Wireframe Project to Plane

To access this screen:

  • Surfaces ribbon >> Operations >> DTMs >> Project DTM to Plane.

  • Using the command line, enter "wireframe-surface-project"

  • Use the quick key combination "pdv".

  • Display the Find Command screen, locate wireframe-surface-project and click Run.

Project an open wireframe or selected triangles representing a Digital Terrain Model (DTM), onto a defined plane, perpendicular to that plane. Projecting a DTM to a plane always produces a closed object.

The Project to Plane screen is the user interface for the wireframe-surface-project command.

Input data must have no overlapping faces when viewed along the direction of the plane normal. This is not checked before the operation, but any intersecting faces in the projected object are reported.

Note: This command supports flexible wireframe selection.

To project an open wireframe onto a planar surface:

  1. Load the open wireframe data to be projected.

  2. Define a section that represents the plane to use for projection. See Sheets/Project Data | 3D Folder | Sections.

  3. Run the wireframe-surface-project command.

  4. Choose a loaded wireframe Object (the default is the current object) or selected wireframe triangle data (Selected triangles). You can select triangle data whilst the Project to Plane screen is displayed. See Selecting Wireframe Data.

  5. Define the Plane Orientation of the 3D plane to which the DTM is projected:

    • Horizontal—set the plane to be horizontal (i.e. both Azimuth and Inclination are 0 degrees).
    • North-South—set the plane to a vertical North-South orientation (i.e. Azimuth is 90 degrees and Inclination is -90 degrees).

    • East-West—set the plane to a vertical East-West orientation (i.e. Azimuth is 0 degrees and Inclination is -90 degrees).

    • 3D Section—if any sections have been defined in the active 3D window, these section planes can be used as the target for projection. Click this button to transfer the azimuth and dip of the section to the relevant fields. The Default Section option is listed alongside any custom sections that exist for your project.

    • Azimuth—set the azimuth of the plane manually.

      Note: this field is automatically overwritten if any of the preset options are selected.

    • Inclination—set the inclination of the plane manually.

      Note: this field is automatically overwritten if any of the preset options are selected.

  6. Define the position of the section's center point using the Plane Reference Point values. Define X, Y and Z.

  7. As an alternative to explicitly defining the plane orientation you can use one of the following automatic options:

    • Use View Plane—fix the plane as the current view plane in the currently active 3D window.

    • Pick Face—click to select a wireframe face in the 3D window.

      The Azimuth and Inclination update to reflect the orientation of the picked face and the Plane Reference Point (see above) updates to the coordinates of the selected point. This option fully defines the plane in 3D space.

  8. Output: you can output data either within the Current object, an existing wireframe object (pick it from the list) or a new object (type a new name).

  9. Click OK.

    Output data is created and the projected wireframe volume displays.

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