Create a TIN surface

A triangulated irregular network (TIN) surface can be generated from surface source measurements or by converting another functional surface to a TIN surface. You can create a TIN surface from features, such as points, lines, and polygons, that contain elevation information.

Create a TIN

To create an empty TIN follow these steps.

1. On the Analysis tab, click the Tools button .
2. The Geoprocessing pane appears.
3. Type Create TIN in the search box, and press Enter to search for the tool.
4. Double-click Create TIN to open the tool.
5. Specify the parameters and click Run to build the TIN surface.

Note:

For more information on the TIN parameters, see the syntax section for the Create TIN geoprocessing tool.

You can create a TIN surface from one or more types of input data. You can also create it in stages, or you can add data to refine an existing TIN surface model.

TIN components are built from input vector data that represents different surface features. You can add vector data using the Create TIN and Edit TIN tools and use the Create TIN geoprocessing tool to construct a new TIN. Once the TIN is created, use the Edit TIN geoprocessing tool to add additional vector data to the new TIN. For more information on editing TINs, see TIN Editing Basics.

Create a TIN from another source

A TIN surface can also be created from a raster, terrain dataset, or LAS dataset.

To convert a raster dataset to a TIN, use the Raster To TIN geoprocessing tool. To convert a terrain dataset to a TIN, use the Terrain To TIN geoprocessing tool. To convert a LAS dataset to a TIN, use the LAS Dataset To TIN geoprocessing tool.