Define/Draw Longitudinal Profile

Use the following procedure to draw a longitudinal profile of the entire structure or parts of it. You should select the start and end station of the structure and the interval between calculated stations.

Find the function here:

Ribbon: Bridge > Longitudinal Geometry Define/Draw Longitudinal Profile

When you start the longitudinal profile for the first time, you will be prompted for the scale, if the scale has not been set before.

Scale

For example, you would enter 200 for the scale of 1:200. The scale you define will affect the size of the text.

After you have selected a scale, a dialog box will pop up listing all the longitudinal profile definitions defined earlier.

Existing longitudinal profile definitions

If you have one or more longitudinal profiles defined already, you can pick one of those on the list to the left in the dialog box and then choose Select. The definition of this longitudinal profile will then be displayed. You will then be free to change/redefine the details, which have been saved and you can calculate the values again.

Delete longitudinal profile definition

If you wish to delete any of your existing longitudinal profile definitions, select the definition and use the key Delete.

New longitudinal profile definition

The first time you use the function, you should select New for a new longitudinal profile definition. The dialog box 'Longitudinal Profile' will pop up, in which you will define your longitudinal profile.

After you have selected New, the dialog box 'Longitudinal Profile' will pop up, in which you have given a name for the longitudinal profile being defined. Enter the desired name at the field Name.

Name

If you are defining a new longitudinal profile, you must give it a name. This name is the definition of the data set that describes your longitudinal profile.

From/To Station

Novapoint Bridge Professional will suggest From/To Stations, Interval between the stations for which plan values are to be calculated, Text height, Stationing, etc. You can change these values, but From/To Station values must be located between the start and end key cross-sections. You will also select the lines on the cross-section, which are to be drawn. You can also change these values after you have defined points to be drawn.

Interval/ accuracy

The interval will determine how densely you wish the points on the line to be calculated and output. In other words, the interval will determine the accuracy of your longitudinal profile. The smaller the value for the interval the greater the accuracy, but the time required for the calculation will also be longer.

Draw alignment

The centerline will be drawn accurately irrespective of the interval defined. You can choose not to output the centreline by clearing the check box Draw Alignment.

Specify terrain

The dialog box 'Specify Terrain Profiles' will pop up with the key Specify Terrain, in which you can select the terrain lines, which are to be drawn on the longitudinal profile drawing. For a more detailed explanation of this tool see the topic 'Options'. The only difference is that in this dialog you specify where to draw the terrain lines by specifying the offset from the centreline instead of the relative station numbers to the actual road profile.

Polylines

All lines will be drawn as polylines.

Curve fit

Mark the check box 'Curve-fit' to carry out curve fitting for the polylines. If the option curve-fit is selected, the program will smoothen the lines, but all of the lines will go through the calculated points. If the option Curve-fit is not selected, the lines will be drawn as straight lines between the calculated points. The program will undertake curve smoothing by default.

Text height

You can also select the text height for annotations on the longitudinal profile. The text height will depend on the scale defined. If you want a text height of 3.5 mm on the finished plot, you should select a text height equal to 3.5 times the scale. In other words, a text height of 350 mm for a scale of 1:100, 700 mm for 1:200, etc. The default text height is 3.5 mm on the final output drawing.

UCS name

When you select a name for the longitudinal profile, the UCS name will automatically be filled in. UCS stands for User Coordinate System. If this UCS is not saved on the drawing, a new UCS will be created with this name, when the longitudinal profile is drawn.

The UCS is defined such that the X-axis in the UCS represents the stations of the project. In a similar way, the Y-axis in the UCS represents elevations. This means that you can use the ID function in AutoCAD to take out coordinates when this UCS applies. The X-value will be the station and the Y-value will be the elevation. If you move the entities belonging to the longitudinal profile, the coordinates you get afterward will, of course, be incorrect.

If you wish to draw the longitudinal profile in the same UCS as a previously output longitudinal profile, you can select a valid UCS name and thereby have the longitudinal profile output in the same coordinates system. If you do this, you will not be prompted to enter an insertion point for the longitudinal profile.

Select

You can control the lines, which are to be drawn. This can be done by selecting section points of the desired lines, which are to be drawn. This selection is carried out from the dialog box 'Bridge Structure', which will pop up with the key 'Select' of the dialog box 'Longitudinal Profile'. Just click near the point, which is to be selected. Every point you select will represent a line on the longitudinal profile. If you select a point that is defined both as start and end points of a closed polyline on the cross-section, two lines will be selected which will lie on top of each other. You can use Erase to remove one of them.

Vertical

The Vertical option is the only one available in this version of Novapoint Bridge Professional. This means that the distance between the structural lines and the vertical alignment line drawn in the longitudinal profile always is the vertical distance. Due to this, every line of the structure is drawn with the correct elevation.

You can pick as many points as you want. You should finish the selection of points by pressing OK. The points you select will be shown in the list of the dialog box 'Longitudinal Profile'.

You can traverse along the alignment by entering the station number at the field Cr. Sec. No. or using the keys '<' and '>'. If you are using the keys '<' and '>', you will jump to the cross-section at an interval defined at the field 'Interval'.

The key '«' and '»' will take you to the Key Sections. All other keys on the right side of the dialog are pan and zoom functions.

List of lines to be drawn on longitudinal profile

After you have selected all of the desired points, they will be listed in the dialog box 'Longitudinal Profile' The list display information of selected section points, such as cross-section polyline no., point number on the polyline, etc.). By default, you will get the current color and current line type.

Changing the longitudinal profile definition

You can change a previously defined longitudinal profile definition by running the function Define/Draw Longitudinal Profile whenever a change is desired.

Run the function, Select the definition, which is to be redefined from the list of available definitions and edit the values. You can redefine From/To Stations, Calculation Interval, Annotation height, Stationing Interval, Delete section point or add section points, etc.

• • Delete - If you have selected a point on the cross-section, which is not to be drawn, you can delete it using the key Delete.

  • Adding Points - At any time, you can add new points to be drawn on AutoCAD.

Draw

You can draw the longitudinal profile by selecting Draw at the bottom of the dialog box 'Longitudinal Profile'.

If a UCS with the same name as you have defined in the dialog box 'Longitudinal Profile', is not defined, you will be prompted to pick an insertion point for the longitudinal profile. 

Command prompts for:

• • Pick insertion point - Select insertion point for the longitudinal profile:

This point will define how the longitudinal profile will be drawn. You should select the point for the start station on the centreline.

If this UCS has been defined, the longitudinal profile will automatically be drawn so that the stations are represented by the x-axis in the UCS and the elevation will be represented by the Y-axis.

The status line will show the station currently being calculated.

Station: [m]

The following will be displayed on the command line: 

Calculating the cross-sections

Layers

The lines of the longitudinal profile are drawn on the layer saved in the database. The vertical alignment line is drawn on a layer with the alignment name and the terrain lines on layers starting with TERR_ and then specifying the actual offset of the terrain line. In addition, the program will set up a layer under the name STRUCTURES-SYSTEM. This layer contains hidden entities for storing project data. The status of the layer is set to 'freeze' by the program to avoid considering it during the following actions:

• When the command 'Zoom' is active.

• When the snap mode is enabled and the draw functions are active.

Save

You can save your longitudinal profile definition by selecting the OK button in the dialog box 'Longitudinal Profile'. You can then load and draw the longitudinal profile on a later occasion.