Drape Alignment not draping end points

[Darcy Richardson]

Hi, I'm having an issue using the Drape Alignment function, wondering if I might be able to get a bit of help.

I'm working on a large model of existing utilities for a project, and we've just had a whole lot of data (approx. 2000 strings) added in without any vertical geometry, so we're assuming a standard depth and draping it to the tin with an offset.
However, we're required to export our model to file, and the file size has gone up immensely as a result of the new data.

The suggested solution to reduce file size was to convert the strings to alignment use the Drape Alignment function to vert drape the strings at an interval of 10m, rather than at every point of Horiz geometry/tin crossing, as the tin spacing and number of H points creates very dense vert geom.
The Drape Alignment function has two tick boxes, one being "Keep existing VIPs", which is not much good to us, as we only want vert geom every 10m.
The second box is "Include critical points", which keeps vertical geometry at every point of horiz geom. This does not significantly reduce the amount of vert points on the alignment, as there are a lot of horizontal points.
If I untick both of these boxes, the function drapes the string every 10m as intended, however it stops at the last increment. So if for example the string is 143m long, it will drape every 10m to 140m, and then create no vert geom for the last 3m, which creates invalid data when we export it.

Is there any way to get these strings to drape at intervals [u]and[/u] drape the end point? Keeping in mind that there is a lot of data so we need to be able to do this in bulk.
(Note: we have deleted a bunch of the data that was less important and prioritised what we actually need, but the file size is still too large).

Thanks,
Darcy

[Sam Cech]

hard to tell, what file format is being produced and if any of this will result in any better info

I wonder if you would Grid_tin your existing tin at a 20x20m interval and drape on to that tin your original super string, will that cut triangles at more consistent interval? will it be good enough? it might sill produce a text file that is 'too' large..

you may have to do a second step after the drop to enable all segments as the option hides segments where there is no drop found

bit of trial and error with grid tin cell spacing might give you a better/faster result - may be?

[paul hardwick]

I would use the string filter on the data after the drape to remove any superfluous points.
Utilities A-G > Filter > String Filter

[Lee Gregory]

Where is the file going that it is "too large" ?

[Darcy Richardson]

We're exporting to multiple formats, IFC, 12dxml, SHP, DXF, plus a few others converted from these (too many formats if you ask me). I think the IFC is fine but some of the other had their size blown way out when the data was added (in the order of 100s of MBs, which isn't massive, but for regular transmittals/further conversions is a bit of a pain).
The ideal solution would just be to remove anything we don't need for the design, but unfortunately we usually get asked to include everything in the area.
The drape at intervals did reduce the file size by a decent amount, just that the missing drop on the end of the string was an issue.

I've not used the Filter before, might give that a go first. If that doesn't do it, the grid tin might be the next option.
Will try both of those, thanks!

[Lee Gregory]

And to definitely zip IFC, or any text, files