Pillory me as a heretic, but I just can't feel the love for this software.
Today's dilemma: stationing a centerline. Actually, it's a portion of a baseline (but that's not important), beginning at 122+78.27 & ending at 134+37.92.
So, I draw a pline 1159.65' long, create a c/l file, tell the software that the pline is the c/l and it begins @ 122+78.27 --OK so far. Now, to pretty things up, I want to label the beginning, ending and intermediate EVEN stations, vis: 123+00,124+00, etc., AND I CANNOT MAKE THAT HAPPEN-easily.
For all the time I've spent farting around with the darned ol' "Station Polyline/Centerline" dialog, I could have done it manually in ACAD about 25 times.
When I set up the dialog like this:
I get labels at 122+78.27, 123+00.27, 124+00.27, ad nauseum. I mean....really?
Apparently in the program's world, all alignments begin at an even foot station, because if I create a new c/l file and tell it the beginning sta. is 122+78.00, it works like a charm, but that silly 0.27 throws it. To end this diatribe, please know that I have checked and unchecked every check box and radio button there is on that dialog.
If I specify in the dialog that the starting station is 12300, I still get 122+78.27, 123+00.27, 124+00.27, ad nauseum.
If I check "Specify Start/End Stations", and at the command line start at 12278.27, end at 13437.92 - you guessed it: 122+78.27, 123+00.27, 124+00.27, ad nauseum.
So, here's the method I've arrived at:
1) Specify, at the command line, "begin 12300, end 13400" and I get 123+00, 124+00, etc.
2) In the dialog at the "Locate" line, I uncheck all but the "Start/End Stations" checkbox, I uncheck the "Erase Previous Station Labels" check box, click OK and now, in only about 45 minutes, I've created 15 text labels and 26 tick marks.
I'm open to suggestions -
Sarge,
I'm using Carlson 14 and cant seem to duplicate the issue you are having. It would seem that if you had the "Increment from Beginning Station" checked that it would follow what you are seeing. I tried to do this a few different ways and it always came up with even stationing. What version are you using?
2012, build 120809.
I checked the "Increment from Beginning Station" box and still no joy - but thanks for the suggestion.
Would it work for you if you extended the line back to, say, 122+00, stationed it, and then trimmed it?
It does sound like a bug, though. Have you made Carlson aware of this?
Yes, that works, but my pline begins and ends @ a PI. I just don't think I should have to spend a lot of time finding work-arounds for $3K ± software.
I try at all costs to avoid Carlson support, after having been told by one of their support people that I don't know how to survey....
...but they were prolly right, as I've only been doing it for about 35 years, since they were likely still in short pants & taking naps after lunch.
Thanks-
SS
Also, the reason for this exercise is that I'm trying to reproduce some takings. But, can I draw lines by sta. & offset? NOOOO, I have to create points at the sta. & offset, and connect the dots to define the taking lines.
try the centerline by polyline option instead of the cl file option
I was unable to replicate that behavior using my 120809 build of Carlson 2012. If you'd be willing to send me your CL file along with the "Save Settings" generated *.STA file of your Stationing Settings, I'll take a look and see what I can come up with. In my testing, I created a centerline with a starting station of 12278.27 that had compound reverse curves and both gap and overlap station equations.
When using the CL option for "Centerline", you don't need to specify the Beginning Station value in the dialog box (you can leave it at 0) as the stationing is carried in the CL file itself.
Feel free to send data and settings that illustrate the problem to lnelsonATcarlsonswDOTcom.
> I try at all costs to avoid Carlson support, after having been told by one of their support people that I don't know how to survey....
Really!? That's shocking to hear. I bet Bruce Carlson himself would like to hear about that. I've never heard anything but high praises for their support staff. I owned/manage a company and heard about something like that coming from any of my staff, especially to a customer, there'd be hell to pay!
That's what I did:
"So, I draw a pline 1159.65' long, create a c/l file, tell the software that the pline is the c/l and it begins @ 122+78.27"
Thanks,
SS
Ladd-
I'll take you up on that, but before I do, I should say that I'm using ACAD 2006 in a Win7 64b environment, so that's usually where the finger points as explanation for any hinky behavior-- though I've yet to have plain vanilla ACAD 2006 exhibit any weirdness, and I do a LOT of drawing outside of Carlson.
And please, believe me, I'm not maligning you - you're one great asset to Carlson and to this board's Carlson users.
Also, as I'm falling further and further behind a deadline as I type, this'll have to wait.
Thanks!
SS
I think rambleon is referring to a selection in your posted window.
Instead of using the centerline file you created by using the drawn polyline, I think he is suggesting you just select the polyline option.
Here is a video showing what I think he is talking about -
This doesn't help you, but both methods worked on my computer and were accomplished in a matter of minutes. Maybe a bug in your install of the software that is causing the problem.
> I'm using ACAD 2006 in a Win7 64b environment, so that's usually where the finger points as explanation for any hinky behavior.
I did my testing on Carlson 2012 with IntelliCAD (I don't have a pre-2012 version of AutoCAD on my computer).
Enter R-O-W
what i thought might be happening is that the first time it creates a c/l file and the software keeps using that data for the stationing, even if you enter diff values...Ive seen that behavior before....
> > I try at all costs to avoid Carlson support, after having been told by one of their support people that I don't know how to survey....
I doubt very much that a tech support from any company would say: "you don't how to survey". It may have been interpreted as such, or maybe a different survey method was suggested, etc.
Doubt all you want..
Sorry, you're right, that wasn't an exact quote.
The gist is that I asked the software to do something that I've been doing since the days of recording paper notes and performing all calcs with a 41CX & Hp survey chip.
I learned plane survey computations using log tables, a slide rule and traverse sheets.
The software wouldn't do as I asked; so, naturally thinking it was my own ignorance, I called tech support.
"Well, why do you want to do that?"
"Because I've been doing it that way for many years."
"That's not a good surveying procedure, you've been doing it wrong and should change your method."
"Oh, OK, thanks for that." Click.
Now I'm all about faster, better - but when a procedure works for me, unless you can prove your way really IS faster, better - I'm stayin'. So, the software wouldn't do what I want and I found a workaround.
But I was pretty steamed, being one of those touchy, independent and crotchety old surveyors.
Now granted, I'm not the most patient guy when the clock is running on a project, but the only bit of Carlson software that hasn't frustrated the heck out of me at times is SurvNet. It just works, I love it.
Figgered it out pretty much straight away & it has never exhibited any weirdness that I couldn't resolve on my own, usually because of something in the .rw5.
Thanks,
SS