Moving DXF imported contour lines to Terrain, Elevation layer (HD Pro)

[Houska]

I'm importing terrain data from GIS software (QGIS) via contours saved into a DXF file.

 

HD Pro lets me import the contour lines, and recognizes them as elevation data for building the terrain. Great! However, those imported contour lines stay in the CAD, Default layer, which as a result gets quite cluttered up. (You can't just delete them, since they're needed as instructions whenever the terrain is rebuilt).

 

Any ideas how to mass move them to Terrain, Elevation data layer, which is where they belong? I can do it painstakingly one by one, choosing each contour line that's in CAD, Default; converting it to a plain polyline; and then converting that plain polyline back to an elevation polyline. It then ends up in the correct layer, but you have to do it one by one, since you need to manually re-enter the contour elevation during the conversion process. Looking for ideas how to do this all at once, preserving the contour height without retyping. Or is there some magic in the DXF import process to send them to a different layer than CAD, Default to begin with?

 

I think if I had Chief, I could just reassign layers of the imported elevation lines, but HD Pro doesn't allow over-riding layer assignments. I actually think this is a bit of a bug, in that the imported lines should go into Terrain, Elevation data automatically. But I wouldn't be the first who thinks something is a bug and is in fact missing an obvious way to do it right....

 

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HD Pro 2024, Windows

[Houska]

For completeness, in case someone stumbles across this:

 

In the absence of replies here, I opened a support ticket. Tech support has (in my view correctly) characterized this as "not really a bug, but an oversight" and has suggested to the dev team that a change be made in a future version so that imported elevation lines go into Terrain, elevation data; just like imported terrain perimiter polylines go into the Terrain, perimiter layer.

 

They also could not think of a (current) workaround other than the one I am using.  

[DavidJPotter]

Yes, with Chief Premier you can create custom layers and move any existing object from its home layer to any other or a custom created layer of your choice.

 

DJP 

[Robborito]

On 4/5/2023 at 12:49 AM, Houska said:

converting it to a plain polyline; and then converting that plain polyline back to an elevation polyline.

My goodness making work there in the process.

Surely it would be quicker to simply to just trace selected contours off a pdf copy of the DXF content as terrain elevation lines or splines in the first place;

Give the GIS DXF thing a big miss here?

If the result is cluttered then modify the original to suit your drawings needs in HDPro.

I work with terrain elevation splines traced of pdf surveys all the time here.

Jeff.

[Houska]

6 hours ago, Robborito said:

My goodness making work there in the process.

Surely it would be quicker to simply to just trace selected contours off a pdf copy of the DXF content as terrain elevation lines or splines in the first place;

Give the GIS DXF thing a big miss here?

[...]

I work with terrain elevation splines traced of pdf surveys all the time here.

Jeff.

Ends up being pretty darn similar, for sure. Since it's already in, digitized, the "convert to plain / convert to elevation" dance is a bit less *incremental* work than (re)digitizing manually, but I certainly ended up deleting some of the lines rather than converting them when it was clear interpolation would be as good. 

 

Bottom line is it's a good data pipeline hobbled by a minor but poorly thought out design decision that generates unnecessary manual work whichever way you look at it.