InfraWorks –Terrain Data

By David Crowther

Following on from the White Paper (below) which discusses how to add your own Terrain Data to your InfraWorks Model:

https://www.cadlinecommunity.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/115002006145-Using-Open-Source-1M-Lidar-Terrain-Data-within-InfraWorks

At the start of 2019, the LIDAR datasets discussed in the White Paper above are now available directly from the DEFRA  website:

https://environment.data.gov.uk/

To access these datasets, from the Search page, type LIDAR and press Search:

The Search Results provide access to both DSM (Surface) and DTM (Terrain) datasets at different Resolutions e.g. 1m, 2m, 25cm.

Having chosen either DSM or DTM and the required resolution the webpage updates and provides dataset links:

Choose the Download link and a Map of the UK will open. Zoom into your location in the map and use the Draw Polygon tool to define your area of interest.

Once you have drawn around your area of interest press the download ARROW to get the available tiles.

In the  download panel, choose the Product e.g. LIDAR Composite or Tiles, the Year of Publication and the Resolution e.g. 1m or 2m.

The files will be downloaded and saved to your computer where you can then unzip them to find the ASCII Terrain files.

Now within InfraWorks you can add the LIDAR terrain data using the Data Sources Panel > Add Raster.

After selecting and adding all the individual tiles, from the Data Panel choose to configure the Lidar Terrain layers. In the Configuration page choose the Coordinate System to be GB_ORD1-MOD and clip the data to the Models extent.

Once configured you will now have 1M accurate LIDAR terrain data as the Models surface.