Convert from 2D Survey
to 3D CAD Model
Yes, just press the big Convert button on the converter window. TopoGX analyses the content of the drawing and automatically applies any relevant settings. In most cases there is no need for the user to be concerned by any of the settings.
However, there are a few advanced options for the some special cases. You'll notice that there is an Advanced button on the converter window. By pressing this button the window expands to show a few user controllable settings. The usage of these advanced options is described in the Help.
No very long at all. Most drawings we have tried take between 1 second and 30 seconds on an average modern PC.
A simple drawing may have just a few hundred convertable points, and will take just a couple of seconds to convert. A very detailed drawing may have tens of thousands of points, and take over 30 seconds.
TopoGX has been tested on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, WIndows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. The computer will need to have an OpenGL capable graphics card, for the 3D viewing functions. All modern computers are OpenGL capable, so it should only be a criteria if you have a very old computer.
The above is only a recommended minimum specification. Don't worry if your computer does not meet some of these criteria - it will probably work fine with TopoGX anyway. The best thing to do is download TopoGX and try it out on your own PC.
Yes, there are a handful of rudimentary systems that come bundled with other packages, such as Bentley MX. However, these other systems can only perform very basic assignment of levels in place of texts, which involves the level being placed at a constant X,Y offset from every text item. So, in most cases, the levels would not get inserted at the correct position - resulting in an inaccurate 3D surface.
Additionally, the other systems do not take into account the lines on the drawing. It is extremely important to include the lines in the 3D surface, as these determine how the surface breaks from one feature to another.
We are not aware of any other system which produces an accurate 3D result from converting this type of 2D drawing.
Microsoft's Aero desktop can interfere with the OpenGL graphics system (which TopoGX uses). It depends on the particular graphics card and driver version that you have in your computer.
To get going right away do the following:
Now start TopoGX again from the desktop icon. This time you'll see the drawing display correctly when you load it.
You might also want to update your graphics card driver to the latest version. It is best to go to the Nvidia or ATI/AMD web site and download the latest driver for your graphics card.
To find out which type of graphics card you have in your computer click Start | Control Panel | System and Maintenance | System | Device Manager | Display Adapters (Click the + sign next to Display Adapters to see the model of your graphics card.)