How do I create a composite surface that represents the LOWEST of a collection of stacked surfaces? (V8i SS3)

Hi All,

I need to create a composite surface that represents the LOWEST of a bunch of surfaces which are stacked on top of each other at different elevations. Kind of like a 3D boolean addition but I only want single surface representing the lowest plane, or an upside down drape mesh. When it's generated properly looking at it from above it should appear as a concave hull. A bit hard to explain but if I were writing an algorithm to do it, this is what it would look like..

Declare a bounding area "area1"

For each "x","y" point within area1

for each surface stacked at this point

if "z" is LOWEST 

set area1 (x,y,z)

endif

endfor

endfor

Can anyone point me in the right direction on how to achieve this?

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  • What type of work is being represented with these surfaces? Could it be a Civil Design type of work or possibly Architectural? Maybe you could provide a screen capture showing these surfaces. Could it be that you are not using just a plain installation of MicroStation V8i SS3 but are using another application that sits on top of this base product. Maybe InRoads, MX, Geopak etc.? Are you able to supply an example design file that contain some of these surfaces. BTW What type of elements are these surfaces?

    Regards
    Andrew Bell
    Technical Support
    Bentley Systems

  • Hi Andrew,

    We use this for airspace design. We have a bunch of imaginary surfaces that exist at different altitudes that may overlap with multiple other surfaces. It's a plain installation of microstation. Here's an example DGN:

    airspace surfaces.dgn

    Thanks for your assistance.

    Tim

  • Thanks for the example design file. The elements you have in this file seems to just be shapes contained in cells. How have these originally been produced? Do you just have coordinates that you have entered to define each of these x,y,x coordinates? Maybe you have imported them from another format file or software? There seems to numerous shapes that are in someway connected and are all on the same level, Protected Area. How are you expecting to be able to separate which of these shapes is connected to the others? That is, are they linked in some manner that could somehow be turned into a single "surface" type of element? Any other details you could supply would be most helpful.

    Regards
    Andrew Bell
    Technical Support
    Bentley Systems

Reply
  • Thanks for the example design file. The elements you have in this file seems to just be shapes contained in cells. How have these originally been produced? Do you just have coordinates that you have entered to define each of these x,y,x coordinates? Maybe you have imported them from another format file or software? There seems to numerous shapes that are in someway connected and are all on the same level, Protected Area. How are you expecting to be able to separate which of these shapes is connected to the others? That is, are they linked in some manner that could somehow be turned into a single "surface" type of element? Any other details you could supply would be most helpful.

    Regards
    Andrew Bell
    Technical Support
    Bentley Systems

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