Creating a Terrain

You can create raster or geometric terrains.

This task shows you how to:

Create a Raster Terrain
Create a Geometric Terrain

Before you begin:

You can have both a raster and a geometric terrain at the same time.
You cannot create prepared datasets exceeding 30 GB.

Create a Raster Terrain

You can create a raster terrain using an image file in TIF format.

Each pixel of the image represents the elevation of the Earth's surface: the brighter a pixel, the more elevated the corresponding surface point. Only a simple image is necessary.

Before you begin: The DTM visibility has no impact on the positioning of other datasets in the 3D world. They keep their initial altitude values whether the DTM dataset is visible or not.

From the Referential section of the action bar, click Create Terrain .
From 3DSpace or 3DSearch, drag the appropriate file onto the "drop source data here" zone displayed on the referential.

Define the following parameters (except the name, inputs needed for creating a geometric terrain are directly computed from the .ctds file):

Option	Description
Dataset Name	Name of the dataset used to represent the terrain.
Publish Dataset	Select this check box to publish the dataset. This lets you publish your experience to a City navigation experience afterward.
Dissociate access rights	Select this check box to dissociate access rights to a dataset from its associated dataset document. The dataset can still be accessed and its content can be visualized but the associated datasource cannot be downloaded. A new dataset document is created instead and is used to compute access rights to the dataset. This option is especially relevant when you need to share datasets with confidential data, for example. When the check box is selected, a list is displayed to let you choose the collaborative space in which the new dataset document must be created. By default, the collaborative space containing the original dataset document is selected. After clicking OK to close the creation dialog box, an empty dataset document is created in 3DSpace with the same name as the dataset. The dataset can then be read as soon as the new dataset document can be read. The icon is displayed in the City Referential panel to reflect the new status and the Properties panel shows information about the new document.
Image Resolution	Maximum image resolution in meters per pixel.
Border Size	Indicates the terrain's border size in pixels.

Click OK.
A pop-up message informs you when the creation is successful and the City Referential panel opens (this is the case whenever a dataset is created).
An alert is also displayed under the top bar to inform you about the preparation status (success or failure). This alerts is displayed for a few seconds but you can click from the top bar to open the 3DNotification Center and display your notification history. For more information, see Dashboard Top Bar.
Note: As this notification is displayed only when the dataset is prepared, it might not be immediately displayed for large datasets that take time to be processed.
From the Available City Datasets area of the City Referential panel, drag the dataset to the referential when its status switches to Ready.

The dataset is displayed in the tree on the left and the associated image appears on the selected referential.

Create a Geometric Terrain

You can create a geometric terrain. Such a terrain gives a better result than an aerial photograph.

From the Referential section of the action bar, click Create Terrain .
From 3DSpace or 3DSearch, drag the appropriate file onto the "drop source data here" zone displayed on the referential.

Define the following parameters:

Option

Description

Dataset Name

Name of the dataset used to represent the terrain.

Publish Dataset

Select this check box to publish the dataset. This lets you publish your experience to a City navigation experience afterward.

Dissociate access rights

Select this check box to dissociate access rights to a dataset from its associated dataset document. The dataset can still be accessed and its content can be visualized but the associated datasource cannot be downloaded. A new dataset document is created instead and is used to compute access rights to the dataset.

This option is especially relevant when you need to share datasets with confidential data, for example.

When the check box is selected, a list is displayed to let you choose the collaborative space in which the new dataset document must be created. By default, the collaborative space containing the original dataset document is selected.

After clicking OK to close the creation dialog box, an empty dataset document is created in 3DSpace with the same name as the dataset. The dataset can then be read as soon as the new dataset document can be read.

The icon is displayed in the City Referential panel to reflect the new status and the Properties panel shows information about the new document.

Important: If several geometric terrains are used at the same time, they must cover distinct areas of the referential with no intersection between the geometric terrain datasets. Therefore, do not define a geometric terrain at various quadtree levels for the same area.

Click OK.
A pop-up message informs you when the creation is successful and the City Referential panel opens (this is the case whenever a dataset is created).
An alert is also displayed under the top bar to inform you about the preparation status (success or failure). This alerts is displayed for a few seconds but you can click from the top bar to open the 3DNotification Center and display your notification history. For more information, see Dashboard Top Bar.
Note: As this notification is displayed only when the dataset is prepared, it might not be immediately displayed for large datasets that take time to be processed.
From the Available City Datasets area of the City Referential panel, drag the dataset to the referential when its status switches to Ready.

The dataset is displayed in the tree on the left and the associated image appears on the selected referential.

Important: When in Walk Manipulator

mode, the camera might encounter a sudden elevation shift when moving from one tile to the next.