The generation of a topographical surface or digital elevation model for a given set of points in space is a known problem in civil engineering and topography.In this article, we propose a simple and efficient way to obtain the terrain surface by using a structural shell finite element model, giving advice on how to implement it.The proposed methodology does not need a large number of points to define the terrain, so it is especially suitable to be Plein air - Accessoires - Lampe frontale used with data provided by manual topographical tools.
Several examples are developed to demonstrate the easiness and accuracy of the methodology.The digital terrain model of a real landscape is modeled by using different numbers of points (from 49 to 400) using a regular mesh or a randomly generated cloud of points.The results are compared, showing how the proposed methodology creates a sufficiently accurate CHOCO PEANUT BUTTER BAR model, even with a low number of points (compared with the thousands of points handled in a LiDAR representation).
A real case application is also shown.As an appendix, the sample code to generate the examples is provided.