Draw 3D Object Along an Alignment
A new function has been added to Novapoint Road and Railway to draw 3D blocks along an alignment.
An alignment can be any line; a polyline, a road or rail surface, or an alignment from alignment design or from files (TIT and NYLP).
The function is started from the Railway, Road, or W&S menu: Draw 3D Object along an alignment
Figure 1: How to open the Object along an alignment dialog.
Start the function and the following dialog is opened.
Figure 2: The Object along an alignment dialog
The default Rail project and DTM are automatically selected from the project ID. The user must first select the Horizontal Info.
There are four choices:
From the Railway/Road Model.
From the DTM.
From a file (TIT + NYLP).
From the Drawing.
For each choice, the surface edge, alignment, file, or polyline is selected.
Press OK.
Now the source for the vertical elevation can be selected, Vertical Info.
Figure 3: The source for the vertical elevation can be selected under Vertical Info
Vertical Info and the elevation are automatically added to the Elevation column. The top part of the dialog can be toggled ON and OFF:
Figure 4: How to toggle the top part of the dialog ON and OFF
Select the Chainage Distance required between blocks, i.e. 50 m and then select AutoFill and OK.
The table is now filled in for the whole alignment:
Figure 5: Example of a filled table
A block can be added or changed by selecting either the default Block Name or another row in the column, then select Browse file and Enter.
Figure 6: How to add or change a block
You can now add a new 3D block. You can have a number of different blocks. INHERIT will use the previous block and DEFAULT will use the default block.
Note: Connection to a Symbol Library will be added later.
Select Draw to draw the blocks to CAD. You will be asked if you wish to save the table to a file.
Figure 7: After selecting Draw you will be asked if you want to save the table to a file
The table will be saved to a file that is opened. The blocks are drawn to CAD.
Figure 8: Example of blocks that are drawn to CAD
The table can be re-opened, either by opening the saved file or by using NCO – Edit on one of the inserted blocks:
Figure 9: How to re-open a table
Editing the table
Chainage values can be edited, the Chainage Distance will update. If you will keep the default value for the following chainages you can either change INHERIT to DEFAULT, or change the next chainage value to the default value. You can use I for INHERIT or D for DEFAULT.
Segment - displays the segment type.
Chainage Distance - gives the distance between blocks. If this value is edited the Chainage will update.
H-Offset - the user can add a positive or negative horizontal offset.
North/East, Insertion point - these can be entered manually (in the next version a block can be moved in the drawing and these values will update dynamically).
H-Distance - gives the true horizontal distance between two blocks taking into account the curvature. The user can enter a value and both the Chainage and the Chainage Distance will be updated.
V-Offset - the user can add a positive or negative vertical offset.
Elevation - the user can override the calculated elevation.
Block name - new blocks can be added.
INHERIT (I) - will copy the value in the cell over.
DEFAULT (D) - will copy the value in the default row.
Block attributes - if a block has attributes they will be shown in a new set of columns. The attribute values can be edited in the table. This only applies to one block (recommend that this is the default block). Typical use is for annotation text for a block.
Table values can be selected as an attribute by using the following syntax ##Chainage##.
Figure 10: Selecting table values by using the syntax ##Chainage##
Figure 11: The correct chainage is drawn with each block
The complete table can be drawn to Microsoft Excel by selecting:
Figure 12: How to draw the complete table to Microsoft Excel
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