Civil Surfaces

Menu: Civil / Start / Surfaces

The Civil Module in VisionLidar provides powerful surface management tools for tasks such as volume calculations, contour creation, and profile generation. This guide explains how to optimize surface processing, manage multiple surfaces, and merge or update surfaces efficiently.

1. Managing Civil Surfaces

✔ Load & Optimize Performance – Multiple surfaces can be loaded at once, but for large datasets, it's recommended to close unnecessary surfaces to optimize performance.

✔ General Surface Interface – Displays all saved surfaces in the Vision database, including:

• Number of points

• Breaklines

• Triangles

✔ Quick Surface Actions – Directly from the interface, users can:

• Add new surfaces

• Delete surfaces

• Copy surfaces

• Move surfaces to the solids section

• Merge multiple surfaces

2. Surface Updates & Redrawing

✔ 🔄 "Update Drawing" Button – Updates surfaces in the main VisionLidar window after modifications.
✔ ❌ "Erase" Button – Removes all surface elements from the main window.
✔ ⚠️ Important Note – The update function only refreshes drawn triangulations – it does not modify points, outlines, or breaklines.

3. Merging Surfaces

✔ 🔀 "Merge Selected Surfaces" Button – Combines two surfaces into a single entity.
✔ Three Merge Options:
1️⃣ Include all points from both surfaces.
2️⃣ Prioritize one surface, incorporating points from the second only if they fall outside the first’s outline.
3️⃣ View cross-sections along an alignment, selecting views based on the prioritized surface.

✔ Layer-Based Merging – Surfaces can also be merged as layers within another surface.
✔ 💡 XY Concordance Required – This method only works if XY coordinates align between surfaces.

4. Determining & Applying Elevations

✔ 📍 "Determine & Show Elevations" Tool – Assigns elevation values from:

• COGO points

• CAD points

• User-selected points

✔ Process:
1️⃣ Select a surface from the list.
2️⃣ Choose points on-screen or by point groups.
3️⃣ Generate an Elevation Report (can be saved as a text file).

5. Key Takeaways

✔ Optimize performance by closing unnecessary surfaces when working with large datasets.
✔ Use the interface for quick modifications – add, delete, move, or merge surfaces seamlessly.
✔ Update drawing after modifications to ensure surfaces appear correctly in the VisionLidar main window.
✔ Merge surfaces efficiently using different prioritization methods.
✔ Apply COGO or CAD elevations to refine surface accuracy.

🚀 Enhance Your Terrain Analysis with Civil Surfaces!

With VisionLidar's Civil Module, you can efficiently manage and process surfaces, ensuring high accuracy in topographic modeling, volume calculations, and infrastructure planning. 🌍🏗️📏