Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
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Quicksurf
Version 5. 1
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Surface modeling.
Schreiber Instruments, Inc. makes no warranty, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, regarding these materials and makes such materials available solely on an "as
is" basis. In no event shall Schreiber Instruments, Inc. be liable to anyone for special, collateral, incidental, or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the purchase or use of these materials. The sole and exclusive liability to Schreiber
Instruments, Inc., regardless of the form of the action, shall not exceed the purchase price of the materials described herein.
Schreiber Instruments, Inc. reserves the right to revise and improve its products as it sees fit. This publication describes the state
of the product at the time of publication, and may not reflect the product at all times in the future.
Quicksurf is a trademark of Schreiber Instruments, Inc. 3D Studio and AutoCAD are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office by Autodesk, Inc. All other tradenames or trademarks are gratefully acknowledged as belonging to their respective owners.
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Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
About Quicksurf .................................................................... 1
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Chapter 2: Installation
Chapter 3: Concepts
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Whats a surface?................................................................. 21
Surface memory ............................................................ 22
Parts of a Surface................................................................. 24
Data parts ...................................................................... 25
Calculated parts............................................................. 26
Break lines..................................................................... 30
Contours ........................................................................ 34
Grid Methods....................................................................... 35
Continuous Curvature (Standard method) .................... 35
Trend surfaces ............................................................... 35
Kriging .......................................................................... 36
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Organization.........................................................................61
Data input .............................................................................61
Extracting drawing data.................................................62
Reading ASCII data files...............................................65
Data Export ..........................................................................79
Exporting ASCII data files ............................................79
Exporting 3D Studio files ..............................................81
Surface commands ...............................................................82
Show versus Draw .........................................................82
Surface modification ............................................................93
Surface Options .............................................................94
Surface viewing....................................................................95
Boundaries............................................................................99
Annotation..........................................................................102
Color control ......................................................................114
Surface colors ..............................................................114
Surface Color Sequence...............................................122
Set SHOW Color .........................................................129
Contour colors .............................................................130
Volumetrics ........................................................................133
Design Tools ......................................................................143
Quicksurf
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Chapter 9: Boundaries
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Concepts.............................................................................279
Drape basis ..................................................................279
Drape step ....................................................................280
Draping off the edge of a surface ................................280
Drape and Boundaries .................................................281
Using Drape .......................................................................281
Solving for an elevation...............................................281
Creating a 3D profile ...................................................282
Constructing design elements (break lines).................282
Converting 2D maps to 3D maps ................................282
Application examples.........................................................283
Drape and post points ..................................................283
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Geostatistical methods.................................................319
Which method do I use?.....................................................320
Workflow.....................................................................320
Data types and surface methods.........................................321
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Objective ............................................................................329
Workflow ...........................................................................329
Extracted contours tutorial .................................................330
Extracting the contours................................................330
Correcting slope problems...........................................331
Correcting short-cutting contours................................331
Edge effects .................................................................334
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Objective............................................................................ 355
Workflow........................................................................... 356
Ditch construction tutorial ................................................. 357
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Objective............................................................................ 367
Workflow........................................................................... 368
Road construction tutorial ................................................. 369
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Objective............................................................................ 385
Workflow........................................................................... 385
Slope analysis tutorial........................................................ 386
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Workflow ...........................................................................410
Using Drape and Extrapolate ............................................414
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............................................................................................417
............................................................................................419
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Quicksurf
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Quicksurf
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Chapter 1: Introduction
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About Quicksurf
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Quicksurf meets the needs of a broad range of professional disciplines such as civil, environmental, petroleum and mining engineering, geologic mapping and exploration, surveying,
photogrammetry and topographic mapping, landscape architecture, oceanography and surface visualization.
About Quicksurf
Page 1
Chapter 1: Introduction
Quicksurf 5 is available in versions for DOS, Windows, and Windows NT running AutoCAD Release 12, 13, or 14.
Input
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Output
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Entity drawn
points
lines or meshes
points or meshes
lines, or meshes
2D polylines
2D or 3D polylines
text
Points
Triangulated Irregular Networks (TIN)
Grids
Triangulated Grids (TGRD)
Contours
Profiles and sections
Annotation
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Non-AutoCAD formats:
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Quicksurf surfaces
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A new surface may be created with just Points as a result of loading X,Y,Z triplets from an ASCII file or extracting points from
entities in the drawing with the Extract to surface command.
Breaks may be incrementally added to a surface by extracting
polyline entities as break lines with Extract Breaks. The calculation of a surface model with the TIN, Grid, TGRD, or Contour
commands create the TIN, Derivatives, Grid or TGRD parts of
the surface as needed.
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Points
Break lines (Breaks)
Triangulated irregular network (TIN)
Derivatives
Grid
Triangulated Grid (TGRD)
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Chapter 1: Introduction
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X,Y,Z data from AutoCAD entities you create a new <.> surface.
Any of these actions replace the pre-existing contents of the <.>
surface. You may save surfaces as named surfaces with the Surface Operations commands.
Quicksurf uses surface memory storage (rather than the
AutoCAD drawing database) to decrease the amount of memory
required to manipulate data, providing fast execution of modeling
operations. Fast and efficient operation in memory provides
instantaneous results allowing for thought and analysis to predominate your design process, rather than waiting for calculations.
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A surface will not be visible until you use the specific Quicksurf
commands which display surface geometry and their Draw or
Show options to display the surface in the current viewport. In
the interest of speed the Quicksurf commands of Points, Breaks,
TIN, GRD, Triangulated Grid (TGRD), Contour and Post from
Memory support the ability to either Show or Draw. Draw produces AutoCAD drawing entities (such as points, polylines or
polyface meshes) from a surface model, making them a permanent part of the drawing, while Show temporarily displays them
in the current viewport (until the next event causing a redraw, like
pan or zoom). Using Show allows you to maintain visibility of a
model throughout a series of surface operations or viewpoint
manipulations without waiting for regens or redraws; once a
model is completed it can be incorporated into the drawing with
the Draw option of the appropriate command.
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Introduction
Chapter 1: Introduction
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Surface models
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Starting from points and/or break line data, Quicksurf can generate the following basic model types:
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Introduction
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Chapter 1: Introduction
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TIN models are created using highly optimized Delauney triangulation which optimally connects all of the data points. TIN models linearly connect the control points with planar triangular
faces. Grid models provide surface estimation between control
points and may be created using several different methods including:
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Linear interpolation
Continuous curvature
Continuous slope
Kriging
Linear
Exponential
Spherical
Gaussian
Piecewise continuous
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Surface editing
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Surface manipulation
Quicksurf can maintain multiple surfaces in memory simultaneously. Surface algebra may be performed between surfaces,
including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, logarithms, relational comparisons, slope calculation and more. Two
simple examples of surface algebra are subtracting an existing
topography from a proposed topography to calculate a cut and fill
surface to be used in volume calculation, or subtracting the top of
a geologic horizon from the base of the same horizon to calculate
thickness.
Introduction
Chapter 1: Introduction
Volumetrics
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Fast, accurate volumes may be calculated on one thickness surface, between two different surfaces or between a surface and a
constant. The volumes may be computed for the entire surface or
separately on one or more arbitrary sub-areas.
Construction tools
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Introduction
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Chapter 1: Introduction
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Typeface conventions
Several different typefaces are used within this manual:
Menu entry or Check box or Edit box
Prompt
Button
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Introduction
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Chapter 2: Installation
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Required knowledge
Effective use of Quicksurf requires a basic working knowledge of
AutoCAD. Familiarity with AutoCAD entity types (points,
polylines, polyface meshes, text and inserts) and basic use of
viewing commands (Pan, Zoom, etc.) is needed. If you plan to
produce hard copy output, knowledge of the Plot, Hide, Shade,
and Render commands is helpful. This knowledge may be
gained by attending an authorized Autodesk Training Center,
guidance from an experienced AutoCAD user, or manual study.
Quicksurf requires no other specialized training or knowledge.
System software requirements
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Chapter 2: Installation
Quick installation
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Experienced DOS or Windows users may follow these abbreviated instructions. Install Quicksurf by inserting the floppy, typing
B:INSTALL and answer the drive and directory prompts.
Include the install directory (\QS51) in the ACAD path environmental variable if you are running AutoCAD R12 or R13 outside
of the Windows environment. If you are unsure about anything,
please follow the complete step by step installation instructions
below.
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Installation
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CD ROM installation
If you are installing from the CD-ROM please follow the instructions on the CD label.
DOS Installation
The installation program runs from a floppy disk drive, generally
drive A or drive B. The following procedures assume drive B: is
the installation drive.
Insert the Quicksurf diskette into disk drive B: and close drive
door.
Type B:INSTALL at the DOS prompt and then press Enter.
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Quick installation
Chapter 2: Installation
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The installation program will prompt you for the required information to complete the installation process. If you decide to quit
before the installation is completed, press ESC to abort and return
to DOS. Please note that aborting the install process may leave
files on your hard disk. When you restart the installation, these
files will be automatically copied over (prompting you to allow
overwriting of the old files), unless a different drive-directory is
specified.
The installation routine first displays the software name and version number being installed. It then displays the following
prompts:
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The available drive letters will be shown, with the potential selection flashing. Use the up or down cursor (arrow) keys to highlight your selection then press return to accept it. Quicksurf may
be installed on a network drive, but is only valid for one user at a
time unless additional licenses are obtained.
The next prompt is for a directory for placement of the Quicksurf
files.
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Installation
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Chapter 2: Installation
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Unpacking executables...
The files will be copied to the drive and directories you chose.
The program and support files will then be expanded from their
compressed format.
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The ACAD path variable needs to include the node for the directory in which you installed Quicksurf (such as "C:\QS51").
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Installation
Chapter 2: Installation
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Unprotected software
Installation
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Chapter 2: Installation
Windows Installation
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The installation program will prompt you for the required information to complete the installation process. If you decide to quit
before the installation is completed, press ESC to abort and return
to DOS. Please note that aborting the install process may leave
files on your hard disk. When you restart the installation, these
files will be automatically copied over (prompting you to allow
overwriting of the old files), unless a different drive-directory is
specified.
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The installation routine first displays the software name and version number being installed. It then displays the following
prompts:
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Installation
Chapter 2: Installation
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The available drive letters will be shown, with the potential selection flashing. Use the up or down cursor (arrow) keys to highlight your selection then press return to accept it. Quicksurf may
be installed on a network drive, but is only valid for one user at a
time unless additional licenses are obtained.
The next prompt is for a directory for placement of the Quicksurf
executable files.
Please specify the directories where the Quicksurf
executables should be installed:
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Installation
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Chapter 2: Installation
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The files will be copied to the drive you chose. The program and
support files will then be expanded from their compressed format.
A de-installation routine (RMQS51.BAT) is included which will
delete all Quicksurf program files from this directory.
If you have performed a custom installation and placed the
Quicksurf program files in a different directory than the suggested directories, you must alter the ACAD environmental variable to include the node for the directory in which you installed
Quicksurf executable files. This need not be done for a standard
installation.
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Unprotected software
Fully licensed Quicksurf users in the United States or Canada are
shipped unprotected copies of Quicksurf, with the understanding
that each Quicksurf license is for one concurrent user. Two
simultaneous users require two licenses. Additional licenses are
available at significant discounts, contact Schreiber Instruments
or your dealer for information.
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Installation
Chapter 2: Installation
Hardware keys
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For international and OEM systems, Schreiber Instruments provides a hardware key. Customers with hardware keys simply
plug the key into parallel port 1 or 2 and plug the printer into the
key. If you are using hardware keys with a printer plugged in, we
recommend that the printer be turned on.
Hardware keys
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Chapter 2: Installation
Network considerations
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Network considerations
Chapter 2: Installation
Customer support
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Schreiber technical support is provided as a service for our clients. Free technical support is available free via our WWW site.
Our toll-free 800 telephone lines go to our sales department and
no technical support is available on them.
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Free voice technical support is available for the first 60 days after
purchasing any Schreiber product. After 60 days, free technical
support is still available via our WWW or via fax. Voice technical support after the first 60 days is available by purchasing a
technical support contract. Questions on installation will be
accepted on voice lines and answered immediately at no charge,
regardless of whether the 60 day period has elapsed.
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Chapter 2: Installation
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Customer support
Chapter 3: Concepts
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Whats a surface?
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Whats a surface?
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Chapter 3: Concepts
Surface memory
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Draw
Extract
AutoCAD Drawing
Points
Lines
2D polylines
3D polylines
3D faces
Polyface meshes
Polygon meshes
Write
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Read
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Surface Memory
Points
Breaks
TIN
Derivatives
Grid
Triangulated grid
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Quicksurf uses surface memory, rather than the AutoCAD drawing database, to store and manipulate surfaces. Although surfaces
are stored in AutoCAD-controlled memory, a surface is not part
of the drawing until you instruct Quicksurf to add it to the drawing by issuing a Draw response to a Quicksurf command such as
Contour.
Disk Files
ASCII point files
ASCII break files
Quicksurf QSB files
DEM data files
Surface memory versus the AutoCAD drawing
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Whats a surface?
Chapter 3: Concepts
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A surface will not be visible until you use specific display commands (Points, Breaks, Contour, TIN, Grid, Triangulated grid) and
their Draw or Show options to either draw or temporarily display
the surface in the current viewport. The Show option temporarily
displays the requested contours or surface element on your drawing screen, until the next AutoCAD Redraw. The Draw option
adds the requested contours or surface element to the drawing
database as AutoCAD entities.
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Quicksurf maintains one special surface which is the results surface named <.> dot. When you load point data into surface
memory it is placed into the <.> surface. The results of any surface operation are placed in the <.> surface. Any of these actions
replace the pre-existing contents of the <.> surface. You may
make copies of any surfaces or rename surfaces using the surface
management commands within Surface Operations.
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Whats a surface?
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Chapter 3: Concepts
Parts of a Surface
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TIN
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Points
Grid
Contours
are not a surface
part, rather a result
of interpolating on a
TIN, Grid or TGRD
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Parts of a Surface
Chapter 3: Concepts
Data parts
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Points
Points form the basis of most surfaces. Points are unique X,Y,Z
triplets in AutoCADs World Coordinate System. Point data may
be loaded to surface memory by the following commands:
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The Extract commands extract point data from AutoCAD drawing entities. The Read commands read point data from disk files.
The Load Points command reads point data directly from database files.
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Breaks
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Chapter 3: Concepts
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Calculated parts
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TIN
TIN, Derivatives, Grid, as necessary
TIN, Derivatives, TGRD as necessary
TIN, Derivatives, Grid, TGRD as necessary
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TIN
Grid
TGRD
Contour
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Command
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Parts of a Surface
Chapter 3: Concepts
Derivatives
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TIN without
curvature
Grid with
curvature
Input
data
Surface curvature
Parts of a Surface
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Chapter 3: Concepts
Grid
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Gridding is very effective when dealing with data sets that do not
contain break data. The grid does not have the capacity to truly
represent break line data due to the fact that the cells have consistent spacing, causing the breaks to be smoothed to the grid cell
size.
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Parts of a Surface
Chapter 3: Concepts
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Parts of a Surface
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Chapter 3: Concepts
Break lines
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When a break line is encountered by TGRD, both slope and curvature are allowed to be different on either side of the break line.
When a grid is generated, the break line will form the intersection
of two surfaces of different slope and curvature: i.e., an edge.
There will be no smoothing errors and elevation data will be honored exactly.
The figures which follow illustrate the effect of adding break
lines with the Extract Breaks command on a surface having a Vshaped excavation. A standard grid of the original topography is
shown along with the TIN of the original control points. The
standard gridded surface (top figure) was generated by extracting
the original spot elevations with the Extract to Surface command.
This grid shows a rolling surface created by the smoothing process inherent in gridding with continuous curvature selected.
Several 3D polylines representing the edges and bottom of a proposed ditch are shown. Extracting these 3D polylines as break
lines with the Extract Breaks command produces a TIN, but with
no curvature away from the break lines (bottom figure).
Parts of a Surface
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Chapter 3: Concepts
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Parts of a Surface
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Chapter 3: Concepts
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Parts of a Surface
Chapter 3: Concepts
There are two special considerations in break line modeling: vertical discontinuities and intersecting breaks.
Vertical discontinuities
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Quicksurf densifies all break lines and resolves all crossing break
lines during break extraction. When Quicksurf processes a single
break line, the elevation of the break line itself furnishes the elevation of all densified surface points along it. This produces a
potential ambiguity when two break lines intersect over a common X,Y point, yet differ in elevation. Intersecting break lines
are representing the same surface, therefore the elevation must be
the same at any break line intersection. Quicksurf resolves this by
setting the elevation of the surface to the mean of the elevation
values on the two break lines. This feature resolves small measurement and interpolation errors.
To resolve crossing break lines, Quicksurf must compare every
segment of every break line against every other segment. As the
number of break lines increases, the computation time increases
dramatically.
Stacked data points (multiple control points at a given X,Y location) along break lines are dropped. Quicksurf resolves stacked
data by arbitrarily deleting points from a stack until there is only
Parts of a Surface
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Chapter 3: Concepts
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one. Break lines made up of multiple polylines joined with common endpoints must be treated as break line intersections, which
therefore slows processing.
Contours
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Contouring from a TIN or TGRD is done via basic linear interpolation which interprets each face of a triangle as a plane in space.
Contouring from a Grid is done by linear interpolation on the grid
cells. This interpolation is performed by solving polynomial
equations representing each triangle of the TIN for a constant Z
value. In the illustration above, the same area was contoured on
the Grid and the TIN. You can see the TIN edge effects on the
TIN based contours.
The segment of a contour line within one triangle or grid cell is
always a straight line. Grid cell size therefore has a profound
effect on the smoothness or angularity of contours.
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Parts of a Surface
Chapter 3: Concepts
Grid Methods
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Trend surfaces
The Trend method of gridding allows you to select a particular
order polynomial surface and fit it to the entire data set using a
least squares fit. You may choose the highest cumulative order of
the polynomial in all directions, or specify the order in X and Y
directions independently to yield a polynomial with more terms.
The selection of a Type 1, first order trend will result only in a
least squares fit of a planar surface to the data set. This can be
very useful when generating uniformly sloping surfaces to subsequently drape entities onto. Trend surface and trend surface residual generation are also available as surface operations.
Grid Methods
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Chapter 3: Concepts
Kriging
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Grid Methods
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The Quicksurf menus are contained in the QS51.MNU file and its
associated menu lisp file QS51.MNL. The Quicksurf menu is
added onto the standard AutoCAD menu under the Model pulldown. The root Quicksurf menu is invoked by pulling down the
Model pulldown and clicking on Quicksurf, or by clicking on
Quicksurf on the right sidebar menu. Either of these actions puts
the Quicksurf menu in place of the Model menu.
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Quicksurf menus
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Configuration sub-menu
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Quicksurf menus
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Quicksurf menus
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Utilities sub-menus
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Quicksurf menus
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Utility sub-menus
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Quicksurf menus
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Quicksurf
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Introduction
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Quicksurf menu
Introduction
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We will load the surface data from the DEMO5.QSB file which
contains point and break line data. These data will be loaded
directly into surface memory which was introduced in the concepts chapter.
We will load the data using the Surface Operations dialog so we
can see what happens. Click on Surface Operations and the dialog shown on the next page will appear.
Quicksurf demo mode
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After you load the surfaces, your dialog box will look similar to
the one above. The listed surfaces are in surface memory, not in
the drawing yet. It is important to keep the distinction between
surface memory and the AutoCAD drawing database.
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Select Read QSB file button. This will invoke the standard
AutoCAD file dialog. Select the file DEMO from the \QS51 directory, then press OK. This may entail using the left side of the file
dialog to change directories to the \QS51 directory, if needed.
At this point, the surface list on the left side of the box shows all
of the surfaces which have been loaded from the DEMO5.QSB file.
The <.> surface is always present and is listed first. This is called
the results or dot surface, and will contain any points or breaks
you extract from either the drawing or an ASCII text file or the
resulting surface from any surface operation.
There is a surface named Existing on the list which contains the
original topography of our demo site. Highlight the Existing surface by clicking on the name Existing. Notice that several of the
surface management buttons become enabled, including the
Detailed button. Press on the Detailed button to see more inforLoading the demo data set
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mation about the Existing surface. The detailed surface information box is invoked which shows that the surface only consists of
167 points and no other surface parts are present. The points simply represent spot surface elevations. They could have come
from an ASCII XYZ file from survey information or from points
extracted from drawing entities. We will revisit this box as we
create more parts for this surface. Press OK to exit the Detailed
dialog and then press OK to exit the Surface management dialog.
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You are prompted for a surface name. You may enter the name
(existing) or press a question mark (?) to pick from a surface list.
Enter a ? followed by a return to see what a surface pick list looks
like. Highlight the Existing surface and click OK. The view will
be zoomed so the surface takes up about 80% of the current viewport. The screen is still blank because we havent displayed anything yet.
Displaying a surface
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Lets look at the surface parts one by one. The commands we are
going to look at now (Points, TIN, Grid) are some of the commands that can temporarily display surfaces with the show option
or make them a permanent part of the AutoCAD drawing using
the draw option. Lets look at the original points:
Points
Surface name <Existing>: Press enter to accept the default
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: S
Displaying a surface
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The points are displayed as single pixels dots on the screen. The
points may be hard to see by themselves, so we will normally
show the TIN instead because it is easier to see. These are the
locations of the points in the Existing surface. We selected the
show option, so the points are just temporarily shown. An
AutoCAD Redraw command will remove shown objects. Shown
objects such as these points are temporary and are not known to
AutoCAD, so you may not select them or erase them with
AutoCAD commands.
Perform a redraw by selecting Redraw from the AutoCAD menu
or typing:
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Redraw
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The shown points disappear. Any AutoCAD command that performs a redraw (such as zoom, pan, regen, etc.) will remove
objects displayed with the show option.
Points
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Lets look at some other parts of the surface. First lets show the
TIN (triangulated irregular network) for the Existing surface.
TIN
Surface name <Existing>: Press enter
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: S
Displaying a surface
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Grid
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The grid is calculated by solving for the Z value of each grid node
using a polynomial fit to each triangle of the TIN which honors
continuous slope and curvature for the surface using the default
settings. Quicksurf includes many other methods to create a grid,
which will be examined later.
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Contour
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Contours are not a surface part, per se, rather a linear interpolation on a surface part such as the TIN, Grid, or TGRD. Lets
show the contours.
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If you are using the defaults, the contours are displayed based
upon the grid. The Configure Contour dialog will allow you to
contour based upon different parts of the model, such as the TIN
or TGRD. Lets change the contour interval from the automatic
setting to a two foot contour interval and contour again.
Contour Interval
Contour interval/Auto <Auto>: enter 2 for a 2 foot contour interval
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Displaying a surface
Contour
Surface name <Existing>: Press enter
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: S
Contour
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(cell size in x, y)
(new 10 x 10 cell specified)
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At this very dense contour interval you can see some angular
areas in the contours. This is an artifact related to the grid cell
size we are using. We will now reduce the grid cell size from
about 37 feet on side to 10 feet, recompute the surface and re-display the contours.
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Notice that the angularity of the contours disappears. Determining grid cell size entails a trade-off between accuracy and file
size. A finer grid cell size has less error, but consumes more
memory and produces more vertices in the contours drawn.
We can sample the elevation of any surface which has a TIN,
Grid or TGRD by using the Track Z command.
Utilities -> Elevation Utilities -> Track Z
Surface name <Existing>: Press enter
Move the cursor over the surface and the surface elevation at the
cross-hairs is displayed on the top status bar. Press a return to
exit the Track Z command.
Until now, we have been only observing the parts of the Existing
surface in plan view. Everything Quicksurf creates is actually in
its proper position in 3D space. We will now look at these same
Displaying a surface
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Examining surfaces in 3D
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parts in 3D, but first lets draw a polyline on top of the surface
while we are still in plan view. We will drape this line onto the
surface later in this exercise. Use the Pline command to draw a
roughly horizontal polyline from the left side of the contoured
area to the right side. Keep the ends of the polyline within the
contoured area, because this is where the surface is defined.
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VPOINT
Rotate/ <View Point> <0.0000, 0.0000, 1.0000>: 1,-1,1
Regenerating drawing
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Zoom Extents to insure the data fills the screen. Remember the
points are drawn and, therefore, are AutoCAD entities. If we had
been using show only and not drawn any entities, AutoCAD
would have reported Extents undefined, zooming to limits. In such a
case you may use the Surface Zoom command to coordinate the
AutoCAD view and the Quicksurf surface.
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Now that we are in a 3D view show all the surface parts again and
note that they are all represented in full 3D.
TIN
Grid
Surface name <Existing>: Press enter
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: S
Dots/Horizontal/Vertical/Both <Both>: B
Contour
Surface name <Existing>: Press enter
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: S
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Examining surfaces in 3D
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Draping a polyline
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Grid
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Draping a polyline
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Generating a profile
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All/Center/Dynamic/Extents/Left/Prev/Vmax/Window/<Scale(X/XP)>: .5x
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Select origin point: Select a point near the bottom left of your screen
Now the profile will be drawn as a graph of elevation vs. horizontal distance along the polyline. Quicksurf flattens the 3D polyline
into a 2D profile in the XY plane, displaying the distance along
the 3D polyline in the X axis and the Z elevation in the Y axis of
the resulting 2D profile.
Zoom as necessary to examine the profile. When finished, erase
the draped polyline and profile, as we wont need them further.
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Generating a profile
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Using the TIN, Grid and Contour commands, we created additional surface parts. When we first looked at the Existing surface
it only contained points. Lets use surface operations to look at
the Existing surface again and see what parts have been created.
Surface Operations
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Before we invoke the Detailed box, notice that the Existing surface now has more parts listed after the surface name. Where initially only the letter P (for Points) was listed, now the list includes
P TDG indicating that a TIN, Derivatives and a Grid were built. A
Quicksurf command will generally build the parts it needs automatically. For example, if a surface contains only points and you
issue the Contour command, the TIN, Derivatives and Grid will
be automatically created, as required.
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In addition to the points, the TIN and Grid portions of the dialog
box now contain information. The minimum and maximum values of X,Y, and Z, along with plan and surface areas and the volume between the surface and the zero (XY) plane are shown. The
slope extremes shown for the TIN, TGRD and Grid commonly
show a steep maximum slope. This may be reflecting one small
edge triangle or grid cell which has an abnormally steep local
slope.
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You may limit the area in which points, TINs, grids and contours
are displayed by specifying one or more closed polylines as
boundaries with the Boundary Options -> Set Boundary command. The boundaries may be nested. Boundaries are very useful
for presentation purposes and volumetric limitations. If you
attempt to display parts of a surface and dont see anything, you
may have a boundary set which does not overlie the surface or
display area. We will draw several polygons to be used as boundaries.
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Using Boundaries
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Draw a rectangle within and somewhat smaller than the area covered by the TIN. We will use this as a boundary.
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Using Boundaries
Command: RECTANG
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Notice that once a boundary has been set, the Set Boundary
prompt includes more options. In this case, we are specifying a
new boundary definition.
Using Boundaries
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Grid
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Now show the grid with the boundary enabled to observe the
effect of the boundary on the grid display.
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Elements such as grid cells or TIN faces are either shown in their
entirety or not shown at all; they are not clipped at the boundary.
Important: Before moving on, disable any boundary you may
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Using Boundaries
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Next we will draw, index and label the contours, then post the Z
values next to the points. We will create a display similar to the
one shown below, but for the whole surface.
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Contour
Surface name <Existing>: Press enter
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: D (to Draw as polylines)
Close all? <N>: Press enter (option explained in command reference)
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The 100 foot index contours will be redrawn 4 units wide. Note
that the index width is in drawing units, so the proper width to
choose will depend on the scale of the drawing. If you are
unsure, you may indicate the width graphically by pointing.
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Quicksurf
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Organization
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Many of these commands are influenced by the current configuration settings. Those are described in the next chapter on Configuring Quicksurf.
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Data input
Data export
Surface commands
Surface modifications
Surface viewing
Boundaries
Annotation
Color control
Volumetrics
Design tools
Utilities
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Data input
Quicksurf surfaces are generally created from input data consisting of points and/or break lines. Points may be read from an
ASCII file, extracted from AutoCAD drawing entities or read
directly from a database manager using the optional QuickSurf
Pro extension. Break line data may similarly be read from an
ASCII file or extracted from 3D polylines in your drawing. Data
in ASCII files consist of X, Y, Z data from any source, such as
total stations for survey data, log depths for borehole data, concentration values for ore or contaminants, or measurements from
geophysical surveys.
Organization
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Points
2D or 3D polylines:
Circles
Arcs
Shapes
Solids or traces
3DFACES
Inserts (blocks)
Text
3D polygon mesh
3D polyfaces
Lines
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Directly
One point per vertex *
One point at center *
One point at each endpoint *
One point at the insertion point
One point at each corner
One point at each corner
One point at the insertion point
One point at the insertion point
One point at each grid node in the mesh
One point at each vertex
One point at each endpoint*
Data input
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Merge extract
QSMX
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which deletes the existing < . > surface and creates a new one.
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Use Merge extract to incrementally add points to the < . > surface. Use Extract to surface to create a new results < . > surface.
Extract breaks
QSBX
Extracts break lines from the drawing and adds them incrementally to the results < . > surface. Typically it is used after Extract
to surface or Merge extract, but may be used by itself if the surface is composed only of break lines with no points. A break line
is a line of slope discontinuity along which the slope of the modeled surface is allowed to change abruptly. This enables you to
Data input
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model such features as normal faults, mine pits, cuts, fills, retaining walls and structures which have abrupt edges. Break lines are
most commonly represented in the drawing as 3D polylines.
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The following entity types are extracted and automatically densified by Extract Breaks:
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Objects may be selected with the normal AutoCAD object selection methods, or all visible objects may be selected by pressing
enter at the Select objects prompt. Objects are extracted in the
same manner described for the Extract to surface command.
Line
2D or 3D Polylines
Arc
Circle
3D Face
Edges become breaks
Trace
Solid
Non-extruded edges become breaks
All other entity types are ignored. The results of Extract Breaks
is dependent upon the settings in the Configure Extract dialog
covered in the next chapter. Within that dialog you have control
over break line densification and curve error tolerances.
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Data input
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The Break lines chapter (page 273) describes how Quicksurf uses
adaptive densification to create new vertices in your surface. It
also covers how break line intersections are resolved and the time
required.
Always use the TIN or Triangulated Grid command, not the Grid
command, when modeling a surface containing break lines, as a
TIN or TGRD honors break lines exactly, but a Grid only approximates break lines. Likewise, contours created from surfaces containing breaks should always be generated based on the TIN or
TGRD, not the Grid, to insure that the breaks are honored exactly.
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QSL
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This command does not assume a default extension for the filename; if the filename has one, you must enter it.
External files are basically free-field ASCII text files consisting
of a sequence of lines. Each line consists of numbers delimited by
spaces or any non-numeric characters and terminates with either a
line feed or a carriage return/line feed sequence. Each line must
contain at least three numbers expressed as ASCII text, expressing the x, y and z coordinates of a control point. Standard deciData input
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Rarely you may encounter a file that appears correct, but does not
load properly. This can be caused by non-printing characters
embedded in the file or by non-standard line terminators. These
can be encountered when receiving files from different platforms.
A quick fix for these files is accomplished by reading them into a
word processing program and writing them back out as a text file.
Most word processing programs automatically strip offending
characters.
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If you need to load more than one surface at a time or have delimited or fixed-field data or multi-column data containing holes
(fields with no data), use the Read ASCII Table (QSML) command instead of this Read ASCII Points (QSL) command.
Data input
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the values in your input file. You may scale x, y, or z independently during loading using the settings within the Configure
ASCII Load dialog box.
If there are additional columns, or the columns are not in x, y, z
order, or you want to scale the data, this command will allow you
to define an alternate format.
Configure ASCII Load
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ASCII file
Specify the file containing the ASCII data to be loaded into the
results < . > surface. This command does not assume a default
extension for the filename; if the filename has one, you must
enter it. A full path may be included if needed.
Data input
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Scale factors
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Next specify any scale factors you wish to use during data loading. X, Y and Z values may be scaled independently during
loading into surface memory. This is handy for data sets expressing x and y in units of feet and Z in units of meters or vice versa.
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The options set in this command are preserved in the configuration file if you save one. This command only sets the options for
data loading by Read ASCII Points. The Read ASCII Points command actually loads the points into surface memory.
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Data input
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The Read ASCII Table command reads the ASCII file, writes a
QSB file with the same filename, then loads the surfaces into surface memory. Unlike the Read ASCII Points command, which
loads into the results < . > surface, Read ASCII Table loads into
named surfaces and leaves the results < . > surface unchanged.
An associated keyboard command, ASC2QSB, reads the ASCII
file and writes a QSB file, but does not load the surfaces into
memory.
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Read ASCII Table is designed for data sets which have multiple z
values for each x, y location. Information from vertical drill
holes (tops, thicknesses, saturations, concentrations) or repeated
samples over time at the same location fall into this category.
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Read ASCII Table invokes the standard AutoCAD file dialog and
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allows you to select the desired ASCII file for surface loading.
The input file format should look as follows:
One X,Y location per line
X and Y represent the map view location and Z1, Z2,... represent
the Z elevation of each successive surface. Quicksurf will create
a surface for the Z1 values using a point for each (X,Y,Z1) where
Z1 is a valid number. The Z2 surface likewise consists of the
point set of (X,Y,Z2) points, and so on for all Z values specified.
Each line in the file should contain the same number of Z fields.
If no data is present for a given X,Y then a blank or null field
should be given in the input file.
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X,Y,Z1,Z2,Z3,Z4,...
Loading surface data from a QSB or ASCII file always reloads all
of the surfaces in that file into Quicksurf surface memory and
replaces any surface with the same name. You may sequentially
load surfaces from several different files and paths, but keep in
mind that if two surface files have surfaces with the same name
Data input
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only the values for that surface from the last file read will be in
surface memory. Loading the same surface name twice is a
replace operation, not a merge.
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Z1 missing
Z3 missing
Z1 and Z2 missing
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527,1028,12.5,20.92,35
473,1181,18.5,18.55,28
581,1629,29.2,25.13,43
482,1163, ,17.93,32
522,1073,18.1,21.73,
495,1278,,,36
519,1186,13.8,19.92,23
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Data input
For example, the following ASCII file would load three surfaces
named Topography, Piezometric, and Bedrock.
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#X,Y,Topography,Piezometric,Bedrock
552,1026,1560,1541,1450
637,2931,1610,1565,1482
1245,831,1592,1572,1502
...
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#X,Y,Topography,Piezometric,Bedrock
#Delimiter |
#Quotemark
552|1026|1560|1541|1450
637|2931|1610|1565|1482
1245|831|1592|1572|1502
...
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Quote characters are not required and are supplied for compatibility with other software packages. Quote characters allow for
imbedded delimiter characters within one field. The entire text
string within the quotes is considered one field. Any character
string within a field is used if the first character(s) convert to a
number successfully and is assumed to be missing data if it does
not. Any numbers within a field are ignored after a character is
encountered in that field. All blanks are ignored.
Data input
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51
"51"
"+51."
51.000
5.1E+01
"51 approx"
"51 +/- 2.21"
" 51"
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A51
Fifty-one
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1541
1565
1572
1450
1482
1502
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Data input
ASCII to QSB
ASC2QSB
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QSBL
Read ASCII Breaks allows you to read break line data (represent-
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Data input
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Line 1
10,25,32.5
20,42,41.2
16,23,22.1
18,37,52.8
Line 2
32,56,103.2
43,61,112.6
48,64,123.8
Line 3
0.75,0.32,1.543
0.64,0.27,1.342
0.58,0.22,1.039
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10
20
16
18
25
42
23
37
32.5
41.2
22.1
52.8
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The same ASCII Break line file as shown above, but with random
non-numeric delimiters.
32abc56def103.2
43xxx61xxx112.6
48xyz64pqr123.8
Any line without three valid numbers starts a new break line
0.75,0.32,1.543
0.64,0.27,1.342
0.58,0.22,1.039
Data input
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Break line data is loaded into the results < . > surface and is reconciled with any breaks already present. See the Chapter 10 on
break lines for more information on break line handling.
Although it is not the purpose it was designed for, you may use
Read ASCII Breaks in conjunction with Breaks / Draw to draw
3D polylines from data in an ASCII file.
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RBOUND
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The format of the ASCII file is similar to that for ASCII break
line data. Although a third field (which is the Z value in the break
line format) is carried for each vertex in the boundary file. It represents the bulge factor for arcs within polylines, not a Z value.
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Boundary files are generally created with the Write ASCII Boundaries command of Quicksurf. If you are manually creating an
ASCII boundary file, add sequential vertices of the boundary
polygon (one vertex per line), using a zero as the third field on
each line. This will result in a boundary with straight lines connecting the vertices.
The command is invoked by selecting
Import Data -> Read ASCII Boundaries
Data input
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You are presented with the standard AutoCAD file selection dialog box. The default file extension is .DAT . Select the desired
boundary file and it will be read, becoming the current boundary.
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QSLDEM
3 Arc-second data
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These DEM data sets originate from 1:250,000 scale maps and
typically cover one degree blocks. These one degree blocks contain approximately 1.44 million elevation values. The x and y
units are in latitude and longitude. You may use software such as
Schreiber Instruments Projector to convert the x and y units into
feet or meters in a known coordinate system such as Universal
Transverse Mercator (UTM) or a specific State Plane prior to
mapping. It is important that x, y, and z be in the same units
when creating maps to be used for visualization or slope analysis.
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Data input
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Answering Yes to the Load as finished Grid prompt loads the DEM
grid nodes directly into the specified surface as a grid, with no
points or TIN generated. If Configure contour is set to contour on
the grid, you may immediately contour your map. The grid cell
size will be that from the DEM file, being approximately 30
meters for 7.5 minute quads, and 3 arc-seconds (200 - 300 feet
depending on latitude) for the 3 arc-second data sets.
Only answer Yes if you can use the native cell size as is, because
Quicksurf requires point data to recalculate a grid. Loading a
DEM as grid only will result in no point or TIN data, therefore
you will be unable to re-grid the data set to change cell size.
Answering No to the Load as finished Grid prompt loads the DEM
as points and triangulates them during import. This will allow
you to recalculate an appropriate grid cell size for your needs.
Selecting a smaller grid cell size will interpolate your DEM based
upon the current grid method settings. Selecting a larger grid cell
size will have a smoothing effect on the DEM. Choosing this
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allows you to immediately contour on the TIN (Configure contours set to contour on the TIN), or to re-grid the data to a different cell size (Configure contours set to contour on the Grid).
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Quick projection
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Because DEM models are large, you are allowed to load them
directly into a named surface. Try to avoid moving these surfaces
around within surface memory, due to their size.
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Data input
Data Export
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QSXPORT
Points, breaks or grid nodes may be exported from surface memory directly to a comma-delimited ASCII file. The menu selection is found under Export Data.
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Points and grid nodes are written as comma-delimited x,y,z triplets, one point per line. Break lines are exported line by line, with
each break line as a sequence of vertex x,y,z triplets, one per line.
Each break line in the ASCII file is separated from the adjacent
one by a blank line and a text string "Break - nn" where nn is a
sequential whole number. These files may be read by the Read
ASCII Breaks command to reload the saved break lines.
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You are prompted for which part of the surface to export, the
name of the ASCII file to be created and the surface to export. If
you specify a file that already exists, you are given the choice to
append the new data to the existing data or to overwrite the existing file.
Data Export
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Answering Yes will append the new data to the existing file.
Answering No will replace the file with the new data.
DWG2TXT
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The selected entities will have their x,y,z nodes written to the
specified file.
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Data Export
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QS3DS
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Data Export
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Surface commands
Show versus Draw
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None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>:
You may answer with a single letter (D for Draw, etc.) or press
return to Show. Responding with R or Redraw performs a redraw
on the current viewport. This removes any previous Shown
objects and re-displays the same prompt, allowing you to Show
or Draw. The None option is supplied for use with commands
such as TIN which create additional surface parts that you may
not wish to display as the are made. We highly recommend using
the Show option while developing your model, then use the Draw
option to place the final result into the drawing.
If you are going to be using the Draw option, remember to disable
any snap or object snap modes you may have set.
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Surface commands
Points
PNTS
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You are prompted for the surface for which to display points, with
the current surface offered as the default. This is followed by the
standard None/Show/Draw/Redraw prompt.
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Selecting Draw will draw the points into the drawing regardless
of whether or not they are visible on the screen. The points will
be drawn to the current layer unless a specific layer-surface association has been established using surface operations.
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If the points extend outside the current drawing extents, you may
use the Surface zoom command to reorient the view without having to draw in the points. Alternatively you may first Draw the
points and then Zoom Extents to display all of them.
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The Points command honors any boundary set with the Set
Boundary command and only points within the current boundary
are shown or drawn. Nested boundaries may be used to segregate
a point set into areas of original topography and areas which have
been modified during the design process.
AutoCAD point size and type settings determine how the points
will appear when drawn into a drawing (PDMODE and PDSIZE).
These settings do not affect the Show mode of points.
Surface commands
Page 83
Breaks
BREAKS
Shows or draws the break line data from the current surface.
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Breaks
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TIN
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Selecting Show displays the breaks of the current surface temporarily in the current viewport. Selecting Draw draws the break
lines from the current surface into the drawing as 3D polylines.
The breaks will be drawn to the current layer unless a specific
layer-surface association has been established using surface operations. Both the show and draw options honor any boundaries in
effect.
TIN
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TIN
Page 84
You are prompted for the surface for which to create or display
the TIN, with the current surface offered as the default. This is
followed by the standard None/Show/Draw/Redraw prompt. If
you accept the Show default, the TIN will be created if needed
and written into the current surface and displayed on the screen.
The color of the displayed TIN is based upon the settings in the
Surface Colors dialog box.
Surface commands
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The TIN command honors any boundary set with the Boundary
command and only triangles within the current boundary are
shown or drawn. The selection criterion for a triangle being
inside or outside of a boundary is set in the Configure Boundary
dialog box.
As the TIN is calculated, the status bar reports triangulation and
number of triangles produced. If you select Draw, rather than
Show, you will receive additional prompts:
TIN
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None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: D
Lines/3dFaces/Polyfaces <P>: select
Select invisibility...
All/Interior/None <None>: select
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The All selection of the invisibility options will make all triangles
invisible. Invisibility is used in the special case where you want
to hide contour lines in an oblique view. Normally contour 2D
polylines do not hide. By superimposing an invisible TIN or grid
just beneath the contour polylines, you may produce a hidden line
display from an oblique view and have the contours behind a hill
appear hidden.
Surface commands
Page 85
Triangulated grid
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TGRD
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Triangulated Grid
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Please read the concepts chapter for a complete discussion of triangulated grids. In brief, a TGRD consists of point data and densified 3D break line data which has been internally gridded based
on the derivative and cell size settings of Configure Grid. The
resulting grid node data, along with the break line data, form a
point set which is then triangulated to form a type of triangulated
irregular network termed a TGRD. This TGRD is a TIN which
honors break line data exactly, but also may include curvature
data when away from break lines.
Surface commands
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A TGRD surface honors break lines exactly, but away from break
lines the vertices of a TGRD are coincident with where the grid
nodes would have been. The original data points are no longer
vertices of the TGRD.
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Grid
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GRD
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The options presented when selecting the Draw option for TGRD
are identical to those for the TIN command, described previously.
During a grid calculation the status bar will report progress of any
required TIN, derivative and the grid calculations. The method
used for grid computation will be inserted automatically in the
current surface description.
Grid computations are performed only on data whose plan view
lies within a defined window, which defaults to the smallest rectangle containing all the points. The window definition is normally handled automatically, but may be manually defined via the
Window surface operation.
Surface commands
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If a grid already exists in the current surface and you wish to create a new grid reflecting different cell parameters or grid methods, you must first clear the old grid and derivatives parts from
the current surface using Surface Operations dialog or use one of
the following surface operations which clear and regenerate the
grid in one step: window, cellsize, cellcount and cellfactor.
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If you receive a Grid undefined error, you have the probably used
surface operation Window improperly or set a cell size larger than
the x,y range of your data. If the current window and your data set
do not overlap, when viewed from plan view, a Grid undefined
error may result. Setting the window while in a UCS will cause
further confusion as the window will be set using UCS coordinates and your data will more than likely be in world coordinates
(WCS). Please be careful to understand the differences between a
UCS and WCS coordinates, see your AutoCAD manual for a
detailed discussion.
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The Grid command honors any boundary set with the Boundary
command and only cells within the current boundary are shown
or drawn. The selection criterion for a cell being inside or outside
of a boundary is set in the Configure Boundary dialog box.
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Grid
The next prompt you get will depend on which display option you
select.
Showing the grid
Grid
Surface <current> : select or press ? to pick from dialog
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: S
Dots/Horizontal/Vertical/Both <B>:
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Surface commands
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Selecting Dots will display the grid as an array of dots at the grid
intersections. Horizontal will display the grid lines parallel to the X
axis; Vertical will display those parallel to the Y axis; Both will display the full orthogonal grid. Color options for displaying the
grid may be set via the Surface Colors dialog. For perspective
views you may want to vertically exaggerate the grid using Surface operations multiply (*). Showing the grid in combination
with the Surface view command can create striking displays.
Drawing the grid
Grid
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Draws the grid in the selected form as AutoCAD drawing entities, honoring any boundaries set with the Boundary command as
follows:
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Grid as Dots
Draws a point at each node of the grid. Points are drawn on the
current layer, unless overridden by the surface operations Layer
setting. Color is BYLAYER, unless overridden by the Surface Colors dialog.
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Dots/3dFaces/Polyface/Mesh <P>: D
Grid as 3D Faces
Dots/3dFaces/Polyface/Mesh <P>: 3
Invisible/Horizontal/Vertical/Both <B>:
Draws 3D faces on the grid surface with neither, horizontal, vertical or both edges visible as selected. Faces are drawn on the current layer, unless overridden by the surface operations Layer
setting. Color is BYLAYER, unless overridden by the Surface Colors dialog.
Surface commands
Page 89
Grid as Polyfaces
Dots/3dFaces/Polyface/Mesh <P>: P
Invisible/Horizontal/Vertical/Both <B>: select
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Grid as Mesh
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Draws polyfaces on the grid surface with neither, horizontal, vertical or both edges visible as selected. Polyfaces are drawn on the
current layer, unless overridden by the surface operations Layer
setting. Color is BYLAYER, unless overridden by the Surface Colors dialog.
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Dots/3dFaces/Polyface/Mesh <P>: M
Fold undefined cells <Y>? N or enter for Y
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Surface commands
Contour
CONT
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Surface commands
Page 91
The next prompt you get depends on which display option you
select.
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Displays the contours in the current viewport, but does not add
them to the drawing.
Drawing the contours
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PD
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None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: D
Close all <N>? select
Surface commands
Contour Interval
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Contour Interval
The contour interval may be set via the Configure Contour dialog
box, or directly using the Contour Interval menu command.
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Surface modification
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You may enter the desired contour interval from the keyboard or
pick it from the side bar menu if present. If you respond with
Auto you will be prompted for the number of levels to use. The
number of levels represents the number of intervals the Z range of
the data points is divided into while automatically choosing a
contour interval.
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Surface modification is accomplished using the surface operations commands. These are described in the surface operations
chapter. The command descriptions which follow simply show
how to access the surface operations sub-system.
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Surface modification
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SOP
Surface Options
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Four commonly used surface commands are clustered for convenience under the Surface Options menu. All of them may be
accessed via the surface operations dialog or the configuration
dialogs.
CSURF
Sets the current surface to the surface name specified. This surface name will be offered as the default name in any subsequent
Surface: prompts.
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Current surface
Page 94
Surface modification
Window
Cell Size
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Surface viewing
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PD
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The surface viewing tools can also greatly speed your work when
dealing with large surfaces such as DEM topographic models. By
using these surface viewing tools along with the show mode of
the surface drawing commands, you can avoid placing large
objects (meshes and point sets) into the drawing as drawing entities. This allows you to investigate the surface from different
viewpoints without waiting on regens and redraws.
Surface viewing
Page 95
Surface zoom
SZOOM
Surface zoom allows you to immediately zoom so the view cov-
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ers an area centered over and slightly larger than the selected surface.
View Options -> Surface zoom
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SPLAN
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but it forces the view to plan view in the current UCS prior to
zooming over the surface.
View Options -> Surface plan view
Surface <current>: select or press ? to pick from dialog
Page 96
Surface viewing
Surface view
SVIEW
Surface view allows you to create a perspective view simulating
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standing on the surface and looking at another point on the surface. This command should be run from plan view. The command
prompts you to graphically pick a camera position and a target
position for a specified surface, then it determines the 3D location
of the camera and target and executes AutoCADs DVIEW command to place you in the correct perspective view. The camera
height and lens length are set in the Configure camera dialog.
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SETCAM
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Configure camera
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Within the dialog box you are prompted for camera height and
lens length.
Height above surface
The height of the camera above the surface. The default is 10. If
the surface is in units of feet, this represents a camera height of
ten feet above the surface. You will find that a camera height
somewhat taller than a persons eye height works best. Using
camera heights of hundreds or thousands produce nice perspective aerial views.
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Surface viewing
Camera lens
Boundaries
Set Boundary
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BOUND
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You may limit the area in which Points, Breaks, TINs, TGRDs,
Grids, Contours or draped objects are displayed by specifying
one or more closed polylines as boundaries with the Set Boundary command. The boundaries may be nested. Boundaries are
very useful for presentation purposes and volumetric limitations.
Please refer to Chapter 9 (page 269) on boundaries for a description of how boundaries are used in Quicksurf.
Boundary Options -> Set Boundary
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Show/New/DIsable/Enable/DElete/Read/Write <DI>: N
Redefining Boundary...
Return to select all visible or
Select objects: select
Select boundary entities via the normal AutoCAD object selection methods. The (valid) objects selected will reported and
become the currently effective set of boundaries.
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Show/New/DIsable/Enable/DElete/Read/Write <DI>: D
Boundary Disabled
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Show/New/DIsable/Enable/DElete/Read/Write <DI>: E
Boundary Enabled
PD
Delete boundary
Show/New/DIsable/Enable/DElete/Read/Write <DI>: DE
Boundary Deleted
Deletes last defined boundary set from memory. Does not delete
any drawing entities.
The boundary once selected can only be cleared with this command. Boundary entities may be frozen or erased with no effect
on the boundary once selected.
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Boundaries
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Show/New/DIsable/Enable/DElete/Read/Write <DI>:R
Invokes standard file dialog
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Allows you to read an ASCII boundary file from disk. Select the
boundary file to read from the file dialog box. ASCII boundary
files are completely described in the Read ASCII Boundaries
command section earlier in this chapter.
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Show/New/DIsable/Enable/DElete/Read/Write <DI>:W
Invokes standard file dialog
Boundaries
Page 101
Annotation
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These commands provide annotation features for refining Quicksurf models into finished drawings. With the exception of Post
from memory, these commands only operate on entities that have
been drawn into the drawing, not on shown objects.
POST
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Posts values into the drawing directly from surface memory based
upon the current settings in the Configure post dialog box. This
command offers the Show/Draw/Redraw option and honors the
current boundary and AutoCAD Units settings. Unlike the other
annotation commands, Post from memory posts values directly
from surface memory, not from drawn AutoCAD entities.
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The values of the points in the current surface are posted at each
point in the current text style and at the text height, rotation and
offset specified in the Configure Post dialog box. The number of
significant digits displayed to the right of the decimal point is
controlled by the setting within the AutoCAD Units command.
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Annotation
Configure post
SETPOST
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The Configure Post dialog box controls text height, rotation, justification and position (offset) of posted values displayed by the
Post from memory command. Selecting Configure Post from the
Annotate menu invokes the following dialog box.
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Nine preset text placements are offered in the upper left corner of
the dialog box. These nine selections correspond to top left, top
center, top right, center left, center, center right, bottom left, bottom center and bottom right. The text offset (relative to the point
being posted) is a function of the text height being used. One of
the nine preset positions may be selected by clicking on one of
the nine boxes themselves.
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Position
Page 103
Text Height
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Alternatively, you may click on the Pick offset button and graphically pick the offset that the posted value will have relative to the
point being posted. Discrete text offsets may be entered in the X,
Y, Z edit boxes if desired. Either the preset text offsets, or the
user defined offsets are used, not both.
Text Rotation
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The rotation angle of the posted text may be entered in the Rotation edit box or input graphically by clicking on the Pick rotation
button. Upon clicking on this button the dialog box temporarily
disappears, allowing you to indicate a rotation by picking one
point which anchors a rubber-band line with which you indicate
the desired rotation. The rotation angle you picked is placed into
the Rotation edit box. The direction and units of the angle measurements are based upon the AutoCAD Units settings.
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Text Justification
Text justification (left, center or right) only applies if a discrete
text offset is specified. These selections are grayed out is one of
the nine preset positions is selected. These settings are identical
to AutoCAD text justification conventions and justify the text relative to the offset point specified.
Annotation
Post entities
DPOST
Post entities labels selected drawing entities with their z values.
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careful to select only the entities you want posted when using this
command. By default, only POINTs, SHAPEs and INSERTed
blocks can be processed.
Annotate -> Post entities
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Quicksurf will suggest the best justification for text given the
text rotation angle and the position of text relative to the control
point. For example, if text is posted to the upper right-hand corner of a control point, it would ordinarily be best to left justify it.
Conversely, if the text is posted to the upper left-hand corner of a
control point, right justification would be appropriate. The available justifications are left, center, middle, and right, as in the
AutoCAD Text command.
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Page 106
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Posting shortcut
Normally posting is done in conjunction with turning off or freezing unwanted layers, until just the entities to post are visible, then
running Post entities. When posting a large number of point entities is a drawing, this procedure can be cumbersome. The Post
entities command can accept an AutoCAD selection set at the
Select objects: prompt. If the drawing entities to be posted all
reside on the same layer, you may build a selection set of just
those entities to feed to Post entities. A handy tool to accomplish
this with is Select by Z. Select by Z prompts you for a layer name
and a minimum and maximum range of entity Z values and creAnnotation
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If the text height appears incorrect or the aspect of the text seems
strange, you probably are using a text style with a fixed, rather
than variable, text height. Use the AutoCAD Style command to
set the text height to 0.0 (variable) and try again.
Annotation
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Objects snaps and snap modes can cause the posted values to be
snapped to unrelated drawing entities. Turn off all snaps prior to
using Post entities.
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Smooth Contours
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SMOO
Annotation
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Smoothing variables
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d to decurve
f to fit
s to spline (default)
Example:
Command: (setq howsmooth s splinesegs -1)
Annotation
Page 109
Index Contours
INDEX
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Label contours
LABEL
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Annotation
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If Label contours is not prompting you for text height, you may
have a fixed text (rather than variable) height set in your
AutoCAD Style command. Running the Style command and setting text height to 0.0 (variable) will bring back the text height
prompt.
Page 111
Auto-Label Contours
MLABEL
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The Auto-Label Contours command is identical to the Label Contours command except for location determination. The 3D
polylines generated by 3D Flowlines make good guide polylines.
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Annotation
Hachure contours
TICK
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Draws evenly spaced, locally perpendicular tick marks (hachuring) on selected polylines.
Annotate -> Hachure Contours
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If a selected polyline is a 2D polyline (as are all Quicksurf-generated contours), the ticks are drawn at the elevation of the polyline.
If it is a 3D polyline, the ticks are drawn at the current elevation
setting on the assumption that they will be moved to the correct
elevation later using the Drape command.
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At the next prompt, select whether the tick marks should extend
downward (D), upward (U), or be centered (C) on the polylines.
For most purposes, ticks are applied downward and only on the
closed contours of a depression. The centered option is useful for
quickly constructing cross section orientations in highway design
or building a quick railroad symbol.
Annotation
Page 113
Color control
Surface colors
PAINT
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The Surface color dialog settings only affect surfaces which are
subsequently displayed, it does not change surfaces which have
previously displayed. These settings control all surface coloration for the remainder of the drawing session unless changed by
you or another configuration is read using Read Configuration.
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AutoCAD entity
Point
Line
PFace mesh
3D Faces
Page 114
Color control
Point
3D polyline
Mesh
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Method
You may color a surface based upon its Elevation, Slope in
degrees, Slope in percent, Light, Shadow, Visibility, Direction,
by Another surfaces Z value, or use no special coloration. Each
option is described individually:
Color control
Page 115
Z Elevation
Slope (Degrees)
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The surface is colored based upon its Z value. The specific elevation versus color is controlled by the Configure Colors dialog.
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Slope (Percent)
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Surface areas are colored based upon how they would be illuminated by a single light source. The surface is colored based upon
the angle of incidence of the light falling on the surface. You
must specify both a light source location and a target location to
use this option. Doing so establishes a direction vector for the
light. All light rays are considered to be parallel to this direction
vector.
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Light
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Color control
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The illuminated parts of the surface are colored based upon the
angle of incidence and the specific angle versus color sequence
specified in the Configure Colors dialog. The color of each face
(triangle or grid cell) is based upon the angle between the light
ray and that face or grid cell. Zero degrees represents lighting
parallel to the face and ninety degrees represents light falling normal (perpendicular) to the face. Only illuminated areas of a surface are shown or drawn. Areas of a surface in shadow or
illuminated from below are not colored.
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For natural lighting studies you may select the Locate Sun button (described below) to automatically set the Source and Target
locations based upon a date, time and site latitude.
The shadow option is the inverse to the Light option. Only surface areas in shadow are colored based upon a specific light
source and target. The surface is colored based upon the angle of
incidence of the light direction and the surface. The coloration
indicated how deeply shadowed various areas of the surface are.
You must specify both a light source location and a target location
to use this option. Doing so establishes a direction vector for the
light. All light rays are considered to be parallel to this direction
vector.
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Shadow
Color control
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The shadowed parts of the surface are colored based upon the
angle of incidence and the specific angle versus color sequence
specified in the Configure Colors dialog. The color of each face
(triangle or grid cell) is based upon the angle between the light
ray and that face or grid cell. Zero degrees represents a face parallel to the light direction and ninety degrees represents a face
pointing directly away from the light source. Only shadowed
areas of a surface are shown or drawn. Areas of a surface illuminated by the light are not shown or drawn.
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For natural lighting studies you may select the Locate Sun button (described below) to automatically set the Source and Target
locations based upon a date, time and site latitude.
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Locate Sun
Color control
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Specify the date by placing the day in the day edit box, selecting
the month from the pull-down list and specifying the year in the
year edit box.
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Visibility
Color control
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Direction
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For example, if you chose only four colors in the Configure Colors dialog box, then used the Direction option, the surface would
be displayed in four colors, representing those faces pointing
between west and north in first color, north to east in the second
color, east to south in the third color and south to west in the
fourth color. Selecting 36 colors would divide the compass into
ten degree increments and color faces based upon those 36
classes.
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The Direction option colors a each triangle or grid cell of a surface based upon its aspect (the direction in which it faces). The
number of colors selected in the Configure Colors dialog box
determines into how many groups the 360 degrees of the compass
are divided. All of the faces or grid cells of the surface are sorted
into these color groups based upon the direction they are facing.
Direction is measured counterclockwise from the positive x axis.
The transition from 360 to 0 degrees always produces a discontinuity.
Another Surface
You may color one surface based upon the Z value of a different
surface. The specific elevation versus color relationship is controlled by the Configure Colors dialog. This powerful feature
allows you to display the geometry of one surface colored by the
z value of a different surface. The geometry of the displayed
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Color control
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None
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The Surface Color Sequence dialog allows you to control the colors and their display sequence relative to the property (elevation,
slope, etc.) being used to color a surface. Every color sequence
starts at a Starting Color, and increments color-by-color for the
specified Number of Colors. For example, if you are breaking the
range of Z elevations in a surface into ten equal intervals the
Number of Colors would be 10. If you chose 20 as the Starting
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Color control
Color, the lowest interval would be displayed in color 20, the next
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in color 21, the next in color 22, etc. through color 29. In this
way you may use any contiguous part of the 256 color range for
your interval color sequence.
The standard AutoCAD color sequence is not very useful for
most mapping applications as is, so Quicksurf allows you to redefine the color sequence in any order to suit your needs. By pressing the Setup Remapped Colors button, you may design custom
color sequences to match your display needs. Several standard
color remapping files are included with Quicksurf.
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The resulting color sequence and values for each color are shown
in the sample surface color legend on the right side of the dialog
box. This display changes dynamically as you adjust your color
settings.
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Color control
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Starting Color
Number of Colors
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Blank Color
The color used for gaps in defined intervals when using the Set
Intervals option.
Use Range
When the Use Range checkbox is marked, only those areas of the
surface existing between the specified minimum and maximum
values will be displayed. The range between the Minimum and
Maximum values is used together with the Number of Colors to
determine interval colors. Ranges may be used either to clip the
data being displayed or to force breaks between color intervals to
occur at specific values (see example below).
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Color control
Maximum value
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Values above this are displayed in the same high color, being the
next higher one in the color sequence. The value is in the units of
the property being used for coloring (elevation, slope in degrees,
slope in percent, angle of incidence in degrees, etc.).
Minimum value
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Values below this are displayed in the same low color, being the
next lower one in the color sequence. The value is in the units of
the property being used for coloring (elevation, slope in degrees,
slope in percent, angle of incidence in degrees, etc.).
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For this same data set if you selected Use Range; Minimum of
20.0; Maximum of 80.0; and Number of Colors of 6, all values
below 20.0 would be shown in the low color; all values greater
than 80.0 would be shown in the high color; values from 20 to 30
would be in the starting color; 30 to 40 in the next color; and so
on.
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For example, if you are using color by elevation and your data
ranges from 8 to 91 meters in elevation, not specifying a range
will give you odd color intervals. If you wanted to have twenty
color intervals, each representing five meters, you would select
the Use Range checkbox; set a Minimum of 0.0; set a Maximum
of 100.0; and set Number of Colors to 20. This would result in
the Starting Color for 0 - 5 meters, the next color for 5 - 10 meters
and so on. The resulting surface color legend is previewed on the
right side of the dialog box.
Set Interval
Pressing the Set Interval button invokes an interval definition
dialog box. The intervals are automatically filled in based upon
the settings of Starting Color, Number of Colors and any range
settings as well as the maximum and minimum values of the current surface or the Use Range settings. Generally you will want
Color control
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Color control
high color for all values above the highest defined interval and
low color for all values below the lowest defined interval. These
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are the next color above and below the color sequence being used
respectively.
The key to effective use of intervals is based on setting the Number of Colors and a Maximum and Minimum in the Use Range box
in the Configure Colors dialog prior to pressing the Set Intervals
button. This allows Quicksurf to intelligently fill in the intervals
for you and reduce your time spent editing interval definitions.
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Remap Colors
DCMAP
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Color control
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The Remap Colors dialog box is separated into two large color
maps. The upper map represents the standard AutoCAD color
sequence for your display configuration. The lower map represents the re-mapped colors. Each map displays color #1 in the
upper left corner. The color numbers increase from left to right
across each row and continue on the left side of the next row.
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Color control
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Selects the color assignment method used when points, TIN, grid
or contours are shown on screen with the Show option when no
Surface Color options are in effect.
XOR Option
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Invisible Option
Color control
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Contour colors
Contours may be colored with one of three methods.
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If you respond Yes for color contours, you are prompted for the
method for contour coloring. The next prompt will depend on
which you choose:
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Cycle Option
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At the starting color prompt, set the color for the lowest contour
on the drawing. At the number of colors prompt, set the number
of colors to use. Contours will be assigned this sequence of colors
in order of ascending z value. This option may be used together
with remapped colors to provide any desired contour color
sequence. If you are operating your monitor in a 256 color mode,
load the STDQS color remapping file and set a Starting color of 1
and Number of colors to 20. This will yield a smoothly graduated
color range on most graphics cards. Refer to the Configure Colors
section in this chapter how to load a color remapping file.
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Cycle/Interval/Split <I>: C
Starting color <1>: value
Number of colors to be used <6>: value
Interval Option
Causes every Nth contour to be highlighted.
Cycle/Interval/Split <I>: I
Base color for contours <5>: value
Highlighted color contours <1>: value
Interval for highlighted contour <5>: value
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Color control
Split Option
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At the Base color prompt, set the color for non-highlighted contours. At the Highlighted color prompt, set the color for highlighted
contours. At the interval prompt, set the interval for highlighting.
The response shown above would display blue (5) contours with
every fifth contour in red (1). Note that the example interval (5)
highlights every fifth contour, not an interval of five feet or
meters.
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Cycle/Interval/Split <I>: S
Low color for contours <5>: value
High color for contours <1>: value
Elevation for color split <450.0>: value
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At the Low color prompt, set the color number for lower elevations; at the High color prompt, set the color number for higher elevations. At the elevation prompt, set the elevation at which the
colors are to split. If a contour falls exactly on the split elevation,
it is displayed in the low color. If the split elevation is above the
highest or below the lowest elevation all the contours will be displayed in one color.
Screen fill
PFILL
Colors a closed polygon with the selected AutoCAD color in the
same manner as AutoCADs Hatch command. This is a screen
paint operation only, and a Redraw will remove the color.
Pfill
Return to select all visible or
Select objects: select closed polylines
Color control
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Color control
Volumetrics
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Volumes may be computed directly from surfaces residing in surface memory using the Surface volume, Area volume or Boundary volume command or computed from a drawn TIN, TGRD or
Grid using the Volume by entity command. None of these volume
functions use the current boundary which may have been set with
the Set Boundary command, rather they prompt for closed
polylines representing areas under which to calculate volumes if
areas are required. Please refer to the chapter on volumetrics for
a complete discussion on calculating volumes.
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Volume calculation
Volume may be calculated between a surface and the zero plane
(i.e. sea-level), between a surface and a constant elevation, or
between two surfaces. If the volume requested is between two
surfaces or between a surface and a constant, the results surface
<.> will contain the actual thickness surface for which the volume
is calculated. You may show or draw this surface to confirm its
Volumetrics
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Planar TIN
TIN w/ Deriv
Grid
TGRD
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Select the surface under which to calculate volumes from the surface pick list. If this surface represents thickness, the volume
should be computed between this surface and the zero (XY)
plane. If the volume to be computed lies between two surfaces or
between one surface and a constant elevation you will need to
specify the second surface or constant.
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Volumetrics
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Constant
If the desired volume is between a surface and a plane of constant
elevation, select the check box next to the Constant selection and
enter the constant value in the edit box. A surface representing
the difference between the first surface and the constant (first surface minus constant) is computed and placed in the results <.>
surface and the volume is calculated.
This option is convenient for determining reservoir volumes at
different water levels.
Volumetrics
Page 135
None
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The volume between the first surface and the zero plane is computed. Select the check box next to None. Use this for computing the volume of a surface already representing thickness.
File output
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ASCII
None
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Area volume and Boundary volume allow for the volumes within
multiple sub-areas of the surface to be calculated. When multiple
area polygons are selected, selecting the Label Areas checkbox
will cause each polygon to be sequentially labeled with area numbers. These area numbers correspond to the area numbering in
the volume report. The labels are placed on the current layer, in
the current text style, and at a text height equal to the grid cell
size, unless overridden by a current text style containing a fixed
text height.
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Label areas
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If a volume units conversion factor and units name has been specified in the Configure Units dialog, the volumes will be converted
and displayed in the specified units. Specify the file name using
the standard file dialog.
Volumetrics
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After selecting the options in the Surface Volume dialog box and
pressing OK, you are prompted to select area polygons (if
needed) and the calculated volumes are displayed on the text
screen. The volume results are written to a file or database table
if requested.
Volumes reported
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Area
1
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VOLUMES:
Total
Positive Volume
15025.1
10215.3
982.5
26222.9
Reported in Cu.Yds.
Using 0.37037 cubic units/Cu.Yds.
Negative Volume
14215.5
9812.4
3402.5
27430.4
Net Volume
809.6
402.9
-2420.0
-1207.5
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Surface volume
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SVOL
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The Total Volume reported represents the volume under the entire
surface.
Volumetrics
Area volume
AVOL
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Volumetrics
Page 139
Boundary volume
BVOL
Boundary volume is a special case of Area Volume where the
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Boundary volumes was designed for petroleum industry calculation of "hydrocarbon pore volume" maps. In these situations a
negotiated zero-line representing the absolute zero edge of the
hydrocarbon accumulation is determined and must be honored
exactly by all volume calculation. The zero-line polygon should
be drawn at an elevation of zero. The Z value of the surface
being calculated is forced to zero everywhere along this zero line.
This is quite different from the polygon area boundaries which
honor the Z value of the surface.
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Volumetrics
Volume by entity
VOLUME
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Volumetrics
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If the resultant faces extend above and below zero datum, the
included volume between the surface and zero will be reported
separately along with the total of the two. If a single face penetrates through the zero plane, a single net volume is calculated for
that face, rather than separate positive and negative portions.
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Volumetrics
Design Tools
Drape
DRAPE
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Results of draping
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Any AutoCAD entity may be draped, but the results are not necessarily meaningful. The following rules apply:
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Drape replaces the original entity with the new draped entity. If
you want both the original entity and the new draped entity, make
a copy of the entity prior to draping it.
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Design Tools
Drape configuration
Using Drape
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Flatten
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FLATTEN
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Design Tools
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Vertical multiplier
The vertical exaggeration applied to the flattened profile. The
default is one.
Text size for labeling
The text size for the numerical labels in drawing units.
Base elevation for grid
The lowest elevation shown on the flattened profile.
Draw grid background
Controls whether a gray background grid is drawn behind the
profile line.
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Design Tools
Vertical spacing
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The terms profile and
cross section are used
interchangeably here.
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Cross-section
SECT
The Cross section command creates a 2D profile or cross-section
of a surface. You specify a line or polyline representing a line of
section and a surface name. A line of section represents the plan
view path where the profile or section is to be cut.
Design Tools
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The Cross section command is different from the Flatten command. Cross section only uses the plan view information of the
line of section and obtains its Z information directly from the
named surface. Flatten obtains its Z information from the vertices of the 3D polyline supplied and cannot use 2D drawing entities as lines of section. Cross section can use 2D or 3D entities as
lines of section, although 2D entities are preferred.
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Intersect slope
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For most uses, Cross section replaces the Drape - Flatten combination used to create a profiles or cross sections in earlier versions of Quicksurf.
ISLOPE
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The target surface must contain a TIN, TGRD or grid prior to running Intersect slope.
Design Tools -> Intersect Slope
Surface name <current>: select surface to project upon
Select control lines
Return to select all or
Select objects: select control polyline (2D or 3D)
Setup dialog <Y>: Yes to access Configure Slopes dialog
Design Tools
Page 149
Configure Slopes
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The Configure Slopes dialog box may be invoked in-line to specify projection slope angles and directions relative to the control
line. The slope specifications from this configuration dialog control the behavior of the Intersect slope command.
SETSLOPE
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The settings in the Configure Slopes dialog box are used by both
the Intersect slope and the Apply section commands. Both these
commands draw 3D polylines representing the intersection of a
slope projected from a 3D polyline and a surface.
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Design Tools
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Design Tools
Page 151
Vertical align
VALIGN
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Reverses the effect of the Flatten command by applying the vertical (Y axis) profile of a modified polyline from the 2D vertical
profile back to the original horizontal alignment polyline used to
create the profile. Some definitions will help understand this process:
Horizontal alignment polyline
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The 2D polyline representing the original vertical profile as produced by Flatten or Cross-section.
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Design Tools
Vertical align
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Workflow
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By the time you run the Vertical align command you will have a
draped 3D polyline on the surface, a 2D flattened profile of that
3D polyline and a new 2D polyline on the flattened profile representing the new vertical alignment.
Design Tools
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directly from the surface without draping the 2D polyline used for
the horizontal alignment. Vertical align will accept this 2D
polyline for the horizontal alignment and build a new 3D polyline
representing the new vertical alignment.
Page 154
Design Tools
Apply section
APSEC
Apply section sweeps a cross section template along a control line
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Design Tools
Page 155
Workflow
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Design Tools
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Design Tools
Page 157
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Design Tools
Surface
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Ending Cross-section
If a transition between two different sections is specified, a second cross-section template must be selected. The same questions
will be asked for the second cross-section polyline. The nature
of the transition between the two cross-sections is controlled by
the settings in the Configure Slopes dialog.
Design Tools
Page 159
Control line
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Segment
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The control line represents the final design path for the road and
usually is the result of using Vertical align to design the roads
vertical curvature.
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Design Tools
Build surface
QSBLD
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These commands will prompt for points, lines and angles as necessary. Normal AutoCAD selection methods apply, including
object snaps. Angles are specified in degrees by default, but may
be changed using the Configure Units dialog. A surface is created
in the results <.> surface within the defined window, ready for
draping. Any pre-existing contents of the results <.> surface are
lost. If the results surface contains data which will be overwritten, a warning message is displayed in the lower left corner on the
dialog box, as shown.
Design Tools
Page 161
Plane
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Cone
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A 2D polyline section is revolved around a point to create a surface. The section to be revolved may be a drawn 2D polyline or a
section specified by pairs of distances and angles in the Standard
Section dialog box. After selecting Revolve Section and clicking on OK, the following prompts appear:
Center point: enter or snap to object
Standard section / User section <User>: select
Page 162
Design Tools
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By clicking on a section icon, the corresponding number of segments will be highlighted in the dimensions section. For example, clicking on the upper right icon will select a three segment
section. This will cause dimensions A, B and C to be enabled and
D through H to be grayed out. For each segment specify the distance and slope from the previous segment.
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Page 163
Intersect surface
Surface region
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REGION
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more arbitrary boundaries. In this way polyface meshes representing patches of a surface may be created. This is useful for
breaking areas of a surface into component parts which may have
different properties (such as roadway versus shoulder versus
grass). For rendering purposes it is convenient to break a surface
up into patches which will be assigned different materials (such
as fairway versus green versus rough).
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Design Tools
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The Surface region command creates a polyface mesh representing the surface within the specified boundary polygon(s). If the
number of faces exceeds AutoCADs face limit for polyface
meshes the surface region is automatically partitioned into multiple polyface meshes. The internal vertices of the polyface
meshes created have the same location that grid nodes would
have. The spacing of the internal nodes is controlled by the cell
size parameters in the Configure Grid dialog box.
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If only points are in the surface when the command is run, a TIN
and derivatives are automatically calculated. If break lines are
present, they are honored exactly.
Extrapolate
Extsurf
Extrapolate uses local triangulation and surface gradients to
adjust the Z values of AutoCAD drawing entities which lie adjacent to, but not overlying a surface. Points, lines, polylines and
circles are the only entities modified. Extrapolate functions similar to Drape in the sense that it does not affect the plan view
shape of a chosen line or polyline, it only modifies the Z values of
the vertices. Point, line and polyline entities have their Z values
Design Tools
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ties lying a short distance off of the edge of a surface. A few new
points may be drawn, adjusted with Extrapolate, then used to
extend a surface. A 2D polyline representing the plan view of a
geologic fault may be turned into a 3D polyline using only control points on one side of the fault. Entities adjusted with this
command serve as a starting point for surface editing. As with
any extrapolation, the result should be viewed with great suspicion and adjusted as necessary.
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Design Tools
Utilities
Elevation utilities
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TrackZ
TRACKZ
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The elevation (z) value of the current surface at the present position of the cursor will be displayed at the top left of the AutoCAD
drawing screen. If the cursor does not overlie the surface, a surface elevation of UNDEFINED will be reported. Track Z may be
run from plan view or an oblique view. From an oblique view, a
vertical probe will extend from the cursor crosshairs to the surface.
Utilities
Page 167
Display Z of entity
DELEV
Select one object via the normal AutoCAD object selection methods. The elevation (z value) associated with the object will be displayed on the command line. The elevation of each object you
select is displayed. Press return to exit.
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CELEV
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Utilities
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ues associated with them. It is very useful for setting the z values
of groups of 2D polylines such as contours.
Set Z
SETZ
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SCALEZ
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Scale Z of entities
Utilities
Page 169
Select by Z
SELZ
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Select by Z
CHPROP
Select objects: P (This selects the previous selection set)
11 selected
Change what property (Color/LAyer/LType/Thickness)? C
New Color <varies>: Red
Page 170
Utilities
Quicksurf utilities
Generate terrain
TGEN
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QSOPT
Keyword: Genseed
Seed number for terrain generator: value
Utilities
Page 171
Command list
QS
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Quicksurf Version
QSVER
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TIN edge
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Utilities
3D flowlines
FLOW
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Utilities
Page 173
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The starting point(s) of the flowlines are chosen either by selecting objects or by pressing Enter to use the interactive mode. If
you select objects, their X,Y locations are used as starting points.
Selecting a polyline causes each vertex of the polyline to be used
as a starting point. In the interactive mode you will be prompted
for each starting point.
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Utilities
Grid pedestal
GPED
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Surface <current>:
Elevation for base <default>: value or enter for default
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The default value offered for the base elevation will be the lowest
elevation occurring on the grid; accept this value or enter any
other value. A pedestal will be drawn if a grid exists in the current
surface; otherwise the operation will fail. The pedestal will
extend downward to the specified base elevation.
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The pedestal is drawn around the edge of the grid, or the edge of
any boundary that is in effect. As long as the grid and the pedestal are both drawn with the same boundaries in effect they will
always align properly. Nested boundaries produce nested pedestals.
Moving average
MAVG
Creates a moving average of a surface. This is a simple surface
smoothing routine which generates a gridded array of points
based on the <.> surface. The resulting points may then be
extracted to generate a smoothed surface. This routine may be
used to de-sample a data set to sparser control or as an averaging
filter.
Utilities
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Matrix size
FC
Cell size
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Lower left corner and upper right corner for the new grid points.
This may extend beyond limits of current surface. The lower left
is exact, upper right approximate.
Once the new grid nodes have been drawn, use Extract to surface
(QSX) to extract them, then contour the results <.> surface to
view the smoothing.
Utilities
Variogram design
VARIO
Kriging is a geostatistical method of surface estimation which uti-
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lizes the relationship between variance 2 (in Z) versus the statistical distance between data points. Kriging forces the mean error
to zero and attempts to minimize the variance of the errors.
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( h)
Sill
Nugget
Distance (h)
A gaussian semi-variogram
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as a line graph, rather than a bar graph, with the estimated sill line
draw horizontally. The variogram is designed graphically right
on top of the displayed graph. You are prompted for variogram
type, nugget, range and sill and the resulting variogram is displayed. The variogram design may be interactively altered as
needed. Once accepted, all subsequent grids produced by the
Krige method will use this variogram design.
Utilities -> Quicksurf utilities -> Variogram design
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Surface <.>:
Number of histogram intervals <24>: value
Select variogram window first corner: pick
Select second corner: pick
Variogram type <default> : specify Linear, Exponential, Spherical, etc.
Point at y=nugget <default>: pick graphically or enter value
Point at range, sill <default>: pick graphically or enter range, sill
Select variogram point below sill <default>: pick graphically or enter point
Variogram finished? <No>: Yes to accept, No to revise variogram
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Variogram window
The variogram is temporarily displayed in the window you specify. The variogram is shown, not drawn and is removed from the
display once the design is accepted. Graphically pick the two
corners of a rectangular window in which to place the variogram
display.
Utilities
Variogram type
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a )
(h ) = 1 e
( 3h a )
, where a is the
variogram model.
Utilities
Page 179
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A Piecewise continuous variogram consists of two linear segments. The first segment is linear from the nugget to the range,
sill point, then constant at the sill value at distances greater than
the range.
A Hole variogram is used when modeling periodic data. After
supplying the nugget, you are prompted for a point representing
the period (wavelength) and the sill; rather than the range,sill.
Nugget
Range
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The nugget is the term for the Y-intercept of the variogram curve.
This value represents the allowable variance at a distance of zero
(i.e. at the data point). A zero nugget forces the surface to pass
through each data point exactly; a positive value for the nugget
allows for the surface to differ from an actual data point within
the specified variance.
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The range is a term for the distance beyond which the variance
does not change significantly. The range represents a distance
beyond which point elevations have little or no influence on the
surface Z value being estimated. If the inter-point spacing is
larger than the range, the resulting surface surrounding each point
will have the shape of the inverted variogram.
Sill
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Utilities
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This version of Quicksurf supports isotropic kriging. The underlying assumption is that the data structure is isotropic and that
variograms utilizing the direction as well as distance between
points would be the same.
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There is considerable literature on kriging. Two good introductory references on kriging are
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E. Isaaks and R. Srivastava. An Introduction to Applied Geostatistics. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. 1989.
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Voronoi diagram
VOR
Displays the Voronoi triangles for the TIN of the current surface.
The Voronoi triangle vertices represent the circumcenters of the
vertices of each triangle of the TIN. A circumcenter is the center
of a circle which passes through all three vertices of a TIN triangle. To understand this, show a TIN, then run this command and
show the Voronoi triangles on top of the TIN.
Utilities
Page 181
Polyline utilities
Swap ends
SWAPPOLY
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3D polyline offset
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3DOFFSET
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Creates a new 3D polyline in which is offset a specified horizontal and vertical distance from an original 3D polyline. You are
prompted to select a 3D polyline and supply a horizontal and vertical offset and whether to offset it to the right or left side. Right
and left are defined as if you are standing on the first vertex looking at the second vertex of the original 3D polyline. A new 3D
polyline is created by offsetting each vertex of the original
polyline normal to the plan view of original polyline by the horizontal and vertical distances specified. No checking for self
intersection or "bow-tie" geometry is done.
Create boundary
CBND
Creates a closed polyline out of a set of lines or polylines which
share exact endpoints. For example, four lines forming a square
could be selected and a square polyline would be drawn. Such
polylines could then be used with the Set Boundary command.
Utilities
Make 2D poly
MK2DPOLY
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Merge 3D polyline
3PEDIT
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Densify vertices
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DENSIFY
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Export 3D polyline
XSEIS
Utilities
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Weld 3D faces
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Polyface utilities
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WELD
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Surface area
SAREA
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Offset 3D mesh
LINER
Creates a polyface mesh offset normal to the surface of an existing polyface mesh. Each vertex of the new mesh is moved a user
specified distance normal from the original polyface mesh. The
primary usage is for designing pit liners for ponds and landfills.
Page 184
Utilities
General utilities
ESEL
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Erase selected
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Set layer
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Erases entities of the same type and on the same layer as the
selected entities. For example, selecting a TEXT object on the
layer NAMES will erase all TEXT entities on layer NAMES. Text on
other layers, and other drawing entities (such as lines or points)
on layer NAMES will be unaffected. The unique combination of
layer and entity type determines what is erased. Multiple objects
may be selected.
SETL
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Sets the current drawing layer in AutoCAD and turns all other
layers off. This has exactly the same effect as issuing the
AutoCAD LAYER command, selecting Set, naming a layer and
then turning all other layers OFF.
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Rubber sheeting
MAP
Utilities
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A roughly rectangular matrix of points is established on the original ("From") drawing and a corresponding set of point locations
for the resulting ("To") map is given. The set of From points
will be mapped onto a set of To points, and the remaining area
of the map will be stretched, warped, folded, or whatever is
required to obtain a continuous fit.
The selection of the two sets of points is very critical for good
results.
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First, the overall size of the From map should be close to the
size of the To map. If it is not, use the AutoCAD SCALE command to adjust its size before rubber sheeting.
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Rubber sheeting
Rows <2>: value
Columns <2>: value
From point 0,0: enter X,Y value or pick graphically
From point 0,1: enter X,Y value or pick graphically
From point 1,0: enter X,Y value or pick graphically
...
To point 0,0: enter X,Y value or pick graphically
To point 0,1: enter X,Y value or pick graphically
To point 1,0: enter X,Y value or pick graphically
...
...
Wait...
Z scale factor <1>: value
Utilities
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TILT
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Tilt
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Tilt
Utilities
Page 187
Untilt
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UNTILT
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Wrap to sphere
WRAP
Page 188
Utilities
This command does the inverse of the Unwrap to plane command. The selected objects are effectively transformed from an
orthogonal into a spherical coordinate system.
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As a rule Wrap will restore anything that was done with the
Unwrap command. The exception is that 2D polylines are
changed to 3D polylines by both commands. Since contours generated by Quicksurf are 2D polylines, they are always affected.
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Unwrap to plane
UNWRAP
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Unwrap to plane
Utilities
Page 189
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In the spherical domain, the north pole is in the positive y direction from the center; points in the positive z direction are at latitude and longitude of zero, as if one were looking at the center of
a globe through the point where the Equator and the Greenwich
meridian intersect.
When the objects are unwrapped, radius becomes the z offset
from the center, longitude (in radians) times radius becomes the x
offset, and latitude times radius becomes the y offset. In cartography, this is an equidistant cylindrical projection with the principal
parallel at the equator.
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Note that the unwrapping process creates a discontinuity at longitude (180 degrees) and at the poles.
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the center is very critical here, and it must be retained for use in
any subsequent Wrap operation.
Scale symbols
SCALESYM
Scales selected INSERTs about their centers. Commonly used to
resize blocks representing well or survey locations.
Page 190
Utilities
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Performs a quick and dirty load of an ASCII text file into the
drawing as AutoCAD text. The text is inserted on the current
layer, in the current text style. The entire file is inserted as if it
were following the previous text command. The location of the
text is on the next line following any previous text. Place a
dummy text line with the TEXT command at the desired location,
then run the LTEXT command.
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Sequentially number
NUMBER
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NUMBER
Sequentially numbers a the triangles of a drawn TIN. The numbering starts at one and is placed on the current layer in the current text style and height.
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Number triangles
Utilities
Page 191
Rarefy points
RAREFY
Rarefy points operates on a point set which is drawn into the
Rarefy points
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drawing and rarefies the point set based upon inter-point slope
and distance. Unwanted points are moved to a different layer.
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Control points that are extremely close to one another are not necessary to define a surface, and they may cause severe problems to
Quicksurf if there is even a slight error in their coordinates. The
Rarefy points routine moves unwanted points from their current
layers to the layer TOOCLOSE, so that they can be excluded from
extraction by freezing or turning off that layer.
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2. The slope between them is greater than or equal to the specified slope.
Only POINT entities are considered, if they are not already on the
layer TOOCLOSE. Other entities are ignored.
If only the 2D distance between points is to be considered, the
slope should be set to zero (default). This is normally the preferred method. If specified, the slope is interpreted as the absolute difference in elevation divided by the 2D distance.
Utilities
of points that are too close to one another, the point with the lowest Y coordinate will be retained, and others will be moved to
TOOCLOSE.
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Utilities
Page 193
Page 194
Quicksurf
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Configuration files
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Quicksurf configuration files are ASCII text files with the extension .QCF. Configuration files are read automatically when
Quicksurf is loaded or you open a drawing. When you open a
drawing with Quicksurf loaded, configuration files will be
searched for in the following order:
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1. <drawingname>.QCF
2. QS.QCF
If a configuration file with the same name as the drawing exists it
is loaded; if not, QS.QCF is loaded if found; if neither is found,
Quicksurf uses its internal default settings. The entire path
described by the ACAD path variable is searched.
Saving a configuration file with the same name as the current
drawing will cause the configuration to be automatically reloaded
the next time the drawing is opened. The entire Quicksurf environment will be restored automatically.
You may create a standard custom configuration by saving your
desired settings to QS.QCF in the directory in which Quicksurf is
installed. After doing so, any drawing without a custom configuration file will use the settings in the QS.QCF file.
Configuration files
Page 195
List Configuration
Yes
Max
0.0000
Auto
Auto
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curname =
surfsort =
window =
acute =
cellsize =
cellcnt =
...
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;
; File: /qs51/qs.qcf
; Quicksurf 5.1 Options
;
;Keyword =
Value(s)
; Description
;---------------------------------------------------------
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Page 196
Configuration files
Read Configuration
Read Configuration
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Save Configuration
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Save Configuration
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Factory Configuration
Factory Configuration
Version Info
QSVER
Echoes the version number of this Quicksurf program.
Configuration files
Page 197
Configure Grid
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The Configure Grid dialogue box allows you to set grid cell
parameters such as cell size. Widely varying grids can result
from various settings of these parameters. Take care when setting
them as they will remain in force until they are reset or a new
configuration file is loaded.
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Cell Size
Page 198
Configure Grid
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The cell size option should be used with care, as specifying small
cells over a large area causes very large grids to be built. The Cell
Size option overrides the maximum number of cells specified in
the Number of Cells box. Surface operations Cell Size sets this
variable also.
Cell Count
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Number of cells
Cell Factor
Controls the number of grid cells created whenever automatic setting is selected for both Cell Size and Cell Count. Sets the number of cells to the supplied value times the number of points in the
current surface, then adjusts this figure up or down to keep it
within the Minimum and Maximum number of cells you specified.
Configure Grid
Page 199
Grid Registration
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Grid registration forces grid cells for different surfaces to be registered (i.e. coincident in X and Y) with other grids created with
the same cell size. If you think of grid cell size as representing
the wavelength of the grid, grid registration would control the
phase of the grid. Only grids created with grid registration
enabled are registered. If you need to have registered grids for
surfaces with pre-existing (but dissimilar) grids, clear the grids
and recreate them with grid registration enabled.
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where ( X0, Y0 )
integer.
Page 200
Configure Grid
Grid Method
Standard method
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Three methods are available for deriving the grid. The Standard
method uses continuous curvature with Delauney triangulation
and is suggested for terrain modeling. The Trend method fits a
polynomial trend surface to the data for a generalized approximation of a surface. The Krige is a geostatistical method which
requires designing a semi-variogram prior to use.
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The standard method of gridding triangulates the points, calculates slope information (1st and 2nd derivatives) at each point
based upon its local neighborhood, the derivative setting and the
weighting factor. The Z values of each triangular face of the TIN
and its associated slope and curvature is then solved for at a uniform X, Y spacing to produce a grid. The mathematical surface
honors all control points for all selections, but a grid is only a
sample of this surface. Too large a grid cell size can produces a
poor representation on the surface.
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Configure Grid
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Grid
Contour (if contouring on the grid)
Drape
Cross-section
Surface region
Track Z
Surface operations
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Blend Order
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Weighting
Configure Grid
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The z values of the grid may overshoot the values at the control
points because of steep slopes caused by control points with large
variations in elevation in short horizontal distances. This effect
may be greatly reduced by enabling the Honor local extrema
check box. This option forces the surface to be horizontal (first
derivatives to equal zero) at local lows and highs, thus reducing
or eliminating overshoots.
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When you select the trend method of gridding in the dialog box
the related choices beneath the Trend button are available for
modification.
Trend Options
Page 203
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nature of the surface. The practical limits are about trend order
20 (Type 1) or trend order of 14 (Type 2) in the horizontal and
vertical. First through fourth order trend surfaces fit most needs.
Trend type 1 and 2 are examined separately below.
Trend Type
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Trend order
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a 00 + a 10 x + a 01 y + a 20 x + a 11 xy + a 02 y + a 30 x + a 21 x y + a 12 xy + a 03 y
For example, horizontal trend order of 3 and vertical order 2 calculates 12 coefficients for trend type 2:
2
a 00 + a 10 x + a 20 x + a 30 x + a 01 y + a 11 xy + a 21 x y + a 31 x y
2
2 2
3 2
+ a 02 y + a 12 xy + a 22 x y + a 32 x y
Configure Grid
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Kriging configuration
The parameters which describe the variogram are set within this
dialog box. The Variogram type, Nugget, Range and Sill are set
by the Variogram design command, found in the Quicksurf utilities menu. These variables are fully described in the Variogram
design command description on page 177.
Quicksurfs kriging algorithm uses a neighborhood defined by a
set of rings of neighbors (determined by the TIN) to estimate a
function to apply during surface generation at a point. Higher
numbers of rings result in better surfaces at the expense of comConfigure Grid
Page 205
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Better results are obtained on smaller data sets. If the data set
is very limited the user has better control over the surface
shape with kriging and should get better results.
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Page 206
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Kriging is more complex and requires a high level of technical understanding on the users part.
Surface generation may fail. Certain variogram designs combined with data sets following certain patterns may be unstable and will not yield solutions.
Configure Grid
Configure Contour
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Contour interval
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The Auto check box toggles automatic contour interval calculation. When Auto is selected, the Interval edit box is grayed-out
and the Z range of the surface is divided by the number of levels
specified below and rounded to an appropriate contour interval.
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Interval
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The contour interval may also be set directly from the Quicksurf
pull-down menu (Contour Interval) or from the right sidebar
menu, if present.
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Levels
The number of levels is used for automatic contour interval determination. When the Auto button is selected, the Levels edit box
becomes available. The Z range of the surface is divided by the
number of levels to determine a rough contour interval, then
rounded to an appropriate contour interval.
Range
The range option allows you to only display contours within a
specified Z range. This affects both show and draw modes.
Page 208
Configure Contour
Enable range
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All contours greater than or equal to the value in the Min edit box
and less than or equal to the value in the Max edit box are displayed.
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Max
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All contours greater than or equal to the value in the Min edit box
and less than or equal to the value in the Max edit box are displayed.
Logarithmic contours
using an elevation file.
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Using this elevation file would cause only the six logarithmic
contours specified to be drawn.
Configure Contour
Page 209
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You may use elevation files to control both the Z value and color
of contours generated. If the first line of the elevation file has the
word Color, followed by a list of (Z value, color number) pairs,
then for each Z listed, its contour will be drawn in the corresponding color.
Example color elevation list file:
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color
10,1
20,2
30,3
40,4
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Using color elevation files, you may totally customize you contouring colors and which contours you wish to display with no
alterations to the surface itself.
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Page 210
Configure Contour
Configure Drape
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Planar TIN
Drapes to the planar triangle faces of the TIN. For linear segments of polylines and lines, vertices are only added where the
draped object crosses a triangle edge. This is the same as draping
on the TIN with derivatives are set to None in Configure Grid.
Configure Drape
Page 211
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Grid
TGRD
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Drapes to the surface represented by the planar faces of the triangulated grid.
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Drape order
When draping to a grid, you may select the nature of the grid cell
surface fit. Drape order selects between a linear and cubic fit to
the grid cells. Selecting 1st order fits a planar surface to the cell
and drapes the entities to it. Selecting 3rd order uses the four
points of the cell plus the derivative information to derive a cubic
fit describing the cell and drapes to that.
Drape step
The drape step is the length of the segments that the entity will be
broken into prior to draping. Drape step applies to lines,
polylines, 3D polylines, circles or arcs. Other entities are draped
simply by changing the z values of their insertion points.
Page 212
Configure Drape
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Configure Breaks
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Tolerance
During auto densification, a tolerance is used to control the break
line segment length below which segments need not be subdivided further. The tolerance is specified in drawing units. This
prevents excess computation which is far beyond the accuracy of
the model.
Configure Breaks
Page 213
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The maximum curve error allowed by Break Extract while segmenting an arc segment. The curve error e is the maximum distance between an arc segment and its chord.
Configure Extract
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Page 214
Configure Extract
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Entities such as lines, 2D polylines and 3D polylines may be densified during extraction. Selecting Densify during extract uses
the Densify step size to incrementally step down the entity and
create new surface points in addition to the entitys vertices. This
is especially useful when additional points may be needed to adequately describe the surface.
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Filter by Entity
Enabling Filter by Entity will invoke the entity filter dialog box
each time an extract command is used. This dialog will enable
you to filter the selected objects by entity type prior to extracting
them.
Configure Extract
Page 215
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The Entity Filter dialog lists all of the entity types available and
lets you highlight, then select or delete entity types from the list.
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Filter by Layer
Page 216
Configure Extract
Filter by Z
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Enabling Filter by Z allows you to extract only points and vertices with Z values in the range specified in the Minimum Z and
Maximum Z edit boxes. Points and vertices with Z values greater
than or equal to the minimum Z and less than or equal to the maximum Z will be extracted.
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Now rotate the drawing into the UCS and extract the data using
the Extract to surface (QSX) or Extract Breaks (QSBX) or Merge
extract (QSMX) commands. The data will be extracted in the user
coordinates. Dont forget to change back to world coordinates
when finished.
Chapter 17 has more information on extracting and using User
Coordinate Systems with Quicksurf, see page 327.
Configure Extract
Page 217
Configure Boundary
Configure Boundary
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The Configure Boundary dialog controls the criteria for determining when a TIN, TGRD or Grid face is within a boundary.
Center
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If the center of the face is within the boundary, draw the face.
Any point
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If any vertex of the face is within the boundary, draw the face.
All points
If all of the vertices of the face is within the boundary, draw the
face.
There are examples of these settings in Chapter 9: Boundaries.
Configure Boundary
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Configure Units
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Slope units
Area units
Areas by default are returned in square drawing units. You may
supply a units conversion factor in the Multiplier box and a text
label in the Label box. This will result in all areas being multiplied by the Multiplier and being followed by the area label, such
as 1284.2 sq. ft. or 24.3 acres.
Configure Units
Page 219
Volume units
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Configure Camera
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Page 220
Within the dialog box you are prompted for camera height and
lens length.
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Configure Camera
Camera lens
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Configure Post
SetPost
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The Configure Post dialog box controls text height, rotation, justification and position (offset) of posted values displayed by the
Post from memory command. Selecting Configure Post from the
menu invokes the following dialog box.
Position
Nine preset text placements are offered in the upper left corner of
the dialog box. These nine selections correspond to top left, top
center, top right, center left, center, center right, bottom left, bottom center and bottom right. The text offset (relative to the point
Configure Post
Page 221
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Alternatively, you may click on the Pick offset button and graphically pick the offset that the posted value will have relative to the
point being posted. Discrete text offsets may be entered in the X,
Y, and Z edit boxes if desired. Either the preset text offsets, or the
user defined offsets are used, not both.
Text Height
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The rotation angle of the posted text may be entered in the Rotation edit box or input graphically by clicking on the Pick rotation
button. Upon clicking on this button the dialog box temporarily
disappears, allowing you to indicate a rotation by picking one
point which anchors a rubber-band line with which you indicate
the desired rotation. The rotation angle you picked is placed into
the Rotation edit box. The direction and units of the angle measurements are based upon the AutoCAD Units settings.
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Configure Post
Text Justification
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ASCII file
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Specify the file containing the ASCII data to be loaded into the
results < . > surface. This command does not assume a default
extension for the filename; if the filename has one, you must
enter it. A full path name is allowed if needed.
Data column position
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If your ASCII file has missing data (i.e. blank fields), the Read
ASCII points command will not load your data as expected.
Because Read ASCII points is a free-form parser, when a value is
absent, the next valid value on a line is used. In such cases use
Read ASCII Table instead, which will tolerate missing data fields.
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Scale factors
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Next specify any scale factors you wish to use during data loading. X, Y and Z values may be scaled independently during
loading into surface memory. This is handy for data sets with X
and Y in units of feet and Z in units of meters or vice versa.
The options set in this command are preserved in the configuration file if you save one. This command only sets the options for
data loading by Read ASCII points. The Read ASCII Points command actually loads the points into surface memory.
Spreadsheets, database report generators, application programs,
surveying data collectors, laboratory data acquisition systems,
word processors and text editors can create ASCII input files suitable for use with Quicksurf.
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Configure Slopes
Setslope
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Slope projection
Configure Slopes
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Direction
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Only in special cases will you need to select the Up or Down buttons to force the slope direction. For example, if you needed to
project a slope up against an embankment or high wall from a
control line running in front of and parallel to the wall, you would
use the Up option. If the control line was slightly above the surface, the Both option would project the line down to the surface,
rather than up to the wall.
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Both
Projects the slope from the control polyline either up or down as
necessary to intersect the surface.
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Configure Slopes
Down
Up
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Side Control
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Both Sides
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Configure Slopes
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No Slope Intersection
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The Auto button will attempt to set a reasonable step size, but if
you know your site, specify a reasonable step size. Specifying
too small a step size results in many more vertices being created
than are necessary.
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This intersect slope step size is different than other step sizes
within Quicksurf. The control line is incrementally stepped down
during slope projection and the slope is projected until it intersects the surface or the edge of the surface model. The point
where the projected slope intersects the surface becomes a vertex
of the 3D polyline being drawn. The step size represents the
maximum allowable distance between adjacent vertices on the
resulting 3D polyline (not the control line). If the new vertex
from projecting the slope is too far from the previous vertex, the
step along the control line is halved and the process is repeated
until the distance between adjacent vertices on the 3D polyline
being created is less than the specified step size.
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Deselecting the Draw Slope Control Lines check box will cause
only the slope-surface intersection polyline to be drawn, with no
additional radial lines.
Intersecting Slope
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The slope must be specified for both up and down slope projections for both the right and left sides of the control line. If a transition is being done, these slopes must be defined twice, once for
either end of the transition segment. In transitions, the slopes
may be different at either end of the segment.
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Specify the slopes for the right and left sides of the control line
(Intersect Slope) or ends of the cross-section template (Apply
Section). Different slopes may be specified for projecting up versus projecting down. The current slope unit setting (degrees, percent, decimal percent) is indicated at the top of the slope section
of the dialog. If a transition is being used, the slopes must be
specified for the beginning section of the transition in the left set
of boxes and for the ending section of the transition in the right
set of boxes.
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Transition
Configure Slopes
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Spline
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Vertical transition
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Configure Section
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Configure Section
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The first dialog for Configure Section allows you to access either
the scaling and labeling settings via the Graph button or the destination layers for the section via the Layers button. An All
Defaults check box allows you to reset all section properties to
their default values with a single action.
Configure Section
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Graph button
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The Graph button invokes this dialog box which controls the
components of your 2D sections such as horizontal or vertical
multipliers, tick marks, axis labeling and background grid.
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Scaling parameters
The 2D sections drawn may be expanded or shrunk in the horizontal or vertical axes as specified by the multipliers in the following edit boxes.
Horizontal Multiplier
The value specified as Horizontal Multiplier is used to stretch or
shrink the cross section along the X axis (horizontally). The
default is 1.0, which results in the length of the section equaling
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Configure Section
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Vertical multiplier
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Scaled to fit
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If the Scaled to Fit check box is checked, the Horizontal and Vertical Multiplier boxes are disabled and you are prompted to specify
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Vertical range
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The vertical range allows you to control the maximum and minimum vertical values your 2D section includes. These are used
when you wish to limit the section to a specific vertical range.
Maximum
This value represents the maximum Z value represented on the
2D cross-section. Any Z values greater than this value are
clipped and the section is drawn at this maximum.
Minimum
This value represents the minimum Z value represented on the 2D
cross-section. Any Z values less than this value are clipped and
the section is drawn at this minimum.
Configure Section
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Auto
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Graph Annotation
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Ticks
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The central part of the Graph dialog box sets the properties of tick
marks and background grid on each 2D section. Ticks are the
interval marks on the axes. Grid is the background grid drawn
behind the section. Each of these have two check boxes and two
edit boxes described in groups below.
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Configure Section
Check Boxes
Ticks
Grid
Numeric Labels
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Checking these boxes control whether or not the element is created when the section is drawn.
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Configure Section
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Checking the Auto check boxes to the right of the interval edit
boxes automatically sets the intervals for the selected items and
disables the associated interval edit box.
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By default the X axis labels start at zero at the left end of the section. If you want to start the labeling at a different value, put that
value in the X origin edit box. For example, if your labels are
automatically set up for every 500 meters along the horizontal
axis, normally they would be 0, 500, 1000, 1500, ... If the X origin were set to 3000, then the labels would start on the left with
3000, 3500, 4000, etc. If you give an irregular X origin, such as
300 , the labeling sequence would proceed 500, 1000, 1500, etc.,
with the left-most edge (300) not labeled.
Layers Button
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The Layers button allows you to change the layers upon which
2D section axes, ticks, and text are placed. The profile polyline is
drawn to the current layer. By default the axes and tick marks are
placed on the layer QS_AXES, numeric labels are placed on the
layer QS_TEXT, and background grid is placed on the layer
QS_GRID. The layers are created as needed. The color of all
these entities is BYLAYER, so you may set the colors of these layers to create the section coloring of your choice. If you do not
want these layers created, you may select the Current radio button to have all axes, ticks, numeric labels and background grid
drawn to the current layer.
Current
Draw all axes, ticks, etc. to the current layer.
Named
Draw all axes, ticks, etc. to the layer names described above.
The profile curve itself is always drawn on the current layer.
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Configure Section
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The sort order of the surface list displayed by the Surface operations dialog box and the internal computation sequence of all surface operations is specified in the following dialog box.
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Mathematical surface operations function by draping the elements of each surface onto the other, then processing the resulting pairs of Z values. This bi-directional draping is controlled by
the Maximize surface operations checkbox. By default, this
option is enabled, causing the bi-directional drape. It is a good
idea to leave it enabled unless you have a specific reason to do
otherwise.
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Quicksurf
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Introduction
Surface operations allow you to perform mathematical calculations between surfaces. Surfaces may be copied, renamed,
deleted, and read from or written to disk. Individual parts of one
or more surfaces may be selectively cleared. Surface operations
allows inspection of detailed surface statistics for any surface.
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Surface Operations
Introduction
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The surface operations dialog has three main divisions. The surface list is in the upper left quadrant, the mathematical controls
are in the upper right quadrant with the surface management buttons beneath them.
Surface list
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The surface list displays the names and component parts of the
currently defined surfaces. The name of the current surface is
displayed above the surface list. The operation of the surface list
is the same as the Layer Control dialog box in AutoCAD. Surfaces in the list may be selected or deselected by picking them
with the mouse. When a surface is picked, it is highlighted.
Pressing any of the enabled surface management buttons along
the bottom of the dialog box will operate on the highlighted surfaces.
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For example, selecting one surface and pressing the Current button makes that surface the current surface. Selecting several surfaces and pressing the Delete button deletes the selected surfaces
from surface memory.
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Each line of the surface list contains the surface name and a list of
the component parts which currently exist. Some examples:
.
Existing
Proposed
.PBT
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P T
P TDG
PBTD
Points
Breaks
TIN
Derivatives
Grid
Parts listed after the period (such as the .PBT in the Proposed surface) represent parts of the triangulated grid (TGRD).
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In the list above, the results surface <.> contains points and a
TIN. The Existing surface contains points, TIN, derivatives and
grid. The Proposed surface contains points, breaks, TIN, derivatives, as well as points, breaks and TIN in the TGRD.
Select All
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The surface management buttons operate on the highlighted surfaces in the surface list. The buttons may be grayed-out if
unavailable for the selected surface(s). For example, if more than
one surface is selected, the Current button is unavailable because
you may only have one current surface.
Clears the highlighted selections in the surface list. This is simply de-selecting any highlighted surfaces in the list. This command does not affect the contents of any surface.
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Clear All
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Current
Sets the current surface. The current surface is offered as the
default surface name for any command involving a surface. The
Current button is only available when one surface is selected
from the surface list.
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Read QSB
SOP Read
SOP Write
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Writes selected surfaces to a binary QSB disk file. The highlighted surfaces will be written. Write QSB invokes the standard
file dialog box to write a Quicksurf binary QSB file. The QSB
file has a file extension of .QSB. A QSB file is a very efficient
way to store surface information. All surface parts and descriptions are stored in the file, but boundary and window information
(if any) are not. Reading a QSB file written with this command
restores all of the written surfaces to surface memory.
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Write QSB
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Clear Parts
SOP Clear
Invokes the Clear Parts dialog box, allowing you to remove any
or all parts from the selected surfaces. The Clear Parts dialog
lists all of the parts of the selected surface(s) and allows you to
pick which ones are to be removed. In this way specific parts,
such as the TIN, Grid or TGRD, may be removed from a surface.
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Copy
SOP Copy
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SOP Delete
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Delete
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Displays the detailed surface information for one surface, including surface description, associated AutoCAD layer, surface
method, and surface statistics including number of points; minimum and maximum of X, Y, Z, and slopes; plan and surface
area; and volume. The Detailed button is enabled only when a
single surface is highlighted in the surface list.
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Detailed
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SOP LAyer
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Associates an AutoCAD drawing layer with a Quicksurf surface. Any Quicksurf-generated drawing entity related to this surface will be placed on this layer. When you select the Draw
option from the Points, Breaks, TIN, TGRD or Grid commands,
the entities drawn will be placed on the designated layer.
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Surface statistics
Statistical information on each surface part is displayed in the
surface information dialog box. Number of points, minimum and
maximum values for X, Y, Z, and slopes are displayed. Plan
area, surface area and volumes are computed for TIN, Grid and
TGRD parts. All computations encompass the entire surface.
Note that the memory used by the surface is displayed at the
lower right of the dialog box. Deleting surfaces frees memory
and makes it available to AutoCAD and Quicksurf.
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Mathematical operations on or between surfaces may be performed using the Surface Operations section located in the upper
right portion of the dialog box. A wide variety of operations may
be performed on one surface, between one surface and a constant,
or between two surfaces. The result of any surface operation is
placed in the results <.> surface, sometimes called the "dot" surface.
The dialog layout contains entries for a 1st Surface, an Operator,
and optionally a 2nd Surface and a Constant.
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Surface Operations dialog box, so you may compute chain calculations. The results surface itself may be specified as either the
1st or 2nd surface in any calculation, but realize that the result
will replace the <.> surface after the operation is complete.
The behavior of surface operations is affected by the setting in the
Configure Surface Operations dialog, described in the Configuring Quicksurf chapter. For the most accurate result, the Maximize Surface Operations checkbox should be selected within
this configuration. This is the default setting.
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SOP CLear
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Surface/* for all <.>: Enter surface name or * to delete all surfaces
ALL/Points/TIN/Derivatives/Grid/tgRid: select parts to clear
Clears parts of surfaces from memory. The first option selects the
surfaces to be operated on and the second selects the parts to be
cleared: points, TIN, derivatives, grid, TGRD or all parts. More
than one part may be cleared at once, for example, answering DG
to the second prompt will clear the derivatives and grid.
Clearing all parts of all surfaces is the same as deleting all surfaces.
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SOP DELete
Surface/* for all <.>: Enter surface name or * to delete all surfaces
SOP COPy
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SOP MOve
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SOP REName
Surface <.>: Enter surface name to rename
To: Enter destination surface name
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SOP LOad
Surface <.>: Enter surface name to copy to the <.> surface
SOP SAve
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Surface <.>: Enter destination surface name to copy the <.> surface to
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SOP DESc
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SOP LAyer
Associates an AutoCAD drawing layer with a Quicksurf surface. Any Quicksurf generated drawing entity related to this surface will be placed on this layer. When you select the Draw
option from the Points, Breaks, TIN, TGRD or Grid commands,
the entities draw will be placed on the designated layer.
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SOP LIst
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Cell size
SOP CSize
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Redefines the grid cell size for the current surface and subsequent
gridding operations. This is the easiest way to resize a grid once it
has been generated. Your other option is to clear the grid from the
surface and manually set a grid cell size and recalculate it.
Surface options -> Cell Size
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Set the horizontal and vertical cell sizes at the prompts or press
enter to accept the defaults. The cell size represents the X and Y
dimensions of one individual cell. Remember, this sets the cell
size permanently until you reset it to Auto (0.0) or to a new size.
If Cell Size is defined, Cell Count and Cell Factor are ignored.
Cell size may also be set from Configure Grid dialog box.
SOP CCount
Redefines the number of grid cells for the current surface and
subsequent gridding operations if cell size is not defined. Cell
Count is only used if Cell Size is set to Auto (0.0). If a specific
cell size is specified, then this command has no effect. The order
of precedence in determining cell configuration is cell size, then
cell count, then cell factor.
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Cell count
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Set the horizontal and vertical cell counts at the prompts or press
enter to accept the defaults. The cell count controls the number
cells in the X and Y dimensions of the entire grid. For example, a
horizontal cell count of 40 and a vertical cell count of 30 will produce a grid with 1200 cells.
Remember that this cell count setting remains in effect until you
reset it to a new value or Auto (0).
Cell factor
SOP CFactor
SOP CFactor
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When both the size and number of grid cells are not specified,
Quicksurf will set the number of grid cells to this factor times the
number of points, then adjust it up or down if necessary to bring it
within the CellMin and CellMax settings.
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This command will set the cell factor variable to the specified
value and set the cell size and count variables to Auto.
Window
SOP WINdow
Redefines the geographic window within which grid calculations
will be performed. This command only effects the grid, not the
TGRD.
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This operation only works when in plan view. The grid is recalculated only within the specified window.
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Please note this command changes the window globally for all
grid surfaces generated subsequently. It is a good idea to reset the
window to Max once your are finished with a particular surface.
If the grid window is set improperly you may receive the Error:
grid undefined message or produce no contours due to the fact the
window and the surface data do not overlap.
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Creates a surface consisting of the X, Y locations of the first surface and the corresponding Z elevations of the second surface or
constant. The result will contain data for the area in which the
two surfaces overlap. If a constant is specified, instead of a second surface, the plan geometry will be identical to the first surface.
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SOP MErge
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Merge
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If the selected surfaces does not overlap you will get the reply
No resulting surface. Otherwise the elevations in the first surface will be set as requested. This is the easy way to create a surface of constant Z with a grid cell size the same as another
surface. The first surface selected controls the grid cell size and
the second surface (or constant) controls the elevation.
Splice
SOP SPlice
Splice will copy the data from the first surface and add the nonoverlapping portion of data in the second surface. The convex
polygon containing all of the points of the first surface outlines
the area to be spliced. The resultant surface will contain only
points and breaks.
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Z rotation
SOP ZRot
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Translate X
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SOP XTrans
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Translate Y
SOP YTrans
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Scale X
SOP XSCale
Scale Y
SOP YSCale
Scales the Y dimension of the first surface by the Constant value.
The result is placed in the results <.> surface.
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These operations, forming the heart of the surface operations system, perform mathematical operations on one or two surfaces,
generate a new surface, and write it into the results <.> surface.
The key to surface operation between surfaces is knowing what is
actually happening when an operation is performed. We will
cover two distinctly different areas of surface operations:
Operations between surfaces containing points only
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Draping to the grid is only used in the special case where the grid
has been modified (for example by MIN or MAX) such that the
grid does not necessarily follow the same surface as the surface
described by the TIN and Derivatives. Any surface operation
which causes this condition deletes the TIN, so the hierarchy
above always functions correctly.
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If you deselect the Maximize surface operations button, a surface operation drapes the first surface onto the second surface
only. This means the resulting parts and the plan view geometry
of the results <.> surface is based solely on the geometry of the
first surface. If the second surface only has points, then point to
point operations only are performed.
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first surface only. By contrast, if Maximize is enabled, the resulting surface will have 1100 points (assuming no points are coincident in XY).
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Operations between two gridded surfaces involves both grid surfaces grid nodes and points being draped to the other and solved
for a Z value. The results surface will contain points at the X,Y
location of both sets of original grid nodes, as well as the original
points. A TIN and Grid will then be computed for the result. In
this case, the grid is not a result of grid to grid math, rather a
regridding of the new surface. This assumes Maximize Surface
Operations is enabled in the Configure Surface Operations dialog.
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Non-Registered Grids
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Addition (+)
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SOP +
Subtraction (-)
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Calculates the sum of the first surface and the second surface (or
constant). The result is placed in the <.> surface.
SOP -
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Calculates the first surface minus the second surface (or constant). The result is placed in the <.> surface. Commonly used
for cut / fill or thickness maps.
SOP *
Calculates the product of the first surface and the second surface
(or constant). The result is placed in the <.> surface.
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Multiplication (*)
Commonly used to exaggerate the relief of a relatively flat surface for emphasis. A surface may also be inverted by multiplying
by a constant value of -1.
Division (/)
SOP /
Calculates the quotient of the first surface divided by the second
surface (or constant). The result is placed in the <.> surface.
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Remainder (%)
SOP %
Minimum
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SOP MIN
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If the surface contains only points, the result will be points with
their z values modified as appropriate. A TIN, Grid or TGRD will
be modified to conform to the minimum constraint. Realize that
the Min and Max functions work on all parts of the surface. A
consequence of this is that the result may be order dependent in
certain cases. Starting with points only, gridding a surface then
taking the minimum will produce a different grid than taking the
minimum then gridding the result, due to differences in slopes
prior to gridding.
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A common use of this command is to separate cut and fill quantities for volume measurement or contouring. For example, calculating the minimum of an (Proposed - Existing) surface and a
constant of zero, would yield a planar surface with depressions
representing cut depths.
When the Max and Min functions are used on a TGRD or Grid,
individual grid nodes may have their elevations altered. This creates a condition such that the mathematical surface described by
the TIN with derivatives may disagree with the modified TGRD
or grid surface nodes. To avoid ambiguity, the TIN is deleted by
these two surface operations. This forces the modified TGRD or
grid to be used.
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Maximum
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The Max and Min functions force TGRD and Grid nodes to
exactly the value requested. This will cause contours drawn at
the clipped elevation to be angular. Adjusting the clipping elevation to just above or below the highest or lowest contour will produce smooth contours. Instead of these functions, you may
alternatively specify a specific list of elevations for contouring
using the elevation file option within the Configure Contours dialog box.
SOP MAX
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A common use of this command is to separate cut and fill quantities for volume measurement or contouring. For example, calculating the maximum of an (Proposed - Existing) surface and a
constant of zero, would yield a planar surface with elevations representing fill depths.
Absolute value
Sop ABs
Calculates the absolute value of the first surface. This operation
simply converts negative to positive values, leaving positive values unchanged. The result is placed in the <.> surface.
Square root
SOP SQrt
Calculates the square root of the first surface. The result is placed
in the <.> surface.
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Exponential
SOP EXP
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Natural Log
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Calculates the natural log (ln z) of the first surface. The result is
placed in the <.> surface.
Common Log
SOP LOG
Calculates the base 10 common log (log z) of the first surface.
The result is placed in the <.> surface.
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Power of 10
SOP POWER10
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Calculates 10z for the first surface. This is the inverse of the Log
function. The result is placed in the <.> surface.
SIne
SOP SIn
SOP COS
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Cosine
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Arctangent
SOP ATan
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Calculates the trigonometric arctangent (atan z) of the first surface (in degrees). The result is placed in the <.> surface.
Floor
SOP FLoor
Rounds all z values in the first surface downward to the next
lower (or equal) integer. The result is placed in the <.> surface.
Reciprocal
SOP RECip
Calculates the reciprocal (1/z) of the first surface. The result is
placed in the <.> surface.
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Absolute slope
SOP ASLope
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Calculates the absolute slope of the first surface in decimal percent. The result is placed in the <.> surface. The absolute slope
z + z
x y
2
is defined by
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SOP DSLope
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Degree slope
by the arctangent of
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XSlope
SOP XSLope
Calculates the X component of the slope of the first surface. The
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YSlope
SOP YSLope
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Trend
SOP TRend
Residual
SOP RESidual
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Calculates a trend surface of the first surface based upon the current settings for Trend method, then subtracts the trend surface
from the original surface to produce a residual surface. The residual surface is placed in the <.> surface.
The residual surface represents the local high and low areas of the
original surface relative to the trend surface.
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Quicksurf
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Chapter 9: Boundaries
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You may limit the area in which Points, Breaks, TINs, TGRDs,
Grids, Contours or draped objects are displayed by specifying
one or more closed polylines as boundaries with the Set Boundary command. The boundaries may be nested. Boundaries are
very useful for presentation purposes and volumetric limitations.
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Points
Breaks
TIN
Grid
Triangulated Grid (TGRD)
Contour
Drape
Post from memory
Surface region
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Chapter 9: Boundaries
Establishing boundaries
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Establishing boundaries
Chapter 9: Boundaries
Nested boundaries
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Nested Boundaries
Nested boundaries are used extensively in site planning and volume calculations. Nested boundaries also may be used to prevent
dense contours from overlapping map annotations.
Nested boundaries
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Chapter 9: Boundaries
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The center option displays the grid cell or triangle if the center of
the element is within the boundary. The any point option displays
the grid cell or triangle if any vertex of the element is within the
boundary. The all points option displays the grid cell or triangle
if all vertices of the element is within the boundary.
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Note that grid cells and triangles are either displayed completely
or not at all; they are not clipped at the boundary. If you want the
TIN to follow the boundary exactly, extract the boundary
polyline as both a break line and a boundary. This will force the
triangulation to follow the boundary exactly, resulting in no triangles crossing the boundary. The Surface region command does
this automatically.
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Break line data may be loaded to surface memory by the following commands:
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Extract breaks extracts break line data from drawing entities and
adds them incrementally to the results < . > surface. The following entity types are extracted and adaptively densified by Extract
Breaks:
Line
2D or 3D Polylines
Arc
Circle
3D Face
Edges become breaks
Trace
Solid
Non-extruded edges become breaks
Creating break lines
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All other entity types are ignored. The result of Extract Breaks is
dependent upon the settings in the Configure Extract dialog
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Read ASCII Table (QSML) Creates a new surface just with points
Read ASCII Breaks(QSBL) Incrementally adds breaks
TIN or TGRD
Use a TIN or TGRD model with breaks
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If the surface is created from data from an ASCII file, the typical
workflow sequence consists of :
Adaptive densification
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3D polylines are the most common entities used for break lines.
Break lines must be densified by Quicksurf such that any subsequent TIN honors breaks exactly. New points are interpolated
along polyline segments as needed and are added to the surface.
The goal in break line densification is to add the minimum number of new points to the surface which completely describe the
break line geometry within the specified tolerance.
Adaptive densification
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Repeated triangulation
during densification is
normal on complex
models.
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Stacked data points (multiple control points at a given x,y location) along break lines are dropped. Quicksurf resolves stacked
data by arbitrarily deleting points from a stack until there is only
one. Break lines made up of multiple polylines with common
endpoints are treated as break line intersections, slowing processing.
Resolving break lines
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Always use the TIN or Triangulated Grid command, not the Grid
command when modeling a surface containing break lines, as a
TIN and TGRD honor break lines exactly and Grid only approximates break lines. Likewise, contours created from surfaces containing breaks should always be generated based on the TIN or
TGRD, not the Grid, to insure that the breaks are honored exactly.
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Drape is a very powerful tool. Any object may be translated vertically until its Z values conform to the current surface. Drape
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Concepts
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Drape basis
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Draping to the TIN uses the derivatives along with the TIN to
drape on the complete mathematical description of the surface,
including breaks if present. This is more accurate than draping
on the TGRD or Grid, which represent a sampling of the mathematical surface at an interval based on the cell size used. Because
derivative (slope and curvature) information is used, the settings
for Derivatives in the Configure Grid dialog are used. Specifying None is the same as Planar TIN above. Specifying 1st or
2nd uses continuous slope or continuous curvature respectively.
Drape step
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When draping an object consisting of lines and arcs, each segment is subdivided based upon drape step size into smaller segments by adding vertices. Each of these densified vertices is then
draped onto the surface and becomes a vertex of a new 3D
polyline resulting from the Drape command. The Configure
Drape dialog controls drape step size. Drape step is ignored
when draping to the Planar TIN.
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Concepts
Using Drape
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Using Drape
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Creating a 3D profile
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Using Drape
Application examples
Drape and post points
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Command sequence
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Point
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Workflow
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Command sequence
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Arc
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Draw the horizontal alignment arc entity, in this case a ten unit
radius arc covering 90 degrees in the northeast quadrant.
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Application examples
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The arc is transformed into a 3D polyline with a constant horizontal radius. Viewing from an oblique viewpoint or listing the entity
will allow you to see the differing Z values for the resulting vertices.
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Command sequence
First lets load a surface upon which to drape. We will use the
internal terrain generator built into Quicksurf.
Utilities -> Quicksurf utilities -> Generate Terrain
Number of points to be generated <1000>: press return
Generating [Flat, Rugged, Rolling, Mountainous] Terrain
Finished Generating Terrain
This has created a 1000 point surface in the <.> surface, but has
not yet created any additional parts such as a TIN needed for
draping. Lets show the contours. This will build a TIN, derivatives and a grid automatically.
Application examples
Page 285
Contour
Surface <.>: press return
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: press return
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Now that we see where the surface exists, draw the closed
polylines within which to hatch. Be sure that the polyline you
draw entirely overlies the surface and is closed.
Command: Pline
From point: pick
Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/<Endpoint of line>: draw pline
Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/<Endpoint of line>: Close
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Command: Hatch
Pattern(? or name/U,style) <default>: Line
Scale for pattern< default>: choose a scale, adjust if needed
Angle for pattern<default>: 45
Select objects: select closed polyline
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Explode the hatch pattern block. This is not required if you used
the exploded hatch option of the hatch command.
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Command: Explode
Select objects: select hatch pattern block
Next we will drape the exploded hatch pattern, but first lets
change to an oblique view where we can see the changes.
Command: VPOINT
Rotate/<View point> <(0,0,1)>: 1,1,0.5 (zoom extents if needed)
Design Tools -> Drape
Surface<.>: press enter to accept the <.> surface
Return to select all or
Select objects: select the exploded hatch entities and the closed polyline
Application examples
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VPOINT
Rotate/ <View Point> <0.0000, 0.0000, 1.0000>: 1,1,1
Regenerating drawing
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The first step in working with any surface is to load the known
points and/or break lines and examine the surface visually. The
best way to look at your raw data is to display the TIN from an
oblique viewpoint such as (1,1,1). This example assumes your
surface is in the results <.> surface, as it would be after an extract.
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Contour
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Display the contours to see the current surface model. Adjust the
contour interval as necessary.
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It is a good idea to place edit points and the original points each
on their own layer. This is for ease of subsequent selection for
Merge extract as well as keeping ground truth and interpretation
(or design) separate. If you are going to use all of the original
raw data points, there is no need to draw them into the drawing.
If you are going to use a subset of the raw data points (perhaps
excluding points in excavation areas) you will want to draw them
in on their own layer.
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As you move the cursor over the surface and the surface elevation
at the cross-hairs is displayed on the top status bar. Press a return
to exit the Track Z command. Once you have decided upon the Z
elevation for point(s) to be added, use the Elev command to set
the Z value of the added points.
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Command: ELEV
New current elevation <231.0000>: Specify new elevation
New current thickness <0.0000>: Enter zero
Command: POINT
Point: pick location
Page 289
If the surface you are modifying in already in the results <.> surface, the next step is to use Merge extract to make a surface which
is the combination of the points in the <.> surface and the new
edit points. If the surface you are going to modify is in a named
surface, use surface operations to copy it to the <.> surface. The
reason is that Merge extract incrementally adds points to the <.>
surface only.
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You may add edit points as needed to the various areas of the surface you wish to modify. Other entities may also be used as a
source of edit points, such as 2D polylines (if you want to draw a
contour to control the surface). Most AutoCAD entities may be
extracted with Quicksurf and therefore may be used as edit entities, although points and polylines make the most sense.
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You may want to use the filters available via the Configure extract
dialog box to aid in your Merge extract selection. The results <.>
surface now contains the combination of the original points plus
your edit points. Now contour the current surface again.
Contour
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Editing surfaces with break line data is similar in the sense that
you use Extract breaks to incrementally add new break lines to
the surface. Keep in mind, that if you alter a 3D polyline already
extracted as a break line, then re-extract it, you are creating a
stacked break line. The resulting break line in surface memory
will be an average of the two, not the last one extracted. In these
rare cases, recreate the surface from scratch.
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Editing contours
doesnt change surface
memory!
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Command: PEDIT
Select polyline: select contour polyline
Close/Join/Width/Edit vertex/Fit/Spline/Decurve/Undo/eXit _<X>: E
Next/Prev/Break/Insert/Move/Regen/Str/Tan/Width/eXit/ _<N>: select
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Workflow Overview
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ASCII file
Binary QSB file
Drawing entities
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Workflow Overview
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Build surface
Drape
Flatten
Cross-section
Vertical align
Intersect slope
Apply section
Create your proposed design surface using some of the following commands:
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Workflow Overview
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Fast, accurate volumes are very important in most surface modeling applications. Within Quicksurf, volumes may be computed
directly from surfaces residing in surface memory using the Surface volume, Area volume or Boundary volume command or
computed from a drawn TIN, TGRD or Grid using the Volume by
entity command. None of these volume functions use the current
boundary which may have been set with the Set Boundary command, rather they may prompt for one or more closed polylines
representing areas under which to calculate volumes.
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Quicksurf calculates volumes of a surface by summing the volume underneath each face of the surface within the area specified.
A face may represent the either the triangles of a TIN or Triangulated Grid; or the rectangular grid cells of a Grid.
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For any surface with a TIN, calculating a volume consists of calculating the volume under each triangle in the desired area and
summing the result. Remember that regular TINs and Triangulated Grids are both types of TINs. First lets look at one triangle
of a TIN and determine its volume.
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Entire surface
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culated, we will manually step through the procedure used internally by Area volume and then use the Volume by entity
command to calculate the volumes. Once you are comfortable
with the method, you will use the Area Volume command for this
purpose, which is fast, automatic and does not draw drawing entities.
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Workflow
Create and TIN the Existing surface
Create and TIN the Proposed surface
Calculate thickness (Proposed - Existing) with surf operations
Drape the boundary polyline onto the thickness surface
Extract this draped polyline as both a break and a boundary
TIN the thickness surface and draw the TIN
Run the Volume by entity command on the drawn TIN
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TIN <.>
Surface <.> : <.>
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TIN
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This TIN represents the thickness surface. Areas above the zero
(XY) plane represent fill and areas below the zero plane represent
cut. This is because we calculated Proposed - Existing. If you
reverse the order of the calculation, you will reverse the relationship of positive and negative areas versus cut and fill areas.
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Positive volume
Negative volume
Net volume
If the net volume is zero, then the cut volume equals the fill volume.
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Volume by Entity
Volume by Entity
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Volume by Entity
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Volumes may be computed directly from surfaces residing in surface memory using the Surface volume, Area volume or Boundary volume command. None of these volume functions use the
current boundary which may have been set with the Set Boundary
command, rather they prompt for closed polylines representing
areas under which to calculate volumes if areas are required.
These three commands all invoke the same dialog box.
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Planar TIN
TIN w/ Deriv
Grid
TGRD
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Select the surface under which to calculate volumes from the surface pick list. If this surface represents thickness, the volume
should be computed between this surface and the zero (XY)
plane. In this case you would specify None for the second surface. If the volume to be computed lies between two surfaces or
between one surface and a constant elevation you will need to
specify the second surface or constant.
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Constant
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File output
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ASCII
None
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Label areas
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Area volume and Boundary volume allow for the volumes under
multiple sub-areas of the surface to be calculated. When multiple
area polygons are selected, selecting the Label Areas checkbox
will cause each polygon to be sequentially labeled with area numbers. These area numbers correspond to the area numbering in
the volume report. The labels are placed on the current layer, in
the current text style, and at a text height equal to the grid cell
size, unless overridden by a current text style containing a fixed
text height. The areas are numbered in the order the are selected.
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If a volume units conversion factor and units name has been specified in the Configure Units dialog, the volumes will be converted
and displayed in the specified units.
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After selecting the options in the Surface Volume dialog box and
pressing OK, you are prompted to select area polygons (if
needed) and the calculated volumes are displayed on the text
screen. The volume results are written to the file or database
table if requested.
Volumes reported
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VOLUMES:
Total
26222.9
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Negative Volume
14215.5
9812.4
3402.5
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Positive Volume
15025.1
10215.3
982.5
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1
2
3
Reported in Cu.Yds.
Using 0.37037 cubic units/Cu.Yds.
27430.4
Net Volume
809.6
402.9
-2420.0
-1207.5
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Surface volume
Area Volume
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Boundary Volume
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Boundary volumes was designed for petroleum industry calculation of "hydrocarbon pore volume" maps. In these situations a
negotiated zero-line representing the absolute tapered zero edge
of the hydrocarbon accumulation is determined and must be honored exactly by all volume calculation. The zero-line polygon
should be drawn at an elevation of zero. The Z value of the surface being calculated is forced to zero everywhere along this zero
line. This is quite different from the polygon area boundaries
which honor the Z value of the surface.
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Planar TIN
TIN w/ deriv.
Grid
TGRD
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Calculating the volume from a TIN uses the planar faces of the
triangles for volume calculation. Break lines are honored exactly
by the TIN. TINs are used for data sets in which there is sufficient control that inter-point curvature may be ignored or is not
desired. Examples include volumes on sites with dense control
(such as dense contours or points from a stereo-plotter) or sites
with mainly break lines such as benched pits.
Grid volumes
Calculating the volume from a Grid uses the average elevation for
each grid cell multiplied by its plan-view area for volume calculation. Grids are used for data sets which have no break lines and
inter-point surface curvature is desired. Examples include volumes on sites with sparse control (such as spot elevations on rolling topography) or sites with smooth rolling surfaces and no
break lines.
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TGRD volumes
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Calculating volumes
using TIN with derivatives is usually more
efficient.
Choosing TGRD based volumes means that both breaks and surface curvature are needed to accurately describe the surface.
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Boundary conditions
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If you are using Volume by entity, you must drape the area polygon onto the surface, then extract it as both a break and a boundary, prior to drawing the TIN. In this case it is extremely
important that the draped polyline (now a 3D polyline) reflects
the correct Z value as it traces the area boundary. Always inspect
the TIN visually prior to calculating volumes.
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Average End Area is the first word in its name: Average. The
accuracy of the result is variable, depending upon section spacing. The TIN honors every data point exactly and the volume
beneath each triangle of the TIN is a discrete fixed volume, not an
average. A TIN based model is faster, more accurate, and simpler to use.
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If you are comparing resulting volumes calculated from different surfaces, they must be computed under exactly the
same area to have any meaning.
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Quicksurf
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Supported methods
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A TIN is the set of interconnected planar triangular faces connecting the input control points. The surface of the TIN represents the elevation computed by direct linear interpolation
between the control points. Contouring on the TIN or draping on
the Planar TIN solves for elevations based upon this linear interpolation surface.
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The TIN is the basis for all Quicksurf methods. The TIN by itself
represents the optimal triangulation of the input data set. Quicksurf honors the Delauney criterion for triangulation by adjusting
each triangle within the network to be as close to equilateral as
possible.
Supported methods
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Slope-based methods
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None
Second
Derivatives to 2nd results in first and second derivatives (contin-
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Supported methods
Blend order
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Using the slope and curvature constraints in the derivatives setting, Quicksurf generates a polynomial surface for each triangle.
Blend order controls how the transition between adjacent triangle
polynomials is handled. Generally blend order should be set to
the same value as used for derivatives. Blend order has no effect
with derivatives set to None, because no blending between curved
polynomial surfaces is done.
Constraining slopes
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Geostatistical methods
Kriging builds a grid directly from the input points and the Nugget, Range, Sill and Variogram type specified during variogram
design. A TIN is constructed during kriging to be used for neighborhood determination. Kriging does not support break line discontinuities.
Supported methods
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Workflow
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Once any bad points have been fixed, revert to plan view
If you have angular contours due to too large a grid cell size,
use Surface Options -> Cell size to adjust the cell size.
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Topography
Geophysical line-based
Concentration
Angular site plan
Surfaces with breaks
Isopach maps
Structure maps
Faulted structure maps
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Quicksurf
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The combination of Quicksurf with Autodesks 3D Studio animation and rendering package provides for photorealistic rendered
still images or stunning fly-through/drive-through animations of
your model. Surfaces may be segregated into related patches for
ease of materials application. Quicksurf can create morphable
meshes, allowing you to display a surface changing shape over
time. Contaminant flow animations may be constructed which
show the movement of an iso-concentration surface over time.
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Subdividing surfaces
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Quicksurf surfaces (TIN, TGRD, Grid) can easily exceed the face
count limitations mentioned above. The Surface Region command creates polyface mesh entities representing the surface
within one or more closed polyline boundaries. If the boundary
polyline contains the entire surface, the whole surface is represented. If the surface would result in too many faces for a polyface mesh (32,768), multiple adjacent polyface meshes are drawn
each which fall within the face count limitation.
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3D Studio allows morphing between 3DS mesh objects containing the same number of vertices. Quicksurf generated mesh
objects may be used for morphing, if care is taken to insure that
the meshes have the same number of vertices.
For rendering purposes, in this special case, you may create grids
even on surfaces containing break lines and get excellent results
in the animated result.
Although TIN and TGRD models theoretically can be made morphable, it is not recommended, because the number and order of
vertices is very difficult to control.
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Command: QSOPT
Keyword: COORSYS
Use world coordinates <Y>: No
Remember to set
COORSYS back to YES
for normal use.
Change into the desired UCS and extract the data using one of the
Quicksurf entity extraction commands, such as Extract to surface.
The data will be extracted in UCS coordinates.
Extracting and displaying while in the same UCS will place the
surfaces or contours where you expect them when COORSYS is
set to NO. If COORSYS is set to YES, entities are always extracted
in WCS coordinates.
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Quicksurf
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Objective
Workflow
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Objective
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First verify that the contour polylines in the drawing are at their
appropriate elevation.
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Sequentially touch as many contour polylines as needed to confirm their elevations. Press a return to exit Display Z.
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If entity filters are selected you will see the following dialog.
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By picking the polyline entity type, then pressing the Select button, only polyline entities will be processed during the extract.
Any combination of entity types may be selected. Pressing Reset
displays the complete entity list.
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At the apex of the V-shape, all of the nearby data points are at the
same elevation because they came from the vertices of the same
contour polyline. This results in all of the vertices of the TIN triangles being at the same elevation, hence producing a flat triangle. The figure below illustrates flat spots.
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The problem results from the fact that each contour polyline is
highly sampled (at each vertex), but the distance between adjacent contour polylines is comparatively huge. The clusters of
points at V-shaped are all at the same elevation, resulting in a
locally flat area.
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If we used Merge extract directly, we would just extract the vertices of the 3D polyline we drew. We need to add additional
points along the 3D polyline to the surface, not just its defining
vertices. This is accomplished by using the Densify during extract
option selected in the Configure extract dialog. This will interpolate along the 3D polyline, providing the points we need to accurately describe the surface.
Command: OSNAP
Object snap modes: Endpoint
Command: 3DPoly
From point: select the contour vertex at the apex
Close/Undo/<Endpoint of line>: select each contour at the apex
Close/Undo/<Endpoint of line>: press enter to finish the command
Command: OSNAP
Object snap modes: None
Configure Extract
Select the Densify during extract check box and specify a step size.
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Contour
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Edge effects
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The new surface will now honor the stream valley or ridge line
properly. Notice that we did not select the 3D polyline as a break
line, so we maintained surface curvature through the stream bottom. Using Extract breaks, rather than Merge extract, would
have produced a knife-edged valley (or ridge line).
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Objective
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Create a building pad cut into a hillside. Starting with the pad
perimeter, construct the daylight lines representing the head of
the cut and the toe of the fill. Create a contour map of the finished design. Calculate the volume of cut and fill based on your
new design.
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Workflow
Create a surface representing the existing topography in the
area where the pad will be placed. Show the contours.
Use Intersect slope to draw the daylight lines based upon the
perimeter polyline and the slopes you specify.
Turn off all but the design layer. This layer should contain
points of the undisturbed topography, the pad perimeter
polyline and the daylight line created by Intersect slope.
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Draw the points using Points / Draw. This will draw the
points of the existing topography outside the disturbed area.
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Contour
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Use Intersect slope to draw the daylight lines based upon the
perimeter polyline and the slopes you specify.
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Command: RECTANG
First corner: encompass entire surface
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Draw the points. This will draw the points of the existing topography outside the disturbed area.
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Show/New/DIsable/Enable/DElete/Read/Write <DI>: DE
Boundary Deleted
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Turn off all but the design layer. This layer should contain points
of the undisturbed topography, the pad perimeter polyline and the
daylight line created by Intersect slope.
Page 340
The Entity filter dialog pops up. Highlight Point in the pick list
then press Select. Only point entities will be extracted.
The Extract to surface command will continue with
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Use Extract breaks to extract all of the pad perimeter polyline and
the daylight polyline.
Extract -> Extract Breaks
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The Entity filter dialog pops up. Press Reset to bring back the
complete entity list then press OK. Extract Breaks will not use
the points, so no entity filtering is required. The Extract Breaks
command will continue with
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The positive volumes represent fill and the negative volumes represent cut. You should always visually examine the resulting
thickness surface which is left in the <.> surface. This can be
done quickly by showing the TIN from an oblique angle. If you
enable the current boundary (set by area volume), just the areas
which were calculated will be displayed upon displaying the TIN.
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Objective
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Objective
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In this case we are just sinking the pond into the surface and
removing the earth. This example demonstrates the use of drape
to convert a 2D plan view outline into a 3D polyline pond perimeter daylight line. This is used as the control line for slope projection to determine the perimeter where the projected slopes
intersect the sloping bottom of the pond.
Workflow
Draw the points using Points / Draw. This will draw the
points of the existing topography outside the disturbed area.
Turn off all but the design layer. This layer should contain
points of the undisturbed topography, the pond surface
perimeter and bottom perimeter polylines.
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Workflow
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Contour
Surface <Existing>: enter
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: enter
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Drape the pond perimeter polyline onto the Existing surface. This
surface must have at least a TIN to drape upon. When we showed
the contours, we created a TIN, Derivatives and Grid automatically.
Design Tools -> Drape
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Move the cursor over the surface to determine the original elevation and decide on the pond bottom elevation. Press return to exit
Track Z. We will use Build surface to create a sloping pond bottom surface. Build surface requires a few points or lines for input,
so we will draw three points on the pond bottom to define the
sloping pond bottom plane. Draw three defining points for the
pond bottom. Use the .xy filter to graphically pick the point
location, then enter the z value at the prompt.
Command: POINT
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Surface name <Existing>: press . to use the results surface, then enter
Select control lines
Return to select all or
Select objects: select pond perimeter polyline you drew
Setup dialog <Y>: Yes to access Configure Slopes dialog
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Select the outer boundary rectangle and the daylight line (pond
perimeter) as nested boundaries.
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Draw the points. This will draw the points of the existing topography outside the disturbed area.
Points
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Show/New/DIsable/Enable/DElete/Read/Write <DI>: DE
Boundary Deleted
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Turn off all but the design layer. This layer should contain points
of the undisturbed topography, the pond perimeter polyline and
the pond bottom polyline created by Intersect slope.
The Entity filter dialog pops up. Highlight Point in the pick list
then press Select. Only point entities will be extracted.
The Extract to surface command will continue with
Return to select all or
Select objects: select by crossing all points and break lines.
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The Entity filter dialog pops up. Press Reset to bring back the
complete entity list then press OK. Extract Breaks will not use
the points, so no entity filtering is required. The Extract Breaks
command will continue with
Return to select all or
Select objects: select the two pond defining polylines
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This should look similar to the first figure in this chapter showing
the contoured pond.
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The negative volumes represent volume of earth removed to create the pond. You should always visually examine the resulting
thickness surface which is left in the <.> surface. This can be
done quickly by showing the TIN from an oblique angle. If you
enable the current boundary (set by area volume), just the areas
which were calculated will be displayed upon displaying the TIN.
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Use Area volumes to calculate the water volume between Proposed surface and a constant elevation representing the water
level, selecting the pond perimeter as the area polyline. This is
accomplished by selecting the Constant check box in the Area
volumes dialog and entering the water level elevation in the adjacent edit box. The negative volume represents the water volume
for the different water levels. This is due to (Proposed - Constant) being a negative number. Proposed represents the pond
bottom and Constant represents the water level. The positive volPond construction tutorial
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Objective
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In this example, we are simply sinking the ditch into the surface
and removing the earth. This example demonstrates the use of
offset, drape and move commands to create the 3D polylines of
the ditch edges (daylight lines) and ditch floor. A different drape
step will be used when creating the ditch edge and ditch floor
polylines.
Objective
Page 355
Workflow
Create a surface representing the existing topography in the
area where the ditch will be placed. Show the contours.
Offset the centerline for the ditch edge and bottom polylines.
Erase any points within the ditch borders ( Erase using the
window polygon option)
Turn off all but the design layer. This layer should contain
points of the undisturbed topography and the ditch polylines.
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Workflow
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Contour
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Offset the centerline for the ditch edge and bottom polylines.
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Command: OFFSET
Offset distance or Through <Offset> : 8 (8 foot offset)
Select object to offset: select centerline
Side to offset: pick a point on one side of the centerline
Select object to offset: select centerline
Side to offset: pick a point on the other side of the centerline
Select object to offset: press return to exit offset command
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Repeat with a 3 foot offset for the ditch bottom polylines, then
erase the centerline.
These two polylines are draped using the Auto setting for drape
step. Lets investigate the effect of manually setting a relatively
large drape step. Recall that drape step is segment length that a
line or polyline is divided into when creating a draped 3D
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polyline. The Auto setting densifies the draped lines so they follow the surface closely. By setting a large drape step we can
cause linear segments in the ditch bottom equaling the drape step
length. Invoke the Configure Drape dialog and select the Drape
on the TIN with Derivatives and set a drape step of 50. Exit the
dialog.
Design Tools -> Drape
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Command: MOVE
Select objects: select the inner two ditch bottom polylines
Base point or displacement: 0,0,-10 (this is the displacement down)
Second point of displacement: press enter
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To minimize edge effects, draw a lines (or 3D polyline) connecting the ends of the four ditch polylines.
Command: OSNAP
Object snap modes: ENDPOINT
Command: LINE
From point: select end of one outer ditch edge polyline
To point: select end of nearest ditch bottom polyline
To point: select end of other ditch bottom polyline
To point: select end of last ditch edge polyline
To point: press enter to exit
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Points
Erase any points within the outer daylight lines of the ditch. This
is important, because you do not want any of the existing control
points within the area disturbed by your design.
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Command: ERASE
Select objects: enter WP for window polygon selection
First polygon point: select
Undo<Endpoint of line>: pick multiple locations following the ditch edge
(dont erase the polylines, just the points)
Undo<Endpoint of line>: press enter when done
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Turn off all but the design layer. This layer should now contain
points of the undisturbed topography, the four draped ditch
polylines and the end break lines.
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The Entity filter dialog pops up. Highlight Point in the pick list
then press Select. Only point entities will be extracted. The
Extract to surface command will continue with
Return to select all or
Select objects: select by crossing all points and break lines.
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The Entity filter dialog pops up. Press Reset to bring back the
complete entity list then press OK. Extract Breaks will not use
the points, so no entity filtering is required. The Extract Breaks
command will continue with
Return to select all or
Select objects: select the ditch and end polylines
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If you wish to contour the surface, set Configure contour to contour on the TGRD, then show the contours from plan view.
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Vertical discontinuities
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Vertical discontinuities
Workflow
Load the defining points for the surface (not including the
wall) to create a new surface.
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Workflow
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Objective
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In this example, we are starting with an existing topographic surface, and a plan view road centerline. This example demonstrates
the use of the drape, flatten, vertical align and apply section commands to create the 3D polylines of the roadway components and
the edge of the disturbed area (daylight lines).
Objective
Page 367
Workflow
Create a surface representing the existing topography in the
area where the road will be placed. Show the contours.
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Workflow
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Contour
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Create a new current layer named ROAD for your design. Draw
the points of the existing surface into the drawing. Apply Section
will automatically move the original points in the disturbed area
(between the daylight lines) to another layer. To take advantage
of this feature the points defining the existing topography must be
drawn into the drawing.
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Points
Surface <Existing>: enter
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: Draw
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Origin: select point representing the lower left corner of the profile to be
drawn. Place this above your map area.
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Vertical align will adjust the horizontal profile (the draped roadway 3D polyline) to reflect our new design vertical profile we
have just drawn in the above figure.
Design Tools -> Vertical align
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Command: PLINE
From point: select a point to the side of your map
Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/<Endpoint of line>: @3,-1
Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/<Endpoint of line>: @3,1
Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/<Endpoint of line>: @20,1
Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/<Endpoint of line>: @20,-1
Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/<Endpoint of line>: @3,-1
Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/<Endpoint of line>: @3,1
Arc/Close/Halfwidth/Length/Undo/Width/<Endpoint of line>: enter
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the slope behavior on either side of the road and transitions (if
any) between different road cross-sections.
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Apply section will prompt for the surface name representing the
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existing topography. This surface is used to determine the daylight lines by projecting slopes from the ends of the cross-section
template.
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The break lines are drawn by Apply section and any original
(drawn) defining points of the existing topography within the disturbed area are moved to a new frozen layer called OLD_DATA.
These break lines will be used in creating the new design topography. Apply section uses the step size in Configure Drape internally, so if it seems to be running very slowly, insure that you
have not set an unreasonably small step size. This tutorial is
assuming the default configuration is being used.
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Turn off all but the design layer (Road). This layer should now
contain points of the undisturbed topography and the break lines
created by Apply Section.
We will use Extract to surface to extract the points only. The filters of Configure extract can make this easy to do. Select the
Configure Extract dialog and select the Filter by entity check box
and click OK to exit the dialog. The entity filter will pop-up
every time you perform an extract.
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The Entity filter dialog pops up. Highlight Point in the pick list
then press Select. The list reduces to contain only Point entities.
Press OK to exit the pop-up list. Only point entities will be
extracted. The Extract to surface command will continue with
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The Entity filter dialog pops up. Press Reset to bring back the
complete entity list then press OK. Extract Breaks will not use
the points, so no entity filtering is required. Select all break lines.
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Triangulated grid
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Contour
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Calculating volumes
We will use Area volumes to calculate cut and fill volumes. Our
design surface is in the <.> surface which will be overwritten by
any surface operation. We need to save this surface to a named
surface so we can use it for later display and calculation. Use
Surface operations to invoke the surface operations dialog, then
highlight the <.> surface by clicking on it, then press the Copy
button and enter Proposed in the new surface name edit box.
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At each end of the road, draw a line (not 2D polyline) from the
endpoint of the outer left daylight line to the endpoint of the outer
right daylight line. Use OSNAP to ENDPOINT to be sure you snap
exactly to the endpoints of the outer daylight lines. After doing
this you will have the two outer daylight lines and the two lines
you just drew ready to create a bounding 3D polyline encompassing the design area.
Use Create boundary polyline to create the closed 3D polyline
around the design area.
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Objective
Analyze and display the slope distribution of a topographic surface. Create a surface display coloring each part of the surface by
its slope. Create an iso-slope contour map and hachure areas
within certain slope ranges.
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Select the Use range check box and specify the slope range
by specifying minimum and maximum slope values.
Show or draw the grid. It will be colored by the slope intervals you specified.
Objective
Page 385
Use surface operation Degree slope to create a new <.> surface whose Z value is slope in degrees.
Use AutoCADs Hatch command and select adjacent contours to hatch areas within that slope interval.
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We will read and use the Existing surface from the included file
\QS51\DEMO5.QSB.
Surface operations
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Select Read QSB and select DEMO5.QSB from the file dialog.
This file is located in the \QS51 directory. This will load all of the
example surfaces into surface memory. Next use Surface zoom
to align the view over the surface.
View options -> Surface view
Surface <.>: Existing
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Surface<.>: Existing
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: Show
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Rotate/ <View Point> <0.0000, 0.0000, 1.0000>: 1,-1,1
Regenerating drawing
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Grid
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Surface<.>: Existing
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: Show
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two degrees each. Press the Set Interval button to confirm your
intervals. This will invoke the Surface Color Intervals dialog
which displays the current interval settings. These are evenly
spaced two degree intervals because we set a maximum and minimum (0 and 20) and a number of intervals (10). Had we not set
the maximum and minimum discretely, the actual range of the
data is used which usually results in an odd interval. Press OK
several times to exit the nested dialog boxes.
Grid
Surface<.>: Existing
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: Show
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The grid will be colored by the two degree slope intervals you
specified. You may want to experiment with changing the Number of Colors setting to divide the slopes into finer intervals (try
20) or coarser intervals (try 5).
Enable the drawing legend check box.
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Grid
Surface<.>: Existing
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: Show
Reducing the cell size of the grid makes the visual display appear
more solid.
Surface options -> Cell Size
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Grid
Surface<.>: Existing
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: Show
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Surface operations
Contour
Surface<.>: Existing
None/Show/Draw/Redraw <Show>: Draw
Close all? <N>: Yes
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Command: Hatch
Pattern (? or name/U,style) <>: Line
Scale for pattern <>: 100
Angle for pattern <>: 45
Select objects: select two adjacent contour polylines
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Repeat as necessary to hachure different slope areas with different hatch patterns. Hatch patterns are placed in the drawing as
blocks at the current elevation. If you are creating a 3D model,
you may wish to explode the hatch patterns blocks and drape
them on the Existing topography surface (not the slope surface).
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Overview
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After creating a surface in logarithmic space, you may exponentiate it back to its original values if you need the actual concentration contour labels, rather than Ln concentrations. Logarithmic
contour labeling of 0.01, 0.1, 1.0, 10, 100, etc. may be accomplished using and Elevation list file described in the Configure
Contour section of the Chapter 7.
Kriging
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It is a good idea to examine the raw data set prior to creating any
grid surface. Contouring based upon the TIN or showing the TIN
from an oblique view displays the geometry of the data set using
only linear interpolation. Once you have confirmed that the input
data looks reasonable, you can proceed to design a variogram and
create a grid by kriging.
Variogram design
Variogram defining parameters such as variogram type, nugget,
range and sill may be specified in the Krige parameters section of
the Configure Grid dialog or determined interactively using the
Variogram design command. The shape of the variogram curve is
reflected in the shape of the surface surrounding data points.
Kriging works better than curvature based methods because the
variogram may be designed incorporating knowledge about the
behavior of the contaminant being mapped.
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The most common error using kriging is to use too short a range,
which results in flat areas in between data points at the mean elevation of the data set. Kriging is very effective when properly
applied, but is very prone to misuse due to lack of understanding
by the user. If you plan to use kriging, take the time to read and
understand the underlying theory. A simple tutorial and a few
references are offered in the next chapter.
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Page 394
Quicksurf
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Introduction
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E. Isaaks and R. Srivastava. An Introduction to Applied Geostatistics. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. 1989.
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Independent study of the underlying theory will allow you understand how surface shape varies with different variograms.
Range
( h)
Sill
Nugget
Distance (h)
A gaussian semi-variogram
Introduction
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As you explore the technique, you will find that kriging can produce excellent results or absolutely meaningless maps depending
upon the variogram used. Effective use of kriging is absolutely
dependent upon a properly defined variogram.
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This version of Quicksurf supports isotropic kriging. The underlying assumption is that the data structure is isotropic and that
variograms utilizing the direction as well as distance between
points would be the same.
Introduction
Objective
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Workflow
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Using kriging
Loading the data set
We will load points and generate surfaces based on the kriging
method. First load the standard QS configuration file so we have
the same starting point:
Objective
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Surface operations
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We will read and use the Contaminant surface from the included
file \QS51\DEMO5.QSB.
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Select Read QSB and select DEMO5.QSB from the file dialog.
This file is located in the \QS51 directory. This will load all of the
example surfaces into surface memory. Press OK to exit the dialog. Next use Surface zoom to align the view over the surface.
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Surface <.>: Press ? to invoke the surface pick list, select Contaminant
TIN
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The raw data points are at the vertices of the triangulated irregular
network. Viewing the TIN from an oblique view is a quick way
to detect spurious points. The command sequence of VPOINT,
Surface zoom, TIN, and Surface plan view will accomplish this.
Page 398
Using kriging
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Click on the Krige method button and the Krige parameter section is enabled. Pull down the Variogram pick list and select
Exponential variogram type by clicking on it. Set the Neighborhood to six rings. The neighborhood considered is based upon
the number of rings of the TIN around the grid node elevation
being calculated. One ring is equivalent to using the nearest
neighbors only, two rings includes the neighbors neighbors, etc.
Computation time increases as the cube of the number of rings, so
set this number only as high as needed to produce a smooth surface. Setting the number of ring to four is a good starting place
for general use. Too small a neighborhood results in surface discontinuities. Press OK to exit the dialog. We will use the Variogram design command to determine the Nugget, Range and Sill
values.
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The histogram of variance versus distance is shown in this window. It will disappear at the next redraw.
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This graph represents the variance (y axis) versus inter-point distance (x axis) of the points in the selected surface. The command
continues:
Variogram type <Exp>: press enter (you set Exponential in the dialog)
Point at y=nugget: <0,0>: press enter to accept a zero nugget
Point at range, sill <previous range, previous sill>: pick range and sill
Select variogram point below sill <previous>: pick guide point
Variogram OK <N>: enter Yes to accept the variogram; No to try again
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Using kriging
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The Nugget is the y-intercept of the variogram curve. This represents the variance at a range (distance) of zero. A zero nugget
means the surface must pass through each data point exactly. A
non-zero nugget means that the surface may miss any point by as
long the error falls within the nugget variance. You may graphically pick a point on the graph and the Y value of the picked point
will become the Nugget value. If you key in a value at the keyboard in the Variogram design command, specify both an x and y
value (such as 0,0), even though only the y value is ultimately
used.
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The Range and Sill may be specified by graphically picking a single point on the variogram ( x = range and y = sill). The range
represents the distance beyond which the variance is constant,
meaning that the z values of points beyond this distance have no
influence on the elevation being estimated. The sill represents
the variance at a distance equal to the range. The grey horizontal
line shown on the variogram represents the mean variance of the
data set and may be used as a sill estimate for small data sets
which do not exhibit an obvious sill on the histogram curve.
For Gaussian or Exponential variogram types, you are prompted
for an extra guide point to help determine the shape of the variogram curve. This point is picked between the origin and the
<range, sill> point and shapes the resulting curve. The range and
sill are recomputed to reflect this exact curve shape.
Using kriging
Page 401
Exponential
0
150
300
6 Rings
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Variogram:
Nugget:
Range:
Sill:
Neighborhood:
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Page 402
Using kriging
Command: VPOINT
Rotate/<View point> <0,0,1>: -2,-2,1
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Grid
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Using kriging
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Using kriging
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2) If the points are drawn into the drawing, re-extract the points
with Extract to surface to create a <.>surface with just points.
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3) Use Cell Size or Cell Count command from the Surface options
menu. These two commands clear and recalculate the grid even
if the cell size/count is not altered.
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For this example we will use the Cell Count option and view the
new grid from an oblique angle. Rebuild the grid with the new
settings:
Using kriging
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Notice that with the shortened range, the surface is at the mean
value of the data set between points and reflects the shape of the
variogram in the vicinity of a data point. This is a misdesigned
variogram and the resulting surface is not valid.
From this same oblique view try the following sets of kriging
parameters. Enter each set in the Configure Grid dialog box then
use Cell count and Grid / Show (as you did above) to recreate the
display each new grid.
0
0
0
0
Sill
Neighborhood
40
40
40
40
300
300
300
300
6 Rings
6 Rings
6 Rings
6 Rings
400
40
20
10
300
300
30
3000
6 Rings
6 Rings
6 Rings
6 Rings
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Spherical
Spherical
Spherical
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Range
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Linear
Exponential
Spherical
Piecewise
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Different variograms
for the same parameters affect surface
shape.
Type
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Introduction
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A wide variety of faulting styles may be modeled using Quicksurf. A fault represents a discontinuity in a stratigraphic horizon
where it has been broken and offset. Faulted horizons which do
not have repeated section (normal faults, growth faults, etc.) may
be modeled as a single continuous surface. Faulted horizons
which contain repeated section (reverse faults, thrust faults, etc.)
must be modeled as two surfaces, one for the hanging wall and
one for the foot wall. This is because Quicksurf models singlevalued surfaces, having only one z value at a given x,y location.
Faults are modeled using break lines. 3D break lines are created
representing the intersection of the fault plane surface and the
faulted horizon for both the up-thrown and down-thrown sides.
For a normal fault, the resulting surface follows the stratigraphic
horizon on the up-thrown side to the upper fault trace (break
line), then down the fault plane surface to the lower fault trace
Introduction
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(break line), then follows the down-thrown stratigraphic horizon. The display of contours or triangulated grid on the fault
plane surface itself may be optionally suppressed.
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The illustration above shows the same faulted surface from the
previous page in an oblique view. The TGRD has not been
drawn on the fault surfaces themselves, but the surface held in
memory is continuous across the faults. If a drill hole actually
intersected the fault surface, this point may be used a a defining
point for the surface. The edges where the horizon intersects the
fault are break lines. Creating 3D polylines for break lines is the
key to effective fault modeling.
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The basic work flow when constructing break lines for faults consists of drawing the plan view orientation of the fault traces and
converting them into 3D polylines using Drape or Extrapolate to
get a starting point. The resulting 3D polylines will have the correct horizontal alignment and a rough first pass on the vertical
alignment. The vertical alignment of both the upper and lower
fault traces are then plotted on the same 2D profile using Flatten.
If you flatten the upper fault trace first and supply a low base
point elevation, the resulting graph will be tall enough to accomodate the second flattened profile.
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Many times you may already have the 3D position of the fault
trace from other sources such as seismic workstation output or
pre-existing mapping. These may be loaded using Load ASCII
Breaks or by drawing the 3D polyline by snapping to the points
where pre-mapped contours intersect the fault. In the latter case,
the x,y location of the intersection of the contour line and the
fault is used in combination with the z elevation of the contour
line itself as 3D polyline vertices.
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New vertical alignments for both fault traces are drawn (or the
originals edited) on the 2D profile. This allows both absolute
structural position for both fault traces and fault throw to be controlled simultaneously. Each of the adjusted fault profiles are reapplied to the 3D fault traces in the model using Vertical Align.
Now the 3D polylines representing the fault traces are at their
correct position in 3D space, ready to be extracted as break lines.
Page 409
Workflow
Load the existing surface control points
Adjust the fault break lines if necessary and recreate the surface starting at the Extract to surface step above.
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Workflow
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The figure above is contoured on the data points only (no break
lines) using the standard (continuous curvature) method. Many
curvature artifacts may be seen as anomalous highs and lows.
The location of the first pass break lines are shown. These break
lines have been flattened on the same 2D profile graph below.
New vertical profiles have been drawn for both the upper and
lower fault traces.
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Workflow
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If you do not want to have the fault plane contoured, use a nested
boundary polygon covering the plan view area of the exposed
fault plane. This closed polyline may be easily created by snapping a line to join the ends of the upper and lower fault break
lines, then using the Create Boundary Polyline command from the
utilities menu.
Workflow
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Building the break lines representing the fault traces is the most
difficult part of fault modeling. While Flatten and Vertical align
allow for precise fine-tuning of fault geometry, creating the first
pass rough 3D polyline representing the fault is a challenge.
Three approaches are commonly used.
Draw the 3D polyline manually
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The first pass for a fault does not need to be overly complex.
Many times you can simply draw a 3D polyline representing the
fault trace using a dozen points or less. The detailed geometry of
the fault may be added to the flattened 2D profile and re-applied
using Vertical align. Careful use of filters (such as .xy) and object
snaps allow you to quickly build a 3D polyline representing the
first pass of a fault trace.
Drawing the fault trace can incorporate outside data such as seismic or pre-mapped fault positions.
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If sufficient control exists within a fault block to extrapolate gradients, the Extrapolate command may be used to create a 3D
polyline from a 2D or 3D polyline which does not necessarily
overlie the surface. Extrapolate functions like Drape in the sense
that it adds new vertices, and only adjusts the z values of the vertices, leaving the horizontal alignment the same. The spacing
between added vertices is controlled by the Drape Step setting in
the Configure Drape dialog box.
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Extrapolation should never be relied on without careful inspection of the result. The Extrapolate command uses the gradients
from the local neighbors to determine elevation values at a point
off of the surface. The result is highly variable depending on the
distribution of points within the surface and the horizontal distance between the surface edge and the polyline being adjusted.
Because different algorithms are used, Drape and Extrapolate
may produce different results for entities which overlie the surface.
Using Drape and Extrapolate
Page 415
Draw the 2D polyline representing the fault trace for the edge
of this fault block only.
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Page 418
Quicksurf
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Configuration files are ASCII text files which contain the current
configuration of all global Quicksurf variables. Configuation
files may be read and written using the Read Configuration and
Save Configuration menu commands. The List configuration
command displays the configuration file to the AutoCAD text
screen one page at a time.
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Command: QSOPT
Keyword: Interval
Contour Interval/Auto <Auto>: 25
Configuration files with the same name as the drawing are automatically read upon opening the drawing. If such a configuration
file is not found, the QS.QCF configuration file is read. If no configuration file is found, the internal defaults are used. A configuration file may be created with the current settings at any time by
selecting Save Configuration from the menu.
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; File: \qs51\qs.qcf
;
Quicksurf 5.xx Options
;
;Keyword = Value(s)
; Description
;---------------------------------------------------------
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curname =
; Current surface name
surfsort = Yes
; Use sort in surface list
window = Max
; Current working window
acute
= 0.0000
; Triangulation constraint
cellsize = Auto
; Cell Size
cellcnt = Auto
; Grid Count
cellfac = 4.0000
; Cell count factor
cellmin = 500
; Minimum Grid Cells
cellmax = 50000
; Maximum Grid Cells
usegreg = No
; Use grid registration
pingrid = 0.00,0.00
; Grid registration point
meshbase = 0.0000
; Base Elevation for Mesh
interval = Auto
; Contour Interval
levels = 20
; Contour Levels
elevfile =
; Elevation list file name
rough
= No
; Use frame points only
color
= Yes
; Color Contours
colcont = Cycle
; Color contour method
c1split = 5
; Low Contour Color Split
c2split = 15
; High Contour Color Split
cesplit = 0.0000
; Contour color elevation split
c1intvl = 5
; Base Contour Color
c2intvl = 15
; Highlighted Contour Color
chintvl = 5.0000
; Interval for highlighted contour
scolcyc = 1
; Starting Cycle Color
ncolcyc = 20
; Number Cycle Colors
cmapfile = C:\QS51\STDQS ; Color mapping file name
howcolor = Elevation
; Paint method
slmeth =
; Slope method
startcol = 1
; Starting Surface Color
ncolors = 20
; Number of Colors
colintvl = 1.0000
; Contour color cycle interval
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blnkcolor = 251
usecrange = No
cmaxv
= 10000000.000
cminv
= -1e+007
viewpnt = 0.00,0.00,0.00
targetpnt = 1.00,1.00,0.00
uselegend = No
showcolor = XOR
verbose = 1
gmethod = 1
dorder = 2
border = 2
weight = 2
honor
= No
neighmethod = 1
coorsys = Yes
rings
=2
ttype
=2
torder = 4,4
cmethod = Grid
usecntrg = No
mincont = -1
maxcont = 1.0000
bmethod = 1
maxsop = Yes
ptonbrk = Yes
drbase = TIN
drorder = 1
drstep = Auto
stackfac = 1e-014
brkcrverr = 0.0000
brkacc = 0.0010
curvefac = 0.0005
leanleft = No
avoid
= No
showhi = No
usedstep = No
denstep = Auto
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usefilter = No
; Use extract filter
uselayer = No
; Use layer filter
filtlayer =
; Data layer name
userange = No
; Use Z range filter
minelev = -90000
; Minimum Z value
maxelev = 90000.0000
; Maximum Z value
npmax
= 2000000
; Max number of extracted points
fname
= <none>
; Loading points file name
colpos = 1,2,3
; Column Positions for reading data
scalefac = 1.00,1.00,1.00 ; Scale Factor
bldtype = 0
; Build surface type
extents = -1000000000000.000,-1000000000000.000 x
1000000000000.000,1000000000000.000
postoff = 1.00,1.00,0.00 ; Posting offset
camheight = 10.0000
; Camera Height
camlens = 30.0000
; Camera Lens
slpunit = 0
; Units for slopes
volconv = 1.0000
; Conversion for Volumes
volunit =
; Volume unit string
arconv = 1.0000
; Conversion for Areas
arunit =
; Area unit string
boundtol = No
; Boundary tolerance prompt
intstep = Auto
; Intersect Step Size
intslpupr = 1.0000
; Right Initial Slope Up
endslpupr = 1.0000
; Right Ending Slope Up
intslpdnr = 1.0000
; Right Initial Slope Down
endslpdnr = 1.0000
; Right Ending Slope Down
intslpupl = 1.0000
; Left Initial Slope Up
endslpupl = 1.0000
; Left Ending Slope Up
intslpdnl = 1.0000
; Left Initial Slope Down
endslpdnl = 1.0000
; Left Ending Slope Down
genseed = Auto
; Seed number for terrain generator
variotype = 0
; Variogram type
histintvl = 24
; Histogram intervals
nugget = 0.0000
; Nugget
range
= 1.0000
; Variogram range
sill
= 1.0000
; Variogram sill
Data input
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From ASCII...
QSXPORT
DWG2TXT
WBOUND
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QSML
QSBL
RBOUND
QSLDEM
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Extract to surface
Extract breaks
Merge extract
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QSX
QSBX
QSMX
Data Export
To ASCII..
To 3D Studio..
QS3DS
Data input
Page 423
Surface commands
Boundaries
Boundary
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BOUND
Create / Display
Points
Breaks
Triangulated grid
TIN
Grid
Contour
Inverse distance by gradient
Inverse distance by observation
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Modify
Current surface
Surface management
Surface operations (no dialogs)
Extend edge
TIN edge
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DSOP
SOP
EXTEDGE
TINEDGE
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PNTS
BREAKS
TGRD
TIN
GRD
CONT
IDWG
IDWO
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Viewing
SVIEW
SETCAM
SPLAN
SZOOM
Surface view
Configure camera
Surface plan view
Surface zoom
POST
SETPOST
DPOST
SMOO
INDEX
LABEL
MLABEL
TICK
Annotation
Page 424
Surface commands
Surface colors
Screen fill
Remap Colors
Load Color Map
Reset Color Maps
AVOL
BVOL
SVOL
VOLUME
Area volume
Boundary volume
Surface volume
Volume by entity
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PAINT
PFILL
DCMAP
LCMAP
RCMAP
Design Tools
Build surfaces
Generate terrain
Apply section
Drape
Flatten
Intersect slope
Configure intersect slope
Intersect surface
Cross-section
Cross-section setup
Surface region
Vertical align
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QSBLD
TGEN
APSEC
DRAPE
FLATTEN
ISLOPE
SETSLOPE
ISURF
SECT
SECT_SETUP
REGION
VALIGN
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Volumes
PD
Color control
Utilities
Elevations
TRACKZ
DELEV
CELEV
SETZ
SELZ
SCALEZ
Trackz
Display Z of entity
Change Z of entity
Set Z
Select by Z
Scale Z of entities
Color control
Page 425
Quicksurf
Set option by keyword
Command list
Version
Draw 3D flowlines
Grid pedestal
Moving average
Variogram
Voronoi diagram
3DOFFSET
SWAPPOLY
CBND
MK2DPOLY
3PEDIT
DENSIFY
POLYDASH
XSEIS
3D polyline offset
Swap ends
Create boundary
Make 2D poly
3D polyline merge
Densify vertices
Dash a polyline
Export comma-delimited 3D poly
Polyfaces
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Polylines
Weld 3D faces
Normal offset 3D mesh
TD
ESEL
SETL
MAP
WRAP
UNWRAP
SCALESYM
NUMBER
RARIFY
Toggle dialogs
Erase selected
Set layer
Rubber sheeting
Wrap to sphere
Spherical to rectangular
Scale symbols
Sequentially number
Rarify points
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WELD
LINER
PD
General
Page 426
QSOPT
QS
QSVER
FLOW
GPED
MAVG
VARIO
VOR
Utilities
Surface operations
Surface management
Surface modification
Cell size
Cell count
Cell factor
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SOP CS
SOP CC
SOP CF
SOP WINdow
SOP SET
SOP MErge
SOP SPlice
SOP Zrot
SOP XTrans
SOP YTrans
SOP XSCale
SOP YSCale
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SOP CLear
SOP DELete
SOP COPy
SOP MOVe
SOP REName
SOP LOad
SOP SAve
SOP DESCription
SOP LAYer
SOP LIst
Z rotation
Translate X
Translate Y
Scale X
Scale Y
File operations
SOP READ
SOP WRITE
Read QSB
Write QSB
Surface operations
Page 427
Mathematical operations
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Add (+)
Subtract (-)
Multiply (*)
Divide (/)
Remainder (%)
Min
Max
Absolute value
Square root
Exponential
Power10
Ln
Log
Sine
Cosine
Arctangent
Floor
Reciprocal
Absolute slope in decimal percent
Absolute slope in degrees
Slope in X
Slope in Y
Residual
Trend
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SOP +
SOP SOP *
SOP /
SOP %
SOP MAX
SOP MIN
SOP ABslope
SOP SQrt
SOP EXP
SOP POWER10
SOP LN
SOP LOG
SOP SIN
SOP COS
SOP ATan
SOP FLoor
SOP REC
SOP ASL
SOP DSL
SOP XSLope
SOP YSLope
SOP RES
SOP TRend
Surface operations
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Some LISP routines are loaded by the menu as they are selected.
If you are typing the command at the keyboard and receive an
Unknown command error, select the command from the menu the
first time to load it. Subsequent use from the keyboard will work
normally. This is the case with all utility commands.
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Menu misbehavior
If menus or dialog boxes do not function properly, you have not
loaded all of the component parts to Quicksurf or you have
installed the Windows version of Quicksurf on the DOS version
of AutoCAD or vice versa. You also could have two different
versions of Quicksurf on the same machine.
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After deleting any copies of these files, re-install the proper version of Quicksurf for your version of AutoCAD see Installation
on page 10.
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Extract problems
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If you are using one of the Extract commands and are not getting
any entities selected, you may be using one of the Extract filters
improperly. Invoke the Configure Extract dialog and correct the
problem by de-selecting all filters.
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If you are extracting entities and the display of them (Points, TIN,
etc.) is in a different place than expected, or you do not see them
at all, you may be displaying in a UCS. Change to world coordinates or if you need to be in the UCS, see Extract commands and
User Coordinate Systems on page 327.
Display problems
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SOP Window
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If you have a window set which does not coincide with your
view, the grid may not exist in your view area. Use Surface
Options -> Window to set the window to Max.
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If contours are not showing, you may have a Z range set within
Configure Contour that does not overlap the data being contoured.
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Undo list
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This will disable UNDO and henceforth AutoCAD will not create
a list, but it will not reclaim the room taken by any pre-existing
undo list file until you exit AutoCAD entirely. If you wish to
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leave undo enabled and are drawing and erasing large entities,
periodically (every few hours) save your drawing and surfaces,
then exit and reload AutoCAD.
Grid problems
AF pager error
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If you receive a grid undefined error, you have the probably used
surface operation Window improperly or set a cell size larger
than the X, Y range of your data. If the current window and your
data set do not overlap, when viewed from plan view, a Grid undefined error may result. Setting the window while in a UCS will
cause further confusion as the window will be set using UCS
coordinates and your data will more than likely be in world coordinates (WCS).
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If you receive this error, you ran out of space on your hard disk
drive. AutoCADs swap file grew larger than your available disk
space. See the Undo list entry above.
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Annotation Problems
Label, Post and Post Entities all rely on certain AutoCAD settings
such as text style (including font, text height, width factor), object
snap modes, and pickbox size. Problems may result with very
small fixed text heights, with pickbox size set to zero, or with
object snaps set to anything other than None.
If you encounter problems, use undo to undo the error, then verify
OSNAP is set to None, PICKBOX is set to greater than zero, and
use the Style command to set a variable text height (specify 0.0)
and a width factor of 1.0.
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Quicksurf
Index
183
324
BBS 19
Blend order 202
Block models 175
Boundaries 54, 99
ASCII files 75, 80
Boundaries and Drape 144, 281
Boundaries and surface displays 271
Boundary smart commands 269
Boundary tolerance prompt 218
Configuring 218
Create polyline utility 182
Creating and deleting 100
Establishing boundaries 270
Example 340, 349
Nested boundaries 271
Break lines 63, 273
Adaptive densification 274
ASCII files 73
Configuring break extract 213
Constructing 149, 155
Creating 273
Curve error 214
Definition 30
Example 277, 341, 352, 360, 379
Geologic faults 407, 414
Intersecting break lines 33, 276
Resolving break lines 275
Tolerance 213
Using 276
Break lines and Drape 213
Breaks
Definition 25
Breaks command 84
Building pad example 335
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3D polylines
Vertical adjustment 152
3D Studio 323
Creating surface patches 164
Direct surface export to .3DS file 323
Exporting mesh objects 323
Materials segregation 165
Morphing Quicksurf surfaces 325
Partitioning large surfaces 325
Subdividing surfaces for different materials
3DS files 323
Index
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Index
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Drape 143
Erase selected (ESEL) 185
Export 3D polyline (XSEIS) 183
Export ASCII from memory (QSEXPORT) 79
Export to 3DS from memory (QS3DS) 81
Extract ASCII from drawing (DWG2TXT) 80
Extract breaks (QSBX) 63
Extract to surface (QSX) 62
Extrapolate (EXTSURF) 165
Factory Configuration 197
Flatten 145
Generate terrain (TGEN) 171
Grid (GRD) 87
Grid pedestal (GPED) 175
Hachure contours (TICK) 113
Index Contours (INDEX) 110
Intersect slope (ISLOPE) 149
Intersect surface (ISURF) 164
List Configuration 196
Make 2D poly (MK2DPOLY) 183
Merge 3D polyline (3PEDIT) 183
Merge extract (QSMX) 63
Moving average (MAVG) 175
Offset 3D mesh (LINER) 184
Points (PNTS) 83
Post entities (DPOST) 105
Post from memory (POST) 102
Quicksurf Version (QSVER) 172
Rarefy points 192
Read ASCII Boundaries (RBOUND) 75
Read ASCII Breaks (QSBL) 73
Read ASCII Points (QSL) 65
Read ASCII Table (QSML) 68
Read Configuration 197
Read DEM file (QSLDEM) 76
Remap colors (DCMAP) 127
Rubber sheeting (MAP) 185
Save Configuration 197
Scale symbols (SCALESYM) 190
Scale Z of entities (SCALEZ) 169
Screen fill (PFILL) 131
Select by Z (SELZ) 170
Set Boundary (BOUND) 99
Set layer (SETL) 185
Set SHOW color 129
Set Z (SETZ) 169
Index
Index
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Index
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Index
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Data export 79
Data input 61
Default settings 197
Deleting surfaces 243
DEM projection 78
Demo mode 44
Densify during extract 215
Densify step size 215
Derivatives concepts 27
Derivatives setting 201
Design Tools 143
Detailed surface information 243
Digital elevation models (DEM) 76
Directory for Quicksurf files 11, 15
Display problems 253, 269
Displaying a surface 46
Ditch construction example 355
Division (/) 260
Dongles 17
Drainage 173
Drape 51, 279
And break lines 213
And curvature 279
Concepts 279
Configuration 211
Constructing break lines 282
Construction surfaces 161
Converting 2D maps to 3D maps 282
Drape and Boundaries 281
Drape and boundaries 144
Drape basis 279
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Index
167
Index
327
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Faulting 165
Faults 407
Building fault break lines 414
Constructing fault break lines 409
Using Drape and Extrapolate 414
Using Flatten and Vertical align 411
Vertical 363
Fax number 19
Filter by entity
Example 340, 360, 378
Filter by Entity during extract 215
Filter by Layer during extract 216
Filter by Z 217
Flatten
Example 371
Using with faults 411
Flatten command 145
Flowlines 173
G
Gaussian variogram 179
General utilities 185
GENSEED variable 171
Geologic faults 407
Gradient flowlines 173
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35
H
Hardware keys 17
Hardware requirements 9
Hatch pattern draped on a surface
Index
285
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284
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Index contours 58
Indexing contours 110
Installation 10
For DOS AutoCAD R12 10
For Windows AutoCAD R12 14
From CD ROM 10
Intersect slope
Example 338, 348
Slope configuration 225
Slope control lines 228
Step size 228
Intersect slope commands 149
Intersecting slope control 229
Introduction 9
Invisibility 86
Invisible show color 129
TIN 85
Iso-slope contours 386
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Offset example 358
Overshoot control 203
181
P
Partitioning surfaces 164
Parts of a Surface 24
Perspective view 97, 220
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Q
QCF files 195
QSB files
Creating from ASCII files
Reading 242
Writing 242
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Camera lens 99
Example 361, 379
Height above surface 98
Phantom points 288
Phone numbers 19
Plane construction 162
Point to Point surface operations 256
Points 24
Definition 25
Posting points from memory 102
Posting Z values of drawn points 105
Points command 83
Polyface meshes
Creating from 3D faces 184
Grids 90
Normal offset 184
Surface area 184
Polyface utilities 184
Polylines
Densification 215
Extracting smoothed polylines 217
Make 2D utility 183
Merging 3D polylines 183
Offsetting in 3D 182
Reversing vertex order 182
Vertex densification utility 183
Polynomial trend surfaces 203
Pond construction example 343
Positive volume 303
Posting drawing entities 105
Posting Z values 102
Posting Z values from memory 102
Configuration 221
Posting Z values of points 59
Profiles 52, 145, 147, 230
Example 370
Projecting slope 149
Index
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Index
Index
164
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Merge 254
Minimum 261
Move 248
Multiplication (*) 260
Power of 10 264
Read QSB 242
Rename 244
Residual 267
Run Operation button 246
Save ( to named surface) 249
Scaling in X and Y 255
Set 254
Splice 254
Square root 262
Subtraction (-) 260
Surface management functions 247
Trend 266
Trigonometric functions 264
Understanding 256
Window 252
Write QSB 242
Surface operations dialog box
Surface list 240
Surface management buttons 241
Surface operations without dialogs 94
Surface view
Example 361, 379
Examples 157
Surface volume command 138
Surface zoom
Using 46
Surfaces 3, 21
Analysis of 295
Associating layer names 245, 249
Changing grid cell count 251
Changing grid cell size 251
Clear parts 247
Clearing parts 242
Coloration 114
Conical 162
Constant surfaces 254
Construction surfaces 161
Controlling overshoot 203
Copying 243, 248
Creating patches 164
Creating similar geometries 254
T
Technical support 19
Telephone numbers 19
Temporary surfaces 161
Terrain Generator 171
Text
Height for Post from memory
Index
222
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Index
181
Index
Windows installation
14
X
129
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W
Wall constructions 363
Window for grid creation
252
Index
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