Surface to Grid
Command Licensing and Default Menu Location
- The Surface to Grid command is part of the RPS Modeling Toolbox
- The command is located on the Modeling macros menu ribbon
- The command is located in the Surface / Volumes menu group
Command Description
Point clouds can be used to create surface models. The resulting surfaces can be large and are hard to report for QA / QC purposes. This command converts a TIN surface, optionally clipped to a boundary into a grid of points based on a regular or alignment based grid, and computes cut / fill values to a reference surface with applied high and low tolerances for reporting purposes.
The command has been enhanced to support Reference Surfaces that were added in TBC v5.60
Last Updated: Aug 3rd 2022
This update adds new command tips, header bar Help and RPS Settings controls. show line direction for the selected reference line. File selection and edit controls and improved user interface for ease of use.
Command Interface Description
The Surface to Grid command dialog looks as follows
Surface:
This Drop menu allows you to define which surface will be converted into the desired point grid.
Compute elevation differences checkbox:
This checkbox allow the user to decide whether they would like to compute elevation differences between two surfaces or true elevations of the original surface. When the checkbox is enabled, the command will calculate elevation differences between the initial surface and the reference surface. The elevation differences will be stored in the point elevation data. When the checkbox is turned off, the command will generate true elevation for the initial surface at the specified grid spacing.
Reference surface:
When the Compute elevation differences checkbox above is enabled, you can select a reference surface for the delta elevation / cut / fill computations between the selected surfaces
This Drop menu allows the user to define the reference surface that will be used to calculate elevation differences between itself and the selected surface.
Compute out of tolerance checkbox:
This checkbox allows you to calculate whether elevation differences between the selected surface and reference surface are within a defined range. This checkbox is only available when you have enabled the “Compute elevation differences” checkbox.
Tolerances:
This area of the command pane is only available to you when both the “Compute elevation differences” and “Compute out of tolerance” checkboxes are enabled.
Include only out of tolerance checkbox:
This checkbox allows you to choose whether or not in-tolerance points are created. If you want all points to be reported, leave this checkbox unchecked. If you want to report only points that are out of tolerance, check the checkbox.
Positive tolerance:
This data field allows you to define the positive elevation range that is acceptable between the initial and reference surface.
Negative tolerance:
This data field allows you to define the negative elevation range that is acceptable between the initial and reference surface.
Line based checkbox:
This checkbox allows you to define whether or not the grid points generated are orientated to a specified reference line or alignment or orientated to a point of origin and bearing.
Line:
Select the reference line or alignment object that you wish to use as the line reference for the line based grid computation.
When the “Line based:” checkbox is disabled the following fields will be visible
Grid origin:
This data field allow the user to define an XY coordinate for the grid origin, this coordinate location may be selected graphically when the data field is active.
Grid direction:
This data field allows the user to define an Azimuth from which the X&Y axes of the generated grid will be orientated.
When the “Line based:” checkbox is enabled the following fields will be visible
Grid spacing
Along:
This data field allows the user to define the grid spacing for the X axis of the grid or if the user is using the Alignment based option, this value will define the grid spacing along the alignment (Station Interval)
Across:
This data field allows the user to define the grid spacing for the Y axis of the grid or if the user is using the Line based option, the value will define the grid spacing perpendicular to the alignment (Offset Interval).
Boundary (Optional)
This data field allows you to define an optional boundary that will restrict the point grid generation.
Add vertical offset checkbox:
If you are generating absolute elevations for a single surface only, then you will be given this option to add a vertical offset to the surface elevations. When checked you can enter the elevation offset and define if the adjustment is to be applied vertically or perpendicularly to the selected surface model.
Create “XYZ” file:
This checkbox allows the user to define whether or not they wish to have a point cloud of the grid points generated and imported into the current project.
Create “CSV” file:
This toggle allows the user to define whether or not they wish to create a CSV report file for use in Microsoft Excel.
File name:
Enter the file name for the file(s) that you are creating. Click the […] button to browse for a folder location. Right click on the file name field to Browse, start browsing in the current Project Folder or start browsing in the RPS Settings folder.
OK
Executes the command and closes on completion
Cancel
Closes the command without further execution.
Command Tips:
The command tips provides access to the commands help documentation and help video. It also provides any quick tips that may be helpful for the user.
Video Demonstration
The following video shows how to utilize the Surface to Grid command
Use Case Videos
The following videos show the use of the Surface to Grid command in a work process context
Feedback and Enhancement Requests
If you would like to provide feedback on the use of the Surface to Grid command or to request enhancements or improvements to the command please click Reply below