kirra-docs

Surfaces Toolbar

The Surface toolbar groups the controls for building, modifying, and repairing triangulated surface meshes — triangulation, mesh intersection, boolean operations (Solid CSG and Trimesh engines), extrude, contour, mesh repair, polygon clipping, and horizon slicing. It is one of the floating toolbars on the right side of the Kirra workspace.

Toolbar Overview

Labelled Surface toolbar The Surface toolbar with all controls labelled.

The Surface toolbar contains the following controls (left to right):

Control Type Purpose
Triangulate Dialog Build a triangulated surface mesh from survey points or drawing data
Surface Intersection Tool Compute the intersection line(s) between two surface meshes
Solid Boolean Dialog Boolean union / intersect / subtract between closed solid volumes (Three.js CSG)
Trimesh Boolean Dialog Boolean operations directly between triangulated meshes (open-mesh capable, runs in a Web Worker)
Extrude KAD to Solid Dialog Sweep a closed KAD polygon vertically to build a 3D solid volume
Contour Surface Dialog Generate contour lines at regular elevation intervals
Clean Mesh Dialog Mesh diagnostics and repair — open edges, non-manifold, T-junctions, winding, normals, weld
Clip Surface Dialog Clip a surface or solid against a polygon (Single or Batch), keeping the inside or outside portion
Solid Horizon Slice Dialog Slice a closed solid into horizontal bands (a bench / horizon “egg-slicer”)

Mesh booleans are difficult; make your meshes as clean and manifold as you can before running them. If one engine fails on a given input, the other may still succeed.

Triangulate Visible KAD or Holes

Builds a triangulated surface from visible inputs — KAD polygons / lines / points, or blast hole collars.

Build Triangulations dialog

How to use

  1. Make the input entities visible in the Data Explorer (only visible entities are considered)
  2. Click the Triangulate Visible KAD or Holes button on the Surface toolbar
  3. Choose the input set: visible KAD entities or hole collars
  4. Configure triangulation options [VERIFY: full options list]
  5. Click Build to generate the surface

See Importing Surfaces for surface-loading workflows and Mesh Editing for cleanup after triangulation.

Intersection Line of Two Meshes

Computes the polyline where two surface meshes intersect and draws it as a KAD line entity. Useful for slope-vs-design intersections, pit-shell vs topography, and toe / crest line extraction.

How to use [VERIFY: dialog vs direct two-mesh pick]

  1. Click the Intersection Line of Two Meshes button on the Surface toolbar
  2. Pick Mesh A
  3. Pick Mesh B
  4. The intersection polyline is added as a KAD line entity

[SCREENSHOT NEEDED: Intersection Line dialog or workflow]

Solid Boolean

Three.js CSG boolean operations on closed solid meshes. Three operations:

Operation Result
Union A ∪ B — merged solid
Difference A − B — A with B subtracted
Intersect A ∩ B — only the overlap

How to use

  1. Click the Solid Boolean button on the Surface toolbar
  2. Pick Mesh A and Mesh B
  3. Choose the operation
  4. Click Apply

Note: The Solid Boolean (CSG) engine works best on closed, manifold solids. For open surfaces, use the Trimesh Boolean tool.

See Surface Boolean & CSG for the full reference.

Trimesh Boolean

Kirra’s mesh boolean engine, running in a Web Worker so it does not block the UI on large meshes. Unlike the Solid Boolean (CSG) path, Trimesh Boolean operates directly on triangulated meshes and can handle open surfaces, not only closed solids.

How to use

  1. Click the Trimesh Boolean button on the Surface toolbar
  2. Pick Mesh A and Mesh B
  3. Choose the operation
  4. Click Apply — progress is reported as the worker runs

See Surface Boolean & CSG for the full reference.

Extrude a Polygon

Sweeps a closed KAD polygon up or down to a target elevation, producing a 3D solid mesh. Used for pit shells, bench solids, and design volumes.

Completed extruded solid

How to use

  1. Select a closed KAD polygon
  2. Click the Extrude a Polygon button on the Surface toolbar
  3. Set the target elevation (or extrude depth)
  4. Click Apply to produce the solid

See Extrude, Boolean, and Section Plane for the full reference.

Contour the Mesh at intervals

Generates contour lines (constant-elevation polylines) at regular intervals across a surface mesh.

How to use

  1. Click the Contour the Mesh at intervals button on the Surface toolbar
  2. Pick the surface mesh
  3. Set the interval in metres (e.g. 1.0 m)
  4. Set the base elevation (the reference Z from which intervals are stepped)
  5. Click Generate — contours are added as KAD line entities

See Surface Contours for the full reference.

Fix-Repair-Edit Broken Meshes

Opens the Clean Mesh / Mesh Edit dialog — repair self-intersections, fill holes, decimate, and interactively edit triangles and vertices.

Mesh repair dialog

Capabilities

How to use

  1. Click the Fix-Repair-Edit Broken Meshes button on the Surface toolbar
  2. Pick the mesh to repair
  3. Run automated cleanup (self-intersection removal, hole fill)
  4. Switch to interactive edit mode for hand-editing
  5. Save the cleaned mesh

See Mesh Editing for the full reference.

Clip Surface

Clips a surface or solid against a clip polygon, keeping either the inside or the outside portion. The tool auto-detects whether the target is an open surface or a closed solid and caps the cut accordingly. It runs in Single mode (one target against one polygon) or Batch mode (apply the same clip across multiple targets).

Clip Surface or Solid dialog [SCREENSHOT NEEDED: confirm filename — capture the Clip Surface or Solid dialog]

How to use

  1. Click the Clip Surface button on the Surface toolbar
  2. Pick the surface or solid to clip
  3. Pick (or choose) the clip polygon
  4. Choose whether to keep the inside or the outside portion
  5. Choose Single or Batch mode
  6. Click Apply

Open surfaces are clipped along the polygon boundary; closed solids are clipped and re-capped so the result stays a valid solid.

Solid Horizon Slice

Slices a closed solid into horizontal bands at a chosen interval or band count, capping each band and saving it as its own named layer (for example, by RL range). Think of it as an egg-slicer for bench / horizon extraction.

Solid Slice dialog [SCREENSHOT NEEDED: confirm filename — capture the Solid Slice dialog]

How to use

  1. Click the Solid Horizon Slice button on the Surface toolbar
  2. Pick the closed solid to slice
  3. Set either a slice interval (metres) or a target band count
  4. Click Apply — each band is capped and added as its own named layer

Requires a closed solid. Slice an open surface into a solid first (e.g. Extrude KAD to Solid, or close it in Clean Mesh) before slicing.

Why two boolean engines?

Mesh booleans are a very difficult space to work in — even after all this time they still don’t always play nicely. The two engines are complementary: sometimes one works better than the other. Make your meshes as nice, pretty, and manifold as possible and you will have better results.

In practice:

Try one, and if it fails, try the other engine on the same input before reaching for the mesh repair tool.

Note: Kirra’s earlier Original Surface Boolean engine was retired — its role is now covered by Trimesh Boolean. If you have older notes or screenshots referencing it, use Trimesh Boolean instead.