Introducing Geographic Information Systems with ArcGIS: A Workbook Approach to Learning GIS, 3rd Edition

Making a TIN and Other 3-D Representations of Elevation

Suppose that some buried ruins have been discovered on a mountain top in a European country. An archeologist comes to you wanting a graphic representation of the site that might also serve as a repository for information about artifacts that are found at the site. We’ll call the site Mount Paolo; it is small (about 80 meters by 60 meters). A surveyor has generated the elevations of a number of points, which are identified with UTM coordinates; they are supplied on an Excel spreadsheet. We want a map of the site that we can analyze and identify the locations of found artifacts. A perfect GIS problem!

Here is the plan: Assume that you save the spreadsheet in comma-separated variable (CSV) format. In the folder where the spreadsheet exists, you right-click on the name, select Open With, and use WordPad to see the data. You examine the various columns of data and create, as the first line of the file, a single header record that identifies the columns.

You then save the data as a text file named Mt_P.txt in [__]IGIS-Arc\3D_Data\The_Dig

Since you previously converted a spreadsheet to a text file earlier in the text (Exercise 6-4 on the census) we will skip that step and you will start with an already created textfile.

____ 30. With the operating system, copy the folder

[__]IGIS-Arc\Elevation_Data to

___ IGIS-Arc_YourInitials.

____ 31. Inside Elevation_Data folder you will find the folder The_Dig. Inside that you will find ...