To Create Surfaces From Point Cloud Data

You can create a raster-based surface in either GeoTIFF or ESRI ASC format.

To create a surface from a point cloud

1. In the Display Manager, right-click a point cloud layer and select Create Surface. The Surface Manager appears.
2. To create a merge group, click Create Group in the Create Surface Dialog Box, then shift-click or control-click and drag the desired source files into the group.
3. To filter the points used to create the surface, click the Filter field. The Filter Point Cloud Dialog Box appears.
4. In the Filter By drop-down box, select one of the following filters:
   • Classification
   • Elevation
   • Intensity
   • Spatial
5. To specify what type of surface to create, click the Parameters field. The Grid Parameters Dialog Box appears. You can:
   • Specify a GeoTIFF or ESRI ASC surface.
   • Specify a file name and save location for the grid file.
   • Specify parameters for cell size, cell units (meters, US feet, Survey feet, International feet), and search radius. These settings affect the resolution of the grid file only.
   • Choose a fill method from the drop-down list:
6. To specify an output file name and save location other than the one assigned by default, click the Output field, then click . The Save As dialog box appears. Enter the file name and save location, then click Save.
7. Click Generate Surface. AutoCAD Map 3D begins to create the surface.
8. When AutoCAD Map 3D is done creating the surface, a green check mark appears next to the file or merge group name. Do one of the following:
   • To add the surface to your map, click Add to Map. AutoCAD Map 3D adds the surface to your map, and a raster layer to the Display Manager. It also creates a raster connection in Data Connect.
   • To add a surface group to your map, shift-click or control-click to select a group of files, then click Add to Map.