# Contour MAp/Terrain Generation **URL:** \ **Category:** Off-topic\ **Created:** [October 20, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/contour-map-terrain-generation/9084 "2005-10-20T03:56:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jujubee](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/jujubee/32/21396_2.png) [@jujubee](https://forums.chaos.com/u/jujubee)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/contour-map-terrain-generation/9084/1 "2005-10-20T03:56:58Z")
I’ve got a .dxf file with contours. I can import it into Max- select them all and hit ‘terrain’. Seems like there’s so many countours- its not something you want to redraw/position by hand. Here’s my questions: 1. The resulting operation seems good - I’m not sure how accurate it really is or how it determines/interpolates the height values. Any ideas? 2. There’s some gigantic holes that appear in the new terrain as if some of the splines werent solid or if it was misssing data. Whats the best/simplest way to fix this. 3) Any better methods out there and how to go about them. ---
**Author:** ![oconv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e79b87/32.png) [@oconv](https://forums.chaos.com/u/oconv)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 7:29am UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/contour-map-terrain-generation/9084/2 "2005-10-20T07:29:57Z")
give dieter morgenroths optimize spline modifier a try, it’s free 🙂 > This modifier is similar to the optimize plugin. The difference is that it works on splines. It tries to approximate the given spline with a spline that looks the same but has fewer knots. You specifiy the maximum error and an angle for corner detection. It works both on bezier points and on corner points. So you can use it to ‘reverse engineer’ tesselated splines that have only corner points back to splines with bezierpoints. Its main purpose is to clean up data from imported dxf and dwg splines. [http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/162222](http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/162222) -oconv ---
**Author:** ![jujubee](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/jujubee/32/21396_2.png) [@jujubee](https://forums.chaos.com/u/jujubee)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 1:14pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/contour-map-terrain-generation/9084/3 "2005-10-20T13:14:25Z")
Thanks man. Looking forward to trying it. FYi, there’s a newer update (ver. 1.0) than what’s on the Turbosquid website (0.3). I found it at: > **[MAX Plugins.de - the plugin database for 3ds Max](https://www.maxplugins.de/)** > > This site contains a database of all known freeware and commercial plugins for Autodesk 3ds max ---
**Author:** ![dimo](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/dimo/32/55255_2.png) [@dimo](https://forums.chaos.com/u/dimo)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 3:01pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/contour-map-terrain-generation/9084/4 "2005-10-20T15:01:26Z")
It’s just the recompile for max7 at maxplugins. Let me know if there are any problems. Best Regards, Dieter ---
**Author:** ![Dynedain](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/dynedain/32/55769_2.png) [@Dynedain](https://forums.chaos.com/u/Dynedain)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/contour-map-terrain-generation/9084/5 "2005-10-20T16:23:00Z")
Re: Contour MAp/Terrain Generation > [@jujubee](#): > > I’ve got a .dxf file with contours. I can import it into Max- select them all and hit ‘terrain’. Seems like there’s so many countours- its not something you want to redraw/position by hand. > > Here’s my questions: > > 1. The resulting operation seems good - I’m not sure how accurate it really is or how it determines/interpolates the height values. Any ideas? > > 2. There’s some gigantic holes that appear in the new terrain as if some of the splines werent solid or if it was misssing data. Whats the best/simplest way to fix this. > > 3) Any better methods out there and how to go about them. 1) Height is determined by the z location of the topography splines 2) Redraw the splines in max (that way there’s less points and less heavy of a mesh also) ---
**Author:** ![dbuchhofer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@dbuchhofer](https://forums.chaos.com/u/dbuchhofer)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/contour-map-terrain-generation/9084/6 "2005-10-20T16:51:00Z")
Another way to ‘simplify’ is to drape a segmented plane over a max terrain object with simcloth.. Not the fastest of ways, but its a damn site easier to edit than the origional linework if you’re not going for absolute accuracy, and since most of these topo lines we get tend to be ‘existing’ conditions, and require editing.. accuracy is debatable to begin with 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![muzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea5d25/32.png) [@muzzy](https://forums.chaos.com/u/muzzy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/contour-map-terrain-generation/9084/7 "2005-10-20T17:30:17Z")
Thanks great. I was thinking about spline modifier yesterday… Excellent for imported AutoCAD lines ---
**Author:** ![jujubee](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/chaosprd/user_avatar/forums.chaos.com/jujubee/32/21396_2.png) [@jujubee](https://forums.chaos.com/u/jujubee)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://forums.chaos.com/t/contour-map-terrain-generation/9084/8 "2005-10-20T19:58:54Z")
Heheh Dieter/Dimo. Didn’t realize you were part of the forum. Fantastic plugin btw - it’s saved quite some time. It’s something that should be included with Max! Simcloth crashed my scene… - I tried making a road with it but the conform modifier worked better…