The Extract Contours window can be reached by clicking
the Contours button in the Extract panel of the
Action Tab, or by selecting
Create Contours from the menu bar in a Scene
Window. The only requirement for contour extraction is that
the data, either a point cloud, a TIN, Solid or a scan is currently
opened in a Scene.
The Interval extraction method extracts contours at every
multiple of the specified interval between the minimum and maximum
elevation values (a minimum of 2.5 and an interval of 5.0 would
have the first contour elevation be at 5.0).
The Elevation method only extracts the contours at the
specified elevation value.
By default, the Minimum and Maximum elevation values
are the minimum and maximum elevations of the current scene.
Min Length determines the minimum length of a contour line to
be drawn. Upon extraction, contours will be given an automatically
generated name and added to the Contours folder in the
project tree.
Contour Smoothing offers an option to smooth the cloud data prior to creating the contours. The Smooth Radius specifies how far from each point the program will look for neighbors. If a point does not have at least 3 neighbors within that radius, it will not be included in the algorithm.
Simplify Intermediate TIN removes spikes which might cause small circles or jagged edges in contours. The Simplify tolerance is the maximum adjustment distance a point will move to be closer to the same level as its neighbors.Apply Outlier Reduction Filter reduces spikes in contours from outlier points.
Apply Meander Reduction Filter - leaving this at 0.5 default is often a reasonable choice to assist with contour smoothing but may be adjusted based upon trial and error with the data set.
Reduce Before Bezier Smoothing works in a manner similar to reduce vertices using its own Offset Distance
Smoothing (1-10) - Using the drop-down menu, users can
lower the Smoothing setting which will have less looping or less
freedom to curve between contour line points. Likewise, increasing
the smoothing increases the looping effect. Note: too much
smoothing applied in some situations can result in crossing
contours. This setting affects the contour lines themselves, not
the underlying data.
Reduce Vertices removes vertices from the contour polylines provided the removed vertex is not further away from the new line than the Offset Distance
If Draw planes is enabled, plane objects will be added to the project and the scene that cut the through the scene at each extracted elevation level. The planes will be horizontal and extend to the limits of the cloud. While this can be useful for a single elevation contour that is extracted, it creates many planes when used with an interval extraction.Tab Location: Action
Panel and Button: Extract and Contours
Prerequisite: Open Point Cloud Scene of a scan, cloud or
mesh