Generate Existing Ground Cross-Sections
FIRST OF ALL YOU MUST HAVE THE FOLLOWING:
- A .TIN file.
- A .DGN file containing your "pattern lines" (explained later)
- A horizontal alignment stored in COGO. You'll need to know the name of
the stored chain.
- A .DGN file to create your "existing ground cross sections" (explained
later)
Create 2 new 2D DGN file.
One of the DGN files will be used to draw "pattern lines".
The other DGN file will be used to draw existing ground cross sections.
Open the .DGN file that you set up for creating "pattern lines."
You should reference your .DGN file that contains your chain to this file just
to be able to see the position of the chain. Execute the MicroStation
command, FIT REF. Your chain (from the reference file) should
be in full view.
Invoke the Draw Pattern Lines tool using the MicroStation pulldowns
or the icon, each shown below:
Using the pulldowns:
APPLICATIONS > GEOPAK ROAD > CROSS SECTIONS > DRAW PATTERNS BY STATION
RANGE
...Or use the "Tools" icon (shown below):
The Draw Pattern Lines dialog appears as shown below:
This application will simply draw normal MicroStation line elements perpendicular
to your chain at user specified increments, station ranges, and
widths and at user specified Level Symbology.
Available methods for drawing the pattern lines are shown below:
NOTE: In order to draw pattern lines at the Superelevation Transitions, the superelevation shapes must either exist in the current MicroStation file, or be attached as a reference file.
To select the Level
Symbology, double click in the rectangle to the right of Level Symbology at the bottom of the dialog.
The Geopak Set Feature dialog appears as shown below:
Complete the Geopak Set Feature dialog settings as desired and press
OK.
Complete the Draw Pattern Lines dialog settings as desired and press
Draw Pattern Lines. You should now have a series of lines perpendicular
to your referenced chain. Later, we will use these lines to generate
existing ground cross sections from the "TIN" file.
NOW...
Open the .DGN file that you set up for creating "existing ground cross sections"
and invoke the Draw Cross Sections dialog using the MicroStation pulldowns
or the icon, each shown below:
Using the pulldowns:
APPLICATIONS > GEOPAK ROAD > CROSS SECTIONS > DRAW CROSS SECTIONS FROM
SURFACES
...Or use the "Tools" icon (shown below):
The "Draw Cross Sections" dialog is depicted below:
The "Draw Cross Sections" dialog is composed of 3 pulldowns
and 2 tabs.
THE PULLDOWNS:
The "File" pulldown:
Options supported on the File menu are:
The File options are utilized to "remember" more dialog settings
than the dialog resource file. The default extension is .xsd.
In a subsequent session, open the Draw Cross Sections dialog for the
same project. The dialog box is automatically populated with the contents
of the resource file. Next, load the settings by selecting the File
> Load command. When switching from one chain to the another,
all settings of the previous session are maintained.
The "Edit" pulldown:
The Edit options are toggled off / on by each selection of the option.
Only one option may be active at any given time, therefore, if an option is
selected, the previous active option is deactivated.
The six options are detailed below:
Cut Rows
Cuts a row from the list box into the buffer. Note that unless
the line is pasted back into the list box, the information is deleted
from the list box and no longer displayed.
Copy Rows
Copies a row from the list box into the buffer. This can be utilized
if several rows have similar information. Rather than manually
entering every line into the list box, a line can be copied, pasted,
then modified.
Paste Rows
Pastes a row from the buffer into the list box for subsequent editing.
Save Dialog Settings
Selecting this option stores the current dialog settings to the resource
file.
Restore Saved Settings
Selecting this option populates the dialog with settings from the previous
session via the resource file. Note if the resource file has been
deleted, the settings cannot be restored.
Clear Surface List
Selecting this option removes all rows from within the list box.
The "Update Options" pulldown:
The options are toggled off / on by each selection of the option.
The check to the left of the option indicates the option is
active.
Only one option may be active at any given time, therefore, if an option
is selected, the previous active option is deactivated.
The four options are detailed below.
Delete Existing Elements and Redraw
When this option is activated, any existing ground lines previously
drawn with this tool are deleted and new ground lines are drawn.
Delete Non-modified Elements and Redraw
When this option is activated, any Non-modified existing ground
lines previously drawn with this tool are deleted and new ground lines
are drawn. Any existing ground line ELEMENTS that were
modified will be left untouched. In other words,
when the new ground cross sections are drawn... the modified elements
will still be there.
Draw on Top of Existing
When this option is activated, any previously drawn ground lines
are ignored and a new set is drawn, resulting in two sets of ground
lines.
Query
When activated, the user is prompted each time the Draw button
is pressed.
The user must select one of the three options and press the
Apply button to commence processing. Pressing the Cancel
button closes the dialog with no subsequent processing.
THE TABS:
The XS Cells Tab means what it says... this is where you tell Geopak
where to find the information to create the cross section cells and
how they are to be laid out.
The dialog is broken into 3 parts:
Pattern:
There are 3 ways in which to determine where (and how frequent) the
cross sections are to be drawn.
- By Station:
This method consists of key in fields (station ranges) and
no graphical representation. This method is somewhat limited.
- By DGN File, (Recommended Method):
This method utilizes graphical representation and draws one
cross section for each line or line string of the specified parameters.
Toggle on the desired element parameter, (i.e.. Level,
Weight...) the press the Select button. The Mask
dialog is displayed, wherein the desired parameter settings may
be identified. You may select as few or as many parameters to
identify the desired pattern lines or line strings. You may
also simply type in the element parameters, separating the values
with commas or to combine a range... use a dash).
To utilize the Match tool, toggle on the desired element
parameters. Open the file that contains your pattern
lines and identify a pattern element, by pressing the
Match button and then the element(s). GEOPAK determines
the element symbology and sets the active parameters.
The Reset button clears all Mask dialogs, so
a new match procedure may commence.
Pressing the Display button displays all existing elements
of the current parameters.
- In Existing Only:
No user input is required, as this option draws ground
lines only for cross section cells that exist in the cross section
file. No other pattern requirements are needed.
Scale:
It is possible to draw the ground cross sections at an exaggerated scale,
similar to how we draw profiles. The standard practice at Western
Federal Lands is to set the scale to 10 and 10.
Spacing:
The user now not only has control over the vertical and horizontal spacing
of the ground cross sections, but also the number of cross sections per
column. I would advise that the Horizontal and Vertical spacing
always be kept at 1000 and 500 (as shown) because of how the cross section
sheet "layout" procedure is handled (11 x 17 sheets).
The number of XS by column is up to you.
The Surfaces Tab may sound a bit confusing at first, but the reason
this is referred to as "Surfaces" is because now not only can the user
create ground cross sections from a TIN file (which is a "surface"),
but also from a Geopak SITE model or object, (which are also
"surfaces").
The "Collection" window:
As with all of these typical "collection" windows.... this is where
the user can easily see what parameters have been added/modified/removed
for processing. Once the "Details" have been completed, the
user clicks on one of the 3 icons to the right of the window for the parameters
to be "collected".
Multiple surfaces from a variety of sources can now be drawn in a
single processing.
The 3 "collection" icons are represented as follows:
- To "Add" a surface, simply complete the "Details"
portion of the dialog and click on Add Surface.
- To "Modify" surface settings, complete the
"Details" portion of the dialog, highlight the surface
already collected and click on Modify Surface Settings.
- To "Remove" a surface, simply highlight
a collected surface and click on Remove Surface.
Details:
In the "Details" portion of the dialog, the user may browse
to the location of the TIN file via the "Browse Tin File"
icon, or simply type in the name.
Two methods are now available for extracting the ground cross
sections:
- If a TIN File is utilized, Triangles are utilized to
draw the cross sections.
- If a Site component is utilized, the user may select BreakLines,
where any ground line drawn between two break lines in the site component
will interpolate only between the break lines, not the triangles.
The ground cross section elements can be drawn as Lines
or Line Strings, depending on which option is selected.
NOTE: For several reasons, these elements
should be drawn as lines not line strings.
To create different element symbology in Void areas, click in
the Void "check box" and double click on the element (as
shown below). The Void Plot Parameters specify the element
symbology of the existing ground lines being generated which
are located within a void in the model.
Display Settings:
The Display settings (symbology for the ground cross sections)
can be set 2 ways:
- By Level Symbology
- By Feature
By Level Symbology:
Select this option by setting the Display Settings option to "By
Level Symbology". Next simply double click on the element
(as shown below). Adjust the settings in the "Geopak Set Feature"
dialog, click on OK and select one of the 3 "collection" icons
at the far right of the Collection window, explained earlier.
By Feature: (Required
now in WFL)
Select this option by setting the Display Settings option to "By
Feature". Next simply double click on the element (as
shown below). Click on the "Browse Feature" icon
and the D&C Manager is invoked. An item has
been setup in both of our DDB files.
Filter Tolerances:
The recommended Filter Tolerances in WFLHD are shown below:
- Metric tolerances are .03 and .009
- US Customary tolerances are 0.10 and 0.03 (as
shown below):
Text Settings:
When the Elevation box is checked, the elevation of existing
ground at the intersection of the pattern line and chain can be drawn
on each ground line. To adjust the text parameters, double click
on the displayed text (as shown below) and adjust the parameters within
the Geopak Set Feature dialog.
When all the adjustments have been made, click on the Draw button located
in the upper right corner of the dialog, (as shown below):
Your ground cross sections will now be drawn..............
A handy tool to review the cross sections when they're finished is the CROSS
SECTION NAVIGATOR. To access this:
APPLICATIONS > GEOPAK ROAD > CROSS SECTIONS > NAVIGATOR
... or use the Tools icon shown below:
With this tool you can step through, section by section or simply select the
section (from a pick list) that you want to review and you will see it immediately.
For more information on the Cross Section Navigator... see "The
Cross Section Navigator"
