JoinPL.tml

Importing contour data can have a variety of problems including un-joined segments and no elevations. Joining the segments can be very timely if the segments are not exactly adjacent. If elevations need to be assigned, the segments need to be joined. JoinPl.tml will allow a tolerance of separation and join the end points of plines that are within the tolerance. This command is going to save you days of work!

JoinPl.tml can do the following:

• Find all Plines where their end points fall within a tolerance distance.
• Find all Plines that have the same elevation.
• Join the Plines found above.
• Set an angle tolerance to prevent Plines from being joined which is very useful if you are using JoinPl to join Plines that represent alignments. This setting would prevent alignments in Intersections from being joined.

The JoinPl command:

Explanation of Each Item:

1. Average End Point Method:
   
   
   • Plines are joined at the midpoint between the two end points of the Plines. This will change the bearings of the two Plines.
     
     
     
     
2. Connect Method:

   
   
   

   • Plines that are joined retain the original bearing. This method will connect the two plines with a new segment forcing the Plines to join.
     
     
3. Intersect if within tolerance:

   
   
   

   • If the Plines cross and the intersection is within the tolerance, this method joins the Plines at the intersection.
     
     
     
     
   • If Plines are not crossing and you are using the Connect Method, the bearings of the Plines are projected and joined at the intersection if possible.
     
     
     
     
4. Tolerances:
   
   
   • If the end points of Plines are within the tolerances, Distance and Angle, then the Plines will be joined.
   • Distance: End points of Plines must be within the distance tolerance to be joined.
     
     
     
     
   • Angle: This setting is useful if you are joining Plines for alignments. You probably do not want to join Plines if the alignments form T-Intersections. If a Pline with a bearing of North 90 East intersects with a Pline with a bearing of North 45 East, then the angle tolerance will have to be at least 45 degrees. This is easier to demonstrate with pictures:
     
     
     
     
     
     
   • NOTE: If the Angle tolerance is set to 180, then all Plines within the Distance tolerance will be joined.
     
     
5. Only join lines of same elevation: If this option is checked, then only Plines with the same elevations will be joined.
   
   
6. Only Plines on the same layer will be joined. You may need to Relayer Plines to get JoinPl to work.

More Examples:

How to use the JoinPl command:

After downloading JoinPl.* to the Terramodel installation folder\Terramodel\tmls folder, open a Terramodel project and type joinpl at the Terramodel command line:

You will see:

Programmer's Notes:

This command is really COOL!