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Creating Points on an Alignment by Importing ASCII Files

Product Documentation
Intermediate
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Creates points along an alignment by importing points from an ASCII (text) file that contains station, offset, and elevation information.

The file you import can contain the station, offset, elevation, and description of each point. The elevation can be expressed as either a single value (elevation) or a rod reading with instrument height (rod, hi).

ASCII (text) files that use the following layouts (formats) can be imported:

  • Station, Offset
  • Station, Offset, Elevation
  • Station, Offset, Rod, Hi
  • Station, Offset, Description
  • Station, Offset, Elevation, Description
  • Station, Offset, Rod, Hi, Description

Use commas or spaces as delimiters (separators) in the file. Include one or more comment lines in the file by putting a semi-colon (;) or a pound sign (#) in the first column of a comment line.

The following is an example of data in an ASCII (text) file that is formatted using the Station, Offset, Elevation format:

#station, offset, elevation: subdivision 1
0 20.0 112.00
10 23.5 114.64
20 22.5 116.56
30 23.0 116.32
40 22.0 115.83

The first line in this example is a comment line that is ignored when the points are imported. Each of the remaining lines contains the station, offset, and elevation for a point. The file is delimited by spaces.

Before you import the file, you are prompted to describe the format of the ASCII (text) file. You can also be prompted to specify invalid indicator values for station/offsets, elevations, and rod heights.

Point settings, styles, layers, point groups, and description keys can all affect how a point is created or how it is displayed in the drawing. For more information, see Before You Create Points.

To create points on an alignment by importing ASCII files

  1. Select settings and create styles, layers, point groups, and description keys. For more information, see Before You Create Points.
  2. Click Home tabCreate Ground Data panelPoints menuCreate Points - AlignmentsImport From File.
  3. In the Import Alignment Station And Offset File dialog box, browse to the folder containing the file. Click the file name, and click Open.
    Note

    The station information must be raw station values.

  4. Enter a number between 1 and 6 to specify the format that describes the layout of data in your file, as follows:
    • 1: Station, Offset
    • 2: Station, Offset, Elevation
    • 3: Station, Offset, Rod, Hi
    • 4: Station, Offset, Description
    • 5: Station, Offset, Elevation, Description
    • 6: Station, Offset, Rod, Hi, Description
  5. Do one of the following:
    • Enter 1 if the file delimiter is a space.
    • Enter 2 if the file delimiter is a comma.
  6. If prompted, specify invalid indicators for station/offset, elevation, or rod/hi values.
  7. Select an alignment.
Note

Many factors affect how the point is displayed. For more information, see Controlling the Appearance of Points in a Drawing.

Ribbon

Click Home tabCreate Ground Data panelPoints menuCreate Points - AlignmentsImport From File

Menu

Points menuCreate Points - AlignmentsImport From FileAt the Command prompt, enter CreatePointImportFromFile

Toolspace Context Menu

Prospector tab: right-click Points collection Create

Command Line

CreatePointImportFromFile

Dialog Box

Create Points


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