TIN Definitions in TINEDIT command

Overview

This article describes the TIN Definitions/operations that are available in the TINEDIT command. It also describes the dialog box of each definition, where you can modify parameters.

These operations are also available in the Civil Explorer panel (see figure below).

Add point

The Add point definition creates a new TIN Surface or modifies an existing one based on specified locations and elevations of the TIN points.

To create the Add point definition:

  • Select the Add Points option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in the Civil Explorer and select Pick points option from the Add group.

When you double-click the Add point definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

  1. Name
  2. Point location
  3. Pick point
Name
Displays the TIN Surface definition name: Add point.
Point location
Displays the point coordinates.
Pick point
Allows you to pick a new location and set a new point elevation.

Add point groups

The Add point groups definition adds Civil points from a specified Point Groups to the existing TIN Surface or creates a new TIN Surface from specified Point Groups.

To create the Add point groups definition:

  • Select the Add Point Groups option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in the Civil Explorer panel, select Add point groups from the Add group.

The following dialog box opens:

  1. Select box
  2. Point group
  3. Number of points
Select box
Allows you to select or deselect a point group to be included.
Point group
Lists all available point groups.
Number of points
Displays the number of points of the point group.

The Remove outer edges definition is automatically added to the TIN Surface after this operation.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

Name
Displays the surface definition name: Add point groups.
Point groups
Displays a list of Point groups used to create TIN Surface.

Add breaklines

The Add breaklines definition adds selected linear CAD objects to the TIN Surface as breaklines.

To create the Add breaklines definition:

  • select the Add Breaklines option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Create TIN Surface from linear CAD entities/objects and select an option to apply them as Breaklines.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Add breaklines from the Add group.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

  1. Name
  2. Breaklines type
  3. Crossing elevation
  4. Mid-ordinate distance
  5. Supplementing factor
  6. Weeding factor
  7. Breaklines
  8. Pick button
Name
Displays the TIN Surface definition name: Add breaklines.
Breaklines type
Displays the selected breakline type. Select the appropriate breakline type from the drop-down list.
Standard breakline
Adds breaklines to the TIN Surface, re-builds the TIN Surface so that triangles follow the breaklines edges and elevations.
Projected breakline
Projects breakline to the TIN Surface and creates new triangles.
Crossing elevation
Determines which elevation is taken for triangulation at the intersection of two breaklines, added in the same Add breakline definition.
Not allowed
The intersection is treated as one breakline.
Min elevation
The elevation of lower breakline is taken.
Max elevation
The elevation of upper breakline is taken.
Mid elevation
The middle elevation between the crossing breaklines is taken.
Mid-ordinate distance
Adds supplementary TIN points along the arc according to the mid-ordinate distance which is used for arc approximation.
Supplementing factor
Toggles the using of supplementing factor.
Distance
Sets the supplementing distance.
Note: Additional vertices are added to breakline, if the distance between vertices on the breakline is greater than the specified supplementing distance.
Weeding factor
Toggles the using of weeding factor.
Distance
Sets the weeding distance.
Angle
Sets the weeding angle.
Note: Existing breakline vertices are not used to create a TIN Surface, if the distance and angle between them is less than the specified weeding parameters.
Note: The Supplementing and Weeding factor are disabled for the Projected breaklines.
Breaklines
Lists the breaklines included in the selected Add breaklines definition.

The table include sequence Number, Layers, Min. and Max elevation of the Breaklines.

Right-click an individual breakline in the table offers the option to Zoom to, Select, Remove, or Copy geometry to clipboard.

Pick button
Picks breakline in the drawing to select it in the table.

Add boundaries

The Add boundaries definition adds selected linear CAD objects to the TIN Surface as boundaries.

To create the Add boundaries definition:

  • Select the Add boundaries option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Add boundaries from the Add group.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

  1. Name
  2. Boundary type
  3. Trim triangle lines
  4. Mid-ordinate distance
  5. Boundaries
  6. Pick button
Name
Displays the TIN Surface definition name: Add boundaries.
Boundary type
Displays the selected boundary type. Select the appropriate boundary type from the drop-down list.
Show
Displays triangles inside the boundary polygon.
Hide
Hides triangles inside the boundary polygon.
Outer
Defines the outer boundary of the TIN Surface. All the triangles outside the outer boundary are hidden.
Clip
Does not change the TIN Surface boundary, but affects all elements (definitions), added to the TIN Surface after the Clip boundary. Only elements located inside the Clip boundary affects triangulation.
Note: An example of such elements, that affects the triangluation inside the Clip boundary are: Point Clouds, CAD points, Civil points, 3D Faces, Breaklines, Contours.
Trim triangle lines
Displays whether or not this parameter is used when adding a boundary to the TIN Surface.
Mid-ordinate distance
Adds supplementary TIN points along the arc according to the mid-ordinate distance which is used for arc approximation.
Boundaries
Lists the boundaries added in a single definition and their layers. The context menu offers the possibility to Zoom to, Select or Remove a boundary.
Note: Multiple boundaries of the same type can be added in one step.
Pick button
Picks boundary in the drawing to select it in the table.

Delete points

The Remove point definition removes points/vertices of triangles from the TIN Surface. You can delete individual points or select the option Multiple in the Command line to remove multiple points at once.

To create the Remove point definition:

  • Select the Remove Points option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Remove points option from the Edit group.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

  1. Name
  2. Point location
Name
Displays the TIN Surface definition name: Delete point.
Point location
Displays the coordinates of the deleted TIN point.
Note: If the option Multiple is selected in the TINEDIT command (check the screenshot of the Command line above), then the dialog box displays coordinates of all deleted TIN points.

Swap edge

The Swap edge definition swaps the selected triangle edge.

To create the Swap edge definition:

  • Select the Swap edge option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Swap edge option from the Edit group.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

  1. Name
  2. Point location
Name
Displays the TIN Surface definition name: Swap edge.
Point location
Displays the XY coordinates of the swapped edge.

Move point

This definition modifies the location of a single or multiple TIN points in one step.

To create the Move point definition:

  • Select the Point Location option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Point Location option from the Edit group.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

  1. Name
  2. From position
  3. To position
Name
Displays the TIN Surface definition name: Move point.
From position
Displays the original coordinates of the TIN point before it was moved.
To position
Displays the new coordinates of the TIN point after it has been moved to a new location.

Modify point elevation

This definition modifies the elevation of a single or multiple TIN points in one step.

To create the Modify point elevation definition:

  • Select the Point Elevation option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Point elevation option from the Edit group.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

  1. Name
  2. Point location
  3. Use delta elevation
  4. Set elevation to
Name
Displays the TIN Surface definition name: Modify point elevation.
Point location
Displays point location of the point of which elevation was modified.
Use delta elevation
Enables to specify the delta elevation (elevation difference).
Set elevation to
Sets the new elevation for the TIN point or delta elevation (elevation difference) if the Use delta elevation option is enabled.

Add line

The Add line definition adds new TIN Edge between two existing TIN points.

To create the Add line definition:

  • Select the Add Line option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Add line from the Add group.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

Name
Displays the TIN Surface definition name: Add line.

Delete edges

The Delete edges definition deletes TIN Edge inside the specified selection area.

To create the Delete edges definition:

  • Select the Delete Line option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Delete line from the Edit group.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

Name
Displays the TIN Surface definition name: Delete edges.

Remove outer edges

The Remove point definition removes triangles on the outer boundary of the TIN Surface, that have:

  • greater edge length
  • shorter edge length
  • greater angle than specified

To create the Remove outer edges definition:

  • Select the Remove Outer Edges option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Remove outer edges from the Edit group.

The Remove outer edges definition is automatically added to the TIN Surface after this operation.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

  1. Name
  2. Use Max. edge length
  3. Max. edge length
  4. Use Min. edge length
  5. Min. edge length
  6. Use Max. adjacent angle
  7. Max. adjacent angle (in degrees)
Name
Displays the surface definition name: Remove outer edges.
Use Max. edge length
Toggles the using of maximum edge length.
Max. edge length
Sets the value for maximum edge length.
Note: Triangles with an edge exceeding the specified maximum edge length are deleted from the TIN Surface.
Use Min. edge length
Toggles the using of minimum edge length.
Min. edge length
Sets the value for minimum edge length.
Note: Triangles with an edge exceeding the specified minimum edge length are deleted from the TIN Surface.
Use Max. adjacent angle
Toggles the using of maximum adjacent angle.
Max. adjacent angle (in degrees)
Sets the value for maximum adjacent angle.
Note: Triangles with an inner angle exceeding a specified max. angle are deleted from the TIN Surface.

Minimize flat areas

The Minimize flat areas definition finds flat triangles and then swaps the adjacent edges of those triangles so that their slope is non-zero.

To create the Minimize flat areas definition:

  • Select the Minimize flat areas option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Minimize flat areas from the Edit group.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

Name
Displays the TIN Surface definition name: Minimize flat areas.
Number of swapped edges
Displays the number of swapped edges on the TIN Surface.

Remove elevation

This definition removes TIN points below/above the specified elevation and displays the number of points removed.

To create the Remove points above/below elevation definition:

  • Select the Remove elevations option in the TINEDIT command.
  • Right-click an existing TIN Surface in Civil Explorer panel and select Remove elevation from the Edit group.

The Remove outer edges definition is automatically added to the TIN Surface after this operation.

When you double-click this definition in the Definitions tab of the Civil Explorer panel, the following dialog box opens.

  1. Name
  2. Remove points below elevation
  3. Elevation less than
  4. Remove points above elevation
  5. Elevation greater than
  6. Number of removed points
Name
Displays the surface definition name: Remove points above/below elevation.
Remove points below elevation
Toggles the option to remove points below a specified elevation.
Elevation less than
Sets the elevation below which points are removed.
Remove points above elevation
Toggles the option to remove points above a specified elevation.
Elevation greater than
Sets the elevation above which points are removed.
Number of removed points
Displays the number of removed points.