If you haven't already, make sure to watch our video tutorial on finding and preparing a geotiff file using different software. A video of this segment is also available on PVFARM’s YouTube Channel.
1. Analyzing the Terrain
Import your surface information using the previous tutorial or using the PVFARM plugin. Please see the help center for more information on these topics.
Once imported, you can navigate to the Terrain Analysis panel and select "Elevation," “N/S Terrain,”or “E/W Terrain” to view the terrain with different levels of colorization.
If necessary, click "Auto-Fill Colors" and “Auto-Fill Ranges” to ensure proper colorization.
You can customize this by adjusting the ranges represented or by clicking on the color boxes to change the hue (for example if you prefer grayscale).
2. Placing Trackers on Terrain
Access the "Terrain and Piles" panel.
Select the boundaries in the "Boundary" section.
Ensure that the Cut/Fill option to "Update within selection" is unchecked to only update the equipment on the terrain without altering it.
Click "Update piles" to finalize the placement of boundaries and trackers on the terrain.
3. Analyzing Pile Lengths
Navigate to the Analysis panel.
Change the property to "Pile Length" under "Tracker Frames."
Optionally, use "Auto-bin count" or customize the number of bins to visualize data more effectively.
Review the range of pile lengths and identify problematic areas.
Select “Colorize Objects” which will recolor the arrays based on the “Property Analysis” table, in this case it will colorize trackers based on pile height.
Problematic areas will be dense areas of higher than average pile heights, which indicates that the terrain is going to cause issues and might be better left out of the system.
Utilize the "Horizontally select" feature to select a range of pile lengths for detailed analysis.
Use the "Colorize objects" feature to identify problematic areas visually.
Example of how pile lengths get so high due to steep slope:
