Importing, Reloading and Appending Polylines

Polyline formats Leapfrog Energy supports include:

  • AutoCAD Drawing Files (2013/LT2013) (*.dwg)
  • Bentley Drawing Files (v8) (*.dgn)
  • Datamine Polyline Files (*.asc)
  • Drawing Interchange Polylines Files (*.dxf)
  • Gemcom Polylines (*.asc)
  • Leapfrog Polylines (*.lfpl)
  • Leapfrog Straight Polylines (*.csv)
  • Micromine Polylines (*.str, *.asc)
  • MineSight Polylines (*.srg)
  • Old Leapfrog Polylines (*.csv, *.txt)
  • Surpac String Polylines (*.str)

Importing attributes is only supported for polylines in *.csv files.

The rest of this topic describes how to import polylines into Leapfrog Energy projects. It is divided into:

Importing Polylines

There are two ways to import a polyline:

  • Right-click on the Polylines folder and select Import Polyline. In the Import Polyline window, navigate to the location where the polyline file is saved and select it. Click Open.
  • Drag and drop polyline files directly into Leapfrog Energy.

If the polyline file is in Leapfrog Polyline *.lfpl format or one of the computer-aided design formats, the importing will start immediately.

When importing a file that has multiple features, you will be prompted to select which ones to import. You can also choose to:

  • Import the features as separate objects. Each feature will appear in the project tree as a separate object.
  • Flatten all features into one object. Leapfrog Energy will treat all features as a single object.

The Select Layers To Load window, listing each CAD layer with its polyline count and ticked checkbox, with options to import the features as separate objects or flatten them into one

For all the delimited character formats, the Import Polyline window will appear showing the data in the file.

The Import 3D Polyline window, with the File Data table on the left showing the first vertex of a polyline shaded red and its subsequent vertices shaded green, and the Column Summary on the right mapping each file column to a Leapfrog column type

See the Importing Data Tables topic for information on mapping the data in the file to the format Leapfrog Energy expects for polylines.

Each polyline consists of a series of vertices, with each row representing a vertex location. Line segments that make up the polyline are drawn between the listed vertices. Vertices that make up each polyline are grouped, with the start of a polyline sequence being coloured red in the Import Polyline window. Subsequent vertices that make up the polyline are coloured green. If there are no green subsequent rows shown in the Import Polyline window, these are points that are treated as polylines, but will appear as points in the scene.

The File Data table scrolled to a group of red separator rows that have no green rows beneath them, marking vertices that will be imported as points rather than polylines

If the format of the data file being imported uses separator rows to group the vertices that make up a polyline, make sure that the Row option is selected under Separate polylines by. Then use Row starts with to specify the character that marks a row as a polyline separator:

The Separate polylines by section set to Row with Row starts with set to 0, and arrows pointing to the two struck-through separator rows in the File Data table that begin with that character

The red highlighted row with the red strike-through line marks the separator recognised by the initial character in the row. The rows between mark the vertices for the line segments of the polyline.

If the format of the data file being imported uses a 'string ID' as a polyline identifier number that each vertex in the polyline shares, make sure that the Column option is selected under Separate polylines by. Then select the Column values are polyline identifiers option to indicate that a data column will store the polyline identifier. If the identifier code for the polylines is not automatically recognised, select Polyline Separator from the dropdown list in the header for the appropriate column. For example, here the red highlighted row marks the starting vertex of the polyline with the string ID 10:

The Separate polylines by section set to Column with Column values are polyline identifiers chosen, and arrows pointing to the red rows that start each new string ID in the File Data table

If the format of the data file being imported uses a 'point ID' that marks each vertex in a polyline with a number in sequence, make sure that the Column option is selected under Separate polylines by. Then select the Start new polyline on value option to indicate that a data column will store the point IDs, and specify the value that marks the start of a new polyline, usually 0 or 1. If it is not automatically recognised, select Polyline Separator from the dropdown list in the header for the appropriate column. For example, here the red highlighted row marks the starting vertex of the polyline:

The Separate polylines by section set to Column with Start new polyline on value set to 1, and arrows pointing to the red rows where the point ID column restarts at that value

Besides the locations for vertices that make up a polyline, a polyline file can also contain attributes pertaining to the polylines. If these attributes are present as additional columns, each can be added by selecting the appropriate Column type in the Column Summary table. Click the Import All Columns button to automatically add all the additional columns and auto-select column types, overriding the automatic selections if necessary.

The Import All Columns button highlighted, with the Column Summary showing the extra file columns Type, Contacts and Source added as Category columns and Comment as Text

The polyline will be imported and added to the project tree under the Polylines folder.

See Using the Polyline Editor for information on drawing and editing polylines.

Reloading Polylines

Reloading data is necessary when the imported data is modified externally. To reload a polyline, right-click on it in the project tree and select Reload Data.

Reloading a polyline discards any changes you have made to the polyline, including any attributes you have added. Any dependent objects will be updated, which can take some time.

Select the file to be reloaded and click Open. The polyline will be updated, as will any dependent objects.

Appending Polylines

If polyline data is stored in multiple files, you can import these files into the project and add them to existing polyline data. To do this, right-click on the object in the project tree that you wish to append and select Append Data From New File. You will be prompted to select a file.

Next, the Append 3D Polyline window will be displayed.

Check the data to ensure that the correct information will be imported, then click Finish to add the new file.

See Adding New Rows to Existing Data Tables in the Updating Tables topic for more information.