creating a model for lake, river or ocean depth contours?

Is there any way to convert nautical charts into 3d models of the bottom depth contours of a body of water?

A bit difficult to do it directly from a chart,

but the chart could be scanned, the image dropped into AutoCAD, the shoreline & various depth contour lines traced, saved as a dxf, imported into Vectric and the lines assigned a cutting depth.

Usually the depth has to be exaggerated in the vertical scale to show up well.

Hi Jim,

Yes, there is a way, here is a link with all the information. http://m.imgur.com/gallery/vuyDa

I tried it yesterday but has a problem with the QGIS download

let us know how you get on

Paul

If you want to take the time to learn how to work with DEM files and how to convert them into STL for use in Aspire. There is Bathymetry data available for various regions of the world from NOAA. There is many threads on the forum dealing with topographic data as well as various methods for dealing with this data. https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/bathymetry/relief.html

Thanks everyone. Looks like I have some homework to do.

Not sure if you want to create a file that takes an hour to cut or one that can take 6 - 9 hours.

A detailed 3-d lake topo file will take much longer to cut.

I cut this a few years ago. It took me quite a while to convert the file and cut it. Not sure if it was was worth the effort.

http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/att...id=29509&stc=1