Convert Final Road Design Into DTM Surface

This Tech Tip explains how to convert the final road levels into a DTM surface.

Converting the Road

Alignment Menu › Horizontal › Cross Sections › Translate


Chainage - Start and Stop Enter the first and last chainages of the portion of the horizontal alignment to be processed.
Transform road layer Select the road layer containing the cross sections to be translated.
Store to terrain surface Select the surface on which the generated points should be stored.
Suffix to add to names Enter a single character suffix that will be added to the names of all generated points. This helps in identifying points at a later stage.
Translate - Batters only Select this option to translate only the first and last two points in each section.
Translate - By offset Select this option (and enter the Left and Right offsets) to translate points between specified offsets.
Translate - By point location code Select this option (and enter the Left and Right PLC codes) to translate points between specified points in the cross-section.
Create lines on section as: Check this option and select either the Break lines option or the Feature lines option to have lines automatically generated between the translated points. The generated lines automatically delete any crossing lines in the surface to which the cross-section is being translated.
OK Button Click this button to accept the current entries in the dialog.
Cancel Button Click this button to cancel the function.


Make sure the new road DTM is created in a surface that contains no data, in this example the ground DTM is in surface 1 and therefore the road DTM will be created in surface 2.

Click OK to continue.

The road will now be converted into a DTM surface. The original road design remains intact.

The new DTM surface can then be viewed in 3D.

View Road In 3D

Change to Terrain Mode.

Terrain Menu › 3D View › View


Select the correct surfaces, the base surface is the ground DTM , the terrace surface is the road DTM .

Click OK to continue, the surfaces will then be displayed in 3D. Various options are available in each section of the 3D view module, press F1 for detailed information.


Once the 3D view has been generated, different colours can be specified for each surface.


Once the new colours have been selected, click on the Apply button to view the changes.

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