TIN export in HDF5 (.h5)

Andy Wizma

One of the absolute best things about GM is it's Tinning algorithm (I think Delaunay 2D?), it happily handles millions of points and triangulates them in no time at all. The bottle-neck is getting the resulting TIN out into other programs; .DXF is all but useless and .DWG is only marginally better when handling large TINs.


Can I suggest HDF5 (.h5) format as a very useful output format, in particular (for us flood modellers) it would be fantastic to have it in the .h5 Scatterset format used by Aquaveo's Surfacewater Modelling System (SMS). Happy to send on over any sample.h5 files etc etc.


Many thanks, Andy

global_mapper

Andy,

I've added a todo item (#13679) to add HDF5 export. In the meantime are there any other grid formats that Aquaveo's SMS supports? Any grid format would be much more efficient that DXF/DWG for storing a grid, even a simple one like BIN or GeoTIFF. Aquaveo also uses the Global Mapper SDK for at least some of their products so they might also support the Global Mapper Grid format and that would be the most efficient choice.

Thanks,

Mike
Global Mapper Guru
geohelp@bluemarblegeo.com
Blue Marble Geographics for Coordinate Conversion, Image Reprojection and Vector Translation

Andy Wizma

Hi Mike, thanks for the speedy response & suggestions. SMS can import some grid formats but eventually most models need a mesh/tin, and with big datasets SMS just doesn't handle the conversion process well. Just as an example, I'm currently working with a 1GB DEM, no hope of any manipulation in SMS, where as GM converted the entire DEM to 60million 3D points in about 30seconds (and triangulated that set in less than 10 minutes).


Looking forward to a future GM release with HDF export! cheers

dcoggin

Mike,

I would also be very interested in being able to export the TIN from gridding operations. As you may know, the TINs for SMS use the xmdf (.hd5) mesh format, I believe, not the grid. I have a reader for that in FORTRAN, I believe. Importing the mesh (TIN) into SMS is what I and, I believe, Andy is interested in. I currently transfer grids out of my own application using your SDK by writing to an ASCII format used by one of the SMS supported models. If you work on that, here are a couple of other niceties:

dcoggin

Mike,

Ooops -- went past my 5 minute edit time.

What I was trying to say at the end is it would be nice to have the capability to designate certain breaklines as mesh boundaries, not just constraints. That would allow you to delete faces outside exterior and interior (island) boundaries so that the triangulation would not fill the convex hull. I believe both Andy and I are interested in exporting the mesh itself, not the raster grid made from the mesh.

David

Jasmine_BMG

Hi David,

Thank you for your suggestion, I have appended todo item (#13679) to reflect your suggested additions to incorperating support for the HDF5 format.

Regards,

Jasmine

Andy Wizma

Hiya all, just confirming David's point that exporting the GM mesh (TIN) into SMS .h5 format would be very helpful, and that the breakline / mesh boundary option would also be fantastic.

cheers, Andy

abarefoot1

Has there been any change to adding (h5) export functionality?

bmg_bob

Hello,

The request is still in our list, but is not currently scheduled for implementation.

Cheers,
Bob