Introduction

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LUCY KUHNS: Welcome to the course, "How to Manage Large

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Surfaces Efficiently."

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The two course objectives are, "surface size limitations

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and simplification" and "controlling level of detail

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with detail and surrounds surfaces."

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Accurate representations of existing conditions

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topography are the bases for any development project,

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and surfaces built from point clouds

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are becoming the industry standard.

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These surfaces contain huge amounts of data points

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and require knowledgeable simplification and management

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methods for efficient and error-free use in Civil 3D

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and other applications.

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This course begins with describing

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the difference between TIN and grid type

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surfaces and their size limitations;

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and what happens to your project if the limits are exceeded

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and overflow of cached files are created.

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Next, filtering and edge contraction methods

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are described and demonstrated for extreme point reduction.

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This results in very efficient surface objects.

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As these steps are demonstrated, visualization

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of typical cross-section and contour data

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is used to assure that the resulting surface remains

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an accurate representation of your project area.

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The second objective in this course

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is about managing the level of detail

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necessary for the surface purpose and use

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within the project model.

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Understanding how surrounds and detail surfaces work together

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is important to keep your project designs and modeling

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running without problem.

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For additional detail surface editing and refinement,

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methods to convert grid surfaces to TIN surfaces are described.

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This course takes approximately

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and there are two exercises with data

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sets so that you can try out the things that you've learned.

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Before we begin, make sure you have AutoCAD and Civil 3D

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up and running on your machine.

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So now, let's get started.