Hi all. Its a little late, but theres a new tool on the block so to speak. [URL]http://www.TopoGX.com[/URL] Its able to load DXF surveys (both 2D and/or 3D). The 3D ones are automatically triangulated...no user input required...Then viewable in realtime in 3D in its own OpenGL 3D window using the mouse in a similar way to Google Earth. Its party piece, is to convert 2D Surveys accurately (well as accurately as a human could) into 3D using DXF point entities or Block Inserts close to each Ascii text as the levels insertion points. No longer do you need to use a set (x,y) offset from every Text as the level insertion. The next big thing appart from its instant contouring and sectioning features is its ability to use Lines and Polylines as constraints when creating the 3D surface for you. This means all those ditches and spoil heaps that your surveyer pointed out in 2D with text levels will actually be visible as a ditch or mound! Nice huh! Its a brilliant piece of software to play around with, especially as its been designed to be as simple as possible. For example, to view a 3D DXF, all you need to do is: File->Open....pick file then click "ok". Then click the "3DView" button on the toolbar...its the one looking like a globe...and hey presto. Its now displaying a 3D surface right in front of you. Use the left button to pan around, middle to rotate around and the mouse wheel to zoom in. So simple!
