Interpolate Contours

Open Table of Contents ToolBox Implementation
Interpolates contours from an ESRI TIN or PolygonZ TIN. The contours can be created as PolylineZs with constant Z values representing the elevation.

Inputs:

  • An ESRI TIN or PolygonZ TIN
  • Base value - the contour from which to begin generation of contours.
  • Contour interval - Z value difference between adjacent contours in map units.
  • Option for interpolating 3D contours.

Outputs:

  • New polyline feature class.
  • A new field ET_Height is added to the attribute table. The values of this field contain the Z value for each contour.

Notes:

  • If flat triangles (see TIN Notes ) are present, some small problems might occur in the contours. These problems are easy to identify using Export Nodes Wizard. Since the contour lines never intersect each other, there should not be Regular Nodes in the contour layer. A regular node in this case will indicate an error ( most probably caused by a flat triangle ). The excess polyline can be deleted.

ToolBox implementation

Command line syntax - two different toolbox tools available depending on the type of the input TIN. Check the color coding for specifics.

ETS_GPContoursFromEsriTIN <Input TIN>  <Out Feature Class> <Base Contour> <Contour Interval> {3D Contours}
ETS_GPContoursFromPolygonZTIN <Input TIN>  <Out Feature Class> <Base Contour> <Contour Interval> {3D Contours}

Parameters

Expression Explanation
<Input TIN> An ESRI TIN layer or dataset
<Input TIN> A PolygonZ TIN (feature class)
<Out Feature Class> A String - the full name of the output feature class.
<Base Contour> A Double representing the Z level of the contour from which to begin generation of contours.
<Contour Interval> A Double representing the contour interval
 {3D Contours}  A Boolean indicating whether the output to be Polyline or PolylineZ feature class 

Scripting syntax

ETS_GPContoursFromEsriTIN (Input TIN, Out Feature Class, Base Contour, Contour Interval, 3D Contours)

ETS_GPContoursFromPolygonZTIN (Input TIN, Out Feature Class, Base Contour, Contour Interval, 3D Contours)

See the explanations above:
<> - required parameter
{} - optional parameter

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Copyright: Ianko Tchoukanski