GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library) is an Open Source project by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. While the license permits its use in commercial software, we don't want to hide it in planlauf/TERRAIN. There are people putting a lot of their free time into GDAL and we believe they should get the credits
Tamas Szekeres maintains a website from which you can download the lastest GDAL builds. Go to 'Stable Releases' and click on one of the two last entries of the first table (win32 for 32-Bit- and x64 for 64-Bit-Windows). Look for the download with the description 'Generic installer for the GDAL core components'. As of December 2018, the appropriate files are 'gdal-203-1911-core.msi' (32-Bit) and 'gdal-203-1911-x64-core.msi' (64-Bit).
planlauf/TERRAIN will look for GDAL in the program folder every time you try to import a raster file via GDAL. You can also specify a folder in the Settings > GDAL.
FFmpeg is an open-source, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video. As well as GDAL, we don't want to hide it in planlauf/TERRAIN. You can download Windows binaries from Zeranoe's website. Select the current version (e.g., 4.0), your OS architecture (32- or 64 bit), Static Linking and download it. Unzip the file and copy ffmpeg.exe from the 'bin' directory either to the planlauf/TERRAIN program folder or to another location on your harddrive. In the latter case you'll have to specify the path to ffmpeg.exe in the Settings > Video.
The setup file is packed and planlauf/TERRAIN will need 22 MB on your drive. Compared to other GIS software this is still very lightweight and it makes it possible to run planlauf/TERRAIN even on the most basic Windows tablet. We put a lot of effort into developing the core functions from scratch instead of using a heavy game engine. Yet, there are things incorporated in planlauf/TERRAIN that other libraries can do much better:
You can get an extensive list of GIS software at Wikipedia. From our experience the following packages are most popular:
planlauf/TERRAIN will run on almost any Windows device with OpenGL 4.0 and .NET-Framework 4.5. The number of vertices that can be processed depends largely on the amount of RAM that can be used. We recommend using a Desktop PC with 64-Bit Windows to import and decimate DEMs. The visualization of the decimated models should in most cases be possible on a Tablet PC with 32-Bit Windows (as long as the 32-Bit 1.2 GB memory limit for one process is not exceeded). The table shows the minimum and the recommended system requirements.
| Minimum | Recommended |
Operating System | Windows 7, 8, 10 / 32-Bit | Windows 10 / 64-Bit |
CP | 1 GHz | 3 GHz |
Memory | 1 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
Hard drive | 22 MB of free space | 22 MB of free space |
Resolution | 1024x600 | 1920x1080 |
GPU | Intel(R) HD Graphics | Dedicated graphics card with 4 GB |
OpenGL | 4.0 or higher | 4.0 or higher |
.NET-Framework | 4.5 or higher | 4.5 or higher |
An XYZ-file is a simple text file which contains X, Y and Z values (in geographic coordinates: easting, northing, elevation). Each line represents one vertex and the values can be separated by one of the following characters: space, tab, comma, semicolon. Please note that planlauf/TERRAIN works with raster data, so the X and Y values have to be on an even grid.
32290000.00 5628000.00 231.07 |
32290000.00 5628001.00 230.71 |
32290000.00 5628002.00 230.37 |
What is an Esri ASCII Grid- or ASC-file?
An Esri ASCII Grid-file is a text file with a simple raster format. Instead of explicit X and Y values, only the number of columns and rows, the lower left corner, the grid spacing and the elevation values are stored.
NCOLS 2000 |
NROWS 2000 |
XLLCORNER 2693000.000000000000 |
YLLCORNER 1256000.000000000000 |
CELLSIZE 0.500000000000 |
NODATA_VALUE -9999.0 |
583.72 583.78 583.78 583.75 583.76 583.63 583.69 583.68 |
583.64 583.48 583.47 583.61 583.62 583.62 583.62 583.65 |
583.53 583.52 583.44 583.40 583.37 583.32 583.28 583.25 |
There is a limit of 1 billion vertices for a single tile file *.plftil (but you can use as many tile files as you wish in a terrain file *.plfter). The number of vertices on 32-Bit Windows will be much lower (6'000'000) because a single process can only use approximately 1.2 GB of RAM. On 64-Bit Windows the amount of available RAM will determine how many vertices you can import. The table below might give you an idea about what is currently possible. If you try to import huge models, planlauf/TERRAIN will offer the option to split the task in manageable chunks. Please let us know if you're able to import less or even more vertices on your device.
Device | OS | 32 / 64 Bit | RAM | Successfully imported vertices |
Dell Venue 8 Pro (2015) | Windows 8.1 | 32 Bit | 1 GB | 4'000'000 |
Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 (2015) | Windows 8.1 | 32 Bit | 2 GB | 6'000'000 |
HP Pavilion Slimline (2011) | Windows 7 | 64 Bit | 4 GB | 30'000'000 |
Microsoft Surface Book (2018) | Windows 10 | 64 Bit | 16 GB | 120'000'000 |
Dell Precision M6800 (2015) | Windows 10 | 64 Bit | 32 GB | 240'000'000 |
Device | Graphics | Display | Vertices @60 fps | Vertices @30 fps | Vertices @15 fps |
Dell Venue 8 Pro (2015) | Intel(R) HD Graphics | 1280x720 | 400'000 | 800'000 | 1'600'000 |
Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 (2015) | Intel(R) HD Graphics | 1920x1080 | 300'000 | 600'000 | 1'200'000 |
HP Pavilion Slimline (2011) | ATI Radeon HD4300 512MB | 1366x768 | 1'000'000 | 2'000'0000 | 4'000'000 |
Microsoft Surface Book (2018) | NVidia Geforce 940M 1GB | 3000x2000 | 7'000'000 | 14'000'000 | 28'000'000 |
Dell Precision M6800 (2015) | NVidia Quadro K5100M 8GB | 1920x1080 | 20'000'000 | 40'000'000 | 80'000'000 |
Anti-Aliasing enhances the quality of the rendering because jagged and pixelated edges are removed. To get this positive effect, planlauf/TERRAIN needs to draw the scene at a higher resolution than the display itself and this will put a much higher load on the GPU. Usually, low resolutions (1280x720) benefit more from Anti-Aliasing than high resolutions (3000x2000).
GPS Receiver | Works | Remarks |
Dual XGPS150A | Yes | |
Garmin GLO Portable GPS and GLONASS Receiver | Yes | |
GlobalSat BT-821 Bluetooth GPS Receiver | Yes | |
GNS Navilock GPS/GLONASS 2000 BT | Yes | |
GT-750FL Bluetooth GPS Receiver | No | Bluetooth pairing is not reliable |
Holux RCV-3000 | Yes | |
NAVILOCK BT-821G Bluetooth GNSS | Yes | |
NAVILOCK NL-8002U u-blox 8 (USB) | Yes | |
Trimble R1 | Yes | |
Qstarz BT-Q818XT | Yes |
The on-screen keyboard will automatically be shown if you tap on a textbox. If it doesn't, please make sure that the option 'Automatically show the touch keyboard in windowed apps when there's no keyboard attached to your device' is turned on. You can find this option under Windows > Settings > Devices > Typing > Touch Keyboard.
GPS logging requires an active Bluetooth connection between tablet and external GPS receiver. When your tablet goes to sleep, Windows will end this connection and no further data can be recorded. You can change the time until the tablet goes to sleep mode:
You can disable the power button (holding the power button will still shut down the PC):
There are thousands of projections worldwide (see EPSG.io or Spatial Reference), many are outdated and only a few are actually used for DEM datasets. planlauf/TERRAIN supports projections for which we got our hands on test data and were able to implement and verify the forward and backward transformation. At the moment, the projections listed in the table are supported directly. GeoTIFFs or IMGs with other projections might be reprojected to UTM with our GDAL-interface. Please send us an email if you'd like to see an additional projection in the next release of planlauf/TERRAIN.
Country | EPSG | Name |
All | 32601-32660 | UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) |
Antarctica | 3294 | WGS 84 / USGS Transantarctic Mountains |
Australia | 28348-28358 | GDA94 / MGA |
Australia | 3112 | GDA94 / Geoscience Australia Lambert |
Austria | 31254 | MGI / Austria GK West |
Austria | 31255 | MGI / Austria GK Central |
Austria | 31256 | MGI / Austria GK East |
Austria | 31257 | MGI / Austria GK M28 |
Austria | 31258 | MGI / Austria GK M31 |
Austria | 31259 | MGI / Austria GK M34 |
Austria | 31287 | MGI / Austria Lambert |
Belgium | 31370 | Belgian Lambert 72 |
Belgium | 3812 | Belgian Lambert 2008 |
Czech Republic | 5514 | S-JTSK / Krovak East North |
Estonia | 3301 | Estonian Coordinate System of 1997 |
France | 2154 | RGF93 / Lambert-93 |
Germany | 31466 | Gauss Krueger Potsdam Zone 2 |
Germany | 31467 | Gauss Krueger Potsdam Zone 3 |
Germany | 31468 | Gauss Krueger Potsdam Zone 4 |
Germany | 31469 | Gauss Krueger Potsdam Zone 5 |
Ireland | 2157 | Irish Transverse Mercator |
Ireland | 29903 | Irish Grid |
Italy | 3003 | Monte Mario Zone 1 |
Italy | 3004 | Monte Mario Zone 2 |
Italy | 23032 | UTM 32 North ED50 |
Lithuania | 3346 | LKS94 / Lithuania TM |
Luxembourg | 2169 | Luxembourg 1930 / Gauss |
Malta | 23033 | UTM 33 North ED50 |
Netherlands | 28992 | Amersfoort / RD New |
New Zealand | 2193 | NZGD2000 |
Poland | 2180 | CS92 |
Slovenia | 3794 | D96TM |
Slovenia | 3912 | D48GK |
Switzerland | 21781 | LV03 |
Switzerland | 2056 | LV95 |
United Kingdom | 7405 | OSGB36, ODN height |
United Kingdom | 27700 | OSGB36 |
USA | 3559 | NAD83(NSRS2007) / Maryland |
Country | EPSG | Name |
USA | 2231 | NAD83 / Colorado North (ftUS) |
USA | 2232 | NAD83 / Colorado Central (ftUS) |
USA | 2233 | NAD83 / Colorado South (ftUS) |
USA | 3529 | NAD83 (NSRS2007) / Illinois East (ftUS) |
USA | 3531 | NAD83 (NSRS2007) / Illinois West (ftUS) |
USA | 3089 | NAD83 / Kentucky Single Zone (ftUS) |
USA | 3753 | NAD83 (HARN) / Ohio North (ftUS) |
USA | 3754 | NAD83 (HARN) / Ohio South (ftUS) |
USA | 2274 | NAD83 / Tennessee (ftUS) |
USA | 2278 | NAD83 / Texas South Central (ftUS) |
USA | 2919 | NAD83 (HARN) / Texas South Central (ftUS) |
USA | 2285 | NAD83 / Washington North (ftUS) |
USA | 2286 | NAD83 / Washington South (ftUS) |
USA | 2926 | NAD83 (HARN) / Washington North (ftUS) |
USA | 2927 | NAD83 (HARN) / Washington South (ftUS) |
USA | 26862 | NAD83 (HARN) / West Virginia South (ftUS) |