Unfortunately i didnt create a separate layer for the contours so i bakedin the contours and saved my work before retiring for the evening. Your contour lines should now import properly into sketchup. How to create a mesh or surface from contour lines autocad. Creating topographical contour lines in ske tchup tweet. Lastly, to create the terrain, select the first contour lines.
A contour line is a polyline that usually base on an elevation along a particular path. Clicking anywhere except the endpoints or midpoint along an edge with the tape measure tool tells sketchup that you want to create a guide parallel to that edge. This feature is useful when no topo or survey data is available for a site. In the contour elevation interval list, select the difference in elevation between contour lines, for example, 10, 20. Sketchup introduction to site grading land fx software. Choose drawsandboxfrom contours from the menu bar or click the from contours tool button, if the sandbox toolbar is visible. Your building needs ground to stand on, or maybe youre modeling the ground itself to create a landscape. Create 2d and 3d contour plots contour maps software. Creating terrain from scratch sketchup help sketchup help center. Creating terrain in sketchup from contours with toposhaper. If you snap a spot elevation onto a contour line at. This process of expanding the contour interval is applicable in small areas with moderate slope topography. Hit ok a few times and it will generate a shapefile that contains the contour lines.
However, the tools for creating terrain from scratch are useful in the following scenarios. Import your contour drawing from cad this is a sketchup pro feature only im afraid you can learn how to import files from cad by checking out this post. I also sometimes open the pdf in photoshop to create a very clear contour map to import into sketchup. You can use this dxf file in autocad to create a 3d surface. Technically, contour lines can be drawn for any elevation. I need a solid terrain, not a surface floating in the air. After 5 years someone pointed out that it doesnt make contours contours added, then use the plugins menu item contours. This could take a few minutes depending on the size and detail of your contour map. Using different 3d modelling software such as sketchup, we can expand the contour interval, producing many contour lines. How to create contour lines with autocad map 3d autocad. If your contour lines belong to a raster image file, the contour lines in sketchup can be easily located. With the recent release of sketchup 20 and its brand new extension warehouse it seems like a good time to do a round up of my favourite extensions or as i used to refer to them, plugins.
I would not recommend editing any standard style, but first of all right clicking the standard style and selecting copy give it your own name and then edit that style. Choose draw sandboxfrom contours from the menu bar or click the from contours tool button. But before we are discussing about drawing contour lines in qgis, lets start talking a little bit about the concept of contour line, what contour line definition is, contour lines characteristics and and how the method in drawing contour line. May 18, 2015 in this video i teach how to create a topographic map in sketchup quickly and easily. Contour lines software free download contour lines top 4.
How to generate a contour map with sketchup designer hacks. How to make and use guides for your sketchup models dummies. How to create a 3d topographic model using sketchup. Creating contours from terrain in sketchup dylan brown.
Using qgis to make custom contour maps drones made easy. How to create a 5 meter contour map using sketchup. If you snap a spot elevation onto a contour line at elevation, the spot elevation will default to that elevation. This tutorial will show you how to create contour lines from terrain in sketchup software required. Sketchup, layers panel plugin ive begun to do a lot of architectural modeling. Create contour lines based on point values other than. Quickly turn contour lines into surfaces, drape hardscape elements onto uneven ground, and modify existing terrain. Google sketchup is a free, easytolearn 3dmodeling program with a few simple tools to let you create 3d models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects, and even space ships. Nov 05, 2019 take those landscape models up a notch with this weeks skill builder.
Created a group from the square and the copied it vertically at 5 intervals until it covered the terrain map. Contour lines software free download contour lines top 4 download offers free software downloads for windows, mac, ios and android computers and mobile devices. In sketchup, the terrain can be brought into your model in the following manners. Creating contours from geo location sketchup community. Choose drawsandboxfrom contours from the menu bar or click the from contours tool button. So lets go ahead and start with landscapes, but before we do, we need to makesure that we have the sandbox tools turned on. If so, please consider supporting me on patreon click here to support. How to generate a contour map with sketchup youtube. I use autocad for mac, there is no way to generate the solid here. Contour lines software free download contour lines top. Join george maestri for an indepth discussion in this video creating terrains with contours, part of sketchup pro. Hi, im trying to find a way to render contour lines on my topo model. Generate contour map in online application esurveycad.
All aspects of 2d or 3d maps can be customized to produce exactly the presentation you want. To create contour lines with the presence of barriers, use the contour with barriers tool in arcgis pro, select the analysis tab. To do this, hit r and then press the up arrow on your keyboard to make a rectangular plane on the blue axis. Put on your grading hat, and watch how to grade retaining walls, walks. Theyre contour lines or contours because they represent the contours of the terrain. Using sketchup pro you can create cad files as well. The concept3d team has built a nice collection of sketchup video tutorials, including this. Other than elevation, contouring can be used to graphically represent data based on values such as soil temperature, isobars or lithic counts, and model the potential change between any two points. Open up sketchup and click on the add imagery icon. To create contour lines in display manager, rightclick a surface layer, and select create contour layer. Sketchup s sandbox tools the tools you use to model terrain can also create forms completely unrelated to terrain. Importing autocad civil topography dwgs into sketchup pro. If youre lucky and the lines are in some vector format, you can import them directly into sketchup, which interprets each curved contour line as lots and lots of line.
In this video i teach how to generate contour map with sketchup quickly and easily. This tool allows us to import or draw our own contour lines, and then create a terrain from those contours. Copy to copy it to make an array of lines with 1 spacing. Google earth blog is no longer writing regular posts. At this point, you can go back to view hidden geometry to deselect the hidden geometry lines to save loading time on your computer. How to model terrain from contour lines in sketchup dummies. How to create and use a construction guide in sketchup. On the prospector tab of the toolspace, rightclick on surfaces and select create surface. Sep 14, 20 there are other ways to create a hilly landscape but the idea of this video is to work on a small parcel of land that is on a single grade. Select the contour lines drawing, and click import. You can set if your map comes in above or below your 3d map, and you can adjust if altitude labels get included by clicking on. Not only that, but we also highlight what comes out of sketchup. This tutorial is going to cover how to turn contour lines into a 3d. If theyre converting to elevation 0 in autocad, youre likely exporting from sketchup as a 2d model.
Its a good idea to prevent these lines from interacting with the next set drawn parallel to the green axis so make the first set a group or component. Before we get started, one thing to note is that we will be using tools and methods that are proonly features. Its a big model an entire college campus with 1 topo lines. If you want to create more complex surfaces in sketchup, youll probably want touse the sandbox tools. In this sketchup tutorial youll learn how to create sketchup.
In the generate contour dialog box, enter a name for the new display manager layer that will contain the contour lines. Lock the grouped terrain model and the grouped index contour lines. Give the video a like if you enjoyed it and dont forget to. Now contour lines will be shown at the prescribed interval but the coloring will be a.
The 3d dxf file is exported with the z values for the contour lines. Creating elevation contours within a house footprint from. In the generate contour dialog box, enter a name for the new display manager layer that will. Skill builder making landscape contour lines from a. I recently tried creating contours for the first time, but neglected to expand the elevations before creating the contours. Sketchup tips and tricks creating contour lines from. By providing point data in csv file, that is by providing a file having easting x, northing y, elevation z data as input, you can create contour map having contour lines at the specified interval. Click right mouse button and choose create contour lines. It creates a 3d map or a contour chart from the scattered points, numerical arrays or other data sets. The software component swlib and others are available. Select all the contour lines you want to use to create a surface. If this is the case civil 3d has tools that make creating a surface from 3d faces or 3d lines representing a tin both accurate and easy. Use this free script to simplify the contours, the script basically reduces the amount of points that the contours contain and turns them into curves and lines that are native to sketchup.
How to create contour lines with autocad map 3d autocad map. You need to convert your paper data into digital x,y,z data, grid that x,y,z data, create a bln file of the outline of the house, and blank the grid file with that outline. How to create a topographic map with sketchup youtube. This tutorial is going to cover how to turn contour lines into a 3d terrain contour map in sketchup.
I have difficulties generating 3d contour lines from a raster file in qgis. In step 1, you clean up and set up your contour creation process. Heres a great little sketchup video tutorial from the folks at. In sketchup, importing preexisting terrain is your easiest route to creating terrain. Drape seems to be the tool aca, but im wondering if autocad can do something similar. Fill in a name for the output file for contour lines and edit the interval between contour lines to. Highlight the contours and go to plugins then choose simplify contours. Now that things have settled down in sketchup 2018.
To create contour lines for specific elevations, use the contour list tool. I have geo located, grabbed the site and clicked on view terrains. Import 2d cad files, 3d models, dem data, or your own aerial imagery and scan data, and use it as a starting point for your. In display manager, rightclick a surface layer, and select create contour layer. Even a toolfeature that can automatically convert the image to lines that i can then alter the elevation zaxis as needed. Skill builder making landscape contour lines from a smooth mesh. Now i am unable to undo the contours, expand the elevations in my landscape and. I prepared all the contour lines in autocad, in a simple file creating a surface. Feb 18, 2020 you need to export from sketchup as a 3d model file. Better yet, use sketchups geolocation tool and bring in exact terrain imagery with the click of a button. Then use the line tool to draw a line parallel to the red axis. Go to the sandbox tools and choose from contours first button on the left and the 3d terrain will be created. How to model terrain from contour lines in sketchup. So you might want to manage this with layers, for example, so you can toggle off the contour lines and just look at the terrain.
Create contour lines based on point values other than elevation summary. Creating contours from terrain in sketchup dylan brown designs. Drag the mouse to create a rectangle that is a bit larger than your terrain. From there i rightclicked the surface from the display manager and clicked create contour by layer. This tutorial will discuss how to create contour lines in qgis. Creating 3d contour lines for doityourself topo maps.
You can create three kinds of guides, and you use the tape measure tool to make them all. From massing model to proposal, sketchup is 3d urban design software that helps planners get the whole job done. I am trying to create a 3d solid out of contour lines that i have. Not only that, but we also highlight what comes out of sketchup when you work with a mesh. Take those landscape models up a notch with this weeks skill builder. Contours can be flattened and exported to illustrator or cad for further refinement and integration. The next step you want to do is make a plane to work from. Drew a square outside the area of the terrain map and dragged it down to the lowest corner of the terrain map. Creating a surface from 3d faces or 3d lines in civil 3d. In this sketchup tutorial detail information is given on how to produce a contour map with sketchup 2018. Select all of the planes and right click to select make group. Creating a topographic map can be a huge pain in the neck. Instructor if you already have a digital elevation model or dem attached to your qgis map, you can create contour lines from them.
If youve ever tried to get gis data or find a city topographic map you know exactly what i mean. You need to export from sketchup as a 3d model file. Then you can create a contour map of the blanked grid, and display the dxf of the floorplan overlaid on the contours if desired. Sketchup instant road create road from center line. This is essentially a white background with black contour lines. Start with 2d cad files, 3d models, dem data, or import your own imagery and scan data. I now want to take those contour lines and create a dwg with their assigned elevations.
Selected the array, dragged it aside then created a group from. The sketchup sandbox and extension tools are able to generate organic modeling surfaces with relative ease. In terms of topographic map reading, there are two distinct types of contour line that we need to emphasize. See the help articles on copying with the move tool. For example, in autocad 2019 double click the open file icon in the top left corner of the application, change the files of type selection to dxf, select the dxf, and click open. Then hit ctrl x on your keyboard to cut the planes. Navigate to the location where you saved the contour lines drawing. To do that, select the model right click click lock.
Follow the onscreen instructions to download and install the extension. Attach the dem via fdo raster provider to autocad map 3d taskpane. The tools can be adapted to most models to create conceptual site terrain. How to eliminate contour lines easily sketchup community. Its a tif raster of an elevation model that i exported from a professors arcgis project. Go to the display tab and make visible what you want to see. I had point data dwg which i opened in map 3d and created a surface create 3d surface create from points.
So if i just move this over youll see that the contour objects are still there. This tutorial will show you how to create contour lines from terrain in sketchup. Ive attached a screenshot of the option that i mean. For example, you can have a continuous contour line that represents 20 feet above sea level. Jun 25, 2011 i have little to no experience with 3d terrains, but id like to be able to create a surface or mesh from contour lines to give a better 3d representation of terrain than just contour lines. Sometimes, you have contour lines for a building site that you want to model in 3d. Export surfer contour map to 3d dxf for display in autocad. Click the sandbox from contours tool on the sandbox toolbar or select draw sandbox from contours on the menu bar.
Follow along as we run through the process of taking a smooth mesh and breaking it down into contour lines for a landscape model. You have contour lines that you either imported or traced and now need to transform into a tin triangulated irregular network reality would only interfere with your creative vision. Some useful guidelines to generate a contour map with. After 5 years someone pointed out that it doesnt make contours jul 10, 2007 mr. Highlighted contours with simplify contours running. How to create 3d terrain from contour lines in autocad for mac. Mar 15, 2019 how to generate a contour map with sketchup. For more information on how the tool works, refer to arcgis pro. How to create contour lines from ascii or dem data with autocad map 3d. Now normally these are used to create contours for creating landscapes, but youcan also use them to create irregular objects and curves. The contour tool creates contour features from a raster surface.
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