kirra-docs

Triangulate

Builds a triangulated surface from what you can see — KAD points, lines and polygons, and blast hole points. Use it to turn survey pickup, design strings or a drilled pattern into a surface for contouring, volumes, snapping and analysis.

Delaunay 2.5D Triangulation dialog

Build a surface

  1. Show the data you want in the surface and hide everything else. Triangulate uses only visible KAD entities and visible blast holes.
  2. Click Triangulate on the Surface toolbar. The Delaunay 2.5D Triangulation dialog opens. If nothing is visible, the status line reads “No visible data found for triangulation” and no dialog opens.
  3. Type a Surface Name, or keep the one suggested.
  4. Choose the inputs and filters (below).
  5. Click Create. A Triangulation Progress window shows each step and the elapsed time. Its Cancel button stops the run.

The button does not stay on — each click opens the dialog once.

Tip: Every point of every visible KAD entity goes in, but only lines and polygons become breaklines. Hide the layers you do not want before you click the button.

The fields

Field Default What it does
Surface Name Surface_ and a number Name of the new surface. Must be unique
Blast Hole Points None - Exclude blast holes Adds one point per visible hole: Collar points (surface), Grade points (mid-hole), Toe points (bottom) or Measured length points (along hole)
KAD Breaklines Include as constraints Lines and polygons become edges the triangles must follow. Points only (no constraints) uses their vertices as loose points
Search Distance (XYZ duplicates) 0.001 Points closer than this are treated as one point
Minimum Internal Angle 0 Removes slivers with an angle below this (0–60°). 0 keeps everything
Consider Angle in 3D? Off Measures that angle on the sloping triangle instead of in plan
Max Edge Length 0 Removes triangles with an edge longer than this. 0 keeps everything
Consider 3D edge length? Off Measures edge length in 3D instead of in plan
Surface Style Hillshade Colouring of the new surface — see Surface Gradients

When a section plane is set as the work plane, a Triangulate In field appears: X-Y (plan) or Section plane. Section plane triangulates across the section — a face or a wall works, a whole tunnel does not. Breaklines, clipping and the filters are then measured in the section.

Boundary Clipping

Field What it does
Mode No boundary clipping, Delete triangles outside polygon or Delete triangles inside polygon
Polygon The closed KAD polygon to clip with. Pick it from the list, or click the target button and then the polygon

If a polygon is selected when you open the dialog — or only one closed polygon exists — it is filled in and Mode changes to Delete triangles outside polygon. The list shows only closed polygons with three or more points.

Tip: Max Edge Length is the quick way to stop long triangles bridging the gaps around the outside of a pickup. A boundary polygon is the exact way.

What you get

A new surface named as you typed it, in the Triangulated layer of the tree, coloured with the Surface Style you chose. The status line reports “Surface ‘…’ created with … triangles (… filtered)”. It is saved with the project.

Large data

The dialog shows Estimated points at the top, counting visible holes and KAD points. Over 50,000 it is marked as a large dataset; over 100,000 Kirra asks first in a Very Large Dataset Warning — Continue or Cancel. Hiding layers is the fastest way to bring the count down.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Cause Fix
“No visible data found for triangulation” Every layer is hidden Show the points, lines or holes you need
“A surface with this name already exists” The name is taken Click OK, change the Surface Name and click Create again — your settings are kept
“No triangles generated” Too few points, or the filters removed everything Set Minimum Internal Angle and Max Edge Length to 0 and try again
Triangles jump across a gap or around the outside No limit on edge length Set Max Edge Length, or clip with a boundary polygon
Progress says “CDT failed, using basic triangulation” Breaklines cross each other The surface is still made, without constraints. Clean up crossing lines to keep them

Other ways to use it

Method Result
Select a polygon before clicking Triangulate It becomes the clipping boundary
Blast Hole Points → Toe points (bottom) A surface through the toes of the visible holes
Triangulate In → Section plane A surface across a face or wall