Introducing Surface TINs: Build, QA, and Export Surfaces Directly with Mach9

In most LiDAR workflows, the surface model is built in a different tool than the linework it comes from. Extraction happens in one environment. Then the linework is exported to CAD, re-checked, modified, and triangulated there, away from the point cloud it came from.

That handoff has real costs. When a triangle looks wrong in CAD, the point cloud that would clarify it isn't there. When linework changes in a separate environment, it creates two sources of truth. Every trip between environments is another chance for versions to drift.

Starting with this release, you can build the surface where you built the linework. Pick a closed boundary, choose the source layers that should drive the surface, and generate in three clicks. Mach9 runs a constrained triangulation that honors your breaklines and renders the result as fill, wireframe, and contours, directly on top of the point cloud.

Generation runs in the background, so a large corridor surface doesn't stop you from working while it computes.

Because the TIN renders in the same viewer as the source data, verifying a suspect area means looking at it directly instead of round-tripping files to another tool. Diagnostics pin problem areas in the scene, and you can step through them from the keyboard and fix them.

When something needs a manual call, the surface stays fully editable:

• Edit the mesh directly. Flip edges and delete triangles, with every edit undoable.
• Draw exclusion zones. Around structures and anything else that shouldn't be modeled as ground.
• Snap to the surface. New TIN surface and edge snap modes are available when you turn them on, for drawing and measuring against the finished model.
• Trim slivers with a slider. Cap the max edge length and watch long, gap-spanning triangles drop out live, no regeneration needed.

Extracted geometry changes; that's what QA is for. When source linework moves after a surface is generated, Mach9 marks the TIN stale instead of letting it silently drift. Regenerate when you decide, and lock the surface when it's final.

Everything autosaves to the project as you work, so everyone in the project sees the current surface without passing exported files around.

When the surface is right, export it as LandXML in your project's coordinate system, a detected CRS, or a custom one, with contours included if you want them. Dropping straight into Civil 3D, OpenRoads, or whatever comes next in your design pipeline.

Surface TINs finish a workflow we started building earlier this year. Grid of Points gave teams a way to probe terrain and generate the ground points a surface model is built from. Until now, those points still had to leave for CAD to become a surface. With this release, the surface model is built and checked in the same environment as the point cloud it came from. Representing another step towards helping teams work and collaborate efficiently, instead of relying on outdated, disconnected workflows.

Book a demo and see it in action on your own dataset.