The process of creating these sites starts with an accurate 3-dimensional survey of the site. This information consists of points with an X, Y, and Z coordinate triplet referenced to a base point. Creating this cluster of points in space is called point plotting.

In order to make a surface from these points, MGE Terrain Modeler is used to literally connect the dots to create a triangular irregular network or TIN model where the vertices are the surveyed points. This process is called triangulization.

After a TIN model is created, a contour map can easily be generated in MGE to show accurate contour signatures on the site.

Next, the TIN model is exported as a dxf file and imported into 3DStudio Max to be rendered as a solid surface with shading and color.

For the final step, a texture map of color gradients was applied vertically to the surface thus allowing different elevations to be renderend with different colors.