Draw Contours
When this box is checked, the program will draw contour lines after triangulating. Otherwise, only the designated triangulation operations are performed. Specify the layer for contours in the edit box to the right.
Contour by Interval or Contour an Elevation
Select whether to contour by interval (ie: every 10 feet) or
to contour a certain elevation. The elevation option allows you
to contour specific values. For example, if you want just
the 100ft contour, then select elevation and enter 100. The
default mode is by interval.
Contour Interval
Specify the interval to contour. Note: If the above option is set to Contour an Elevation, then this field is used to specify the elevation to contour.
Minimum Contour Length
Contour lines whose total length is less than this value will not be drawn.
Reduce VerticesThis option attempts to remove extra vertices from the contour polylines which has the advantages of a faster drawing and smaller drawing size. Default is ON
Offset Distance
When the Reduce Verticies option is enabled, This value is the
maximum tolerance for shifting the original
contour line in order to reduce
vertices. The reduced contour polyline will shift no more than this
value, at any point, away from the
original contour line. A lower value will decrease the number of
vertices removed and keep the contour
line closer to the original. A higher value will remove more vertices
and allows the contour line to
shift more from the original.
Hatch Zones
When activated, this option will allow you to hatch the area between the contours sequentially. A secondary dialog will load allowing the user to specify the hatch type and color.
Draw Index Contours
This option creates highlighted contours at a specified interval. When enabled, the fields for Index Layer, Index Interval and Index Line Width are activated.
Contour Smoothing Method
Select the type of contour smoothing to be performed. Bezier smoothing holds all the contour points calculated from the triangulation and only smooths between the calculated points. Polynomial smoothing applies a fifth degree polynomial for smooth transition between the triangulation faces. The smoothing factor described below affects the smoothing bulge.
Bezier Smoothing Factor
The contour preview window shows you an example of how much smoothing can be expected at each setting. Sliding the bar to the left results in a lower setting which have less looping or less freedom to curve between contour line points. Likewise, moving the slider to the right results in a setting that increases the looping effect.This option causes each triangle in the triangulation surface model
to be subdivided into an
average of three smaller triangles per subdivision generation, with the
new temporary vertices raised
or lowered to provide smoother contours. More generations increases the
smoothness of
the algorithm at a cost of increased processing time. If Straight Lines
are chosen as the
contouring drawing method, then the contours are guaranteed never to
cross. The original points of the
surface model are always preserved. These modifications to the surface
model are only for
contouring purposes and are not written to the triangulation (.FLT)
file or inserted into the drawing. If
some contour movement is too small for appearance's sake, consider
enabling Reduce Vertices.
Label Tab
Label Contours
When activated, contours will be labeled based on the settings below.
Label Layer
Specifies layer name for intermediate contour labels.
Index Label Layer
Specifies layer name for index contour labels.
Label Style
Specifies the text style that will be used for the contour label text.
Label Text Size Scaler
Specifies the size of the contour labels based on a multiplier of the horizontal scale.
Min Length to Label
Contours whose length is less than this value will not be labeled.
Break Contours at LabelWhen checked, contour lines will be broken and trimmed at the label
location for
label visibility. When enabled, the Offset box to the right
acitvates. The Offset determines the gap between the end of the
trimmed contour line and the beginning or ending of the text.
Draw Broken Segments
When checked, segments of contours that are broken out for label visibility will be redrawn as independent segments. Specify the layer for these broken segments in the box to the right of this toggle.
Label Contour Ends
When checked, contour ends will be labeled.
Draw Box Around Text
When checked, a rectangle will be drawn around contour elevation labels.
Label Index Contours Only
When checked, only the index contours will be labeled. This
option is active only when "Draw Index Contours" has been selected in
the Contour tab of the main dialog.
Hide Drawing Under Labels
This option activates a text wipeout feature that will create the
appearance of trimmed segments at the contour label, even though the
contour is fully intact. This feature provides the user with the
best of both worlds; you have clean looking contour labels, and the
contour lines themselves remain contiguous. This feature will
also hide other entities that area in the immediate vicinity of the
contour label.
Align Text with Contour
When checked, contour elevation labels will be rotated to align with
thier respective contour lines. This option also acitvates the
Align Facing Uphill feature explained below.
When checked, contour elevation labels will still be rotated to
align with
thier respective contour lines, but the labels will be flipped in such
a manner that the bottom of the text label will always be toward the
downhill side of the contours. So as the labels are read right
side up, you are always facing uphill.
Internal Label Intervals
Choose between label intervals or distance interval. Label intervals will label each contour with a set number of labels. Distance interval lets you specify a distance between labels.