Smart Model Command

alan.sharp · January 10, 2025, 8:04pm

Smart Model

Command Licensing and Default Menu Location

The Smart Model command is part of the RPS All Tools Command Library and one of the key commands of the RPS Smart Suite package
The command is located on the Modeling and Smart Suite macros menu ribbon
The command is located in the Surface menu group (Modeling Menu) or the Model menu group (Smart Suite Menu)

Command Description

Provides the ability to create and manage your TBC surfaces using Surface Groups and Surface Styles to rapidly find a surface and change its properties or display settings using a single style selection.

Video Demonstration

Command Release History

April 1 2025 - Version 1 released

Command Interface Description

The Smart Model command dialog looks as follows

Surface Type Filter

In TBC there are a number of surface types available to you depending on the work type that you are doing. The Surface Type filters provide the ability to reduce the number of surfaces and surface groups that are displayed in the surface Manager window (see below).

Surfaces have been logically grouped into three main groups, those being

Normal Surfaces
Takeoff Surfaces
Other Surfaces

Normal Surfaces include standard surface models, planar surface models, corridor surface models, trench surface models and difference or cut / fill models.

Takeoff Surfaces include all of the surfaces created using the Takeoff work processes including Original ground, Finished design, topsoil stripped and topsoil respread removed surfaces, strata surfaces (rock, soil etc.), subgrade adjusted and demolition surfaces, and overexcavation surfaces.

Other Surfaces are the specialist surface types including composite surfaces, projection surfaces, radial surfaces and tunnel surfaces.

In the Filter area of the command dialog, you can switch the filters on / off using the checkboxes beside each surface type or at the Surface Type group level.

When a surface type or types are disabled in the filter, they cannot be displayed in the Surface manager window, or in the plan or 3D graphics pane.

Note:
Because Smart Model cannot control the overall behavior of TBC, it is possible still to control surface visibility using the view filter manager. While Smart Model is running and is the active command, or when it is started up, it controls the graphics and will override the view filter manager automatically.

Surface Manager

The Surface manager window will display surface groups and surfaces that are enabled in the surface type filter above. You can turn surfaces on and off at a surface or surface group level within the surface manager, by checking or unchecking the checkbox next to the surface model or surface group.

You can increase or decrease the height of the surface manager window by right clicking your mouse in the window and dragging the mouse up or down in the window.

If you click on a surface in the surface manager, that surface is activated and you can control the surface parameters, members, edits, boundaries etc. in the section below.

When a surface is activated, you can right click on the surface name and select one of the following options

Properties
Delete surface
Duplicate TIN surface

Properties

Will trigger the display of the surfaces properties in the TBC properties pane. If the properties pane is not open, it will open on this request.

Note that the Results pane of the Smart Model command will also provide a detailed list of surface properties or cut fill map properties when the surface is selected in the surface manager window. The parameters tab of the section below, will also show the key parameters of the surface properties e.g. Surface Group, Surface Style, Rebuild Methods etc.

Delete Surface

Will delete the surface from the TBC project file, it will then also disappear from the surface manager window.

Duplicate TIN surface

Will create a simple TIN model copy of the selected surface that has no dependent objects. The surface created is well suited for use in machine control or surveying systems and can be selected and exported as a VCL, TTM, SVD/SVL, or DSZ file for use in Trimble construction systems (Siteworks, Earthworks, GCS900, SCS900 etc.)

Surface Groups

Surface Groups are defined in RPS Settings and are stored in an RPS Settings file which is not a part of the TBC project. The same Surface Groups and Surface Styles can be used from project to project - see RPS Settings - Surface Groups and RPS Settings - Surface Styles below for more details.

A number of standard Surface Groups have been defined for you already, you can rename them, or change their definitions as you see fit, or create new ones as needed for your desired project structure. Surface groups are simply a way to group surfaces together for better / faster visibility controls, and better organization, making them easier to locate and manage on larger projects.

Examples of how to group surfaces could include any of the following methods.

Group by surface type i.e. Original Ground, Finished Design, Work In Progress, As Builts, Utility Trench etc.
Group by project phase i.e. Phase 1 surfaces, Phase 2 surfaces, Phase 3 surfaces etc.
Group by surface use case i.e. Main Line surfaces, Ramp Surfaces, Pond Surfaces etc.
Group by surface type i.e. Normal Surfaces, Cut Fill Maps, Takeoff Surfaces etc.
Group by revision i.e. Rev 1 Surfaces, Rev 2 Surfaces, Rev 3 Surfaces etc.

There is some degree of loose coupling applied by the Smart Model command between surface type, surface classification, surface group and surface style. These are mostly user definable and can be overridden by the user as needed. Takeoff surfaces are hard coded to match the default behavior of TBC Takeoff processes so that they are 100% consistent.

A surface can be moved between surface groups at any time, so you can use surface groups to hold surfaces in one group while you are working with them, and then move them to a different group when they are completed. Surface groups have been provided to store the simple TIN models for machine control, for surfaces under review as a start for you to work with as you work out how best to utilize the tools within the command.

See RPS Settings - Surface Groups below for mor details.

Surface Styles

Surface Styles are defined in RPS Settings and are stored in an RPS Settings file which is not a part of the TBC project. The same Surface Groups and Surface Styles can be used from project to project - see RPS Settings - Surface Groups and RPS Settings - Surface Styles below for more details.

A number of standard Surface Styles have been defined for you already, you can rename them or change them as you see fit or create new ones as needed for your desired project structure. Surface styles are a simple and fast way to set the surface properties for display in Plan or 3D views, and to set the default surface build properties like max edge angle, adjust flat triangles etc. and to enable / disable the automated creation of quick contours. Some properties of a surface like Maximum Edge Length are not tied to the surface style, so that they can be controlled at the individual surface level.

A surface style can be changed at any time, this will trigger a change in the display of the surface in the plan and 3D view and an update to the surfaces properties. When you change a surface style, the selected style does not automatically override all of the current display properties, to set those, you will click on the “red flag” button that appears to the right of the surface style selector when you change the surface style.

To change a surface style, pull down the list of available surface styles and select the desired style, then click Save to implement the change. When the change has been implemented, the red flag button will appear, click that to make the display changes to the newly selected style.

The red flag button indicates that the current surface properties do not match the selected surface style, clicking the button forces the surface properties to change to those defined by the surface style, leaving the flag button, leaves the properties as they are for now but warns you that they are not matching the selected style.

If a surface style includes the creation of quick contours, the quick contours will be generated and placed on a layer with the name “Surface Name - Contours” and will be placed in a Layer Group called 99 - SURFACE CONTOURS.

When you change a surface style from one that has contours to one that doesn’t have contours, the surface contours, the associated layer and or the associated layer group will be automatically removed or added as needed.

See RPS Settings - Surface Styles below for more details.

Surface Manager Button Controls

Below the surface manager window you will see the bank of control buttons as follows

The buttons control the following functions from left to right

Create a new surface
Delete the selected surface
Refresh the Surface Manager window
Expand all surface groups
Collapse all surface groups

Surface Properties Dialog Area

The surface properties area of the dialog looks as follows, and is used to either create new surfaces or edit existing surfaces.

When you select a surface in the surface manager window, this area of the dialog is populated with the information relating to the selected surface.

When you click the button to create a new surface, this dialog area becomes the area that you define the parameters and members etc., of the new surface.

The dialog area is broken into a set of tabs, each tab represents a process step in the creation of a new surface, or provides the ability to review the parameters of the selected surface. The process steps are defined in a work flow order (when the command dialog pane is wide enough to display the steps in a single line from left to right as shown above).

To widen the command pane, hover your mouse over the left edge of the dialog, and when the pane widening icon appears, click your left mouse button and drag the edge to the left or right to widen the pane.

The process of building a new surface requires the following key steps

Parameters

In this tab you will create the main properties of the surface including

Type - this is the surface type, options include Surface (Normal TIN), Takeoff / Layer Surface and Planar Surface. Note that Takeoff / Layer surfaces are unique in that they are created automatically if you have “categorized” layers for takeoff i.e. for Original ground or Finished design surface. The other Takeoff surfaces include the topsoil (strip / respread), subgrade (demolition / subgrade), strata (soil / rock) and overexcavation surfaces and are created by the Takeoff process and cannot be created here.
Name - name the surface that you are creating.
Style - set the display style for the surface that you are creating. Surface styles are defined in RPS Settings, you can access RPS Settings from the header bar commands or by clicking the Styles / Groups button.
Group - set the surface group for the surface that you are creating. Surface groups are defined in RPS Settings, you can access RPS Settings from the header bar commands or by clicking the Styles / Groups button.
Classification - classify the surface you are creating. Surface classification ensures that cut / fill quantities are always determined the right way round and it is good practice to assign the classification here as you create the surface.
Date / Time - the Date and Time further assist the determination of Cut / Fill when you run a volume calculation between two surfaces that have the same classification e.g. between two work in progress surfaces, date and time then determines which file is earlier or later in sequence to determine the cut or fill values.
Color - the color of the surface is defined by the selected surface style and is displayed here as a reference only.
Rebuild method - set the rebuild method for the surface that you are working on, Auto will rebuild non takeoff surfaces automatically on any surface member change, By User will rebuild surfaces on request only, and Show Empty will retain the surface container and the selected members, but will prohibit formation / display of the surface until it is reset to Auto or By User. Use the By User when you want to make a number of surface changes before rebuilding the surface when you are ready to do so. Use the Show Empty to e.g. temporarily disable the rebuilding of e.g. Cut Fill Maps when you are making changes to the source surface models to save rebuild time after each set of edits.
Max Edge Length - this is not defined as a part of the surface style, you define it here for each surface that you create. The setting is somewhat unique to each surface in a project. This limits the length of triangle sides in the surface, especially around the edges of the surface, to mitigate the amount of surface edge trimming that may be required.

In this step you have defined the container for the surface, the surface members will be selected in the following step of the process. Surface members can be selected in a couple of different ways, which is why it is separated out into a different process step.

Save

When you have entered all of the surface parameters in the Parameters tab of the Surface Properties dialog area, click the Save button to create the surface and refresh the Surface Manager prior to the subsequent steps of the surface creation process,

Refresh

The Refresh button will compare the parameters of the surface as they are currently defined against the properties of the surface as they are defined (in the properties pane). If there are differences between the two, the red flag button will appear to the right of the Style selector, allowing you a single click to match the properties to the currently defined surface parameters…

Properties

The Properties button will trigger the display of the surface properties in the properties pane.

Selecting Surface Members

Depending on the type of surface being created (Normal Surface or Takeoff / Layer Surface) the options will vary as shown below. Note that for Normal Surfaces, Smart Model allows you to select members using Layer Group, this is a non standard TBC function, and collates the members for a surface from 3D objects located on layers in the selected layer group(s). Note that because this is not a native TBC surface type, you have to use Smart Model to rebuild the surface if you

Add new layers and 3D objects to the Layer Group after the surface has been created.
Add new TBC objects to the layers of a Layer Group after the surface has been created.

Categorize Layers - Takeoff / Layer Surfaces Only

This option will be available only when creating Takeoff Surfaces i.e. Original ground or Finished design surfaces only.

These surfaces are created using layers of data that have been categorized as Original or Design surface related. Typically, the Categorization of layers can be managed by your Project Template, and modified for each project to allow for data variations encountered. In Smart Model you can now do the layer selection and categorization for Original ground and Finished design surfaces for Takeoff within this process step.

If your project template has layers already categorized for Takeoff, then they will be detected and displayed in this tab for review as shown below.

Layer Groups

If the categorization of layers collates layers from different layer groups, this will display Mixed to indicate that layers from more than one Layer Group are being used to make the surface. If the layers come from a single layer group, the layer group will be displayed here.

When building a surface from scratch (no pre categorization of layers), then selecting a layer group from the list, will display all of the layers from that layer group in the section below.

Layer List

The list of layers will be populated. For each layer in the list, you can select whether lines on the layers will act as

Surface Boundary - either an External or Interior Boundary line (not this will create a surface area limited by an external boundary, and or holes in the surface (interior boundary) or islands in the surface (several external boundaries) etc.
Contains SIs - SI = Site Improvement. This means that lines on the layer will act as a boundary for the placement of Site Improvements / Materials that will be used to create demolition adjustments (original ground) or subgrade adjustments (Finished design).
Site Improvement - when the Contains SIs check box is enabled, you can optionally select a Site Improvement that will be automatically applied to all closed areas defined by lines on the selected layer. This would be e.g. used for subdivisions where there may be many building pads on a layer that all have the same site improvement treatment. Typically layers that contain open lines, or data that only represents one or two areas of the same type, or areas that have different site improvement treatment, will not be automatically assigned a site improvement here, you will do those manually in a later takeoff step.

Apply Button

When you have filled out the categorization for the selected layers, click Apply to activate the changes for the selected takeoff surface.

Refresh Button

You can refresh this list if you change anything via the categorize layers command so that they match up correctly. Click the Refresh button to update the table.

MSI Library Button

You can access the MSI (Materials and Site Improvement Library), to define or modify materials or site improvements that you are using. Click the MSI Library button.

New Layer Button

If you wish to create a new layer and set the layer categorization and site improvement properties, click the New Layer button.

Layer Groups - Normal Surfaces Only

TBC does not natively support the creation of Normal Surfaces using members selected using Layer Group(s). It is clear however that many users create layers in a layer group, often with the intent of using 3D objects on layers in that layer group to create a surface model. For this reason, we have created this method of surface creation. We are still improving the method, but it is already highly functional in v1.0 of the command.

In this method, you can select a Layer Group, on doing so the layers of that layer group will be listed in a table form below the Layer Group selector.

Within the layer table, you can check the boxes associated with each layer to indicate that 3D objects on the layer can be used to

Create a surface boundary or boundaries. A surface can have one or more surface boundaries that constrain where triangles can be formed. A boundary can act as an external boundary (creates an island) or an internal boundary (creates a hole in the surface e.g. for a wetland area or a protected tree copse or similar). You can have any number of external boundaries that will create multiple islands in the surface. You can have any number of internal boundaries within each external boundary that will create one or more holes in the surface islands. While it is possible to have boundaries inside holes etc. that is less common, but if encountered they will become islands in the holes and this Island - Hole - Island - Hole sequence will repeat if boundaries are found inside other boundaries. If you create multiple closed lines on a layer in a selected layer group, then they will behave in this manner to constrain the surface. Note that surface boundaries can be 2D or 3D lines, and can be polylines or linestrings.
Create a Site Improvement boundary (SIs). This will convert any 3D line found on a layer tagged as containing SIs into a linestring. It will also automatically change the Surface Sharpness property of the linestring to Sharp and Texture Boundary, so that the line will act as a boundary for the application of site improvements or surface textures using the Apply Surface Site Improvement or Add Surface Texture commands. These commands leverage the MSI (Materials and Site Improvement) Manager command for the colors to be assigned and the Site Improvements that are to be applied. Areas that have these SI treatments, can then be used to create subgrade surfaces using the Create Subgrade Surface command.

Add Group Button

Click this button to add the selected layer group to the surface and update the lines on the selected and tagged layers with their Sharp and Texture Boundary property, and add the selected lines as surface boundaries.

Remove Group Button

Click this button to remove the selected layer group from the surface. This can be used e.g. when you move from a Rev 1 surface to a rev 2 surface model for example, where the Rev 2 data is in a different layer group.

Layers Manager Button

Click this button to open the TBC Layer Manager window. This allows you to create, rename, delete or change the properties of selected layers.

Members - Normal or Takeoff Surfaces

All surface models are made up of members. Takeoff surfaces get their initial members at least through the categorization of layers as e.g. Original ground or Finished design. Normal surfaces get their initial members through either the selection of members graphically or through the Layer Group method defined above. However all surfaces can have additional members also that maybe were not defined by categorization, layer groups or from initial graphical selections. Some object types e.g. TIN models, PDF or Aerial Images / Ortho Photos, Point Clouds, Corridor Surfaces do not have layers and can only be added to a surface model as a surface member.

The Members tab provides the ability to add / remove members to / from a surface model, and the ability to add / remove PDF images / Ortho Photos from a surface model (this drapes the image over the surface model for visualization purposes).

Surface Members

Click in this field and then graphically select or use the Options button for advanced selection methods to select members for addition or removal from the selected surface model.

Add Members Button

Click the Add Members Button to add the selected objects to the surface model

Remove Members Button

Click the Remove Members Button to remove the selected objects from the surface model

Drape Images

The table shows all of the images / pdf pages that have been imported and georeferenced in the project. If you check the check box associated with any image, it will be added to the surface as a surface member, and will be used to colorize the surface when it is displayed using Surface Color display style in the Plan or 3D view.

Check the check boxes and then click Build / rebuild surface to add the images to the surface model.

Uncheck the check boxes and then click Build / Rebuild Surface to remove the images from the surface model.

Alignment Surface Check Box

Currently a placeholder in the dialog - Not fully implemented at this point. This will be fully implemented in the next update to the command. (Comment Dated Apr 2025)

Trim Edge

When you build a surface, the Maximum Edge Length parameter set in the parameters tab, controls the formation of the surface model in terms of the maximum edge length that a triangle can have.

Note that regardless of this setting, every 3D point or node of any line etc. selected for a surface model, has to be connected by at least one triangle, and that single triangle can exceed the maximum edge length setting.

For nearly all surface models, you will need to set this value somewhere higher than absolutely necessary for each pair of points or nodes, but set it not so large that the surface will create really large triangles where they are unnecessary / unwanted.

Whatever value you set here, will never be 100% correct, and you will always find some additional triangles around the edges of the surface that are incorrect, and are therefore creating a surface that is most likely incorrect in that area (no data to justify the surfaces existence).

In these cases, the Trim Edge function, allows you to draw a series of two point temporary lines, that sweep through the unwanted triangles to remove them from the surface model. If the triangles are bounded by a 3D line / breakline in the model, you can sweep up to or past the breakline, and only triangles on the outside of the breakline will be removed.

Outside / Inside Points

To trim the surface edge, you will click a point outside of the triangulation and then a point inside of the triangulation. All of the triangles that cross the line that you draw will be removed from the surface. provided that the nodes to which those triangles are formed from are still connected to ay least one other triangle.

After cleaning

Edge Breakline

Once the surface edges have been cleaned, you will use the Edge Breakline function to put a 3D breakline around the edges of the triangulation of the surface to lock in the surface, such that if the surface has to be rebuilt or updated, that the unnecessary triangles do not reappear. Note that the edge breakline acts like a surface boundary, provided that no data for the surface is found outside the breakline. As soon as any node of a 3D line or 3D point is found outside the edge breakline the edge breakline is just a breakline again and the edge triangles will likely reappear.

For this reason, when you build an edge breakline, it is also good practice to either

Add the edge breakline to the surface as a surface boundary - this will 100% exclude any triangles from being formed outside the boundary in the event that some data elements lie outside of the boundary.
You can also achieve this by drawing the Edge Breakline on a layer that is categorized for Takeoff and tagged as containing surface boundaries.
You can also achieve this by placing the Edge Breakline on a layer that is in a Layer Group being used to create a Layer Group Surface, and that is tagged as containing surface boundaries.

Name

Name the edge breakline e.g. Surface Name - Edge BL so that later when you click on the line, you can tell what it is from it’s name property.

Layer

Select the layer that you wish to place the edge breakline on, you can create a new layer for the line if needed using the (+) key at the end of the layer selector.

Note that when working with Takeoff Layer based surfaces, the edge breakline should likely be placed on the layer that you have categorized for either the Original or Design surface that contains surface boundaries. That way, as soon as you rebuild the surface, the line will be automatically picked up and used to limit the surface model.

Note that when working with Layer Group based surfaces, the edge breakline should likely be placed on the layer in the layer group that you tagged as containing surface boundary lines, that way it will automatically be added to the surface as a surface boundary.

Add As Surface Boundary Checkbox

You can check this checkbox to automatically add the edge breakline to the selected surface as a surface boundary. It does not matter if you also place the line on a layer that is categorized as a surface boundary, or on a layer in a layer group that is tagged as containing surface boundaries.

Surface boundaries are a sub container of a surface model along with the members of a surface model as a second sub container, and then the properties / display settings of the surface as a third sub container. The surface always knows which lines are added as surface boundaries or as breaklines to a surface model.

Create Surface Edge Button

Click the Create Surface Edge Button when you are ready to create the surface edge breakline. The edge breakline will precisely track around the edges of the triangles that are current in the selected surface model.

Boundaries

As mentioned earlier in this help document, a surface can incorporate one or more surface boundary lines as either external or internal boundaries that will guide the surface to form islands and holes in surface models. In this tab you can add additional lines as boundaries to the selected surface.

Remember that closed lines drawn on layers that have been categorized for takeoff, and tagged as containing surface boundaries, will be added to a surface model automatically as a boundary line.

Remember that lines drawn on a layer that lies within a layer group, that have been tagged as containing surface boundaries, that has been used to create a Layer Group surface model, will be added to the surface as surface boundaries automatically.

Surface boundary lines are closed lines that can be 2D or 3D.

A surface boundary line will force the triangulation to form along its path, and will cut the surface model and remove all surface information outside the line (external boundary) or inside the line (internal boundary).

Surface Boundaries

Select the closed lines that you wish to add as surface boundaries

Add Boundaries Button

Click the Add Boundaries Button to add the selected lines to the selected surface as surface boundaries.

Remove Boundaries Button

Click the Remove Boundaries Button to remove the selected lines from the selected surface as surface boundaries.

Build / Rebuild Surface Button

Click this button to build a surface for the first time, or to rebuild the selected surface after you have made changes. This applies to Takeoff Surfaces primarily as well as other surfaces that have their rebuild method set to “By User”.

Delete Surface Button

Click this button to delete the selected surface.

Rebuild All Button

Click this button to rebuild all surfaces that are currently flagged as needing a rebuild. If you look at the surfaces in the Project Explorer, any surface that needs a rebuild will have a red dot on the surface name in the surface list. At this point there is no indicator in Smart Model that a surface needs to be rebuilt.

Results Pane

The results pane will display the properties of the surface models as follows

Surface Area
Plan Area
Number of triangles
Number of vertices
Number of independent vertices
Number of materials
Max elevation
Min elevation

The results pane will display the properties of the cut / fill map models as follows

Area of Cut
Area of Fill
Area of Zero Volume
Cut Volume
Fill Volume
Net Volume
Approximate Balance Depth
Approximate Volume Delta per 0.1’

RPS Settings - Load Factory Settings / Load Custom Settings Buttons

The Smart Model command is installed with a set of "factory settings for Surface Groups and Surface Styles.

These will be stored in a file called RPSSmartModelSettings.rps which is located in your RPS Settings folder.

The factory settings are stored within the command itself, and can be restored to the original setup at any time using the Load Factory Settings button. This will reset all Styles and Groups to the defaults, and will remove your custom settings entirely.

You can find your RPS Settings folder location by looking in RPS Settings - File Locations.

If you have created your own custom Surface Groups and Surface Styles, or have modified any of the factory settings, they will be stored in the .rps settings file mentioned above. This file can be given to other RPS subscribers so that they can use the same settings as you. If the .rps fle is placed in your settings folder, the settings will be automatically loaded by the command when it runs.

RPS Settings - Surface Groups

Surface Groups are managed, created and edited using the RPS Settings - Smart Model Settings command. You can access this function using RPS Settings icon in the header bar of the smart model command, or by clicking the Styles / Groups button in the Surface Properties - Parameters Tab of the Smart Model command.

You can use the buttons to the right of the Group selector to

Create a new surface group
Edit the name of a surface group
Copy a surface group
Save a surface group
Delete a surface group

A surface group has a name and a description field only. The description field is there to provide additional details not conveyed by the surface group name. It is an optional field for completion.

RPS Settings - Surface Styles

Surface Styles are managed, created and edited using the RPS Settings - Smart Model Settings command. You can access this function using RPS Settings icon in the header bar of the smart model command, or by clicking the Styles / Groups button in the Surface Properties - Parameters Tab of the Smart Model command.

The surface style comprises settings that control the display properties of a surface in Plan and 3D Views, as well as some of the properties that are used to control the way the surface is created / built and also the need to generate quick contours for the surface etc.

The goal of a surface style is to give you a one click process to change the way that the surface is displayed in plan and 3D views, depending on what you are doing, or what type of surface you are working with.

Style

Select the style that you wish to review or edit. You can also use the buttons to the right of the style selector to

Create a new style
Edit the name of a style
Copy a style
Save a style
Delete a style

Description

A style can have a description. The description field is optional and is used to provide more detail about the style that is not conveyed by the style name only.

Group

A style can define the default Surface Group that will be assigned to the surfaces given the style. When you change a surface from one style to another, this will cause the surface to be moved from one group to another also. For example if you move a surface into style 99C - Surface Under Review Style, this will cause the surface to also move to the surface group 99C - Under Review.

Type

The surface type is a defined list of surface types supported by TBC. Surfaces used by the Takeoff workflow are all hard coded and cannot be changed. While all surface types are listed here, Surface and Takeoff / Layer Surface are the only two that can be user selected, the others are automatically assigned when you create those surface types outside of the Smart Model command.

Classification

The classification of a surface provides hierarchy context to the surface that is used when carrying out volume computations, that ensures that the Cut and Fill values determined by the volume calculations are the right way around. i.e. Original Surface comes before Work In Progress, comes before As Bult comes before Design when it comes to volume calculations. We recommend that you always classify surfaces in TBC, as we will be using the classification more and more over the coming months.

The classification is also supplemented by the Date and Time assigned to a surface model when it is created. The Date and Time is used to determine the order of surfaces in volume calculations when two surfaces of the same type are selected i.e. Work In Progress Surface 1 and Work In Progress Surface 2. This further ensures that your volume calculations will be determined the right way around for Cut and Fill purposes.

Color

This is the default surface color for surfaces assigned this Surface Style. The surface color is used for the solid surface color that renders the triangles of the surface when it displays “By Surface Color”. It is also used for the lines that represent the surface in surface slicer and profile views.

Note that when you add PDF images or ortho photos to a surface as surface members, they will override the surface color for display in plan and 3D views when the surface is set to display “By Surface Color”.

Build Properties

There are some surface build properties that we consider to be unique to each surface model e.g. maximum edge length setting, and there are others that we believe can be set as defaults using the style e.g. Max edge angle and adjust flat triangles etc. Those that are defined using the style are input here.

Max Edge Angle

In the same way that Max Edge Distance controls the length of the sides of the triangles of a surface model, the Max Edge Angle controls the maximum angle of any angle of the triangles. This is used to limit the formation of long skinny triangles along the edges of the surface model. We recommend a default value of e.g. 160 degrees.

Adjust Flat Triangles Checkbox

When you build surfaces from contours especially but also when building highways models or stockpile models, it is often important that you enable the Adjust Flat Triangles setting and define a suitable tolerance for the flat triangle adjustment. Depending on what you are working with, e.g. Contours, then the tolerance is acceptable at e.g. 0.5’ or 0.5m. If you are working with 3D variable height linework, then the tolerance value needs to be greater than the maximum elevation variation that you will find on the lines, i.e. if the base of a stockpile has an elevation range of 99.0 to 108.0 then you will need a tolerance of 9.1 or 10 to force triangulation between lines i.e. up and down the slope rather than allow triangulation between 3 points on the same line which can create model flat spots. In most cases, setting Adjust Flat Triangles to enabled, and setting the Tolerance to e.g. 1000 will provide a good solution in most modeling scenarios. In some cases however you may want to set the tolerance e.g. to a small value like 0.5 to achieve the most desirable triangulation.

The original intent of this control was to force triangulation to form between contours, rather than allowing a triangle to form between 3 points on the same contour, thereby creating a flat spot. To achieve this goal a tolerance of 1.0 is adequate because the range of elevations on a single contour is less than 1.0’.

Quick Contours Checkbox and Quick Contour Settings

If you wish the surface style to trigger the formation of quick contours on the surface, enable this checkbox. When enabled, enter the settings required for the quick contours as follows.

Name

Name the contour lines e.g. Contour

Interval

Set the minor contour interval e.g. 0.1’

Frequency

Set the frequency of the major contours e.g. 5 for every 5th contour

Major Contours Color

Select the color for the major contours

Minor Contours Color

Select the color for the minor contours

Display Properties - General

In this section of the style, you will define general display properties for the surface including

Display Flags checkbox

When enabled, surface flags that indicate locations on the surface where there are 2 or more sources of elevation (points, lines etc.) that have different elevation values at the same exact location. This is an illegal state for a surface model, so TBC will always use the lowest of the 3D locations and place a yellow flag on the higher locations to warn you of the potential issue with your surface. You can review the magnitude of the error using the Flags Pane accessed from the “toggle button icons” at the base of your screen in TBC.

Transparency %

Set the desired default transparency for the surface model. 0% is opaque, 100% is fully transparent. Transparency allows you to see through the surface to objects that reside below the surface in both the plan and 3D views.

Face Displacement

When you have two or more surfaces that have areas of identical elevation, the graphical views will bleed one surface into another creating a poor graphical view. You can set the default face displacement for a surface so that it will take a higher or lower priority graphically than other surfaces.

Without Face Displacement

With Face Displacement

In this example, the purple surface was set to face displacement = 1 vs the green surface has face displacement = 2. The lower the face displacement number, the higher the display priority becomes. The range goes from -8 to +8, -8 being the highest priority and +8 being the lowest priority.

Shade by Slope Range

When enabled, enter the slope range for the triangle faces that you want to shade in. There are a number of applications or model building QA processes where shading a surface to check that triangles are falling within a defined slope range. Examples include solar farm projects, if the terrain exceeds a certain maximum slope, the terrain will need to be reshaped to make the slopes shallower, so by shading the surface using a defined slope range allows you to see quickly where the surface has slopes that are acceptable e.g. between 0 and 15%, and where the slopes exceed the maximum slope e.g. 15% to 1000%.

Check the checkbox and then enter the min / max slope values. The surface model will then shade those triangles that fall within the range and leave the faces outside the range unshaded.

Display Properties

In this section of the style, you will define the primary display properties for the surface model for the Plan and 3D views respectively. The settings include

Show Backfaces (3D View Only)

A surface by default renders the top side of the surface so that when viewed from above the surface appears solid (+/- transparency). If viewed from below, the triangles are unshaded, and appear white or black depending on your selected graphics pane color (black or white). If you wish to render the back faces with the surface coloration also, check the checkbox in the 3D column.

Show Wireframe (Plan and 3D View)

The wireframe is the triangular mesh of 3D faces that represents the surface. Check the checkbox to be able to see the wireframe in the Plan and or 3D Views.

Show Vertices (Plan and 3D View)

The vertices are the 3D nodes of the surface model. These will be displayed as a small * at each node when enabled in the Plan or 3D Views.

Show Breaklines (Plan and 3D View)

When you add 3D lines to the surface model, the lines will be used as breaklines in the surface model. The breaklines force the triangles to follow the breakline, such that no triangle side crosses the breakline. When viewing the surface model, if you turn off all CAD object visibility, and if the Breaklines is enabled here, then the 3D lines that were used in the model will be visible as surface breaklines in Plan and or 3D Views.

Show Drapelines (Plan and 3D View)

When you assign site improvements, topsoil strip, topsoil respread or surface textures to a surface model, the boundaries of those areas are formed in the surface model as drapelines. The drapelines will be visible when this is enabled for a surface in Plan or 3D Views.

Show Slope Arrows (Plan and 3D View)

The slope arrows indicate the direction of slope in each triangle face of a surface model. When enabled, you will see an arrow in each triangle if the triangle has slope, or a diamond if the triangle is perfectly flat. The slope arrows indicate the direction of water flow on a surface.

Show Shadows (Plan and 3D View)

When a surface model is built, linestrings that have either the sharp or sharp and texture boundary property for surface sharpness, will form hard shadow transitions along those lines in the surface. If the linestring property is set to soft, or where triangles have no breaklines, only points, then the surface areas will be shaded in a similar way, providing less shadow - thereby representing the surface as smoother or sharper accordingly. Sharp breaklines like those found along retaining walls, foundation trenches, and curb and gutter lines, will display better when there are shadows enabled.

Shading (Plan and 3D View)

The surface can be shaded in one of the following ways

None - surface area will be unshaded
By Surface Color - surface area will be shaded in the surface color or if images are draped on the surface in the colors of the image or PDF file page.
By Elevation - surface area will be shaded using color bands representing different elevation ranges.
By Material - when surface textures or site improvements have been applied to a surface, the texture color or texture image, or site improvement color will be used to render the different areas of the surface.

Command Hotkeys

The standard RPS hotkeys as follows are available while running this command

W,A,S,D keys to Pan the screen Up, Left, Down, Right
Q,E to rotate the screen by 15 degrees left or right
Shift Q, Shift E to rotate the screen by 30 degrees left or right

Header Bar Commands

In the Header Bar area of the command, you will find quick access icons to other commands that you may wish to access while running this command Those buttons act like a toggle switch between running commands, and they will fire up a command if it is not currently running. Commands in the Header Bar of Smart Model command include

Help
RPS Settings
PDF Manager
Smart Draw
Smart Edit
Smart Elevate
Shrink Wrap
Surface Slicer View
Volumes Manager
Create Corridor Surface
Create Subgrade Surface
Overexcavation
Create Trench Surface
Create Planar Surface
Merge Surfaces
Create Composite Surface
Combine Surfaces

Command Tips

The command tips area contains any tips or hotkeys that you can use while running the command. In addition it also has a link to the Help document (this page on MyRockpile Community) and the Help / Demonstration Video for the command.

Switch Command

The Switch Command button will pull up a list of all running commands, allowing you to quickly switch between them. You can also select Close to close the current command or Close All to close all running commands.

If you press the ESC key, this will pop up the running commands list, Close and Close All functions next to the current cursor position.

If you press the ESC key twice, this will also close the command that is currently running.

Use Case Videos

The following videos show the use of the Smart Model command in a work process context

Feedback and Enhancement Requests

If you would like to provide feedback on the use of the Smart Model command or to request enhancements or improvements to the command please click Reply below