Solids

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This interface is used to manage the cloud of points as a solid rather than as a surface. This way, the surfaces which are included here are considered to be outer faces of a solid. The point cloud may contain points inside the solid, but the mesh triangulation will show only the triangles of the solid's surface. It is very simple to transfer a surface to a solid, or vice versa, using the main interface of each interface.

When a solid is chosen, the same interface is accessed as the surfaces. The difference comes in the last tab, which represents the tetrahedrons once tetrahedralization is complete. Each tetrahedron is made up of four points, and the coordinates can be indicated by extending the information, as in the triangle tab. It's also possible to calculate the volume of the filtered tetrahedrons by running the volume calculation (). The next interface, "Solid", is used to manage the mesh triangulation and the tetrahedralization.

The mesh of the point cloud replaces the traditional triangulation. This section tries to create a mesh with the outside of the point cloud. It is used to generate the mesh of accurately defined complex shapes, as in the following examples:

Section	Option	Description
Mesh	Mesh from point cloud	Creates the mesh. The result will populate the surface with triangles in the triangle table, thereby erasing a prior triangulation.
	Opened Surface	To be checked if you want it to try closing the holes to close the surface.
	Preview	Used to open the viewer and view the results of the point mesh.
	Draw	Draw the surface's triangles in the main window.
	Erase	Erase the surface's triangles from the main window.
	Delete all triangles	Deletes all triangles from the surface.
Tetrahedralization	Tetrahedralization	Calculate the tetrahedrons and fills the table with tetrahedrons accordingly.
	Try to close open regions	To be checked if you want it to try closing the holes to close the solid.
	Volume 3D	Calculates the tetrahedralization volume.
	Remove selected tetrahedrons on screen	Removes the tetrahedrons by selecting them in main window.
	Remove tetrahedrons	Based on the "Max. Edge Length" parameter
	Draw	Draws the tetrahedralization result in the main window.
	Erase	Erases the tetrahedralization result from the main window.
	Delete all tetrahedrons	Deletes all tetrahedrons from the surface.
	Max. Edge Length	Maximum length for the edge of a tetrahedron.

Tetrahedralization is the 3D equivalent of triangulation. This function generates tetrahedrons along the outer surface of the object. The tetrahedralization function will, from the outset, create a convex solid; to create concave solids some tetrahedrons may be removed after the tetrahedralization.

To use this function, isolate points from a given object and export the points as a surface to export to Civil. The points included must be clean and free of noise - avoid including separate objects, ground points or aberrant points in the selection, since all points in the solid will be considered and will influence the shape of the final tetrahedralization. Once the points are exported to Civil, send them from the Surfaces menu to the Solids menu.

Once in the Solids menu, open the 3D triangulation screen. Create a general tetrahedralization by clicking on Tetrahedralization. A report will display the number of tetrahedrons created. Use the Preview button to visualize the newly created solid. The solid will be convex in shape. To create a concave solid, some of the tetrahedrons with longer edges can be removed. To do this, specify a value for Max edge length (the longest edge a tetrahedron may have) and click on Remove tetrahedrons to remove any tetrahedrons with edges longer than those specified. This operation can take several minutes. Once the tetrahedron removal is complete, Preview the solid once more to check that it was created properly. Go to the solid element page and Save the solid to retain any changes made.

If two surfaces are merged together, it will generate tetrahedrons inside both surfaces. For example, you can triangulate the different faces and the soil of a quarry, attach them, and perform tetrahedralization without using a mesh.