Hello TBC’ers! Contours are a staple in mapping, and are a useful way to visualize elevations in both plan and 3D view within TBC. A previous tip (Tip #114) covered creating contour lines over a surface using the “Create Contours” tool. This tip is a continuation of that and dives further into the contour tools available in TBC.
- The first tool is “Quick Contours” and can be found under the “Surfaces” tab and in the “Contours” section (1A). Clicking on it will open up a new “Create Quick Contours” pane.
- From this pane (2A) select the surface you want to create contours for, or create a new surface (2B). Name the contour layer, select the interval, frequency, and color (2C). You will also be able to examine the surface and contour elevation before creating the new contours (2D). Click “Ok” at the bottom of the pane and the new quick contour surface will be created and automatically visualized in the plan view!
-
The next tool “Contour at Elevation” is a quick and easy way to generate a contour at just one elevation and the workflow is very similar to the create quick contours we previously covered. Click the “Contour at Elevation” button which will open up the new tool pane. From here, select the surface to generate the contour from, or create a new one (3A). Name the contour, select the elevation, and choose both the color and layer of the new contour (3B). The surface information section (3C) is very useful here so that you know the entire range from which you can generate a contour from. With all the settings finalized, click “”ok” at the bottom of the pane and a new contour surface layer at just one elevation will be generated. 
-
The last tool to cover is the “Label by Crossing” tool. This tool is a bit different from the previous two, as it is used to create labels for contours or any other lines that cross a line between two points that the user creates (4A). The user selects which lines or surfaces to label (4B) and selects a text style for the label (4C). With this done, click apply at the bottom of the pane and the new labels will be generated for each contour. 
-
That's it! These are three quick and easy ways to work with contours in any dataset. With this complete, your plan view should look similar to the image below. 
You're all set! Maximize your TBC experience and ensure smooth workflows by utilizing learning & support material most aligned with your needs and personal preferences.
To download the latest version of TBC, you can head to https://trimble.com/downloadTBC.
Complete free self-paced workflow-based courses with hands-on guided software experiences on Learn.Trimble: https://learn.trimble.com/pages/422/trimble-business-center-tbc
For additional learning content, visit our TBC Survey and Construction YouTube page:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TBCSurvey/videos