Mesh Extrude: Extrude 2D Polygons

By extruding 2D polygons ("Mesh Extrude"), planning variants can be visualised easily and effectively in PlexMap 3D (cf. image). The method shown here is particularly suitable if no concrete drafts of the planned object are yet available but a first visualisation of the visual effects of the building structure is already to be carried out.

The polygons of type Feature used can be, for example, existing building footprints or polygons drawn in PlexMap or via external software.

As a data source, the 2D building footprint of type Feature to be extruded is first loaded from a depot into the switchboard with the function Load from Depot.

In the example switchboard (cf. image) existing buildings for a city were used and with the function Filter by Attribute a single building was filtered out via the building ID. This step is not necessary if your input depot only contains the building to be extruded.

Subsequently, the building to be extruded is enlarged by a two-metre buffer via Buffer. This step is helpful if you want to display the extruded polygon in a 3D mesh, as meshes regularly contain e.g. balconies that extend beyond the building floor plan. If you want to display the extruded polygon in a CityGML dataset, this step can usually be omitted.

The function Extrude is used to actually extrude the object. Enter the desired height of the object in "height" and the height of the terrain above normal zero in "offset". Now colour the resulting 3D object using mesh.colourize_by_style.

Finally, write a layer with Store in Layer and add it to any 3D view.