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?IGN-Paris-2006 Authorization # 2006CUCB235
C ONTENTS
C o n t e n t s
E DITING THE ELEVATION AND TERRAFORMING .............................................................................4 Foreword ............................................................................................................................4 Creating a new project......................................................................................................5 Editing the relief in Elevation mode...............................................................................10 Customizing the elevation color palette...........................................................................11 Presenting the editing tools..............................................................................................12 Modifying the relief using the absolute brush...................................................................14 Modifying the relief using the relative brush.....................................................................17 Modifying the relief within the elevation grid....................................................................19 Terraforming the relief using semantic objects............................................................21 Simple terraforming using earthworks surfaces...............................................................21 Light terraforming.............................................................................................................29 Terraforming using a 3D model (34)
E DITING THE ELEVATION AND TERRAFORMING
T u t o r i a l
LandSim3D offers several methods to modify the relief of your project.
The first one allows you to directly edit the elevation grid to modify the ground relief locally. This function is very simple to use. We will describe the various available editing functions.
The other possibilities are based on the use of vector objects which will be terraform the relief. In the second part of this tutorial, we will go through various types of terraforming methods for a specific area.
F OREWORD
We recommend you to read first the LandSim3D Starting guide which presents the main concepts, the used terminology and the graphical user interface (GUI) before reading this tutorial.
This tutorial is using geographical data from the French National Geography Institute (IGN) that can be downloaded from Bionatics website. Installation and use of these data requires accepting the license contract included within the data installer program. A copy of that license is installed with the data in folder: C:\Bionatics\LandSim3D Tutorial Data\IGN Data (default path you could have customized while installing the data).
In the document we will refer to the tutorial data using a shortened path: LandSim3D Tutorial Data\…
C REATING A NEW PROJECT
Actions:
? Start LandSim3D
? Select File > New project
? Name the project: Editing the relief in the folder: C:\Bionatics\Tutorial ? Name the site: Saint-Privat
Actions:
? Select: Coordinate system > Projected coordinate systems > National Grids > Europe > France NTF Lambert II Etendu ? Click Next
? In the Site coverage dialog, enter the values: ? X Min: 685000.0 ? X Max: 690000.0 ? Y Min: 1860000.0 ? Y Max: 1865000.0
Actions:
? Uncheck Launch import wizard ? Click Create
Actions:
? Select File > Import > Elevations (regular grid)... ? Select the file containing the data to import:
LandSim3D Tutorial Data\IGN Data\Elevation grid\Saint-Privat.asc
Actions:
? Keep Site coordinates system
? Keep the whole coverage
? Keep the resolution to 25 meters/pixel
? Keep the scale factor
? Import the grid
Actions:
? Select File > Import > Imagery raster
? Select the file with the data to import:
LandSim3D Tutorial Data\IGN Data\Imagery\Saint-Privat-ortho.ecw
Actions:
? Select Site system coordinate system
? Keep the whole coverage
? Set the image resolution to 1 meter/pixel (Properties button)
Action:
? Import the orthophoto
Actions:
? Open the 2D view
? Make the orthophoto visible through the eye in the Explorer
? Synchronize 3D data : check elevation and imagery
You have generated a minimum project within which you can now edit the relief.
E DITING THE RELIE
F IN E LEVATION MODE
In associating a color palette to different altitudes, an elevation grid may be displayed in 2D as a colored image representing the elevations translated to colors. It thus makes it possible to modify parts of the ground relief by modifying the colors of the image.
This modification is accessible in Elevation mode. You have 2 tools for this:
? The first one selects a constant altitude (in the form of a color) which you can paint on the image. Each zone impacted thus takes on the selected altitude. The generated altitudes are absolute ones relatively to the sea level.
? The second one selects a positive or negative height variation. Each image modification will add or reduce the altitude height of the impacted zone. In passing several times on the same zone, the clearings and fills cumulate. The generated altitudes are relative to the existing ones.
Actions:
? Select the Elevation working mode
? Select the Database pane in the Explorer
? Make visible the Saint-Privat.asc elevation in the 2D view with the eye in the Explorer
C USTOMIZING THE ELEVATION COLOR PALETTE
You can customize the color palette used to display the elevation grid. Actions:
?
Zoom the colored elevation scale within the vertical bar of the 2D view using the button
? Maintain the left mouse button pushed to pan the scale between 200 m and 400 m
? Right mouse button click in the colored elevation scale within the vertical bar of the 2D view then select Add
? Choose the orange color, click the color tag and maintain the left mouse button pushed to move it to 325 m
? Add a second tag with a lighter orange color at 300 m
? Add a third tag with a darker orange color at 350 m
? Add a fourth tag with a more darker orange color at 400 m
? Click to apply the change to the 2D view
? Right mouse button click on a color tag to remove it or edit its color or add a new tag.
P RESENTING THE EDITING TOOLS
You can edit the map within the 2D view using the toolbar:
Create a new elevation grid. Resolution and
extension are user controlled.
Delete the selected elevation grid.
Move the selected elevation grid (XY axis on the 2D view).
Brush (absolute elevation value).
Brush (relative elevation value).
Within the selected rectangle, transform the
elevation points to semantic objects:
Absolute elevation of the brush (in meters): each painted pixel will have its elevation set to this value.
You can either select or type in a specific value.
Relative elevation of the brush (in meters): each painted pixel will have its elevation increase (or decreased) by this value. You can either select or type in a specific value.
Thickness of the brush (in meters).
You can either select or type in a specific value.
Shape of the brush: progressive or plain round, noisy, square, constrained to a vertical or horizontal line.
A noisy brush distributes randomly the elevation inside a circle: some pixels are modified and other not.
Modifications to the elevation grid are visible in the 3D view after leaving the Elevation mode
or synchronizing the 3D view content .
M ODIFYING THE RELIEF USING THE ABSOLUTE BRUSH
Actions:
? Make visible the Camera layer in the 2D view with the eye in the Explorer
? Open a 3D view with the camera position at:
? X = 688586
? Y = 1860992
? Z = 338.6
? Azimuth = 130.2
? Elevation = 0
? Type = Locked
? Zoom the 2D view around the camera position
? Select the absolute brush with:
? Brush = 400 meters
? Size = 50 meters
? Contour =
? Click in the 2D view, at the vertical of the geographical position which you wish to modify.
? Once the modifications are complete, synchronize the 3D view content and check Elevation
The impacted pixels take on the color associated at 400m altitude in the color scale of the vertical bar.
Before editing the elevation
After having edited the elevation
If you are not satisfied with the modification, you have the possibility to undo it (the undo
stack is limited to the 10 last actions).
Notes:
? The number of modified pixels depends on the size and form of the brush, as well as the resolution of the elevation grid.
? If the size of the brush is lesser than the grid resolution, the altitude of each grid cell affected by the brush will be interpolated between the brush value and the joint cells to smooth modifications of the grid.
? If the size of the brush is greater than the resolution of the grid, the cells in the center of the brush will take on the altitude of the brush and the interpolation is done while moving away from the center with the joint cells.
? To force the selected altitude and thus reduce the smoothing, you must pass the brush several times over the same area. The cumulative effect reduces the smoothing of the increasingly strong ruptures.
M ODIFYING THE RELIEF USING THE RELATIVE BRUSH
Actions:
? Open a 3D view with a new camera positioned at:
? X = 688686
? Y = 1861084
? Z = 353
? Azimuth = 60.6
? Elevation = 10
? Type = Locked
? Zoom the 2D view around the camera position
? Select the relative brush with:
? Brush = +5 meters
? Size = 100 meters
? Contour =
? Click in the 2D view, at the vertical of the geographical position which you wish to modify.
? Once the modifications are complete, synchronize the 3D view content and check Elevation
The difference between this and the absolute modifications are the following:
? Each brush click on the same area adds 5 meters to its altitude
? The noise-shape brush creates a non-homogeneous modification of the area covered by the brush.
The interpolations are, on the other hand, applied in the same way.
Before editing the elevation
After having edited the elevation
M ODIFYING THE RELIEF WITHIN THE ELEVATION GRID
If you need to modify the relief within the resolution of the elevation grid, you have first to create a finer resolution grid covering the area to be edited and then to modify the relief. Actions:
? Select the Elevation working mode
? Select the Create a new elevation grid tool:
? Click and drag the rectangle to define the approximate position and size of the grid within the 2D view
? Name the grid: Detailed area and set the resolution to 1 meter per pixel, you can also adjust its origin (position of the bottom left corner) and size
? Keep the option Copy existing data and OK
Note: you can choose either to keep existing elevation values and oversample them to a more detailed or to fill in the grid with a constant elevation value and level a zone. This second method is recommended when you haven’t any elevation data and will edit the terrain within LandSim3D.
You can notice on the right image the colored pixels in the square area are less visible that on the left image thanks to the oversampled relief.
It is thus possible to modify the ground relief in this new zone either with the absolute brush or the relative brush.
Notes:
? The resolution of the grid must be less than the resolution of the original grid.
? If you need to define a very high resolution grid at a place, it is better to surround it by a transition zone generated with one or two grids with intermediate resolutions: for example, the main grid is 50 meters/pixel and you need an area of 0.1 meter/pixel. You will first define a first grid larger than the area with a resolution of 2.5 meters/pixel.
50 m/px