You can plot profiles at any time, even without computing results. The Profile tab will draw the profile for any single or selection of Lines. Options allow you to modify the horizontal and/or vertical scales, Y Ticks, labeling, etc.
Selecting Lines to Plot
To select a Line, click on the Line itself or its junction. The selected Line will turn red in color and the input window will populate with its data.
You may select multiple Lines by clicking on a Line or its junction while holding down the [shift key]. This method will select all Lines from the first selected Line, all the way downstream to the outfall.
If you wish to select only Lines 4, 5 and 6, for example, select Lines 4, 5 and 6 while holding down the [Ctrl Key]. Deselect Lines by clicking anywhere on the white space.
An alternate method of selecting Lines is by dragging your mouse using the right mouse button on the Plan tab. The program will draw a dotted rectangle around the selected Lines. Any junction within the drawn rectangle will be selected. See Editing Your Plan Layout for more information.
Profile Options
You’ll have many options to customize while creating storm sewer profiles. These options are hosted inside of the tool bar on the upper left of the profile.
Most are self explanatory and include tooltips, but some will be explained from left to right on the toolbar below.
Reset
This button, located on the far left, will redraw the profile using the default settings. Use this if you have unsatisfactorily modified your profile drawing.
Y Ticks
Toggle button that is connected to the Up/Dn arrow buttons to the right. When toggled On, each click of an arrow button increases or decreases the number of ticks on the Y-axis. There are limits as to how many or few Y-ticks there can be. You’ll here a beep when this limit has been reached.
V Scale
Toggle button that is connected to the Up/Dn arrow buttons to the right. When toggled On, each click of an arrow button increases or decreases the profile’s Vertical Scale. For example, from 1-inch = 2 to 1-inch = 3, 4, 5, etc. There are limits to the Vertical Scale setting. You’ll here a beep when this limit has been reached.
H Scale
Toggle button that is connected to the Up/Dn arrow buttons to the right. When toggled On, each click of an arrow button increases or decreases the profile’s Horizontal Scale. For example, from 1-inch = 20 to 1-inch = 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, etc. There are limits to the Horizontal Scale setting. You’ll here a beep when this limit has been reached.
Label Font Size
Click on the large letter A button to increase the size of the labels. Click the smaller A to decrease the font size.
Download
This function will provide you with the options to save the profile drawing to an image file or to a DXF file. Just choose from the context menu that pops up.
Export to DXF or Image
Use this to save the profile drawing, as it is displayed, (Y-Ticks, Vert and Horiz scales, etc.) to a basic DXF file or a bitmap image. So first set the scaling and ticks the way you like and then export. It is the intention of this feature to allow you to import into a CAD program for further processing. See “Printing Profiles” below to get a high quality print-out of the profile.
Saving Profiles to Reuse
This function allows you to save any selected set of Lines that you have chosen to plot as a profile. This keeps you from having to re-select those lines for a future plot. You can save up to 50 unique profiles per project.
To save a plotted profile, click the Add button next to the drop-down list box. At a later time, just select this saved set to replot.
The program automatically assigns a name for the profile by appending the starting (downstream) Line number and the ending (upstream) Line number to “Line “. As shown above, this profile was named “Line 1 to 10” indicating that the beginning Line is 1 and it flows upstream to end at Line 10.
To remove an unwanted profile, click the Remove button. You will have a chance to cancel.
Please note that the save profile feature does not preserve any of the profile settings such as Ticks, label sizes, leader positions, etc. In addition, you will be required to remove any saved profiles prior to inserting, deleting or renumbering Lines in your system as this may cause problems if the Lines are part of an existing saved profile. The software will warn you ahead of time when these situations arise.
Rearranging the Leader Labels
Sometimes the leaders and labels overlap one another. They can each be relocated by simply moving your mouse over the text on the right side of the leader and dragging to a new location.
Printing Profiles
You can print your profile to a Letter (8.5 x 11) or Tabloid (11 x 17) by clicking the [Print] button on the Ribbon menu. This print button is located only on the Ribbon menu’s Home tab.
Printing Options
While viewing the profile you will have three print options after clicking the Print button:
- Current Profile – This prints the profile as currently displayed.
- Selected Line(s) – This will print each of the selected lines as shown in the profile but as separate page individual Line plots. These are a high quality print-out designed to show more detail than Option 1.
- All Lines – This will print each and every Line in the project as separate page individual Line plots. These are a high quality printout designed to show more detail than Option 1.
Options 2 and 3 will only use the default font sizes, Line leader placements and scaling. These plots will honor the selected toggles for the Surface, HGL and EGL lines.
The following print preview screen is displayed. Here you can select the page size while previewing the output. Notice that it will be printed in Landscape to better utilize the printed area.
