Contouring in Terramodel?

[clarku19]

Hello.

I have a simple question, which hopefully has a simple answer. I need to contour multibeam survey points (hundreds of thousands). I first took the data into Civil 3D, but it crashed the program. I only recently bought Civil 3D (have used Map for years), and am still getting used to it. I am pretty sure that Civil should be able to handle this data set, but I am under a deadline and do not have the time to tinker with Civil. So, I brought the data in to Terramodel. I used to use TMod all the time, but it's been awhile. So, I've forgot a lot of the 'buried' settings (I did not pay for the tech support).

I have no problem creating nice looking contours. However, once I save out to DXF, the DXF file is huge, and also crashed Civil. So, I need to filter down the contour lines...while also keeping accuracy. In the past, I remember a setting that basically takes nodes out of the contour lines. Not refering to the Splining options though (None, B Spline, Overhauser). There was a different setting than that.

Idea on how to cut down the file size/nodes of the contour lines (DXF)?

Thanks for your time. Much appreciated.

 

[francesca]

Can you get Terramodel to display a TIN (points and triangle lines or 3D faces)? Civil can turn that into a surface. If you have effectively point cloud data, then go to labs.autodesk.com and download the extension for creating a surface from a point cloud. Bring the point cloud in as a point cloud object rather than regular points. Here's the url, with links to videos on YouTube showing you how it works.

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/civil3d_pointcloud/