PRO 5.
0
2/2/99
Profile drawing program
By Tom Haws
Program instructions
1.0 PROGRAM INTRODUCTION
1.1 Program purpose. PRO 5.0 allows Autocad users to draw
civil engineering street and utility profiles in Autocad by
entering station and elevation at the command line.
Optionally, the program will allow the input of offsets,
slopes, and labels to be plotted on the profile.
1.2 Program Input options. The program has a command line
input option and a data file input option. Command line
input can be saved to a data file as it is entered.
1.3 What's new in version 5.0? PRO 5.0 adds the capability to
draw catch basins as well as manholes and can draw both
broken. PRO 5.0 also adds the capability to draw labeled,
aligned dimensions. For data file input, PRO 5.0 uses the
standard station, offset, elevation, slope, and label fields
plus one extra field between slope and label. The extra field
allows the plotting of broken manholes and catch basins. It
also provides a place other than the label to put ellipse size
for pipe crossings. The extra field features are available
only by using data file input. A file conversion utility --
PROFC -- is provided with PRO 5.0 to convert groups of data
files that were made for other versions or to change the data
field width for groups of files.
2.0 PROGRAM STYLE DEFAULTS
2.1 Overall appearance. PRO draws profiles to look
like a compromise combination of several typical profiles.
Suggestions for style changes will be gladly considered.
2.2 Size. For profile annotation and feature scaling, the
program uses the current Autocad drawing text style, dimscale
value, and dimtxt value. This follows the convention of the
other standard custom commands.
2.3 Numeric precision. The program uses the current linear
units precision for all numeric values except slopes, which are
given to the nearest 0.001% unless the Precision option is used
(see section 4.4).
2.4 Layers. By default, the program draws on layers with a
"PPRO-" prefix. Layer names, colors, and linetypes can be
changed by editing the [Link] file.
2.0 STARTING THE PROGRAM
Start the program by typing PRO at the Autocad command prompt.
2.1 The first time the program runs in a drawing session,
certain setup tasks must be performed before the profile can be
drawn. A reference point for the profile and the profile type
must be specified. The vertical exaggeration must be set if it
is different than the default of ten. Because the profile
can't be drawn until the initial setup is done, the following
setup options are displayed until a reference point and profile
type have been set.
Reference point/profile Type/Vertical exaggeration/New profile/File:
Type R to set the reference point. The following prompts are
displayed:
Pick a reference point:
Select any convenient point with known station and elevation.
Enter reference point station as a real no.:
Enter the station of the reference point (eg. 1200).
Enter reference point elevation:
Enter the elevation of the reference point (eg. 1264 or 64).
(see section 4.1 for more information)
Type T to set the profile type (see section 4.2
for more information). When finished, type [Enter] to exit the
setup options and start plotting points.
2.2 After the first time the program is run in the current
drawing session, points may be plotted without additional
setup.
3.0 PLOTTING POINTS
When the program has been set up, the following prompt is
displayed:
<Station>/Label/Setup:
The default response to this prompt is the station to be
plotted (eg. 6732.54). This prompt also gives the options of
first entering a label to be plotted on the profile or
returning to the setup options. Keying [Enter] at this point
exits the program.
Once a station has been entered, the following prompt is
displayed:
<Elevation>/Offset:
The default response to this prompt is the elevation to
be plotted (eg. 1234.5). This prompt also gives the option of
first entering an offset to be plotted on the profile. Keying
[Enter] at this point returns to the station prompt.
4.0 PROGRAM SETUP
To change the program setup after the profile has been
initially set up, type S at the following prompt:
<Station>/Label/Setup:
The following prompt is displayed:
Ref. point/prof. Type/Vert. exag./Precision/New prof./File:
4.1 The Reference point option changes the location of the
profile. First pick a point using osnaps or enter a point from
the keyboard. Then enter the station and elevation of that
point.
4.2 The profile Type option displays the following profile
Type options:
Mesa/Gutter/PAvement/PIpe/Line only/POints only:
The Mesa option draws a curb and gutter profile with
elevations labeled on a 45 degree leader. The Gutter option
draws a fully annotated curb and gutter profile with gutter
elevation input. The PAvement option draws a fully annotated
single pavement profile. The PIpe option draws a fully
annotated pipe profile of a specified type. The Line only
option plots a non-annotated single line profile on the P-LINE
layer. The POints only option either plots annotated utility
crossing ellipses (by interpreting a provided Label input) or
simply plots circles on the DEFPOINTS layer (they do not plot)
at the specified stations and elevations.
4.3 The Vertical exaggeration option changes the ratio of the
horizontal scale to the vertical scale. The default is 10 (eg.
1"=20' horiz. and 1"=2' vert. or 1"=40' horiz. and 1"=4' vert.)
Calculate the vertical exaggeration as horiz. scale divided by
vert. scale.
4.4 The Precision option allows the user to change the
labeling precision of Station, Offset, Elevation, or Slope
text from the defaults (see section 2.2).
4.5 The New profile option tells the program not to connect
the next point to the last point. In other words, it keeps the
program from connecting two separate profiles with a
meaningless line and slope. Exiting the program also causes a
new profile to be started.
4.5 The File option is discussed in section six,
Using Data Files.
Key [Enter] to exit the setup options and plot more points.
5.0 EXITING THE PROGRAM
Exit the program by keying [Enter] at the following prompts:
Reference point/profile Type/Vertical exaggeration/New profile/File:
<Station>/Label/Setup:
6.0 USING DATA FILES
In the Setup options (see section 4), selecting File displays
the following prompt:
Read from file/Save to file:
6.1 The Read from file option reads profile information from a
text file with a .PRO extension. A file selection dialogue box
is displayed. After selecting a file to read from, key
[Enter] to exit setup and begin plotting from the file.
Note that any profile setup information in the data file will
override any profile setup done from the console
(keyboard/digitizer). On the other hand, if there is no setup
information in the data file, setup information must be entered
before starting to read from the file.
6.2 The Save to file option saves all subsequent console input
to a data file for later reading or editing. The following
prompt is displayed.
Create new file/Append existing file:
The Append option adds more data to a file which was started
previously. Since ending PRO ends input to a file, the Append
option is useful for continuing a file you didn't mean to
finish.
See the Appendix for detailed information about the format of
data files.
APPENDIX
DATA FILE FORMAT