A Surface Mesh is one of the primary Content types that can be imported into LiquidEarth. It represents 3D surfaces using a network of connected triangles or polygons, which are composed of cells (faces) and vertices (points).
Surface meshes are commonly used for terrain models, geological surfaces, and 3D scans of rock faces and outcrops. They can be textured (containing surface details) or untextured, depending on the data type and source.
Importing Surface Meshes
- Supported formats include OBJ, DXF, OMF, and more. See Import Formats for all currently supported formats.
- Surface meshes are imported via the Data Import Wizard.
Surface-Mesh-Specific Features
For features specific to surface meshes, see Mesh Inspector.
Use Cases
Surface Meshes are commonly used for:
- Geological modeling (fault surfaces, horizons, stratigraphy), for example generated in GemPy.
- Topographic and terrain visualization.
- Engineering and infrastructure planning.
- Rock face and outcrop inspection.
Numerous surface meshes representing a geological model (untextured) and topography (textured).
Textured surface mesh representation of a 3D outcrop scan.
Untextured surface meshes and with mesh inspector open.
Surface-Mesh-Specific Considerations
- Size Limitations
- While LiquidEarth supports large datasets, performance and functionality may be affected for meshes exceeding 100,000 vertices.
- It is recommended to keep individual meshes below this limit for optimal interaction and rendering.
- Large Meshes Are One-Sided
- Due to rendering limitations, large meshes in the 3D workspace are typically one-sided, meaning they can only be viewed and interacted with from one side.
- The respetive behavior can be adjusted using the following options:
To learn more about how to work with surface meshes in LiquidEarth, we recommend the following related entries:
Other related entries: