To Work With Profile PVIs

Manage the elevations and grades along a layout profile or static surface profile by editing the points of vertical intersection (PVIs). Adjusting the number and location of PVIs allows you to make major changes to a layout profile, such as removing vertical curves and changing tangent grades.

You can lock a PVI at a specific station and elevation so that it cannot be moved by edits to adjacent entities. This is often done in intersections, where a side road profile is locked to the crown and edge-of-pavement elevations of the main road. If you unlock a dynamic PVI for one road in an intersection, you break the link to the profile of the other road.

You can also move PVIs with editing grips.

Tutorial Exercise: Editing a Layout Profile

To insert a PVI

1. Click the profile. Profile tabModify Profile panelGeometry Editor Find.
2. On the Profile Layout Tools toolbar, click Insert PVI.
3. Specify a point along the profile for the location of the new PVI. Specify the point either by clicking the point or by entering ‘pse and providing a numeric value.
4. Optionally, add other PVIs.
5. Right-click to finish.

To insert multiple PVIs

1. Click the profile. Click Profile tabModify Profile panelGeometry Editor Find.
2. On the Profile Layout Tools toolbar, click Insert PVIs - Tabular.
3. To place a curve at each inserted PVI, click the desired curve type in the Insert PVIs dialog box. Otherwise, click None. The choice made here applies to all PVIs inserted at this time.
4. Click the first Station cell to activate it. Enter station and elevation values for each PVI. Press Enter after each value to move the cursor to the next field. To change a value after entering it in the table, click the cell and modify the entry.
5. After all values are entered, check the table to ensure that each value is correct.
6. Click OK to insert the set of PVIs.

To delete a PVI

1. Click the profile. Click Profile tabModify Profile panelGeometry Editor Find.
2. On the Profile Layout Tools toolbar, click Delete PVI.
3. In the profile view, click near the PVI you want to delete. The PVI is removed, and the tangents are adjusted to connect the adjacent PVIs or endpoints.

To lock a PVI

1. Click the profile. Click Profile tabModify Profile panelGeometry Editor Find.
2. On the Profile Layout Tools toolbar, select the PVI based display option.
3. Click Profile Grid View.
4. Find the PVI to lock, and optionally edit its location by changing numeric data in the table.
5. Click the open lock icon in the table row for the PVI. The icon changes to a closed lock state, and some values in the table are dimmed to indicate they cannot be edited.

To unlock a PVI

1. Click the profile. Click Profile tabModify Profile panelGeometry Editor Find.
2. On the Profile Layout Tools toolbar, select the PVI based display option.
3. Click Profile Grid View.
4. Click the closed lock icon in the table row for the PVI. The icon changes to an open lock state, and additional values in the table can be edited.

Tip: You can also unlock a PVI by clicking the lock icon in the profile view.

To move a PVI

1. Click the profile. Click Profile tabModify Profile panelGeometry Editor Find.
2. On the Profile Layout Tools toolbar, click Move PVI.
3. In the drawing window, click near the PVI that you want to move.
4. Click the new location for the PVI. The PVI is immediately moved to the new location. The adjacent tangents are adjusted accordingly.
5. To move additional PVIs, repeat steps 4 and 5.

To raise or lower a series of PVIs

1. Click the profile. Click Profile tabModify Profile panelGeometry Editor Find.
2. On the Profile Layout Tools toolbar, click Raise/Lower PVIs.
3. In the Raise/Lower PVI Elevations dialog box, enter the elevation distance to raise or lower the PVIs. A positive number raises the PVIs and a negative number lowers them.
4. Click the PVI Range you want to move: either All PVIs or those within a range of stations.
5. If you clicked Station Range, specify the start and end stations.
6. Click OK to move the PVIs.