Background I am using MicroStation V8i w/ GEOPAK SS2. I obtained a ton of LiDAR data that covers about a 12-mile-by-2-mile area. The LiDAR data exclude all the surface waters (such as ponds, wetlands, rivers, and creeks) that are wider than 50 feet. The data comes in as 16 LAS files and 16 ASCII text files (X,Y,Z). My goal is to generate contours using the LiDAR data.
What I Tried & Problems... I am able to use the DTM Tools to extract the 16 XYZ into a single DAT file, build the triangles (as a TIN file), and then generate the contours. The DAT file is about 750 MB and the TIN file is about 1.2 GB. But this also generates triangles in locations without LiDAR data and create some really obscure contours.
I tried the Dissolve Side option with 50 feet when building the TIN; but as you probably know, the dissolve only works on the external sides, not internal.
I tried to remove those triangles manually using the DTM edit tool; but the TIN file is so big that it crashes MicroStation. And let's be honest, I really don't want to manually fix a 12-mile-by-2-mile area.
Am I missing something? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!!
p.s. The reason I combine all the XYZ into a single DAT and a single TIN was that in order to merge two TIN files, they have to be overlapped (at least that is based on my understanding; so, correct me if I am wrong). The 16 files are not overlapped, but next to each other...