Contour terrain creation

[ZFact]

Hi all;

I model in vectorworks which has its limitations

when trying to create terrain. Use cinema for

rendering, so im wondering how to create

terrain in cinema with an autocad topographical

survey.

 

I dont want to create a stepped contour terrain

but rather step out the contours then join

the facets to create the sloping terrain.

 

Does this make any sense... any advice welcome

 

I have attached a jpeg of my work so far...

[Jorge Arango]

Hi all;

I model in vectorworks which has its limitations

when trying to create terrain. Use cinema for

rendering, so im wondering how to create

terrain in cinema with an autocad topographical

survey.

 

I dont want to create a stepped contour terrain

but rather step out the contours then join

the facets to create the sloping terrain.

 

Does this make any sense... any advice welcome

 

I have attached a jpeg of my work so far...

 

Try patch-it:

 

http://www.motion-gimmick.net/english/index2_e.htm

 

 

Jorge Arango

[AJLynn]

Does it need to be exact? Making the terrain perfect is usually so much overhead, I just give up and make a close approximation with a bezier surface.

[STRAT]

i like to displace my terrains. a nice fun way of working.

[Frosty]

I use FormZ. Using the contour lines from a site survey (or trace a scan), FormZ will create a terrain mesh based on and input elevation change. I think I remember a plugin years ago that would do this for Cinema, however the contours had to moved to the correct Z.

[ZFact]

Does it need to be exact? Making the terrain perfect is usually so much overhead, I just give up and make a close approximation with a bezier surface.

 

No.. a close approximation would be good enough... care to talk

me through this in cinema... keep in mind i know virtually nothing

about modelling in cinema.

[AJLynn]

It's easiest if you have contours in 3 dimensions (the lines are at the correct elevations) or the stepped geometry or anything that can be a placeholder for visual reference in 3D. Import your reference and put it in the right place, then make a bezier NURBS, rotate it to horizontal, place it and change its size parameters to make it the right size in plan. Put your display into shaded with lines, or just lines, and go into point select mode. (You know these modes, right? It's the grid of points button on the left.) You'll see the control points in red on the surface, you'll probably need to increase the number of Grid Points in the object properties so you can have enough detail, then you can just grab points and move them up and down until it's all about right.

[ZFact]

It's easiest if you have contours in 3 dimensions (the lines are at the correct elevations) or the stepped geometry or anything that can be a placeholder for visual reference in 3D. Import your reference and put it in the right place, then make a bezier NURBS, rotate it to horizontal, place it and change its size parameters to make it the right size in plan. Put your display into shaded with lines, or just lines, and go into point select mode. (You know these modes, right? It's the grid of points button on the left.) You'll see the control points in red on the surface, you'll probably need to increase the number of Grid Points in the object properties so you can have enough detail, then you can just grab points and move them up and down until it's all about right.

 

Cheers Andrew,

I have a series of splines all set at the correct level on the y axis...

and iv selected the beizer nurbs thingy... turned it horizontal and

increased its size to cover the area... clicked on the points button

and increased the number of points but it will not allow me to drag the points

upwards.... why?

[erickdt]

Could you use the loft surface tool in Vectorworks?

 

You could draw your contour lines in 2d, convert them to nurbs, move them to their corresponding hieghts and then use the loft surface tool to create a smooth terrain from them.

[ZFact]

sounds interesting... please tel me how to use this tool

as my knowledge with terrain modelling is somewhat limited

[AJLynn]

You need to have the select tool on, click a point then you see its axis drag controls, grab one and drag it. There's probably a section on it in the docs.

[ZFact]

cheers andrew... got it sorted now.... thanks for the help

[ZFact]

ANDREW: i have figured out how to do terrain by your method

it is quiet easy when you know how.... as you said it isnt

great for accuracy and im....just wondering...

 

is there a way of drawing the splines

in cinema then setting there 'y' value to the specific height

then connecting the splines with a mesh of some kind..

[richmondlu]

That is how i have done it in Maya as well. Works great for cars and landscapes. In maya you just make the loops with a line and place them at the right height and then select them all and select loft out of a surface menu and poof..a moutian/car/hill/head/ what ever you want.

[erona]

"is there a way of drawing the splines

in cinema then setting there 'y' value to the specific height

then connecting the splines with a mesh of some kind.."

 

yes... trace terrains on top view then select each spline and give it the desired 'y' value. add a loft object and drag all splines under it.

 

BTW, i use Vectorworks too for modeling terrains. VW has a 'loft' tool for this job.

[AJLynn]

Loft is good, just keep in mind that it can give unexpected results if your splines don't have the same number of points, and the start points don't line up (even a closed spline has start and finish - it's where the color changes) and direction isn't the same (again, direction is shown in the color). Also, the spline interpolation method matters, and the order of the splines in the list matters. Since Cinema's object heirarchy manager is as good a history preserving system as you'll find, if you get a weird result you can select the individual splines and make changes. Unfortunately Cinema doesn't have a Rebuild command (which makes controlling number of spline points easy in Rhino) so it's very difficult to work with splines you get from Autocad plines, which will import with a ton of points.

[ZFact]

Could you use the loft surface tool in Vectorworks?

 

You could draw your contour lines in 2d, convert them to nurbs, move them to their corresponding hieghts and then use the loft surface tool to create a smooth terrain from them.

 

if i were to model a sloping curved road using the same technique

can i give it a thickness... if yes how?

 

thanks

[erona]

if i were to model a sloping curved road using the same technique

can i give it a thickness... if yes how?

 

thanks

I'd rather give the road thickness inside C4D.