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TerrainCAD for AutoCAD - Terrain modeling plug-in for AutoCAD


In this tutorial we will see how to improve a terrain mesh by using breaklines.


Step 1: Carry out steps 1 to 5 in Tutorial 3.

Step 2: Zoom into the rectangular portion of the drawing (highlighted in red).

Step 3: Observe the terrain at the vertices highlighted in red in the figure below and the faces in their vicinity. You will find that the terrain mesh would be more accurate if the red vertices were connected by edges since they represent the lower portion of a valley between two hills. However, this is not the case. Here is where breaklines play an important role. We will now add a couple of breaklines joining these red vertices and recreate the terrain mesh.

Step 4: Select the line tool and add the breakline from top to down and than bring it back on top to form a triangle or wherever needed. Click the left button of the mouse or press Enter when done. The new breaklines are shown in the figure below.

Step 5: Select Create Terrain from the TerrainCAD submenu or type TCCreateTerrain at the AutoCAD command prompt and press Enter. At the AutoCAD command prompt select points, lines and polylines, select only the breaklines and press Enter. Do not select the contours. Set the Search Radius=0 at the AutoCAD command prompt and press Enter. A new terrain is created which respects the new breaklines, as can be seen from the figure below.

This new terrain is more accurate than the previous one since its topology more appropriately describes the actual landscape.
 

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