Displaying Contours

About Contours

Contours, or lines of equal elevation, can be toggled on and off. The contours are generated from the set of LIDAR points that are drawn in the map or (viewer window) or from the TIN surface that is displayed in the map (or viewer window). Contours are mutually exclusive from the Draw Type setting (e.g., points, TIN, etc.), thus contours can be displayed individually in the map or viewer window.

By default, the contour interval is system calculated. The properties that control the contour interval, as well as the symbols used for the intermediate and index contours, can be modified using the Contour Legend property page. See The Contour Legend Property Page for more information.

When displaying contours, you can use the regular Display Contours setting, which can have definitive corners and edges; or you can use the Smooth Contours settings, which uses a corner vertex spacing to round, or smooth, the contour corners. This corner vertex spacing number can also be set on the Contour Legend Property Page. If you are zoomed out far in your map or viewer, you may not see a vast difference between regular contours and smooth contours, but when you zoom in significantly, you will see the difference.

How to Toggle the Display of Contours

1. Click the Display Contours command on the toolbar to toggle the display of the contours.
2. Select either Display Contours or Smooth Contours .

Tip If contours do not display on the screen and the Force 100% Resolution setting is used, check that the number of points is not exceeding the Maximum Points to TIN/Contour setting in the Performance Options tab of the Properties dialog box for the viewer. Click the Properties  button to display the Properties dialog box, and then find the setting on the Performance Options tab.