CompuServe Messages

I've been trying to convince one of the Vista programmers to include DXF output. The general problem with DEMs is that they're so big. Do the math: 258 x 258 grid points means 257 x 257 grid squares or 66,564 points. Right there, you're beyond the limit of points in a single sub-object in 3DS. It's also 133,128 triangular faces, beyond the 64K limit of faces in a 3DS sub-object, too. A simple export doesn't cut it. So you need to pull some tricks like "decimating" the surface by removing nearly coplanar triangles. Then people start working with 514 x 514 DEMs.