Importing CAD Topo File

[markf]

I'm trying to work with an ACAD file that is a bunch of contour lines of an area of terrain originally generated by aerial mapping. I can open the file in ACAD no problem. I have the file as just the major 10' interval contour lines and nothing else. I import that to Max design 2010 and that works ok. It imports as one Editable Spline. The problem is that when I select the contour line object it slows my system way way down to an unusably slow state. Trying to add a modifier or do anything just takes way to long to be workable.

 

I am using Win XP Pro 64 bit, quad core 6600 pocessor, 8 gig ram.

 

I'd like to turn this into a compound terrain object. As it stands it seems too resource intensive to work with. Object properties show 11,955,384 vertices and 23,907,536 faces ( I wouldn't think there should be any faces on an unsurfaced spline object)

 

Any ideas on how to simplify this a bit in ACAD or Max so I can actually work with it?

 

TIA for any help.

Edited July 10, 2009 by markf

[Cad64]

I would trace over the contours in Autocad with a polyline and try to keep the vertices to a minimum. Then delete out the original geometry and import the new polyline contours.

 

Also, make sure you Purge and Audit the CAD file before importing to Max.

[markf]

Thanks for your reply! Unfortunately in this case it would be way too time consuming to trace over all of the polylines. This is multi acres of canyon land type desert terrain. Lots of lines

 

I did eliminate all of the extraneous stuff and purge the file and save before importing to max.

 

Thanks again!

[Scott Dombrowski]

I'm trying to work with an ACAD file that is a bunch of contour lines of an area of terrain originally generated by aerial mapping. I can open the file in ACAD no problem. I have the file as just the major 10' interval contour lines and nothing else. I import that to Max design 2010 and that works ok. It imports as one Editable Spline. The problem is that when I select the contour line object it slows my system way way down to an unusably slow state. Trying to add a modifier or do anything just takes way to long to be workable.

 

I am using Win XP Pro 64 bit, quad core 6600 pocessor, 8 gig ram.

 

I'd like to turn this into a compound terrain object. As it stands it seems too resource intensive to work with. Object properties show 11,955,384 vertices and 23,907,536 faces ( I wouldn't think there should be any faces on an unsurfaced spline object)

 

Any ideas on how to simplify this a bit in ACAD or Max so I can actually work with it?

 

TIA for any help.

 

It sounds like something else is tagging along with your contours. Try copy/pasting just the contours into a new ACAD file, making sure that your geometry is relatively close to the origin. Since this is large scale topography, you might be able to get away with a Normalize Spline modifier to reduce the number of vertices. It'll reduce the accuracy of your contours a little depending on how far apart you space the new vertices, but like I said, for a large site that probably won't matter too much. It'll take a bit of time to apply that modifier, but if you collapse it to an editible spline afterwards, it may be more manageable.

[markf]

Scott,

 

Thanks for your reply. I have pasted just the contours into a new file and purged the file and made sure nothing else is tagging along. I'd like to keep the contours positioned where they are so that the other info on the rest of the site polan file can be imported and match up correctly. It doesn't seem to be too far away from the 0,0,0 origin. I'll give the normalize spline modifier a try.

 

Thanks for your help