Importing Terrain Data

[BryceEngstrom]

Can anyone manage to convert the attached text file to a terrain?  Using the Import Terrain Assistant, I click on this file and hit Next, and nothing happens.  Thanks in advance.

20210902112351-24023-data.csv

[Chopsaw]

You may be able to get it working if you import as "# Y X Z Description ( comma delimited )" but did not try to be able to confirm.

[robdyck]

23 minutes ago, BryceEngstrom said:

Can anyone manage to convert the attached text file to a terrain?  Using the Import Terrain Assistant, I click on this file and hit Next, and nothing happens.  Thanks in advance.

20210902112351-24023-data.csv 64.03 kB · 3 downloads

The first thing you'll need to do with the data is delete all the rows / columns / cells that are not a numerical data point.

[robdyck]

51 minutes ago, BryceEngstrom said:

Can anyone manage to convert the attached text file to a terrain?  Using the Import Terrain Assistant, I click on this file and hit Next, and nothing happens.  Thanks in advance.

20210902112351-24023-data.csv 64.03 kB · 3 downloads

Do you have a drawing that shows the dimensions of the lot?

[Dermot]

I get the following error message:

 

 

Did you maybe get this error before and then select "do not show"?  You can always reset your message boxes in your preferences.

 

Regardless, if you look at the file in another program, it should be pretty obvious that the file contains extra data that is not supported:

 

 

 

 

[robdyck]

I can get it imported but without knowing the lot dimensions, scaling the data in the x and y axis is a crapshoot. If you have a survey drawing with elevation points or topo lines I can build the terrain manually much simpler than this data import. It has too many points, and even reducing them creates a serious mess!

[robdyck]

9 minutes ago, Dermot said:

I get the following error message:

 

 

Did you maybe get this error before and then select "do not show"?  You can always reset your message boxes in your preferences.

 

Regardless, if you look at the file in another program, it should be pretty obvious that the file contains extra data that is not supported:

 

 

 

 

Can Chief plot those latitude and longitude points? When I import the data, and make a scale assumption based on a decent guess of the lot dimensions, the elevation data that is imported is not laid out in an overall shape that matches the subject property at all, even assuming that scale is off.

[BryceEngstrom]

15 minutes ago, Dermot said:

I get the following error message:

 

 

Did you maybe get this error before and then select "do not show"?  You can always reset your message boxes in your preferences.

 

Regardless, if you look at the file in another program, it should be pretty obvious that the file contains extra data that is not supported:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Dermot.  Can I manually edit those first two lines to fix it?  Just used this converter from a gpx I got from Google Earth data (which also didn't work)  and this is the file it spit out.

 

https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert_input?convert_delimiter=comma&units=us&form:add_elevation=auto

[BryceEngstrom]

13 minutes ago, robdyck said:

I can get it imported but without knowing the lot dimensions, scaling the data in the x and y axis is a crapshoot. If you have a survey drawing with elevation points or topo lines I can build the terrain manually much simpler than this data import. It has too many points, and even reducing them creates a serious mess!

Thanks. Yeah, I can do the same thing, and have countless times.  Just trying to get something rough from Google Earth and making sure the project is actually going to move forward before paying for a survey.

[robdyck]

bryceterrain.plan

[BryceEngstrom]

7 minutes ago, robdyck said:

bryceterrain.plan 3.51 MB · 1 download

 

Thank you.  How did you get the file to work?  Doesn't look that messy to me.  But, yeah, a lot of points.  I can just show the topo lines, convert to CAD, and then just use the topo lines as terrain data.  That should simplify it.  Plus, it appears to only show the general slope of the area, not the flatter, graded areas within the lot, which I can just fudge in myself.

 

 

[BryceEngstrom]

3 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

You may be able to get it working if you import as "# Y X Z Description ( comma delimited )" but did not try to be able to confirm.

Tried that, still get the same error.  Thanks.

[Dermot]

Quote

Can I manually edit those first two lines to fix it?

 

It's pretty easy to open the file in a spreadsheet program (like excel), and remove any columns or rows that you don't want (like the type, name, and desc columns and the header row).  Chief will then be able to read the file.

 

Unfortunately, the import terrain tool can't convert the latitude and longitude coordinates into X and Y coordinates for you.  This means that you will probably have to jump through some hoops to get it into a form that is actually usable.  I believe this may have been what Robert did but only he would know for sure.

 

Quote

Just used this converter from a gpx I got from Google Earth data (which also didn't work)  and this is the file it spit out.

 

It might be easier to figure out how to import the gpx file directly using the import GPS tool instead.  Or, see if your converter can convert it into an X/Y coordinate format instead of lat/long format.