Make Outline and Holes

In this section:

Introduction

This command will create outline polygons (boundary ) and/or interior holes from either points or surfaces in the selected chart(s). The command has options to make the polygons from Soundings or Seafloor data objects in the charts.

 

The Make Outline and Holes dialog


The content of the menu

The upper part of the menu contains the project name and the name of the active folder of type Charts.

The command can also be executed from any folder of type Generic, Soundings, Single Beam or Multibeam. Select either Points or Surface to make polygons from. The command will not merge the input data but process each input dataset individually.

The command can also be executed from any Structured Points or Poly Data/Pointcloud dataset.


The Make polygons from part: 

Select to create the polygons from either a points or a surface dataset.

Options: 

  • Soundings: Create outline and/or holes polygons from the Soundings dataset.
  • Seafloor: Create outline and/or holes polygons from the Seafloor surface.

Or: 

  • Points: Create outline and/or holes polygons from the selected point dataset(s).
  • Surface: Create outline and/or holes polygons from the selected surface(s).

 

 

The Buffer part

Buffer distance (m): This parameter is valid for the option Soundings or Points.  Around each point a circle with radius set to the buffer distance is created. The outline and holes polygons are created by merging the small circles into one or more larger polygons.

 

The Outline part

Outline: Check (set) this option to generate the result outline (boundary) polygon.

Options:

  • Keep all outline polygons: Do not filter away any polygon.
  • Remove small outline polygons: Use filter to remove "noisy" polygons from the data. Specify number of Buffer circles for the size if the polygons. If the option is to create boundary from the Seafloor, the size of one Grid cell is used as the smallest unit.

 

The Holes part

Holes: Check (set) this option to generate the result Holes polygon.

Options:

  • Keep all holes polygons: Do not filter away any polygon.
  • Remove small holes polygons: Use filter to remove "noisy" polygons from the data. Specify number of Buffer circles for the size if the polygons. If the option is to create holes from the Seafloor, the size of one Grid cell is used as the smallest unit.

 

The Chart Name part

Select from the list which charts to apply.

The output file with the generated boundary polygon will be saved under each chart with the name Boundary and the holes polygon will be saved as Holes.

Both the polygons items can be used by some gridding algorithms, and also exported by the Export Chart Data command.

Note: If there is an existing boundary or holes polygon item in the chart folder, the old item will be replaced by the new.

The Dataset or Surfaces part

Select from the list which dataset(s) to apply. When the From Points options is selected, the input dataset(s) will be of type Poly Data and Pointcloud. For the From Surface option, the dataset will be a surface (Structured Points).
The output file with the generated o.utline polygon will be saved under each chart with the name 'dataset_name'_outline and the holes polygon will be saved as 'dataset_name'_holes.

Note: If there is an outline or holes polygon with the same name in the folder, a new item with a unique name will be created.