My last blog entry, How to Create a Theme in Autodesk InfraWorks – The Preliminaries, reviewed data in Map and in an InfraWork’s project based model; coordinate systems and surface.
This blog entry describes the attachment of a coverage shape file, draping it on a surface, and theming its soils attribute data. InfraWorks uses the same FDO connection process as Map, but uses very different terms for the attached data. The theming process is dependent on a single named value; the Category.
Connect Shape File to Model
The first step is just like connecting the DEM to the InfraWorks model. To start the attachment process, in Data Sources panel, click the data sources drop list to display the source data list. See Figure 1. After selecting what data type to attach, a Select Files browser displays. You then
browse to the file you want to attach and after selecting the file, click Open to attach the file.
Figure 1: Data Source Panel – Data Source File List
The difference between the previous blog entry and this entry comes in the attached data’s configuration. The soils data is a coverage data type. An InfraWorks coverage is not a road, surface, or building, but data distributed over the model’s area.
Configure Soils Shape File Data
The connected coverage file’s configuration starts in the Data Sources panel. First select the data source entry, right click, and from the shortcut menu select Configure…. This action displays the Data Source Configuration dialog box. See Figure 2.
Common Tab
The Common configuration tab sets critical data display values. First is the data Type; Coverage Area. This selection creates the soil type polygons as an overlay to the configured DEM.
The Name and Description entries set potential tooltip values and identify a common name for the data source. The soil symbol name (MUSYM) is selected as the data source’s name and MUName is used as the attribute data’s description.
The last critical entry on this panel is the Category value; MUSYM. This entry sets the theme data for the model. The category’s values are the theme’s data. InfraWorks uses the Category’s data to create a theme. If you change the category’s value to a different attribute, InfraWorks creates a theme on the new attribute’s data.
Figure 2: The Data Source Configuration Dialog Box – Common Tab
By making the Category MUSYM a theme based on this attribute identifies 158 soil types or rules. If you want to make another theme, you select a different attribute in the category drop list. When you theme on this new category it will change what is displayed in the model. Just like in Map, each theme uses the same vector geometry, but places different theme attributes in to each polygon.
To view the polygons before theming them, you need to assign a style that outlines the individual polygons.
To do this, you click the pencil in the Rule Style cell to display the Select Style / Color dialog box. See Figure 3.The Coverage tab has a style named black outline. This style when applied to the coverage will display the polygons as black outlined gray filled polygons.
Figure 3: Data Source Configuration – Rule Style
Geo Location Tab
The Geo Location tab defines the coverage’s coordinates. The soil data is in NAD83F, New Hampshire NAD 83 US foot coordinates and matches the project’s mode coordinate system. See Figure 4.
Figure 4: Data Source Configuration – Geo Location Tab
Source Tab
The Source tab defines the data’s relationship to the surface. In this case, the soils coverage is draped over the surface. Another option creates closed polylines to closed polygons. See Figure 5.
Figure 5: Data Source Configuration – Source Tab
The remaining Data Source Configuration tabs do not affect the current theming process. The category selected in the Common tab can also be changed in the Table tab.
To complete the configuration, click the Close & Refresh button.
Create Coverage Theme
The final step is to create a coverage theme from the configured coverage. This is done in the Ribbon’s Analyze tab. When you click on the Feature Themes Icon, the Feature Themes panel displays. See Figure 6.
Figure 6: Feature Themes Panel
To create a theme, click on the green ‘+’ plus sign to display the Theme Properties dialog box. See Figure 7. This dialog box is similar to the theming dialog box in Map. The theme is based on the category values, i.e. MUSYM or the soil types.
Figure 7: The Theme Properties Dialog Box with Theme Properties
The themed soils are shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8: A Soils Theme
Happy Theming!
