PLAN & PROFILE SHEET CLIPPING

(Classic Method)

These are brief instructions for using the "Classic" method of creating a variety of Plan and/or Plan & Profile sheets. This application automatically places clipping blocks along the chain and profile. The chain and profile can exist in the same file or in separate files, however, (if they are in separate files) the file that contains the profile must be referenced to the opened file that contains the chain. This application clips any desired reference files painlessly along with the chain.

The most difficult part of this application is setting the internal parameters (the .dat files) that actually does the work. Special plan sheet cells are also required and these have already been set up as well.

Before this application can be used, the user must first select it from the Geopak User Preferences dialog as shown below:

To invoke the application, select, Applications > Geopak Road > Plans Preparation > Plan and Profile Sheets . . . or . . .

Use the Geopak Road Tools icon as shown below:

Either way brings up the Plan/Profile Sheets dialog box as shown below:

Use the Select buttons to select your Job Number, Chain and Profile.
Make sure the Mode is toggled to Sheet Layout.
If the sheet type desired is a Plan and Profile, then toggle the Sheet Info toggle to one of the Plan/Profile sheets . . . PP-100 through PP-700 (This will be explained later).
If a Plan/Profile sheet was selected, the Define Profile Origin button will be unghosted. Click on Define Profile Origin. This invokes the Define Profile Origin dialog box as shown below:

You should already have placed a Profile Cell when you designed the Profile. Click on the Identify Cell button, and accept it with a data point. The dialog and all of it's fields will be automatically populated.

Sheet Info:

Select the "sheet type." The available selections are as follows:

1PL100 through 1PL700 . . . These "sheet types" consist of a single stack Plan only sheet, (no profile grid) with various station range drawing areas. 1PL100 is set up to clip and display a 100-meter section of horizontal alignment. 1PL700 is set up to clip and display a 700-meter section of horizontal alignment.

2PL700 . . . This "sheet type" consists of a double stacked Plan only sheet, (no profile grid) with a station range of 700 meters.

PP100 through PP700 . . . These "sheet types" consist of a typical plan and profile with various station range drawing areas. PP100 is set up to clip and display a 100- meter section of horizontal and vertical alignment. PP700 is set up to clip and display a 700-meter section of horizontal and vertical alignment.

Set the Scale to 1.
Toggle the "Display toggle" to Display All Sheets.
When placing the first sheet be sure the Plan and/or Profile sheet # is set to 1.
When placing the remaining sheets, be sure that this field is set to the next sheet number, in this case it would be 2.

Sheet Composition:

Select By Station Range

.......now comes the tricky part...........

Toggle the Radial switch Off and set the toggle above it to Outside In.
Highlight the entire Horizontal field and key in 0.
Key in the Station Range. This number must match the sheet type that was selected. For example if PP-600 was selected, the key in must be 600.
Toggle the Radial switch On.
Make sure that the Vertical field is set to 0.

Sheet:

Under the Layout button, make your selection from Plan, Profile or Plan & Profile. Obviously if you're clipping typical Plan/Profile sheets, you would select Plan & Profile.
Click on Layout. This will place drawing area borders and clipping blocks in your plan file. If the horizontal alignment is extremely twisted, the borders and clipping blocks may need to be modified.

Moving the drawing area borders: (Plan View)

These are graphic groups, so if you've placed multiple borders and clipping blocks at the same time, and you need to move one, you'll have to toggle the graphic group lock off. Then . . . simply use the MicroStation move command.

Adjusting the clipping blocks: (Plan View)

Once a border and clipping block has been moved, the clipping block will need to be manually adjusted. Click on Modify. This brings up the Modify options box:

Select Modify Drawing Area and data point the dashed line. This results in a "rubber band" effect. Simply adjust as necessary.

Adjusting the drawing area borders: (Profile View)

Select Adjust Profile Sheet. This will allow the sheet to be moved vertically. The MicroStation move command will allow movement both horizontally and vertically.

Adjusting the clipping blocks: (Profile View)

Currently . . . the profile clipping blocks can't be adjusted.

Once all the drawing area borders and clipping blocks have been placed and adjusted as necessary . . . you are ready to clip and create actual sheets. Click on Clip Sheets . . . to invoke the Clip Sheets dialog box shown below:

We've programmed this application to clip and create (from a seed file) design files that contain only one sheet per file. By limiting the file to only one sheet, the intelligence of the coordinate orientation is maintained. The name of each of these design files must be set up in the Output File field. If p_p.dgn is entered, the first file created will be named p_p001.dgn, the second, p_p002.dgn and so on . . .

It is possible to create all of the sheets within the same .dgn file. To do this click check box for Reference (under the Rotate section), as shown below and select ALL or any other number under the Sheets/File toggle:

By default . . . all of the reference files that were attached in your plan drawing file will be clipped too. From this dialog box, the clipping of the reference files can be ignored, simply by highlighting the reference file and clicking on Delete. In addition . . . other reference files can be attached for clipping by clicking on the Reference File File button, selecting the path and eventually the file, and then clicking on Add.

Toggle Place Sheet Cell to On. The correct cell will automatically be selected depending on whether you've chosen Plan or Plan & Profile back on the Plan & Profile Sheets dialog box.

Label:

Toggle the Sheet option ON. This will place information (outside the plotting area) at the lower left corner of each plan sheet. The information includes the Sheet number, the angle of rotation, and the Chain. You may click on Params . . . to see the default settings for the label.

Click on Define Annotation . . . to set up the annotation in the sheet title block located in the upper right corner of each Plan or Plan/Profile sheet. Leave the sheet number blank.

Sheet Range:

Select the beginning and ending sheet range for clipping or use the default values.

Now . . . to clip the drawing areas, and create the plan sheets, click on Process.

If further adjustments are necessary:

If some text is chopped off or there are other reasons for further adjustments, simply go back to the original file where the drawing area borders and clipping blocks were placed and adjust the clipping blocks as explained earlier. The sheets will then need to be re- clipped via the Clip Sheets dialog box.

NOTE:

Occasionally, you may not want a full 700 meters on the first sheet. You'll notice in this example (shown above in the Plan & Profile Sheets dialog box), I've selected PP600 with a Station Range of 600 and . . . the difference between the Beginning and Ending stations is 600 meters. For the remainder of the project . . . I would select PP700 with a Station Range of 700 and the Beginning station would be 10+700 and the Ending station would be the ending chain station.

The ending chain station can be easily obtained by highlighting the entire key in field, pressing Delete and pressing Enter.

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