If you are a subscription member there a new extension you can download. The subscription extensions now called Subscription Advantage Packs (SAP) are available on the subscription site.  The SAP for AutoCAD Map3D 2010 contains tools to use LIDAR or point clouds data. If anyone ever wanted to use large LIDAR files or point clouds you now can with the SAP. So what can you do with this data? Well depending on the data a lot.  First here is how you can start using it.

First on the Display Manager, click on the Tools Icon, select Create Point Cloud Index. The “Index” needs to be created for all new LiDAR (las) files.

When you select to create the point cloud index the Point Cloud Manager palette opens. Here is where you browse to the LiDAR files and add them to a list or you can even group multiple files together.

Once the files are listed in the Point Group Manager highlight the file or group and click on the Generate Index. This creates a file with an ISD extension. You have the option prior to generating the index as to the file location and name by selecting in the output column and browsing to a folder and renaming the file. The default is the same folder and file name as the las file. Generating the index takes a few minutes depending on the file size and number of points in the file. A process indicator is displayed in the the  Point Cloud Manager as it is generated.  Once the index is created you can click the Add to Map button to add the point cloud to your map.  Note you only need to create the index for the las file once, you can use the isd file to load the point cloud in any drawing. Once you created an index of a las file you can reload the point cloud by using the Data icon and selecting Add Point Cloud Date.

Once the point cloud is loaded into the map it is listed as a map layer in the Display Manager.

Once you have a point cloud loaded you can highlight it and the context sensitive tab on the ribbon will display for the point cloud.

The ribbon tab allows you control how the point cloud is display along with a few other tools to work with the point cloud. The Point Display control will allow you to control the number of points (density) displayed. Move the slider to increase/decease the amount of points. The Filter Point Cloud control allows you to filter the point cloud based on the data assigned to the points or by spatial (location on your map). Note: Not all LiDAR files will have data assigned to it. The Style panel of the tab will allow you to set the style of the point cloud based on the classification, elevation, Intensity or RGB assigned to the points. The create panel will allow you to create a surface from the point cloud. You have two formats for the surface file, GeoTiff or ESRI ASC. The Export panel will allow you to export the point cloud to SDF format to be used later in the map or as an ASCII (text) format or even to a LAS format. Exporting it to ASCII will only export the XYZ of the points it will not export any other data and exporting to SDF will create a LARGE SDF file, so beware.

Along with the advantage pack there is some sample files (las) and tutorials on the subscription site that you can also download that provides some assistance on using the new feature.

The AutoCAD Subscription Advantage Pack

There is also an Subscription Advantage Pack for standard AutoCAD as well that can also be ran with Map3D. This advantage pack contains some useful tools for standard AutoCAD objects that for once the Map3D product team has not forgotten about the AutoCAD Map3D users that still use Map3D as AutoCAD or that we still use drawing objects in our maps.

Once installed it adds a new ribbon tab to the ribbon labeled Subscription.

The first panel of the tab allows you to isolate objects and unisolate them. The next panel will allow you to select an object then create another object of the same type. The Select panel has the much needed and wished for Select Similar command. It does have a settings options allow you to filter the selection.

The last panel contains the Draw Order tools for setting the draw order for annotations and hatches. Keep in mind these are the standard AutoCAD objects, they do not work with Map3D annotations or the feature labels and hatches. Oh yes, if you are an old school user and have not embraced the ribbon interface yet, there is a toolbar for these as well, the AutoCAD SAP for the AutoCAD Map3D SAP you need to create your own toolbar or use the ribbon. 

With the survey tab of the map task pane we can bring points into a map and style them with our blocks to get the look that we may need, or when we import a point type shape file or any other format we can assign a block to the points on the import. (provide block name matches the attributes) But what if you have existing drawings that you have been using for the past few years that have AutoCAD points or they are standard AutoCAD drawing, or from some one else. ? What is the easy and quick way to insert blocks at those points? Well if those points are on there respective layers the Display Manger maybe the quick and easy way. Here is how.

Looking at my sample waterline map we have points that represent wells, both active and abandoned that reside on their own layers. 

First we start by creating a few new “Map Layers” in the display manager. To do this switch to the Display Manager tab, and select ” Add Drawing Data > Drawing Layer”. 

Select one of drawing layers the points reside.

Then click OK, we want to create the map layers separately so when we assign a block to the points we can control what blocks goes to what points. repeat to create all the new map layers as needed.

Once we have the map layers created we style them with a symbol by right clicking on the map layer and select “Add Style > Symbol”.

The symbol used is a default symbol of a square with and X inside it. To change it to the block we want we select the “Symbol Style” element in the display manager under the map layer and select properties.

In the property palette for that element we chose the block to use for that map layer.

You can also set the scale of the block to your scale, leaving the scale at the default of (* 20 (VIEWSCALE)) will scale the block 20 times the view scale. The default scale will scale the block up/down as you zoom in and out of the drawing and regenerate. Change the name of the element to represent the blocks. Repeat the steps for the remaining map layers.

To go a another step further in the display manager we can change the symbol shown in the display manger and for a legend if you decide to create one later on.   Do this by selecting the map layer in the display manager and go to it’s properties in the property palette.

In the property palette, change the Thumbnail Preview to Block and select your block.

Repeat for your remaining map layer.

Now your points display as your blocks.

If you need to share the map to standard AutoCAD users you can use the tool icon and Save Current Map to DWG.

When was the last time you looked at the files in the Sample folder that gets created in the Program Files/ AutoCAD Map3D 20xx ? If you have not looked in years then let me point out a few lisp files (.lsp) that are there and may be of some use to you. Some of them are just samples and meant to be samples of what you can do with lisp programing and Map3D, however there are a few that you may want to use once in a while.

The first one I like is the makegrid.lsp.  What this does is create a grid from rectangular polylines with numbers/text inside each rectangle. It allows you to select the base point for the grid, the number of rows and columns and the size of each. With the number inside the rectangles it allows you to add a prefix and the number of digits for the number. So what do I use it for? A number of different uses but one is for creating a grid for a mapbook. Other times I may use it to create a grid if I’m creating a new line type or AutoCAD shape. Having a grid of 1×1 makes it easy to know when and where my pen up or pen down will be writing out the file.

The next one I like and use every once in a while is the copy_OD.lsp. This allows you to copy object data from one object to another. If you ever exploded a multi-segment pline to individual lines you found out the OD attached doesn’t get copied. This sample allows you to copy that OD to each line segment afterwards.

The listpt.lsp writes out the vertices of a polyline to the command line. If you use it notice it has the points inside parenthesizes  ( ), this is an “Autolisp list” but you can still it if you need to check the vertices of a polyline.

Need to see what direction an object  is going or where the start point is? Then the dirarrow.lsp is what you need to use. This sample will show a directional arrow pointing in the direction the object (Lines, Plines, Arcs) is headed. The sample uses the grdraw function which draws the directional arrow on the screen and not in the dwg file, A regen or redraw action removes the arrows from the screen.

If you are not familiar with using a lisp file with these you can drop and drag them from windows explorer into the AutoCAD editor window and the command to use them is printed to the command line. Done of them have a fancy dialog box or any help files on using them remember they are just samples but you might find some use for them. Or if you like to get into learning lisp they make  a good starting point. 

The results from the poll are in and the winners of the DotSoft MapWork tools are; David Parker, Randy McCan, Bevan Shervey, Andrew Puller, and Graham Avard. Thanks to everyone that took the poll and here are the major results that I’ll share with my loyal readers.

Some commented on having to register to leave comments. This was to keep spam out of the comments however Akismet seems to be catching the spam so I have removed the requirement to register to leave a comment.

Next topic that a few commented on was searching for topics. I knew this is a problem and am working on an index page to list the topics in some sort of order, however let me say the version of wordpress the weblog is run on is the free version and I’m limited on running any custom code to create any easy search tools or index on topics. So it looks like I need to make better use of tags.

Another item most everyone commented on is the frequency of posts. I have no problem with post one tip a week as long as I have some ideas on what to post about. I get most of the ideas for topics from the discussion groups or other forums but after a while they all end up being the same or simple one line comments not worth blogging about. SOooo give me some topics or ideas and I will write about those.

Last is the addition of videos on the site. One reader commented they can not access sites with videos at work. If and when I start placing videos on the site they will be in addition to the screen captures and the steps to follow for the tip or how-do. The latest test posting with videos were not successful at the time. So it may be a few months before I start using videos on here.

Again thanks for taking the poll and leave some comments.

From time to time I see users asking what is the best method to insert a raster file into Map3D or Civil 3D. There are a 4 known methods to insert a raster file into a drawing. First the standard AutoCAD insert, then there is the Map image insert command, and now with FDO there is the data connect method. Last we can use the Object Link and Embedding (OLE) method.  So what method do I suggest? My standard reply is what format and type is the raster and what do you want to do with the raster afterwards?

First lets review on what a raster file is and how they advanced over the years. A raster file contains cells or grids called pixels. The number of pixels is determined by the resolution of the raster.   A simple 300 x 300 resolution raster has 300 pixels on the X axis or horizontal and 300 on the Y axis or vertical for a total of 90,000 pixels. Each pixel has values or attributes assigned to it. One of the attribute is the location or pixel number in the file. It may be as simple as 1,1 for column 1 row 1, or 1 for the first location in the file.  Another attribute is the display value for that pixel. In the beginning the value was either 1 or 0 for on or off.  This is know as a bi-tonal raster. As technology progressed so did the values and attributes of the pixels, where today we have a color attribute and even elevation attributes along with a host of other attributes assigned to a pixel.  Just like vector objects in a dwg have attributes known as object properties like Layer, Color and custom properties such as object data, pixels have data attached to them.

Wow lets back up, did I say elevation, as in 3D? Yes I did. The technology has advance from the old DOS bmp days to create 3D raster. ESRI has been doing it for a few years now with their 3D analysis add-on for the ArcGIS programs. Some DEM files are nothing more that raster files with an elevation assigned to pixels. Same for the newer TIFF and Jpeg formats. Now when we throw multi-spectral images, know as remote sensing into this pot we not only have another a different ballgame but also a whole different ball field to play on. Multi-spectral images are made up of multiple files with each file being from a different spectrum of the light range.

The kicker to all this is not only can the pixels in a raster contain various attributes but the file extensions can all be the same. A TIFF is a TIFF. Example,  a picture we take with our Kodak Easy Share camera can have the same file extension as a image taken from a satellite orbiting the earth miles away. It is not until we open the image or raster file in the application or software that the attributes are exposed, then only part of them depending on the application used to open the file.

Using Windows Photo Galley works good to edit those family pictures from the Kodak to remove red eye, adjust the colors and print a 8 x10  photograph, but using the same application to work with a raster file that contains an elevation attributes to display as 3D will not work. It also works the other way around. Using a high end application designed for working with multi-spectral images to crop and print the Kodak Easy Share file is not only over kill but the results may not be what you expect and performance will suffer with the program stumbling over the simple attributes. To use a metaphor example of this lets say we have an acre of grass to mow with our little Briggs & Stratton powered mover. We know that if we use a high octane gasoline in an internal combustion engine the performance is increased. However if we use gasoline with 106 octane in the mower we may not get a very well cut yard. Either the engine is running too fast to get a good even cut of the grass or by the time we get half way done the engine locks up and we end up with the job half way complete. We need to use the right tool with the right material to complete the job successfully. 

So if you are still reading here are my suggestions on how to add that raster file to you drawing/map.

OLE - Only use it if you working in AutoCAD LT
AutoCAD Insert – For adding your company logo to a title block or to add simple images (including renderings) as a detail to your project, where placement and scale may not be of importance.
AutoCAD Map3D Image Insert – Simple aerial images that are geo-referenced and you need them to align with your line work.
AutoCAD Map Data Connect (FDO) – Raster files that contain elevations, Multi-spectral images or high end aerials images.

Now how do you tell if the raster file is a simple aerial or a high end aerial? Most likely if you downloaded it from the Internet and it’s over 3 years old it is a good chance it’s a simple aerial unless you get the meta-data with it and it states otherwise.

If you tried to set an image transparent with the normal transparent tools you found out it only works with one color. If fact all it does is turn off that color you select and is not really making anything transparent. Transparent as defined by Merriam-Webster is “fine or sheer enough to be seen through”. There is no see though when you just turn off a color. Using the data connect with FDO we can make polygon features transparent should we be able to do the same for images? Well we can with a little trick.

First we need to use the data connect to add the image to our map. Then save the image layer to “LAYER” file. When you save the layer it creates a file with an extension of layer,  If you are not aware of what a layer file is, it’s an xml file that contains information on the data file as to how it is connected to the map, the data it contains (spatial & data),  and how it is displayed or theme. Once you saved the image file to a Layer remove that image layer from the display manager and disconnect from the file(s) in the data connect palette.

Now browse to the image.layer file you created and open it in “Notepad”. Scroll down until you see the tags;

 “<FeatureName>rasters:Name</FeatureName>”  “<Geometry>Image</Geometry> “

Now insert between the two tags

<Opacity>0.5</Opacity>

Save the file after you edited it. The number 0.5 is the amount of transparency with the larger the number the more transparent the image will be. 0.9 is almost translucent and 0.1 is of little transparency. Now use the Load Layer tool from the Data Icon in the Display Manager to add the image to the map.

So why would anyone need an image to be transparent to start with when we can place it at the bottom of the draw order and make all the other layers transparent?  First off, how often have you reopened the map to find out the draw order was not as you had it set when you closed the map drawing? Another reason you may want to set an image to be transparent would be if you have overlapping images in the map. Maybe you have an current aerial image and an aerial of the same are that is 10 yeas ago and you need to do a time lapse study of the area. Toggling the images on and off can get frustrating after a while, where as having one transparent will allow you to see though it to do the analysis a lot easier.

Here are a few before and after screen captures of the results.

How we normally do it with the image layer at the bottom of the display draw order and the polygon with transparency.

Here is with the image with transparency at 0.5 and the image layer at the top of the display draw order.

A closer look of the above. Notice how the street centerlines show though the image file.

If you look close enough you will see a grid pattern in the image after we make it transparent, I only guess that is the way Map3D renders the image but after a test print of the map the grid is not getting plotted so I see no harm in it being there. Also do not forget about the MAPPLOTTRANSPARENCY command if you want to plot with transparency.

A few days ago there was a question in the Autodesk news group about using a linked data source to drive the Z coordinate of polylines. The original poster wanted something that looked like the “Causeway in Ireland”. My first thought was if you have the data in Excel why not use the 3D graph tools in MS Office to create this. Then I thought,  that only gives you 3D columns, not the shape of the polylines of a map, and you would have to create a number of graphs to show all the values.  The user wanted to click once and have the new data displayed. So why not try it in Map3D?

Here’s a little information on the data and what I assumed they wanted. The drawing is of polylines that represent areas of a school district. The user is wanting to display each area in a 3D view with the height based on the ages of the population of that area. For those on this side of the Atlantic think TIGER data and the US census data.

We all know you can create a map theme based on data but it’s only 2D or a flat map.  How can you create a 3D map from the data? After getting a copy of the dwg and Excel file I made a few edits to the user’s drawing, created a few queries, and  created a few maps in the map display tab of the task pane. Here is a screen shot of the original dwg with the data linked.

First thing I did was assign a color to each layer, then hatched each closed polyline.  I then linked each hatch to the same record as the polylines. I did this manually seeing there were only 10 it wasn’t too much of a task.

My edits are below.

After saving the dwg, I opened a new dwg, attached the original dwg along with making the data source connection to the Excel file. Next after doing a saveas on the new dwg I started writing some queries and saving the queries to two different categories, one for the polylines and one for that hatches. The queries are just simple alter-property queries.

Here is the start of the queries.

1. The query type is Property, and object type equals LWPOLYLINE.

2. The query mode is Draw.

3. The Alter Properties is as;

4. The Thickness (of the polyline)

5. I use the expression from the Link Table field.

6. Next I needed to add a little LISP expression to the expression. (explained later)

7. I save the query.

When I saved the query I created a category for it to make it easier to keep track of it later.

Once I saved the query and OK out of the Define Query dialog. I did not run the query just yet. I repeat the steps to create more queries on the remaining fields in the linked table. Saving each to the same query category we created.

Note: the LISP expression I used with the expression

&”Aged 1 year”@001 in the alter property is to multiple the field value by 100. The purpose is to exaggerate the height (thickness)  of the  polylines when Map3D creates the new map display.

The final expression looked like this: (* 100 &”Aged 1 year”@001)

Next I created queries for the hatches in the drawing.  The query mode will still be property object type but this time I use Hatch instead of LWPolyline. In the property alter section I select Elevation instead of Thickness.  The expression for it will be the same. The other differences is when I save them I created a new category for the hatch queries.

When I was done creating all the queries, I have them listed in the Map Explorer tab of the task pane.

If you noticed the way I named the queries based on the field values, also the names for the polylines (Ages) category are a slight different than the ones for the Hatch category. The reason I used a different name is to keep Map3D from getting confused on the queries.  Yes I cheated a little bit, if I had created ALL the queries for this set of data I would have over 80 queries in each category.

The next step is creating new maps in the Display Manager. I switch to the DM of the task pane and create a new map.

I named the new map on the age group that will be displayed. Now that I have a new map I add drawing data to it by querying the source drawing (the original drawing that is attached).

In the Define Query of Attached drawings dialog I select Load query and select the query for the age group I saved in the category for the polylines and click OK. Switch to the 3D view (click on the 3D icon above the status bar or command line). The polylines now appear as 3D. However they do not look like a solid polygon.

In order to make them appear as solid polygons is where the hatches and their queries come into play. Again I used the Add drawing data by querying source drawing and load the hatch query for the age group from the hatch category.  Now the polylines look as solid objects.

Another function I tinker with was the visual style, the default style is Conceptual. I opened the visual style manager (VSM at command line) and play with the settings until I got the results I liked. Hint: make a copy of the conceptual style and paste as a new style to tinker with.

Last I created more new maps and add drawing data by loading the appropriate  save queries for each map and it’s age group.   Once all the maps were created I able to change the display by opening one of the maps from the drop down list for the maps on the display manager.

There you have it, a simple way of putting some 3D into your maps and drawings.

Here is a short animation of the finished product.

(click on the image to see the animation)

A while back the question came up if anyone used negative values to create a buffer in another forum. I thought WHAT? Most of  the buffers I create are with point or line type objects, if you do a -10 distance buffer of a point or line object what do you get? Nothing! However you can create a negative buffer from a polygon object. Michael Schlosser from  the Autodesk north of the border team shows how to use it and provides a good example of why you might want to here on his blog.

Want a free seat of the MapTools from Dotsoft? Five lucky readers to this blog will win one seat of the Maptools add-in for AutoCAD Map3d. To be eligible take the survey about the Map3D weblog.  The survey is not just a chance to win but also your answers will help determine the posting on the blog.  I will draw the winners on the 15th of Aug from everyone that provides a current email address and name.  All information collected will remain confidential and used only to notify the winners. A big thanks to DotSoft for providing the free seats. Click Here to take survey .

Have you ever wonder even with all the great functions and tools available with AutoCAD Map3D there is still one or two tools that are lacking? Have you noticed that the last few releases the new functions have been geared towards FDO functions and nothing towards the enhancements to Object Data objects or any of the other basic map tools that made AutoCAD Map stand out from simple AutoCAD? Well fear no more. DotSoft LLC is to the rescue, with their new MapTools. 

Now let me say something first before I get to far into the MapTools functions. When I started this weblog a few years back I told myself the blog was for tips, tricks and how-do for AutoCAD Map3D (and a little Civil 3D) and not a site to sell readers/followers anything. However seeing that there are still some users out there, my customers included, that are not ready for the move to FDO right yet I feel blogging about these tools is fair enough, besides it’s my blog I can do what I want.

If you are not familiar with the Dotsoft  they are the good folks that brought us the fine add-on called ToolPac. If you are or were a ToolPac user then you know the MapTools will be just as valuable once you start using them, there is at least one tool in the set that I’m sure some one will like.

I will point out some of the tools and follow up on later posts of how they work. First there is the Grid Editor for Object Data tables. You can select one or many object that have object data attached and view all the object data values in a grid view to all the object you selected. No more trying to select all and getting the “varies” in the property palette. Not only can you view the data but also edit it there in the grid editor. Second tool for object data is the Property Exchange tool. This tool allows you to populate the object’s property from the object data attached to it. Example you have an elevation field in the object data, the property exchange will take the object data  value and move you objects to those elevations. This works good for layers also. Not only can you populate the object properties from the object data, you can also go the other way and populate the object data from the object properties.

Have you ever needed to work in two different coordinate system at the same time in the same map? Well MapTools has an alternate coordinate system tool that allows you to this. It allows allows you to label points as LL even if you are working in a map that has a state plane coordinate system assigned to it. There is even a nice tracking tool that displays the alternate coordinates as you move you crosshairs.   Then there are the polyline tools, check for closing and reverse the segments are a couple of those commands there but the big one a lot of users have been asking for is the break ploylines and not lose the object data attached to the polylines, well MapTools has this.

So there you go with a few extra tools that are available for AutoCAD Map3D. Now the ones I mention are not all there is but the ones that  I ran testing the MapTools as DotSoft was developing them. So if you are interested give them a look at on their site and let Terry know and/or leave a reply here if you are interested or want some thing else in the bundle.  Stay tuned to the blog and you may get a free seat of the MapTools, details to follow in a few days.