Surface Info Command

TPC collects information about each surface that can help you correct problems or improve the resulting surface.

Right click any surface object and choose Surface Tools, Surface Info. You will see the following information in the Message View.

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[[ Existing Ground ]]

Topo Points = 901

Triangles = 1669

Edges = 2569

Breaklines = 523

Seconds = 0.066

[[ Unresolved edges ]]

2478-2882

[[ Unresolved breaklines ]]

2824-2824

2846-2846

2994-2995

2477-2478

2478-2479

An unresolved edge or breakline indicates a potential problem in the way the TIN created the triangles and edges used to represent the surface. You may need to edit the border, topo points or breaklines.

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Each surface reports its name, description, number of points, triangles, edges and breaklines and the seconds it took to compute. If there are any issues TPC thinks you should know about it lists them for you.

TPC collects and reports the following issues:

Unresolved border edges

If a border was selected, TPC tests each border edge to see if it has a triangle on one side. If not, this indicates a border issue. Typical border issues are duplicate border points (the same point inserted twice in the border traverse) and borders the double back on themselves for one or more points before continuing on.

Unresolved edges

An edge that does not have a triangle on both sides is unresolved and indicates a triangulation error. Zoom in on that point in Drawing View and check adjacent TOPO points. You may need to turn the TOPO setting off on one or more points.

Unresolved edges result in broken contour lines and must be resolved in order to get accurate contours.

Unresolved breaklines

An unresolved breakline is a breakline that was not inserted for some reason. It might have overlapped another breakline or referenced topo points that are no longer included in the contour. If the surface appears correct, you may ignore the unresolved breaklines.

To edit breaklines, right click any contour object and choose Surface Tools, Edit Breaklines.

Duplicate topo points

Duplicate topo points are eliminated automatically from the TIN. TPC uses the current coordinate limits to determine if two points are the same.

To check or edit the coordinate limits, choose Tools, Program Settings, Limits.

Minimizing Memory

Once TPC has generated the contour lines, labels, shading or whatever else you have requeste, it can discard the TIN points / triangles / edges to save memory. By default, these objects are retained for use with transects, volumes and reports. See Optimizing Surfaces.

Editions

Premium, Professional