[Xabi]

Hi Foamers,

I am starting to use SnappyMesh tool and I am facing a problem I am not able to solve it. I have the terrain data which I want to mesh in .map file but as for SnappyMesh STL format is needed, I would need some converter to do it.
Does anybody know if ít is possible? I have tried to found a software capable but no success.
Thanks in advance.
Xabi

[dtu_wind]

Originally Posted by Xabi

Hi Foamers,

I am starting to use SnappyMesh tool and I am facing a problem I am not able to solve it. I have the terrain data which I want to mesh in .map file but as for SnappyMesh STL format is needed, I would need some converter to do it.
Does anybody know if ít is possible? I have tried to found a software capable but no success.
Thanks in advance.
Xabi

well, my dear , this is is not so complex as u think , Iam about to do it , but map format is not a globally known format. so the best approach is to take the original data I mean the xyz coordinates and convert them to stl format. the map consists of two pieces of information , orography and roughness. roughness goes into boundary conditions. till the time i have done my first full case , i advise u to try converting the xyz format orography data into stl, and then do your mesh, and assume zero roughness, sort to say.

[Xabi]

Thank you very much for your reply Hasan.
You are right maybe it is much easier to convert the xyz file.
Thanks

[Xabi]

Hi Hasan!

I follow your recommendation and everything looked to go well. I found a program which was able to convert xyz files to stl (so-called global mapper).
But I am having some problems of scaling mostly when the model is small. Could you tell me which program you are using in order to convert from xyz format to stl?
Thanks in advance,

Xabi

[dtu_wind]

Hi Xabi
I have been spinning my head trying to find an open source software that can do it, I found one called Coindesigner ,I spent days trying to compile the source code and its dependencies, but uselessly, at the end I installed it on windows, and got it to Run, however it turned that it accepts XYZ files from scanners and 3d modellers, which means the xyz points are already indexed into surfaces, so after a long search , it turned out that our input is called a cloud of points and not xys files!!!!
any way, there is a software that can render a cloud of points into a surface, called SYCODE.com which is commercial but there is a trial version. and it worked well. if you use the stand alone "point cloud" application of SYCODE, I guess your problem will be solved , and it costs 300 dollars for a license, however , if you use the trial version you can drape a surface over the points cloud and export the surface as stl

now seems your software is a better option for me , however am trying to accomodate all types of file inputs am having, like shp files from windpro, and am not able to find a software that can do that, i mean generate a surface from shape files and export it in stl, if you know please tell me about it .
seems you are into wind CFD analysis as well, may be we can help each other accomplish the task of openfoam wind CFD calculations.
please tell me about your tasks so that we come to help each other with it.
many software for CAD, like cascade for example, but it wont be able to take shaoe files ot cloud of points, may be at one point, i will be able to develop the source code to take such input, but that will come in 2 years and not now. am running some simulations to validate OpenFOAM first, and then we come to see about how to imploy CASCADE to do the task for us.
by the way , did u hear about OPENWIND software....?? www.awsopenwind.org, may be u can see if we can employ it in our tasks.. , I dont see how , since it has such a GIS interface , and GIS works in 2D , and not 3D while we need a CAD interface for OpenFOAM.
by the way , PARAVIEW which is the standard interface for OpenFOAM is able to take XYZ files, yet, 3D and not point cloud or text files.
please breif me about your findings....
thanks and best regards
Hasan

[Xabi]

Hi Hasan,

I have been working on the issue I had with the Global mapper and finally I got it. The output stl data provided by global mapper has just 2 decimals precision so if working with small cases and in order not to loose too much accuracy the user should make the domain bigger (for example 1000 times), export the stl, run SnappyHexMesh with the big model and thereafter rescale the obtained mesh in OpenFoam (make it 1000 times smaller).
For now, I am going to keep on using the global mapper since except from some incoviniences with small cases it works pretty well.
Best regards,
Xabi

[martin_s]

Hi,
it seems that you already solved your problem. However, if you are seeking again for a free and powerful tool to convert topographic data then you should look for Saga GIS (http://www.saga-gis.org).
This is a really great freeware GIS system, which is among others able to import WASP map files directly, create TIN from it, convert it to different raster formats and whatever else you want.
It is worth to give it a try.
Regards
Martin

[bruce]

Hello martin & all

SAGA GIS looks good, it can convert WASP data to xyz format. And then to TIN format.
Do you know, how to translate it to STL format in SAGA GIS?

Or any other opensource utility ? or freeware?

Thanks