DFACE entities. (back to top) How can I export road extrusions? Select one or more roads, plus one or more closed polys which are to be extruded along the roads, plus one point which will indicate the position of the road centerline relative to the polys which are to be extruded. Then choose File > Export DXF > Road Extrusions.... The resulting DXF file will contain one group for each closed poly for each road. Each group consists of triangles. If there were three closed polys (such as pavement plus two curbs) extruded along two roads, there would be six groups in the file. Each closed poly which is to be extruded must have a constant Z value, meaning that it must be horizontal. The program will flip the poly up so that it is vertical for the purpose of extrusion. You can create the closed polys in SimuTerra, or import them from another program. If you import them from SketchUp, then you might end up with separate edges in SimuTerra, but you can use the poly join feature to create closed polys out of them. (back to top) How can I export road footprints? Select one or more roads, then choose File > Export DXF > Road Footprints.... For each selected road, the following five items will be exported: * Road centerline * Horizontal projection of road centerline (i.e. Z = 0.0) * Edge of pavement * Horizontal projection of edge of pavement (i.e. Z = 0.0) * Horizontal projection of daylight line (i.e. Z = 0.0) (back to top) How can I export contour lines? You can export 3D contour lines which are part of a DTM. You cannot export contour lines which are just polys which you imported into SimuTerra. * Open the Info Panel for the DTM. There are three overall columns in this Info Panel, for Existing, Proposed, and Cut & Fill. If you have a Proposed DTM, you will be looking at and making changes in the Proposed column; otherwise, it will be the Existing column. * If you want a different contour interval, enter it into the appropriate cell. * Place a checkmark in the checkbox in the row marked Contours, and in the column headed with "3D". * Close the Info Panel. * Choose File > Export DXF.... At this point, the DXF Export Entity Options dialog will appear. You can choose whether you want triangles and/or a square grid, or choose to have none of them if all you want is the contour lines. (back to top) How can I export selected points? Select one or more points, then choose File > Export Tabular.... Before exporting you can dictate certain parameters (such as which information to export) by choosing File > Import Tabular..., and making appropriate choices. Here are the details. * Choose File > Import Tabular.... * Set the parameters to match which fields and delimiter you want in the file you are exporting. The setting for number of lines to ignore is not used for exporting. * Click OK. The next dialog is for selecting and opening (importing) a file. You don't want to import right now, so... * Click Cancel. The above was just for setting which fields will be exported for each selected point, and whether a Tab or a comma will be used between fields. * Select the data points which you want to export. * Choose File > Export Tabular.... * Assign a name to the file; the .txt suffix will be added automatically. * Click Save. SimuTerra currently writes out a linefeed character at the end of each line of text; that is the Unix standard. On the Macintosh the standard is carriage return, and on Windows the standard is carriage return followed by line feed. We may change SimuTerra to export differently (probably to use the Windows standard). Notepad (on Windows) and AppleWorks are not happy to not find a carriage return, though various other programs, including SimuTerra, don't care. The same line ending issue is true with DXF files which SimuTerra exports, but we haven't heard of any problems in this regard. (back to top) OBJECTS How do I display labels? The answer depends in part upon which labels you want to display. For any one object, you can display it in the Info Panel, then click appropriate checkboxes so as to display what you want. For DTMs you can display a label for the DTM itself, and you can display contour labels. For all other objects, you can change the display for any number of objects of any one type by choosing the Edit... item from the appropriate menu (e.g. Point > Edit Points...). For a poly you can display one label for the entire poly, and/or one label for each of its vertices. (back to top) How can I assign elevations to polys (e.g. contours) from a 2D source? In short, you can select one or more polys at a time, and choose Object > Change Elevations.... But if you have many polys, and they are at a fairly regular interval, it might be easier and faster to do something like the following. * Select the Selection Tool from the Tool Palette. * Select all of the polys which are to have their elevations changed. * Choose Object > Change Elevations.... * Click on the To radio button. * Enter the desired elevation of the lowest of all the selected polys. * Click OK. That will set all of the selected polys to the elevation which you just entered. Next you will increment the elevations. * Shift-click on whichever polys are at their final desired elevation. This will deselect it/them; they are finished. * Choose Object > Change Elevations.... * Click on the By radio button. * Enter the elevation increment, such as 5 feet if you imported 5' contours. * Click OK. That will raise all of the selected polys by the increment. Now you can start moving more quickly through this process. * Shift-click on whichever polys are at their final desired elevation. * Press Command-E (Macintosh) or Control+E (Windows) (this is the same as choosing Object > Change Elevations...). * Press Enter. Keep repeating these last three steps until you've raised all of the polys. All of the above can be done either before or after a DTM is created. If you create the DTM first, you can see it "inflate" gradually (perhaps by opening a second window and displaying in 3D), but the generated contour lines might get in your way (you could suppress their display, however). (back to top) How can I quickly change elevations with the mouse? This works in conjunction with the Change Elevations... dialog box, in which you can choose either "By" or "To", and indicate a vertical amount to move the selected objects by or to. And it makes use of the Raise Tool from the Tool Palette. The method works in the same way on both points and polys, but these instructions will describe polys. There are various ways of using this feature. In this example you will begin with four polys at elevation zero, and you want them to end up with elevations 110, 120, 130, and 140. We'll call them A, B, C, and D, respectively, in this text. * Create four polys, each with an elevation of zero. * Select all four polys. So as to get some visual feedback as you do this, you could create a DTM, or you could display labels. In this example you will display labels. * Choose Poly > Edit Polys.... * In the Poly Label section at the bottom left of the dialog, click on the checkbox for Label until a black checkbox appears, and do likewise with the checkbox for Z. * Click OK. Now you should see a value of zero appear next to each poly. * Choose Object > Change Elevations.... * Click on the "To" radio button. * Enter a value of 110. * Click OK. The poly labels should now all show 110. That is the final desired elevation for poly A; they other polys still have to be bumped up. * Select the Raise Tool (vertical green line with arrowheads pointing up and down) from the Tool Palette. * Hold down the Shift key. * Click on poly A. * Release the Shift key. Since the Shift key was down when you clicked, poly A will now be deselected, while the other polys are still selected. * Choose Object > Change Elevations.... * Click on the "By" radio button. * Enter a value of 10. * Click OK. The poly labels of polys B, C, and D should now all show 120. That is the final desired elevation for poly B; polys C and D still have to be bumped up. * Hold down the Shift key. * Click on poly B. * Release the Shift key. Since the Shift key was down when you clicked, poly B will now be deselected, while polys C and D are still selected. * Hold down both the Shift key and the Option key (Macintosh), or the Shift key and the Alt key (Windows). * Click on poly C. Now the elevations of the selected polys (C and D) will be increased by 10. * Hold down the Shift key. * Click on poly C. * Release the Shift key. Since the Shift key was down when you clicked, poly C will now be deselected, while poly D is still selected. * Hold down both the Shift key and the Option key (Macintosh), or the Shift key and the Alt key (Windows). * Click on poly D. Now the elevation of the selected poly (D) will be increased by 10. * Select the Selection Tool from the Tool Palette. This is so as not to accidentally raise any objects. (back to top) How can I place (float) objects on the surface? This is called floating, and it works on points, polys, and entels. It will not work on a point or a poly which currently serves as data for a DTM. When you float a poly, only the vertices are raised or lowered; no new vertices are added, so the poly will typically not match the terrain exactly. A DTM must be present in the document in order to float objects. * Select one or more points, polys, and/or entels. * Choose Object > Float. (back to top) How can I duplicate objects? Select one or more objects, and choose Edit > Duplicate. The newly created duplicates will be at the same locations, so it may not appear as if anything has happened. The duplicates will be selected, instead of the objects which were selected before you issued the command, so you can now drag them, choose Object > Move..., choose Object > Move to Layer, or whatever else you may want to do. In order to duplicate a DTM, you must select both it and all of its data before choosing Edit > Duplicate. The duplicates are given different object numbers. One repercussion of this is that if you duplicate an entel which was following a poly, the duplicate entel will follow that same poly, and not a duplicate of that poly, unless you go in and explicitly tell the duplicate entel the object number of the new poly. (back to top) How do I use snapping? When you drag a point, poly, or poly vertex, it can be made to snap to an unselected point or poly vertex. Here are a couple of examples. * Select the Point Tool. * Create four points, forming an imaginary square. * Select the Poly Tool. * Create a poly by clicking somewhat near one of the points, then successively clicking near each of the other three points. * Click on the original vertex of the poly. This should terminate the creation of the poly, making it a closed poly. * Select the Selection Tool. This is so as to not inadvertently create another poly. * Double-click the poly so that the Info Panel appears. * Click on the checkbox labeled "Lock vtxs" so as to remove the checkmark. * Close the Info Panel. * Select the Drag Tool (horizontal green line with arrowheads) from the Tool Palette. * Drag one vertex of the poly onto the point which it is near. If you aim well, this will cause the vertex to snap to the exact horizontal location of the point. * Do the same with the other three vertices. * Select the Selection Tool. This snapping can be used to set precise horizontal values for vertices, because points can have their exact coordinates set with the Info Panel. (back to top) How can I scale objects? * Select the data (points and polys) which you want to scale. You may want to have some way to see the result of scaling. You could display labels for the data, display the data in a 3D window, create a DTM and look at contours, etc. * Choose Object > Scale.... * Click on the checkbox for the axis (or axes) which you want to scale (usually just Z). You can scale in multiple axes simultaneously. * Type the scale factor into the appropriate cell. If you type 1 (or 1.0, or 1.00, etc.) then no scaling will occur. If you type -1 (or -1.0, etc.) the values of all selected points and of all vertices of all selected polys will be multiplied by -1. If you type -10, the values will be multiplied by -10. * Click on the OK button in the dialog. You should see that the data has now been scaled. (back to top) POLYS How do I filter vertices out of polys? If you imported what appears to be one poly with many vertices, you may find that it's actually just a collection of individual polys situated end to end. This is typical in DXF files exported by SketchUp. In this case, you would need to join the polys before being able to filter; see the separate instructions for joining polys. Before filtering polys, you need to decide what threshold value to enter. This will be the largest distance that a poly is allowed to change relative to its original shape. It's as if you lay down the limit on either side of the original poly, and the poly is then not able to move outside of that limit. If the polys are from imported contour lines, you would typically look for the place where the polys are nearest to each other, which typically indicates a steep slope. Find the approximate distance between contours, and use half of that distance as the threshold value. This will ensure that the polys don't end up touching or crossing each other. Once you have determined what value to use, proceed as follows. * Select all of the polys which you want to filter. This may often be everything, in which case you can choose Edit > Select All. * Choose Poly > Filter.... * Enter the threshold value. * Click OK. An alert will appear indicating the number of vertices which were removed. (back to top) How do I join polys? Polys must abut each other exactly in order to be joined. Simply select the polys which you want to join, and choose Poly > Join. A message box will appear to declare the number of polys which were merged into other polys. (back to top) ENTELS How do I adjust the size of an entel? An entel is always displayed as a fixed-size icon in 2D views. In 3D views, the size can be adjusted by changing the "Scale size by" value in the Info Panel or in the dialog box which appears when you choose Entel > Edit Entels.... A scale factor of 1 makes the entel the "original" size. Built-in entels (people, dogs, cars, trees) are around their actual size in the real world. If you import a model to be used as a custom entel, the values in those models will be interpreted as meters. If they are in fact different, then you can use the scale factor to adjust. For instance, if the model is in inches, then the scale factor can be set to 0.0254 so as to bring it back down to the expected size. (back to top) LAYERS How do I work with layers? Each object "resides" in a layer, and you can always move objects to any layer. You use layers to control whether their objects are visible or invisible, and if they are editable or uneditable. All of this is done in the Layers window, which will appear if you choose Window > Layers. At any one time there is exactly one target layer. That is the layer that will contain any new objects which are created. The exception is that when you import from a DXF file, the imported entities typically have layers associated with them. If so, then the layers will be created if they do not yet exist. You can rename layers at any time; their names only have meaning to the user, not to the program. There are buttons in the Layers window for affecting multiple layers simultaneously. Layers are listed in their order of creation; they cannot be sorted in any other order. Here's a typical scenario. Let's say that you've started from a blank SimuTerra document, which has a layer named Layer0. Then you import a DXF file which contains multiple layers, including: * CONTOURS, which contains polys representing contour lines. * ROADS, which contains a poly representing the centerline of a road. * BUILDINGS, which contains polys representing building footprints. * ...and a bunch of other layers unrelated to SimuTerra's tasks. These layers will be created in SimuTerra. Let's say, however, that you want to delete all of the information other than contours and the road. * Start with a new, empty SimuTerra document. * Change units of measure, if necessary, to match those of the DXF file which you are about to import. * Choose File > Import DXF.... * Find the DXF file, and click Open. Now you should see the results dialog; observe the number of points, polys, and vertices (of the polys) which were created. * Click OK or Close to dismiss the dialog. Note that everything is selected. If at this point you were to try to create the DTM, there'd be a good chance of failure, since much of the selection doesn't represent the terrain or modifiers to the terrain. * Select the Selection Tool (the topmost tool, just an arrow) from the Tool Palette. * Click in white space in the 2D view so as to deselect everything. This will make everything easier to see. * Choose Window > Layers. To select all the layers, press Command-A (Macintosh) or click the Select All Layers button (Windows). To toggle a layer between being selected and not selected, click on it while holding down the Command (Macintosh) or Control (Windows) key. To extend a selection, hold down the Shift key when you click on a layer, and all layers in between will be selected as well. * Select all layers. * Deselect Layer0. Layer0 is the target layer. You cannot make the target layer invisible, or even uneditable. You can, however, change which layer is the target layer. * Click on the button at the bottom left corner of the Layers window. This will make all the selected layers invisible. If nothing is in Layer0, then nothing will be visible in the 2D window. From this state you can click on the Visible checkbox in the row of a layer in the Layers window, and that layer's contents will become visible. By doing this a number of times you can get an idea of what resides in which layer. At this point we'll delete all unwanted items and layers. This isn't necessary; there are various ways of doing this and of creating the desired end result. * In the Layers window, double-click on the name of Layer0 (you may need to double-click twice in order to select the text so that it can be edited). * Type DTM, and press Enter. The DTM, when created will go into this layer, because you will make it the target layer. The fact that you name the layer DTM doesn't by itself cause the DTM to go into it. You don't need to place the DTM in a separate layer, but it doesn't hurt either. * Make any layer the Target layer, but not one of the important three (DTM, CONTOURS, and ROADS). Do this by clicking on the Target checkbox (the rightmost of three) in the row of that layer. * Select the three layers DTM, CONTOURS, and ROADS. * Click the Make Invisible button at the bottom left corner, so that all the selected layers will become invisible. * Click in the 2D window to activate it. * Choose Edit > Select All. All contents of the document, other than those which reside in the invisible or uneditable layers, will be selected. * Choose Edit > Delete. * Click in the Layers window. * Make the DTM layer the target layer. * Select all layers except for DTM, CONTOURS, and ROADS. * Click the Delete Layers button at the bottom of the Layers window. Now the only remaining layers should be DTM, CONTOURS, and ROADS. * Make the ROADS layer the target layer. * Make the other layers invisible. * Click in the 2D window. * Choose Edit > Select All. If there was only one poly in the ROADS layer, then it would be the only object visible, and the only object selected. * Choose Window > Info Panel. The road poly should now appear in the info Panel. * Change the purpose of the poly to Road. * Close the Info Panel. * Click in the Layers window. * Make the DTM layer the target layer. * Select all the layers. * Click on the Make Editable button near the bottom of the Layers window. This button is below the second column of checkboxes, and has a checkmark symbol in it even though it is not actually a checkbox. This will cause all of the selected layers to become editable. * Click in the 2D window. * Choose Edit > Select All. * Choose DTM > Create DTM. You should now see everything. The newly-created DTM will be in the DTM layer. (back to top) DTM How do I reduce the polygon count? Often you can do so by exporting a square grid instead of the triangles. The benefit is apparent only in the program which imports what you export from SimuTerra. More often you may want to simplify the data from which the DTM is to be calculated. This would typically involve filtering out extraneous vertices from the polys which you may have imported. (back to top) How can I create a DTM from a SketchUp foam core model? There are different ways of doing so. There is no one "right" way; it depends on what your data looks like. The simple way, which may be appropriate, is to select the data and then choose DTM > Create DTM from SketchUp Foam Core Model Method A. If that results in an error, dismiss the error message, and then choose Doc > Clear Undo and Delete. You could also select your data and choose DTM > Create DTM from SketchUp Foam Core Model Method B; this may work for you. Another way is as follows: * Select all of the data. * Choose Edit > Select > Deselect Vertical Polys. A message will appear specifying how many polys were deselected; dismiss the message. * Choose Edit > Select > Deselect Lower Duplicates. A message will appear specifying how many objects were deselected; dismiss the message. * Choose Edit > Select > Deselect Lower Short-Circuit Polys. A message will appear specifying how many polys were deselected; dismiss the message. * Choose DTM > Create DTM. These previous four steps (three deselection steps and then creating the DTM) are the same as choosing the Method A menu item mentioned just beforehand. If the Method A approach didn't work, then neither will this other approach. In this case, you need to inspect your data; you may have conflicting information in your data. If you get an error message, remember to choose Doc > Clear Undo and Delete. In order to inspect your data, after you perform the three inspection functions listed above, you may want to create a new layer, move the selected objects into that layer, and make other layers invisible. Then by orbiting in a 3D view you can get an idea of where you might have conflicting data, such as crossing contour lines. (back to top) How do I add to or modify a DTM which has already been created? In short, select the objects which you want to add to the DTM, and choose Object > Add to DTM. If the objects which you selected were all just plain data, then this is all you need to do. But if any of those objects are modifiers of some sort, then you also need to do the following. (This will not work in the Standard level of SimuTerra.) * Bring a 2D window of the document to the front. * Select the DTM Selection Tool (black, a few triangles and an arrow) from the Tool Palette. * Double-click in white space anywhere within the DTM. The Info Panel should come to the front, and should display information about the DTM. The middle column is for the Proposed DTM, as indicated in its title. * If there is no checkmark next to the word Proposed at the top of the middle column, click on the checkbox. If there were no checkmark, and you click so as to place one, that means that you are creating a Proposed DTM. Modifiers have no effect on the Existing DTM; they only affect the Proposed DTM. (back to top) How do I create a building pad? Generally speaking, you create a building pad by creating (or importing) a poly, and setting its purpose to Pad. (This will not work in the Standard level of SimuTerra.) In this example, I create the terrain itself from scratch by setting four corner points outside of where the building pad is to be placed. * Create four points to represent the corners of the area to be depicted. I made it cover an area approximately 120' wide (east-west) by 170' high (north-south). * Select the Selection Tool so as not to inadvertently create additional objects. * Double-click each point in turn so as to bring it up in the Info Panel. * In the Info Panel, in the Z box, assign elevations to each of the four points so as to form a slope going from one corner to the opposite corner (this is arbitrary). Going clockwise from the lowest corner (northwest, for me), I assigned (approximately) 1.0, 25.0, 35.0, and 15.0 feet. * Choose DTM > Create DTM. The DTM should be created and selected. You should see contour lines. If you were using imported SketchUp foam core edges, you'd use one of the two appropriate commands in the DTM menu. Method A typically works better for cleaner data, while Method B is more fitting for complex data. Try Method A first. * Choose Window > New Window. * Choose View > Display in 3D. * Move the new window to the side, so that you can see 2D and 3D simultaneously. * Create a closed poly within the area, approximately 50' x 100'. * Select the Selection Tool so as not to inadvertently create additional objects. * Double-click the poly so as to display its parameters in the Info Panel. * Change its Purpose to Pad (it was originally Existing data). * Click the checkbox marked "Lock vtxs". This will unlock the vertices, so that you can drag or raise them individually. * Change the "Collar offset" to 4.0. This is the distance from the edge of the pad to where it reaches the existing terrain (daylight line). * Change the "Ht. of wall/fence" to 10.0. This will be the height of the wall of the building. Note that this poly is serving a dual purpose. You may instead want a separate poly to represent the structure, or even create a custom entel so that the structure looks more realistic. * Click the Wall checkbox. * Click the "Horizontal roof" checkbox. * Click the color picker (a small square next to the word Color, under the "Lock vtxs" checkbox). * Set the color to something that looks like your structure. * Close the color picker. * Close the Info Panel if it's in your way. * Make sure that the poly is still selected. * Choose Object > Add to DTM. * That will add the poly to the DTM, but you won't see any change yet. * Select the DTM Selection Tool from the Tool Palette. * Double-click anywhere inside the DTM so as to bring up the DTM in the Info Panel. * In the Info Panel, just below the top center, click the Proposed checkbox so as to place a checkmark in it. This will cause a Proposed DTM to be created. You should see additional contour lines appear, and other differences. You'll also see that the building pad is well below the Existing terrain, since the poly is still at its default elevation of zero. * In the middle column, under the Proposed checkbox, find a set of eight checkboxes (two columns, four rows). Click the checkbox in the 3D column (the right-hand column), and in the fourth (last) row. This will turn off the use of textures for the Proposed DTM's triangles in the 3D view. This is just to make it easier to see what's going on. * Select the Selection Tool. * Click on the poly so as to select it. * Hold down the Control key (or use the Raise Tool) and drag the poly upwards until it's mostly above the existing terrain. Release the Control key if you were holding it down. * Again use the Control key or the Raise Tool to adjust the elevation of each corner of the poly until it is slightly above the Existing DTM. You may want to orbit around in the 3D view so as to see what you're doing. (back to top) How do I work with the square grid? Each DTM within a DTM set can be represented in 3D views by triangles, contours, and/or a square grid. The square grid is draped over the surface. Each point of intersection of east-west and north-south lines in the square grid has its elevation set to that of the DTM at that X, Y location; the segments between these points are straight. That means that these segments typically don't lie exactly on the terrain. That also means that the square grid typically doesn't accurately reflect the terrain. The square grid does have some advantages though: it can make the terrain easier to visualize, and it can greatly reduce the polygon count when exported to other programs. The smaller the grid size, the more accurate the representation, but also the larger the number of squares. You can display the square grid in the 3D view as follows: * Display the Info Panel for the DTM. * In the column of the specific DTM for which you want to display the grid, place a checkmark in the checkbox in the row marked Labels/Grid, and in the column under the heading "3D". If you have a 3D window open, you should see the grid appear. You can change the color of the grid by clicking on the appropriate color square to the right of the checkbox. You can alter the size of each square, approximately, by typing a different value in the top-right corner of the Info Panel for the DTM, in the cell labeled "Max. grid squares". The larger the number, the smaller the squares. The number you enter is the maximum number of squares which would be created if the DTM covered a square area. If the area is not square, you will end up with fewer squares. If you multiply the number of squares by four, then each square will be half as wide. You do not need to display the square grid in order to export it. If you do export it, you should be aware that it is not squares which are exported, but rather triangles. Each square is represented by two triangles. In the DXF file the common edge of each pair of triangles (i.e. the diagonal of the square) is flagged as being hidden. Some programs respect that flag, while some do not. Either way, by exporting triangles, the surface consists of facets which are all guaranteed to be planar. (back to top) How do I work with contour labels? Contour labels can be displayed in 2D views. If you choose to display them, they will appear along index contours. You can display them for any DTM which has been created within a DTM set. To display the contours: * Open the Info Panel for the DTM. * In the column of the desired DTM (Existing, Proposed, or Cut & Fill) place a checkmark in the row named Labels/Grid, and in the column under "2D". Contour labels should now appear on every nth contour. You can change the value of n, the index multiple, in the Info Panel. You can also change the contour interval, and the range within which contours are drawn. You can change the color of the contours by clicking on the appropriate color square to the right of the checkbox. (back to top) ROADS How do I create a road? Create or import a poly to represent the centerline of the road. It is best that any one road be represented by one continuous poly, rather than multiple polys strung end to end. This poly should be at the elevation of the pavement. It may be convenient if you place the poly in a layer set aside for roads. * Open the Info Panel for the poly. * In the popup menu/drop-down list for Purpose (near the left, half way down), choose Road. * Set the width of pavement. * Set the collar offset. That is the distance from the edge of pavement to the daylight line, which is where the cut or fill ends and the original terrain is maintained. * Close the Info Panel. This road poly acts as a modifier; it alters an Existing DTM. That means that you need some existing topographic data onto which to place the road. * If you don't yet have topographic data, import it or create it. If you haven't yet created a DTM, then: * Select all related data (topographic and road, for instance). * Choose DTM > Create DTM. That would create both the Existing DTM and the Proposed DTM in one step. If, on the other hand, you've already created a DTM and want to add the road to it, then: * Select the poly. * If there's more than one DTM, select the one which you want to add to. * Choose Object > Add to DTM. If the DTM set didn't already include a Proposed DTM, then you must also: * Open the Info Panel for the DTM. * Near the top, over the middle column, place a checkmark in the checkbox named Proposed. * Close the Info Panel. (back to top) How can I extrude a cross-section along a road, such as for pavement and curbs? See also the discussion in the Export topic. You can see a wireframe version of the extrusion in SimuTerra; the full surfaces are included when you export the extrusion to a DXF file. In order to see this wireframe extrusion in SimuTerra, you must do as follows: * The road(s) along which the closed polys are to be extruded must reside in a layer whose name is exactly "Roads". * The closed polys (which are to be extruded) and the one positioning point must reside in a layer whose name is exactly "Cross-sections". The drawing of the road extrusion can slow down SimuTerra, so you may want to display them only for a short time. You can suppress their display by changing the spelling of one of the related layer names. (back to top) VIEWS How can I get something to appear in a window? This applies only to 2D views. Select one or more objects, and choose View > Fit Selection to Window. This can be very useful when there are multiple 2D windows open for one document. For instance, you can be zoomed in like this to some data in one view, and zoomed out to see all data in another view. (back to top) END OF HOW-TO |
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