CreateAlignProf

SincpacC3D General Information Command Summary

CreateAlignProf

Description

The CreateAlignProf command creates Alignments and Profiles from a variety of objects, including polylines, 3D-Polylines, Feature Lines, and Survey Figures. Various pruning options may be used when creating the Alignment and Profile.

This command may be used to create both a Profile and Alignment simultaneously, or to create only an Alignment, or to add a Profile to an existing Alignment. In any case, the source object is a 3D-Polyline or other linear object, and all pruning options may be used.

This command contains options for pruning the source linework in both the horizontal and vertical directions. These pruning options are applied completely independently of each other. So a point that is pruned from the alignment may still appear in the profile, and vice-versa.

Unfortunately, because of the built-in pruning employed by this command, a feature line that contains arc segments will lose its arcs with this command. If you may want to try the CAPFeature command instead. Also, this command processes standard polylines differently, in order to avoid losing the curves. However, because of this, the horizontal pruning and "Add Curves" options are disabled when creating Alignments/Profiles from standard polylines.

Usage

Run the CreateAlignProf command and select the desired settings in the dialog box. Then select the 3D-Polyline or other object to use for creating the alignment and/or profile. The following dialog box will then appear:

On the left side of the dialog, you may choose to either use the linework to create a profile on an existing alignment (if one exists), or you may create a new alignment. If you are creating a new alignment, the "Create Profile" checkbox will be available to you on the right side of the dialog box. So this command may be used to create both an alignment and profile, or create only an alignment, or create only a profile.

Once you have all settings the way you want them, hit OK. You will then be prompted to select a location for a Profile View. If you select a location, then you will see the Create Profile View dialog box. Or, you may right-click or hit the ESC key to skip the Profile View generation. Unfortunately, it is difficult to have any control over the labels that appear on the Profiles in Profile Views. See the notes about the issues with Profile Labels in Profile Views for details.

Here is a brief description of the options available in this dialog box:

Ref Station: Enter the reference station for the alignment, with no station marks, i.e. for Station 10+00, enter "1000". Click on the little button next to the reference station if you wish to pick a point on-screen, or by default, the reference station is at the start of the alignment.

Prune Straightaways: When selected, this option removes PIs that are on-line between the PIs on either side.

Weed Horiz PIs: Extra weeding factors for removing PIs. The PIs are examined from first to last in groups of three. If the overall distance (x+y in the diagram below) is less than the weeding distance, and the deflection angle is less than the weeding angle, then the middle point is pruned. Then the comparison is repeated for the next group of three points.

Add Curves to Alignment: When checked, a floating curve of the specified radius is added to each vertex, if it will fit.

Weed PVIs: When selected, this option will remove as many PVIs as possible, yet still end up with a resulting Profile that is within the specified tolerance at all points. For example, a value of 0.5' for this setting would result in a Profile that had as few PVIs as possible, but is within 0.5' of the source linework at all points along the Profile.

Note that this command may also be run from the shortcut menu by selecting any appropriate linework, right-click, and select "Create Alignment/Profile" from the shortcut menu.