Exploding Contours to create a Topography Profile

A contour dataset is a common way to receive topography data.   Like many other groups in the public sector, the City of Vancouver recently made 2- and 10-metre contours available. 

Target users know that if they want to see a topo profile in section, then the topography needs to be interpolated into a raster (commonly Geosoft GRD files are used for this).  If I start with an ESRI shape file of topography contours, then I first need to convert the attributed polylines to a points so they can be used to create a grid.

Since v7.1, I can do this right in Target or Oasis montaj.  When importing the shape file, select the option to Import data to New database with shape database(s). 

This will save the coordinates of polyline or polygon entity nodes in a separate database.  Then use the gridding algorithm of your choice to create a topography grid or 'digital elevation model'.

Target for ArcGIS users! Check out ETGeoWizards for the polyline to point conversion tool. Then use the point feature class with Target for ArcGIS's minimum curvature gridding.

Comments

[Kristin1985]

Gracias, buen trabajo! Este fue el material que tena que tener.