link grid files in carlson

Besides that can anybody share there workflows for creating smooth looking contours from grid files?

There are so many options for smoothing. You can smooth the grid before creating contours, reduce vertices smooth contours etc.

What version of Carlson are you running??ÿ Of late, Carlson has taken to offering the user the opportunity to install the Geoid file for the whole US when the software is installed.?ÿ If your hardware will support the latest version, it may be simplest to just upgrade your version.?ÿ $150 per major release, as in $150 to go from V4 to V5, and $150 to go from V5 to V6.?ÿ If your hardware is compatible (Surveyor+ or later) then that may be the easiest solution to your dilemma.

Jerry thanks for replying. What i am trying to do is on the cpu end of things. I do have the civil module which gives me access to grid file utilities.

Basically im just jumping into utilizing lidar data to create surface models. The grid is 2.5' x 2.5' .... lots of elev. pts. The data i start with is in 5000' sq tiles. 3 tiles cover my current project. I can convert each tile individually to a grid file and then create contours from each grid but i would like to link each grid file together to create 1.

btw using geoid 12B

There is probably a way with Grid File Utilities but if you have access to Carlson Civil, the route I would suggest would be to:

1. Use Grid File Utilities and the Batch Process Grids option to "multiple select" your Grids and then choose the Export Grid routine to export the Grids out to the Carlson Triangulation File format option.
2. From the Surface menu in Carlson Civil, choose Triangulation File Utilities and load the first TIN file and choose the Next button.
3. Choose the Merge TIN option and specify a named TIN file that came out of the batch process from Step 1 above.
4. A dialog box should appear prompting you what type of merge it is that you desire (probably the "Second TIN inside/Current TIN outside boundary, merge points into single triangulation" method?), then,
5. Specify the TIN file that is to be merged in to the set.
6. Repeat steps 3 - 5 as needed for subsequent TINs.
7. Issue the Save command to save the result to a new TIN name.

I hope this information helps.

I have questions and possible solutions.?ÿ Where are you getting these grids??ÿ?ÿAre you pulling the deliverable??ÿ Like a GeoTIFF or similar?
If you can get it in GeoTIFF there's a workflow using QGIS in the middle of this presentation from 2014.?ÿ 2014 flood presentation

Or send a link to the files to thadd at ese-llc.com

?ÿ

Thanks Ladd I will give it a try. I would prefer to be working with a tin but when I first started playing with this data & converting it to a tin it was really bogging my cpu down due to the density of the data. So i abandoned the tin idea and started trying to work with the grd.

Spledeus the state of NH has been working on an ongoing lidar project. My source for the data is a statewide gis clearinghouse website called Granit. Which in collaboration with the NHGS & NHDES Granit has made the data sets available to the public including Bare Earth DEM data sets etc. The bare earth data sets are what im working with.?ÿ

Metadata:?ÿ Geographic Extent: Connecticut River Watershed (4,437 sq mi), Winnipesaukee River Watershed (796 sq mi), and portions of the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) in New Hampshire (181 sq mi), covering approximately 5,233 total square miles. Dataset Description: The Connecticut River Watershed 2015 project called for the planning, acquisition, processing and derivative products of LIDAR data to be collected at an aggregate nominal pulse spacing (NPS) of 0.7 meters the Connecticut and Winnipesaukee River Watershed areas of interest, and 0.58 meters NPS for the White Mountain National Forest project area. Project specifications are based on the U.S. Geological Survey National Geospatial Program Base LIDAR Specification, Version 1.2 as well as the National Enhanced Elevation Assessment (NEEA) for QL2/QL2+ data for the WMNF area. The data was developed based on a horizontal projection/datum of NAD83 (2011) State Plane New Hampshire, US survey feet and vertical datum of NAVD88 (Geoid 12B), US survey feet. LiDAR data for all three areas of interest was delivered in RAW LAS 1.4 flightline swath format, and processed to create Classified LAS 1.4 Files formatted to 6,464 individual 5,000-foot x 5,000-foot tiles. Corresponding 2.5-foot intensity images in GeoTIFF format and 2.5-foot hydro-flattened bare-earth DEMs in ERDAS .IMG format were created with the same tile layout. Tile names follow are a concatenation of the x- and y-coordinates of the southwest corner of the tile. Breaklines were produced in Esri shapefile format. After approval of the initial dataset was received from the USGS, the additional deliverables was produced for the White Mountain National Forest project area. This dataset includes tiled classified LAS data (first and last return) in LAS 1.4 and comma-delimited ASCII formats and 2.5-foot bare-earth raster DEMs in Esri grid format. Tiles names follow the naming schema implemented in previous WMNF task orders. Ground Conditions: LiDAR collection began in Fall 2015, while no snow was on the ground and rivers were at or below normal levels. In order to post process the LiDAR data to meet task order specifications, Quantum Spatial established 155 calibration control points in order to calibrate the LIDAR to known ground locations established throughout the project area. The accuracy of the data was checked with 135 NVA points and 117 VVA points (252 total QC checkpoints). Classified LAS files are used to show the manually reviewed bare earth surface. This allows the user to create breaklines, raster DEMs, and intensity images. The purpose of these lidar data was to produce high accuracy 3D hydro-flattened digital elevation models (DEM) and intensity images with a 2.5-foot cell size. These raw lidar point cloud data were used to create classified lidar LAS files, 3D breaklines, hydro-flattened DEMs, and intensity images as necessary

My downloads are .img files. From there if your familiar with carlson i'm using grid file utilities to import grid > import Esri. From there you can export as a tin or as i just posted I have been working with contouring from the grd file due to tin basically crashing my cpu but im going to give the tin method another shot.

Awesome stuff but I am not sure that Carlson is the right tool for the job.  I will see if I can download an IMG or two this weekend.

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