Sections and contour lines

Welcome to the 3DF Zephyr tutorials. In this recipe, you will learn how to automatically create sections, contour lines and track sections directly within 3DF Zephyr Aerial.
This tutorial requires 3DF Zephyr Aerial.

• Step 1 – Introduction

Thanks to the tools available in 3DF Zephyr Aerial, the sections and contour line generation can be done directly within Zephyr (manually or automatically).
This tutorial uses an aerial dataset, however, any dataset can be applied and used.

Dataset Download – The Cave (1.6GB)

• Step 2 – Sections and contour lines

From the “Tools” menu (1) in the submenu “Sections and contour lines” (2) :

• Single Section (3): requires a control point and a dense point cloud. Section dimensions and orientation are fully customizable.
• Track Sections (4): requires a dense point cloud and a certain amount of control points. A certain amount of sections will be generated between a control point and the next. Section settings are customizable and common.
• Contour lines (5): requires a dense point cloud. Sections dimensions will be suggested based on the bounding box dimensions. Section settings are customizable and common.
• Sections from Control Points (6): requires a dense point cloud and a control point. Sections will be generated starting from previus taken control point.

When the settings have been selected, a dedicated UI will be shown, common for all of the aforementioned actions: from this window you will be able to manually draw the section/contour line o let Zephyr automatically generate it for you (even for all the sections). Once generated, all the drawing elements can be exported in DXF or imported in the workspace.
 

• Step 3A – Single section generation

Pick a control point and pick a single section (3) – a visual help will appear in overlay inside the workspace, along with a window that will allow you to pick the target point cloud and to change the section parameters.
When ready press OK and the section generation window will appear – go to step 4.
 

• Step 3B – Track sections

Pick certain control points along the track you wish to generate and pick track sections (4) – a visual help will appear in overlay inside the workspace, along with a window that will allow you to pick the target point cloud and to change the sections parameters, as well as picking the control points order and how many sections create between two control points.
When ready press OK and the section generation window will appear – go to step 4.
 

• Step 3C – Contour lines generation

Pickcontour lines generation (5) – a visual help will appear in overlay inside the workspace, along with a window that will allow you to pick the target point cloud and to change the contour line generation parameters. Please note how the suggested dimensions depend on the bounding box settings.
When ready press OK and the section generation window will appear – go to step 4.
 

• Step 4 – Section/track section/contour lines actual generation

Thanks to this interface, common for all the aforementioned steps, you will be able to manually or automatically create the actual data you want:

• Polyline management(7) – create or edit a polyline
• Automatic generation (8) – automatically generate the current section or automagically create everything
• Cycle section (9) – cycle between sections
• Export/Import (10) – export the DXF and import the drawing elements inside the Zephyr workspace
• Rotate (11) – rotate the current section to ease the polyline generation task.
• Zoom (12) – zoom the current section to ease the polyline generation task. (also possible via mousewheel)
• Reset (13) – reset the current zoom and rotation

When generated, the drawing elements may be exported to DXF or imported inside the Zephyr Workspace.
 

• Final notes

All these operations are very similar: learn to use the automatic generation (8) as soon as you since it can really cut the time you need to work a lot. Please also note how the drawing elements are manageable from the “Drawing elements” panel.

The next tutorial will show the shape from silhouette feature. Proceed to the next tutorial.