Sections to Points

This command creates Carlson points using a section (.SCT) file to define the point elevations. The x,y position of the points are calculated based on the station and offset along a centerline polyline. These points are stored in the current coordinate (.CRD) file and can also be plotted in the drawing. Points can be created at each station in the section file or at a set station interval. The range of stations to process can also be set. The Description Match field can be used to filter the offsets and only create points with matching descriptions (e.g. only "EOP" offsets). The Create points at fixed offsets option can be used to make points at user-specified offset distances. The program will interpolate the elevations for these points by interpolating from the neighboring offsets. The is both a Centerline by Polyline or by CL File option. The CL File option will prompt for an existing centerline (.CL) file. The Reduce Points option will skip creating points for the same offset between stations if the x,y position and elevation change is less than the offset tolerance. Essentially, when a series of offsets are on a straight line (no vertical and no horizontal curve) then only the starting and ending points are needed and all the intermediate points can be skipped. For example, the Reduce Points routine will look at the left side EOP offset points at stations 1+00, 1+05 and 1+10 and if these three points make a straight line then the point for station 1+05 can be reduced. The Offset Distance is the tolerance that Reduce Points using for testing whether the middle point (offset point at station 1+05) can be reduced. The distance for the middle point is calculated as the perpendicular distance from the middle point to the line between the two end points. Both the horizontal and vertical distances are checked.

Prompts

Sections to Points Settings dialog
Coordinate File to Process Choose a .CRD or other coordinate file to add the points to. This prompt only occurs if no coordinate file is current.
Choose SCT file to read pick the cross section file
Range of stations: 3.34 to 750.00
Enter the starting station to process <3.34>: press Enter
Enter the ending station to process <750.00>: press Enter
Select centerline polyline: pick the polyline that defines the stations
Type of centerline [<ROadway>/RAilroad]? RO
Enter the centerline starting station <0.0>: press Enter
Created 65 points.

Keyboard Command: sctopt
Prerequisite: A .sct file and polyline centerline