The area based on the inherent Z value given in the area feature. Is this correct? If so, what settings did you use on the Elevation Grid Creation Options screen? Did you try changing the settings for "Flatten 3D Area Features" and "Taper 3D Area Features Using Curve Value"?Ĭreating a terrain surface from a vector area feature this option will flatten I assume that you created the elevation grid for export to Terragen using Analysis | Create Elevation Grid from 3D Vector/Lidar Data. The only way to increase the number of contours when they are created from the original elevation data. Can Global Mapper increase the number of contours? Essentially making the steps smaller? Manually drawing them in is not going to be feasible. I believe the file has the elevation data but it seems to be exporting it as a step and not a gradient. Contours can be very interesting in cliffs. Your terrain looks like it has a few cliffs rather than smooth, if steep, slopes. Hopefully this detail would be needed for no more than a small area. You can also add more lines where needed. Otherwise, you could manually edit your contour lines by moving some vertices as needed. If you have steep slopes, then your elevation surface will need to have enough resolution to allow contours to be generated that don't overlap. That assumes that I can identify the elevations for some of the lines, and figure out the others. At times I have manually assigned elevations to the lines, and that works (tedious). That sounds funny, but I find lots of files of contours that don't have elevations assigned to the lines, at least in a way that Global Mapper can use them. If you don't have an elevation surface, you can create one from other available elevation data, like a collection of data points.Ĭontour data can be used to create an elevation surface if elevations are included. Contours are normally generated from an elevation surface like a DEM.