Dave Buchhofer

So, in the past I've used the usgs national map viewer to extract 3d topography in GeoTiff format, which i then converted via 3dem to DEM format, which i then imported into max with some free plugin I'd found online.. a bit of an evil process to say the least.

Now, i need to dig me up some topo for the LA valley and was wondering if there is any other good/reccommended ways to get it nowadays that doesn't involve a java interface from 2001 and many hours of work?

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Dave.
TD / EwingCole DMG

Dave Buchhofer

its kind of funny, I'm basically looking for this: http://www.davidrumsey.com/GIS/losangeles3D.htm and using the same 3d engine he is too though i have a much nicer control scheme lol.

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Dave.
TD / EwingCole DMG

dbibb

Dave,
I get elevation data from this site: http://data.geocomm.com/catalog/US/6.../group4-3.html

You can download the data for free using the green download arrows.

There's a free program called sdts2dem.exe. Use that to create the DEM file. (just copy sdts2dem.exe into the folder with the elevation files and run it)

I then use polytrans (not free) to import the DEM data, export to a 3ds, and import into max.

I think you can also import the DEM data directly to max, but it is a super heavy mesh. Polytrans does a much better job of interpolating the data into a usable mesh.

If anyone has a better/faster method than that I'd also like to know about it
Hope that helps,

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Derik Bibb
Architectural Visualizer

TANGRAM 3DS
International 3D & Design Solutions

Dave Buchhofer

Thanks for the info Derik, thats much easier than finding and downloading by lat/long values

I have polytrans here, albeit we bought it many years ago for a specialty project and haven't installed it in a long long while

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Dave.
TD / EwingCole DMG

Antisthenes

would this help?

http://www.rhinoterrain.com/page405-392-input-data.html

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The most necessary/useful piece of learning is that which unlearns what is untrue: 'evil'
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Andrew Schroeder

www.landdata3d.com has a LA package on there, and currently offers 50% off with the coupon code "celebrate" (Until the 4th)

Dave Buchhofer

Hey now, that looks like it outputs a much nicer mesh than the evil max terrain tool at least

Probably beats the current workflow of making terrain, and draping a cloth sim on it to get a decent quad mesh to begin editing on lol.

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Dave.
TD / EwingCole DMG

Claudio Branch

Just curious, why does it even matter if the final terrain mesh is composed of quads?

I regularly create large terrain models with only the road surfaces using quads for texture placement. Everything else is sweet clean triangles!

Claudio Branch

I was able to download a portion of that terrain and use the executable to get it into Max. You're right about it being a huge mesh.

I was also able to import the DEM file into AutoCAD using EasySite. ES has a routine that will create new contour lines from a set of faces and I can tell it the height interval. I can now triangulate these contours and build a terrain mesh with much lighter density wherever I need it.

Furthermore, ES gives great control for integrating the rest of the modeled infrastructure (roads, parking lots, building pads, etc.).

Dave Buchhofer

It doesn't really, its more for areas where i have to do heavy editing, we tend to get existing condition topography lines of dubious quality from civil guys, but are in early enough phases that we are grading/modifying the site ourselves

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Dave.
TD / EwingCole DMG