Simplifying Splines/Polylines

[Anonymous]

Occasionally, when I'm importing a surveyor's dwg file, I wind up with polylines that take the appearance of splines, but have WAY too many nodes which slows the computer dramatically.

Does anybody know a way to convert and simplify these types of lines to a more manageable format? I thought that the linework consolidation tool had such a function, but apparently does not, unless I'm missing something.

Any ideas?

Thanks much!

Richard

[Anonymous]

This is a persistent problem with DWGs. It probably is to do with the AutoCAD add-on used by the civil guys since those lines are tha same in AutoCAD (it's not a translation thing).

The best way I have found to fix it is to trace over the contours with the spline tool. It doesn't really take too long, you can skip the contours that don't matter, and you have detailed control of the result. The time saved in speeding up the model will easily pay back the effort, and you will have splines that can be copied and reused to modify and adjust the terrain mesh, develop alternates, etc.

[Anonymous]

Ack!
That's what I suspected. I've been doing the spline trace thing and it usually works except for when you're in a hurry and the property is in the Marin County hills!

Thanks for the help though, Matt. I was hoping for some magical answer, but reality again rears its ugly head. Using the non-standard always comes with a price, but at least I don't have to run it on Windows! Yay!

[Anonymous]

From what I've seen there is no software (with the possible exception of high end, strictly civil programs) that can match tracing the contours in ArchiCAD for speed and flexibility.

Remember that you don't have to trace all the contours. Sometimes 10' intervals are all that's needed.