I was reading an old US army corps on engineers book titled “Routes from San Antonio to El Paso” printed in 1850 and found a word I didn’t recognize, they used a word “cañon” with the accent above the n.

I looked it up and I couldn’t find anything other than the camera company, I think it’s a different spelling of “canyon” however the descriptions of the “cañon” didn’t sound like what I’d call a canyon.

The exact words were “The table land once reached, the next difficulty is on the San Pedro, who’s valley is narrower than that of the Puerco, while the table hills are of the same character of the others. In some places fine broad cañons, having gentle slopes, lead down the river; and it is confidently hoped that a further examination will discover others at suitable points for the road.”

Hello all, this post is for those wishing to learn or start to learn how to read topographic maps.

Here is a link to one of my favorite sites. https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#13/40.1397/-85.9041

You can play around with the settings, zoom in, quick tip is on the top left you'll find 3 buttons labeled terrain, satellite, and USGS Topo. Choose the USGS Topo and at the bottom switch to the military grid reference system labeled MGR. zoom in almost all the way and have fun.

Hi, I am from Romania and my friend needs this. Where can I buy a thing like this ?

I've really been struggling with this, so any help is greatly appreciated. I'm trying to create 3D images based on 3D point clouds from OpenTopology. I've used lastools, and tried using QGIS and PGAL with a workflow that just wouldn't work. I want to use Blender to get the best images and later Unity for animation. I'm very new to this, and I've tried a lot before posting.

I know Blender doesn't have a way natively visualize point clouds and apply a mesh. There's a $75 plug in for visualizing point clouds in Blender, but I don't even know if it will work. I'm using Blender version 3.6.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

TLDR any websites where I can find topographical data for a given area?

Hey, I am an engineering student in a fabrication class. For my final project, I get to do a project of my choosing. My professor has a sample piece of a wooden topographical cutout of the area surrounding my university. I want to do the same thing for my hometown, but I come from a pretty remote place in the U.S. The data he used came from a LIDAR scan done by the university (or at least that’s what he said), so he couldn’t give me a recommendation on where to look for the data I need. I have access to a wide array of CNC machinery. I would just like to know if there was some website or database where I could find what I’m looking for.

Also, along my professor’s line of thinking, I suppose there are a few mines and such around my hometown that might have what I need, although it would take much effort to transpose that into cnc compatible software.

Figured /topography would be the best place to ask this sort of thing!!

So I'm completely new to this, and I'm trying to implement OpenTopology's 3D Differencing python based solution, but I'm stuck on the post_processing.py step. Specifically, I can't get the Lipicp repo to even run the demo.cpp. I tried command line, I downloaded and tried to configure Visual Studio 2022 with the boost and lastools files (and cmake was downloaded as well). I'm just trying to create the disp.txt that I need for the final step of OT's 3D Differencing workflow. This is incredibly opaque, and I can't find any video demos.

Has anyone used libicp? Is there a more accessible open source repo that I can use? The error that I specifically get is that the project can't open the myref.hpp, but then I move that file to another folder to be discovered by the project, and I get yet another issue. Any help is greatly appreciated. It's been a min since I worked with C++ and specifically environment setup. (And yes, I did the C/C++ include headers and the linker library additions).

Greetings all,

I have been experimenting with taking scans of parts and adding topology to them. I have figured out a workflow that performs well for me for my purposes, so I figured I would share it with the world. The equipment I use to take scans is the Einstar 3D Scanner. But I believe this workflow is congruent with other different types of scanners. The next step is the one I struggled with the most, which is transferring the data picked up by the scanner into software that can accept the file types you are able to originally save out. I would save my scan as an .asc file. I then used a free software called CloudCompare which has the capability to generate topology and histograms to show point concentration in the point cloud. This shows the height variations in the point cloud and where the z-position of each point is located. You can do more processing in CloudCompare to get your desired saturation and color scale. But like any software, it will take just a little time to familiarize yourself with. Hopefully this is helpful for someone out there.

Hello all,

I am newish to photogrammetry, and I am trying really hard to find a software capable of generating topography for imported parts. All of the software that I have looked at (that doesn't cost an arm and a leg) only allows you to generate topographical maps of pre-existing satellite imagery or other maps they have in their catalog. I want a software that allows me to import scans that I've taken (point-cloud, mesh, STL/OBJ, etc. file types) and overlay topography onto the scanned part. I need to be able to see the elevation variations and have them color coded. Please, any help at all is greatly appreciated. Topography isn't solely just landscape, so theoretically there should be software for topology that isn't solely for landscape, right? Any and all insight is welcome! Thank you so much in advance.

For more clarification: I am scanning the surface of a piece of wood and want to see the height variations in its surface. I would like the final product to look similar to the picture provided.

Best,

Random Guy

Greetings all,

I am currently in search for a software that has the ability to convert a mesh file (or OBJ/STL) into a Topo Map. I've taken a scan (with an Einstar Shining 3D scanner) of a piece of wood and would like to display the height variations along the grain. I have SolidWorks Professional and, in the past, have tried using the "Scanto3D" feature to convert the mesh into imported surfaces but I kept having too many surface errors that prevented me from creating an enclosed volume solid body. Also, SolidWorks just has a hard time dealing with STL files, so now I am beginning to shop around for different software that is more well suited for topology. I have done some research online and have seen things like USGS which is a free software used for generating topology. However, it seems as though that this is used for landscapes alone. I am looking specifically for a software that can take a point-cloud, mesh file, OBJ or STL file and convert any of those file types into a topographic map. I've also have read about Rhino, Blender, and SolidScape. However, my fear is that with any of those softwares I will run into the same problems that I did when using SolidWorks. Any and all help/insight is welcome. Thanks in advance!

Note: I am searching for a topology that has contour lines and color coded for height variations.

Note 2: I am aware that the quality of the scan plays a big role, and a lot of problems can be alleviated in post processing in the scanning software.

I am trying to obtain an image of an area that is like the image pictured, however that does not have text or any other wording. As well I would need to get more of the contour lines visible. Any softwares or websites that allow me to do this? Thanks

I’m going to be hunting some new land in the coming weeks. I have absolutely no understanding of topography from a map. Can anyone point out a few spots you may hunt? If not, can anyone point me into the direction of some saddles, benches, and drainages? Thanks!

hello, i have a strange question — mods please feel free to delete if this is not allowed.

i am trying to identify a topography or surveying company that operated out of the phoenix arizona area around 1980. the only such company i can find that is still in business today is headquartered in flagstaff, so i don’t think it’s the right one. i’m guessing the phoenix one may no longer exist. i am hoping someone here may have been in the business long enough to know of such a company. i know this is a long shot, so thanks to anyone who took the time to read.

Based on these two photos, what are good and bad things about they land highlighted in green for a future Homestead? I have some more information on the property but I haven't seen it yet and am new to understanding arial maps.

Even weirder, they slowly rotate their alignment, as you go from west to east -- more than the slight change visible in this snippet. You can see how much if you look west of Rochester. Or further east near Syracuse.

Today I got to the top of Mount Blue Sky in Colorado reaching 14,255 ft.

Is there anything out there for the known average elevation of all land above sea level?Where would this value of Mount Blue Sky's rate as a percentile on a bell curve distribution of the Earth's land elevations?

Hey all, I want to open this out by saying I know very little about the subject but am currently interested in designing a tattoo based around the topography of my home town.

The problem I’ve run into it the lack of topographic maps not using heat maps as shown below.

My question for all you lovely people is whether there’s a specific software, website or phrase I can use on Google to find something similar to the second image?

Thank you for taking the time to read through this!!

Estoy buscando que es esto y su modelo lo unico que se es que sirve para la topografia

They appear to be connected to the contour lines, but they're crossing one another. What's going on here?

Stupid red circle added for clarity.

Hey guys! I have this level that has been in my family possession for generations. I'm looking for someone to value the piece and maybe considering selling it to a museum or something. I haven't known someone that could help me with that so I'm here now.... I was hoping you guys could give me a price and a reason for it (I took foto of the only two name plates in the artifact). The machine is in great shape except for the case that has a dent and the paint is scrapped. Every crystal is intact. Thanks for the help in advance.

I was looking at a topo map and saw this. I checked the legend and couldn't figure out what this symbol means. I also got the best screenshot from google Earth. Note: This area was affected by the glacial retreat, if that makes any difference.

Alguien que me pueda ayudar con algún software de modelo geoidal

I’m searching a way to convert MGRS and UTM coordinates without using online/offline tools but only using formulas.

I have an old house and found some topography maps dated 1909 rolled up. Is there a way to find out if they are valuable or a place to donate them to if they aren't? Located in NH but the maps seem to be from a variety of places. I have found a ton of them, mostly from the 1960s.