The drape element tool for Scalable Terrain Model (i.e. : STM) element allows the user to drape different kind of MicroStation elements onto the surface of a STM.
Usability Tip : The length of the element that can be drape is limited by the amount of terrain data in the vicinity of the line. If there are too many terrain data around the element (i.e. : the length of the element is too long compared to the density of terrain data around the element) an error will be return. In that case, try to use a shorter element.
Usability Tip : The purpose of the length limitation is to ensure that the inner triangles of the sub-terrain used to drape the element (i.e. : during the draping an Extract TM Element is done internally) are the same as the triangles found in the region around the element to drape in the full resolution of the STM.
Usability Tip : It is possible to manually specify the STM region to use for the draping by creating a TM first with the Extract TM Element functionality and then drape the element on the TM instead of the STM. This workflow might be useful when an element length doesn`t allow it to be draped by default. Indeed, when manually creating a TM it is possible to create a TM which which tightly surrounds the element to drape (i.e. : use a concave shape surrounding the element during the manual creation).