Surfaces are a fundamental part of many surveying projects—from modeling terrain to calculating volumes. In Traverse PC, a survey can include any number of surfaces, just like it can contain multiple traverses or drawings. This flexibility makes it easy to analyze terrain, compare site conditions, and produce clear contour drawings.
Creating Surfaces from Your Survey Data
In TPC, surfaces are built from topographic points collected in the field. When creating a surface, you can choose to use:
- All topo points in the survey
- Selected topo points
- Topo points from a specific traverse
This allows you to quickly generate DTM/TIN surfaces and contour lines based on the data that matters for a particular analysis.
Managing Surfaces in Your Project
Surfaces are organized using the Surfaces Manager, where you can:
- Create new surfaces
- Duplicate existing surfaces
- Edit surface settings
- Remove surfaces from the survey
This makes it easy to manage multiple terrain models within a single project.
Working with Multiple Surfaces
One of the most powerful capabilities in TPC is the ability to work with multiple surfaces in the same survey.
This opens the door to workflows such as:
- Comparing existing vs. proposed surfaces
- Calculating cut and fill volumes
- Generating volume reports between surfaces
For example:
- A quarry survey could include separate surfaces for different stockpiles, such as a 1″ minus pile and a 3″ minus pile. Each surface can calculate the volume of material in that pile.
- At an excavation site, you might survey the site monthly, creating a new surface each time to determine how much material has been removed.
Displaying Surfaces in Drawings
Including surfaces in a drawing is simple. Just tag the surface in the Surfaces Manager, and TPC will display it in the current drawing using the default surface settings.
You can show:
- Major and minor contour lines
- Shaded slopes
- Multiple surfaces within the same drawing
This is especially useful when illustrating different project phases or terrain changes over time.
Editing and Refining Surfaces
TPC also provides tools to fine-tune surfaces for better accuracy. You can modify the TIN by:
- Adding or removing points
- Adding breaklines
- Defining a border for the surface
Sometimes your field topo points are enough to represent the terrain accurately. Other times, adding a few breaklines can significantly improve the model. As with any surface workflow, collecting the right points in the field plays a key role in building an accurate surface back in the office.
From Field Data to Meaningful Results
Surface modeling doesn’t have to be complicated. By giving surveyors control over which points define the terrain, how surfaces are edited, and how they appear in drawings, TPC removes much of the frustration from the process.
The workflow becomes straightforward:
Topo Points → Surface → Contours → Analysis → Drawing
With the right tools in place, turning field data into accurate terrain models becomes a natural part of the surveying workflow.
