Construction grid to profile view

[Buzz0m]

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody had found a way to show construction grids (the grid with letters on one axis and numbers on the other commonly used in building construction, aka column grids?) in a dynamic way in profile views?

Here is what I'm tring to accomplish:

Most of the projects I'm working on have a construction grid. Part of our plan production involves making sections at arbitrary paths (these are not always perpendicular to the grid lines) and might turn at certain points (eg. a polyline with multiple vertexes, not just a simple straight line).

I have to manually draw the grid lines in all our sections. This is not that bad when I do it one time but if the "path" of the section is altered I have to start from scratch and position the new locations of the corssing gridlines in my profile view.

What I've trid:

1. adding geometry points to my alignment (=section) at the points, where my alignment crosses a grid line and adjusting my profile view style to show geometry points in a different way (if the alignment is changed I have to move the "new" geometry points manually and besides this it is a ****ty work around any way)
2. drawing the grid lines as 3d polylines and projecting them to my profile view (by altering styles I can make only the last and first vertex visible when projected on my profile view. Works as long as my section is perpendicular to the grid lines, but if not then it does not work...)
3. using blocks and projecting them (also ****ty solution for many reasons)

What I haven't tried:

1. using alignments as "grid lines". I believe this could accomplish my needs, but it would fill my drawings with a lot of essentially useless alignments.

What I'm hoping for:

1. In projection styles there is an option for sections only to show the "crossing vertex". If this would be an option when projecting things on a profile view  this would probably solve my problem. Something like this would be what I'm looking for...
2. I would also like the labeling to be dynamic, so that the grildine ID (eg. "A" or "8") would be automatically displayed (I think this would be possible if I used feature lines (they are given names, and hence the dynamic labeling ought to be possible)
3. Anything that accomplishes my needs...

If you have some trick up your sleeve I would love to hear of it!

- Frans

PS. I'll attach an picture of the "construction grid" in case it is unclear what I'm referring to.

[Civil3DReminders_com]

I'd probably create surfaces for each grid line with the name of the grid line as the surface name. Then sample the surfaces on the alignment and label with a line label that grabs the name of the profile and shows it. The label would be centered at the mid point of the line segment. This way any changes would reflect in the profile view. The hard part would be getting the elevations of the grid surfaces to always be in the profile vew extents. 

Not ideal. After a while I'd just program a solution if I did it a bunch.

[Buzz0m]

I would only need to use the station where the gridline is cut by the alignment, so the elevation would not be a problem...

I'd love to "program" this because I do need it a "bunch", but I don't have the skills. What would be the first steps and where to start looking for coding tips...?

[Joe-Bouza]

Why is a cogo point projection unsuitable? I didn't understand your earlier explanation.

[Buzz0m]

If all my sections would be perpendicular to the gridlines I could use cogopoints or blocks or whatnot and it would work fairly well with a small amount of cogo points .

When a section is not paralell to the gridlines I would have to create cogo points at every point where my alignment crosses a gridline in order to make the projections reflect the gridline intersections accurately. If I change the alignment (add a geometry point and make eg. the alignment turn left the projections will not accurately represent the gridline/aligment intersection...

Joe-Bouza, do you have a method I haven't thought of? How would you do it?

[Joe-Bouza]

No I don't but wanted to better understand the projection issue. 

Im not sure where I would use column lines in a civil set.

I'm pondering the surface method but if the projection does work for you when not perpendicular to the grid that wont help either.

What are you profiling? Perhaps knowing that will stir the stock pot, as we used to say.

[Joe-Bouza]

Ah ha!

Turn the grid lines into a pipe network and create an appropriate cross style and label.  I do this for cross street labels; I name the pipe the street name, and the label style uses the pipe name etc. You could name the pipe the grid letter and voila! 

[Buzz0m]

Many of the projects I work with involve fairly big excavations for buildings. The buildings have the gridline system and it would help me annotate my excavation levels etc if I could have the gridlines update dynamically and accurately.

Here's an photo example of a project: http://www.rockplan.fi/uploads/pics/Kamppi35.jpg (rockplan is not the firm I'm working at)

The idea with the pipe networks seems brilliant! I just can't find the appropriate style to use? Are you sure the crossing point between an alignment and a pipe can be shown in a profile view? All I can find are some hatch options and none of them seem to have anything to do with the intersection point? Am I missing something?

[Joe-Bouza]

Yes The crossing point at the alignment is the only point the will show on profile. The pipe itself will draw as an ellipse and you may want its style to not plot. In my mind the label style will act as the grid line and annotation.

I attached an example for you.

I made pipe of both col lines and row lines. Afterwards Im not sure the rows are needed but you may see otherwise. I also didn't consider the columns themselves, but you couls always add a cylindrical structure if you need to plot the columns too.

[Joe-Bouza]

Yes The crossing point at the alignment is the only point the will show on profile. The pipe itself will draw as an ellipse and you may want its style to not plot. In my mind the label style will act as the grid line and annotation.

I attached an example for you.

I made pipe of both col lines and row lines. Afterwards Im not sure the rows are needed but you may see otherwise. I also didn't consider the columns themselves, but you couls always add a cylindrical structure if you need to plot the columns too.

[Joe-Bouza]

Yes The crossing point at the alignment is the only point the will show on profile. The pipe itself will draw as an ellipse and you may want its style to not plot. In my mind the label style will act as the grid line and annotation.

I attached an example for you.

I made pipe of both col lines and row lines. Afterwards Im not sure the rows are needed but you may see otherwise. I also didn't consider the columns themselves, but you couls always add a cylindrical structure if you need to plot the columns too.

[cwr-pae]

Is there an echo in here?

[Buzz0m]

Thank you for the files and the time you did to create the example. I still believe the problem persist when the alignment and the gridline are not perpendicular in relation to each other.

In the picture below my upper viewport is displaying the profile view as well as my station tracker. In the lower viewport my cursor is placed approx at the location where the alignment crosses a gridline (at this station on the profile view I would like to have some kind of marker representing the intersection). The station tracker and the label are not at the same location. This is what I meant with the projection not working, since the label is projected from the midpoint of the pipe and hence it is not at the intersection point or station on the profile view. I could place a null structure or a block or a cogo point at the intersections and that would work, but it wouldn't be dynamic in the way I would wish it to be...

[cwr-pae]

If your alignment will always be straight, consider creating a non-plotting perpendicular alignment and cutting a crossection along the required alignment(s) and using section views instead of profile views. Make the gridlines feature lines and project them to the section views, only the point where each FL crosses a sample  line will be shown and will be dynamic.

[Buzz0m]

Cwr, what you suggested would probably work. This would mean that I would be forced to duplicate all the profile view related styles for section views... uuurrrrrgh

I'm just frustrated that the functionality in sections views is not available for profileviews. I know I know, they are not the same thing and are meant to be different, but it still annoys me!

[cwr-pae]

I agree ... we could complain but its not likely to do any good.

[troma]

I see what you're saying. It looks like it's not working.
But it should work.
It should certainly not be projecting the midpoint of the pipe. Perhaps the label is attached to the midpoint of the pipe. But if you display the "Crossing Pipe" in profile view, that should be the actual location where the pipe crosses the alignment.

[Joe-Bouza · Accepted solution]

My Mistake relyining on the label style. The label style gets its location from the pipe dimension not the crossing point. As Mark stated show the pipe ellipses and the station tracker shows all is jiggy.

If you want the crossing to be more prominent you can use a very narrow and deep rectangular pipe

[Joe-Bouza]

Thank you Mark.

I knew it was a sound solution. my mistake using the lable line only. Turn the crossing pipes on and the station track checks out regardless of where the alignment goes.

[Buzz0m]

A big thanks to everybody who helped me find the solution! I believe this kind of functionality would be really useful in many other cases.

I guess there is no way of getting a label exactly above the crossing pipe hatch/symbol?