topic Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts. in Civil 3D Forum

Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 16:03:18 GMT

I created this dotted line type for 50 scale profiles, where the distance between each dot is 20 units (so 5 equal units between 100' major grid lines).

So this works great when there is a buffer before my profile starts but at the stationing that my profile starts the first spacing is wider??? like 25 units wide instead of 20. This offsets the dots for the rest of the profile and makes it uneven. This happens when I just use the LINE command as well with any dotted line type, the first spacing will be larger than the rest. This is frustrating because this will not allow me to have even spacing between my major gird lines.

Is this a glitch? Or is there a solution to this?

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

Jay_B — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 02:46:56 GMT

The key to having dot pattern linetypes, represent the proper dot frequency, is using even line segments.

If you're frequency is 20 units, then try drawing a line with a length of 200.00 units, does the dot frequency display correctly?

In your case, the dot pattern should display correctly, using any line length that's divisible by 20.

When using random length segments, with dotted linetypes, I've always seen the same behavior you're describing, where the beginning of the line displays the pattern incorrectly.

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 03:47:30 GMT

I wish I could attach a photo, but it does display correctly except at the
very moment that the profile starts, so say I have a 200' buffer, so from
station -2+00 to 0+00 all is well, perfect spacing, then the profile
starts, and all of a sudden the very first increment is off throwing off
the whole grid. I thought that creating a line type that has a 20 unit
spacing that that would stay the same no matter what, not having a profile
start and all of a sudden the first spacing is 25 units then it resumes the
20 unit spacing.

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 03:47:30 GMT

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 13:33:44 GMT

Upon further review the line segments are divisible by the unit spacing (in this case 20), and the problem still persists at the beginning AND the end of the profile line itself. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear before, not the beginning of the profile view but the beginning of the actual profile itself.

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

Jay_B — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 14:44:23 GMT

What's the vertical axis major tick size set to ion the Profile View Style?

This can also affect dot pattern spacing.

Profile View Style > Vertical Axes tab > Left > Major tick details > Tick Size ?

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 15:02:59 GMT

0.1", I changed it to .0004" and then to 1" with no change, to both the right and left sides.

The horizontal axes gridlines (up and down) are fine the spacing is even, but then the vertical axes like you said seems to be the only group of lines affected.

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

cwr-pae — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 17:59:00 GMT

check lengths/offsets for the tick marks on the left side of the profile view style. Possible they are forcing the start point of the lines slightly out of place.

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 18:17:40 GMT

How would that change the spacing of your line type, what is the point of defining the spacing of your line type as a specified number if it is subject to change?

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

cwr-pae — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 19:46:14 GMT

It has to do with how ACAD generates line types. If the line is not an exact multiple of the line frequencies, ACAD pads or truncates the beginning and end segments to keep the spacing in the middle of the line correct.

How ever I (and Jay_B) was referring to where the line type starts in the profile view. After having a chance to check, the ticks lay on top of the grid lines and do not seem to effect where the grid lines start.

Can you post a dwg with the profile grid and the linetype definition?

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 19:52:32 GMT

I attached the files, the dot line type I am using is DOT50.

let me know if I forgot a file.

It wouldn't let me attach the .lin file but essentially my DOT50 line type is 0, -.4

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

cwr-pae — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 21:01:27 GMT

Under profile view properties I set the end to 124+00 and things came out correctly. I tested other distances and found that anything over the automatic 123+71.45 worked until 125+00. 123+72 and 124+99 plus others I tried randomly between those all worked. Not sure why those limits, but my guess is it has something to do with the length of the profile vs length of the profile view. Possibly changing the -2+00 buffer to some thing less may effect the limits.

Re: Dotted gird line spacing varies at the station where my profile starts.

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 22:28:46 GMT

Hip Hip!! Hooray!!

For some reason that does the trick, and in case anyone looks at this in the future, I found that a DOT spacing of .4 works for 50 SCALE and a DOT spacing of 1 works for 20 SCALE drawings.

Thank you very very much!!