This is an application that has evolved over the years and is used for easily creating Plan and/or Plan & Profile sheets. This application automatically places clipping blocks along the chain and profile. The chain and profile can exist in the same file or in separate files. This application clips any desired reference files painlessly along with the chain.
Several powerful features worth mentioning include:
To invoke the application, select, Applications > Geopak Road > Plans Preparation > Plan and Profile Sheets . . . or . . .
Use the Geopak Road Tools icon as shown below:
Either way brings up the Plan Sheet Layout dialog as shown below:
This tool requires what Geopak refers to as "Sheet Libraries" to be set up ahead of time. These sheet libraries contain a variety of Agency specific information such as:
I've created 2 sheet libraries, one for Metric and one for English. These 2 files are located on our server at the locations shown below:
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This documentation is not targeted at teaching the process of setting up the Sheet Libraries, instead I will attempt to illustrate how to use the Sheet Libraries that I've already set up.
This example will illustrate clipping a Metric project using the 700 meter per sheet Plan/Profile layout, and will also introduce a new file concept for Geopak referred to as a "Motif" file. The Motif file will be explained later.
In this example the Chain (Main) is drawn in PLAN.dgn and the Profile (Vertmain) is drawn in PROFILE.dgn. You can however, have both drawn in the same file.
GETTING STARTED....
Create a 2D file that will be used exclusively for placing the clipping shapes. For this example, I'll name it CLIP.dgn. I would suggest that you reference the file(s) that contain your Chain and Profile to this file so that you can see how the clipping shapes are being placed along each.
Open Clip.dgn and invoke the Plan and Profile Sheet Composition tool, as described earlier and attach the Metric Sheet Library, F:\V8_Resource\X_30\Standards\Bin\Metric\M_Sheets.psl, as shown below and press OK:
As mentioned earlier... this example is focused on clipping a Metric project using 700 meter Plan/Profile sheets.
From the pulldowns, select Settings > Sheet Layout and adjust the Sheet Layout Settings as shown below and press OK:
Invoke the Sheet Composition dialog by clicking on the first icon and adjust it's 3 fields as shown below:
Below are the dialog settings for a 700 meter Plan/Profile "sheet style". 7 other "sheet styles" have been created, including 4 for English projects. The settings for all 8 sheet styles can be found at the end of this documentation... To go directly there, click HERE.
Invoke the Layout Sheets dialog by clicking on the second icon, as shown below:
NOTE: You may encounter a subsequent dialog that says, ""Job does not exist". This dialog will appear the first time you use the tool or the first time you use the tool from a new working directory with a different GPK file than used previously. If this dialog appears, simply click on OK and then designate the GPK file by either typing it in the field or selecting it from the browse icon.
Select Multiple Sheets from the dialog and double click anywhere along the row for Port 1 (as shown below) to invoke the Plan Port Data dialog:
Select the Chain from the drop down list.
Next, the Motif file must be designated. This can be done 2 ways:
For this example, we'll Create (rather than Select) the Plan Port Motif file. Click on the second icon (Create Motif File) as shown below:
Before we dive into creating this mysterious Motif file... I'll try and explain what it's all about.......and how they're used.
The Motif File:
A Motif file is simply a .dgn file that has other files referenced to it. The Motif file itself should simply be an empty design file. It comes into play with the new Sheet Clipping tool and it's use of "Ports", (explained below). When Motif files are used, only the reference files attached to that port's Motif file gets attached for to the sheet file. This eliminates the old "double reference file" problem that occurred with the old sheet clipping tool.
The Ports:
The new sheet clipping tool uses a concept where the actual sheet cell is broken up into "Ports". In a typical Plan/Profile sheet, there will be a Plan Port (above) and a Profile Port (below). In a Double Plan sheet, there will be 2 Plan ports.
Typically in a Double Plan sheet for a Metric project, there will be 700 meters of clipped Plan graphics in the upper portion (Port 1) and the next 700 meters of clipped graphics (beginning where the upper port left off) in the lower portion (Port 2).
Using the concept of Motif files and Ports.. it is possible to create Double or even Triple Plan sheets where each port covers the exact same station range, but contain entirely different graphical data. For example, it would be very easy to create a Double Plan sheet where Port 1 illustrates Temporary Traffic Control and Port 2 illustrates Permanent Traffic Control over the same station range.
Creating the Plan Motif file (Port 1):
Please refer to the last graphic above, where the example illustrates, clicking on the icon, "Create Motif File". When this icon is clicked, the "Create Plan Motif File dialog is invoked. Click on the icon, "Select Seed Motif File" and browse to the directory shown below. For this Metric project, select the typical Metric seed file for 2D plan file (Metric_2D.dgn) as shown below and press OK.
Enter the name of your PLAN motif file (Target File) and press OK. You must also type in the extension (.dgn) of the file. For this example, I'm creating a motif file named PLAN-MOTIF.DGN, as shown below:
When the OK button is pressed, a file named PLAN-MOTIF.DGN should be copied to your working directory and the Plan Port Data dialog should appear as shown below:
When OK is pressed, the Layout Sheets dialog should appear as shown below, with Port 1 using the motif file PLAN-MOTIF.DGN.
Creating the Profile Motif file (Port 2):
Double click anywhere along the row for Port 2 (as shown below) to invoke the Profile Port Data dialog:
The result of double clicking in this row will be the Profile Sheet Layout dialog (as shown below):
Assuming a Profile cell already exists in the file that you have referenced to the .dgn file you currently have opened....click on Identify Cell, data point the profile cell and accept it. Most of the Profile Sheet Layout dialog fields will now be populated due to the intelligence of the profile cell.
Once again, for this example, we'll Create (rather than Select) the Profile Port Motif file.
Click on the second icon (Create Motif File) and complete the Create Profile Motif File dialog, using the Seed file shown below. The Profile motif file (Target file) can be any name, but must include the file extension. For this example, I'm naming it PROFILE-MOTIF.DGN.
Press OK on the Create Profile Motif File dialog, (as shown below) to create the new file and populate the lower portion on the Profile Sheet Layout dialog.
The lower portion of the Profile Sheet Layout dialog should appear as shown below. Press OK to complete this step.
The Layout Settings dialog should now appear as shown below:
Once the information for the Ports has been completed in the Layout Settings dialog.. the user has the option of selecting a station range for placing the clipping shapes and also has an option referred to as the Extend distance. The Extend distance fields allow the user to enter a value that will shift the clipping shapes backwards or forwards at a given distance. For example... in the dialog above, if a value of -200 were entered as an Extend distance (for the Begin Station) , the application would place all the clipping shapes beginning at station 49+800 even though that station is off the chain.
Preparing the Motif files:
When Motif files are used, the application looks for reference file attachment information and uses that for the clipped graphics for each port. Remember... the Motif files should be blank files.
Open each of the motif files and attach all desired reference files. As a minimum... the graphic Chain should be referenced to the Plan motif file and the graphic Profile should be referenced to the Profile motif file.
Placing the Clipping Shapes:
Open the file for placing the clipping shapes. In this example, that file would be CLIP.dgn.
It is recommended to reference the Plan and Profile to this file to see how the clipping shapes are laid out and also for modifying the clipping shapes later, if necessary.
After the Begin and End Station range and Extend distance fields have been satisfactorily filled out, it's time to actually place the clipping shapes. In this example, (see above graphic) there appears to be 5 clipping shapes to place. For this example, I would click on Layout 5 Sheets.
Clipping shapes for both Plan and Profile have now been placed.
Modifying the Clipping Shapes:
In some cases (especially with extremely curved chains) it may be necessary to modify the clipping shapes. To invoke the Modify tools, use the Modify Sheets icon, from the main dialog, as shown below:
Although it is possible to move and rotate the sheets around using standard MicroStation tools... it is discouraged. In order for the data to be clipped correctly, the Sheet Layout Modify Tools must be used for most modifications. I have found that the "Insert Vertex" tool works for minor clipping shape perimeter modifications. The Insert Vertex tool is shown below:
The two most common types of modifications are supported within the Modify tools and each are selected via icons in the upper right corner of the Modify dialog:
The Slide Sheets dialog is shown below:
The Slide Sheets method allows the user to modify the location of an individual sheet or all sheets (either preceding or following).
Identify the Sheet (Clipping Shape) to be modified by clicking on the Identify button and then data pointing the clipping shape or simply select it from the pick list, via the down arrow.
NOTE: The application is intelligent enough to know whether a Plan clipping shape or Profile clipping shape has been identified. When a Profile clipping shape is identified, the "Sheet Chord Offset" field changes to "Bottom Elevation", (as shown below). When modifying the vertical position of a Profile clipping shape, toggle "Bottom Elevation" ON, type in the desired "bottom of the shape" elevation, or press Dynamic and move the shape up or down.
The adjustments can be made by typing in desired values and pressing Apply or dynamically by pressing any of the Dynamic buttons. I've had better luck with values typed in and pressing Apply.
To adjust all preceding sheets by the same values as the identified sheet, toggle Slide Preceding Sheets "ON" prior to manipulating.
To adjust all following sheets by the same values as the identified sheet, toggle Slide Following Sheets "ON" prior to manipulating.
To adjust all sheets by the same values as the identified sheet, toggle BOTH options "ON" prior to manipulating.
The Modify Drawing Area dialog is shown below:
This tool is basically used for modifying the Drawing Area of clipping shapes.
NOTE: The drawing area cannot be increased in Length (Horizontal) or Height (Vertical) to exceed the Drawing Area setup in the Sheet library.
Sheet Number Manager:
Another optional tool for sheet clipping is Sheet Number Manager. To invoke the Sheet Number Manager tool, use the Sheet Number Manager icon, from the main dialog, as shown below:
When this icon is pressed, the Sheet Number Manager dialog appears as shown below:
NOTE: If clipping shapes have been placed previously, then deleted, and placed again... the software will begin numbering that next set of clipping shapes with the next sequential number. For example... If I were to delete these 5 plan and profile clipping shapes from the design file and then place them again... the clipping shapes will now be numbered sheet 6 through 10.
In order to force the software to number each subsequent placement of the clipping shapes to begin with sheet number 1.. you must COMPRESS the design file, prior to placing the next set of clipping shapes.
The Sheet Number Manger tool has many uses, most are self explanatory. A very useful option is Edit Sheet Number:
For a custom sheet numbering scheme where the sheets are numbered in sequence beginning with D.1, complete the Edit Sheet Number dialog as shown below and press OK:
When OK is pressed the Sheet Number Manager dialog appears as shown below:
In order for this new numbering scheme to take affect... this Sheet Number Manager dialog must be dismissed and the changes saved.
Clipping the Sheets:
Once the clipping shapes are placed and satisfactorily modified, it's time to actually clip the graphical data and create the sheets. To invoke the Clip Sheets tools, select the Clip Sheets icon from the main dialog as shown below:
Once pressed, the Clip Sheets dialog appears as shown below:
An example of a completed Clip Sheets dialog is shown below (illustrating the results of the completed Labels and Annotations fields).... when completed press Process Sheets:
Most likely, the dialog below will appear. Our cell library is write protected. Just click on OK.
In the example above, when Process Sheets is pressed, a file named ye0132faD.1.dgn is created and all 5 of the Plan/Profile sheets are created within it.
Also, since Sheet Number Manager was used prior to clipping the sheets... the sheets are also correctly numbered.
NOTE: When using Sheet Number Manager... the first sheet's number is appended to the Sheet Name Prefix. In other words... ye0132fa.dgn + D.1 = ye0132faD.1.dgn. This file will most likely need to be renamed. If all the sheets are placed within the same file though... only one file needs to be renamed.
The last step is to simply plot out the sheets.........
NOTE: As mentioned earlier.. this example was meant to illustrate clipping a 700 meter per Plan/Profile sheet style. There are 7 other sheet styles set up in WFL's sheet libraries, (shown below). When attempting to use one of these other styles... it is very important to get off on the right foot, via the "Sheet Composition" dialog settings. Below are graphic illustrations of the Sheet Composition dialog required settings.
Simply click on one of the links to view the settings.
Click on a Sheet Style link (below) for the recommended WFL Sheet Composition dialog settings:
METRIC Sheet Styles:
