Rotation and Location of Grid

Currently it appears the only way to have a grid is with direct north/south coordinate lines.  This grid is utilized when exporting cut fill information to Autocad as a dwg file.  Frequently in autocad we use a user coordinate system, and when we do the grid information is not aligned with the user coordinate system due to its operation being hard coded to the actual coordinates.

It'd be useful if we could pick a user coordinate 0,0 and a user rotation for north / south, so that the cut/fill information on the grid drops in at a text rotation and at locations that is coordinated with our user coordinates in Autocad.  I can make all sorts of adjustments once it's exported, but I'd rather not have to do so.

Further, it'd be useful to be able to control the rotation and size of the fonts for the cut/fill information, and to have different layers for the cut, fill and no cut/no fill information so that they can be turned off and on without having to change them after export.  I'd also like to see the grid lines, cut/fill hatches and other lines be controllable with their own layers.

Doable?

Currently it appears the only way to have a grid is with direct north/south coordinate lines.  This grid is utilized when exporting cut fill information to Autocad as a dwg file.  Frequently in autocad we use a user coordinate system, and when we do the grid information is not aligned with the user coordinate system due to its operation being hard coded to the actual coordinates.

It'd be useful if we could pick a user coordinate 0,0 and a user rotation for north / south, so that the cut/fill information on the grid drops in at a text rotation and at locations that is coordinated with our user coordinates in Autocad.  I can make all sorts of adjustments once it's exported, but I'd rather not have to do so.

Further, it'd be useful to be able to control the rotation and size of the fonts for the cut/fill information, and to have different layers for the cut, fill and no cut/no fill information so that they can be turned off and on without having to change them after export.  I'd also like to see the grid lines, cut/fill hatches and other lines be controllable with their own layers.

Doable?

Hi Inxpot1,

Everything's doable!  However, it's a struggle for us to get the balance on the exports between simplicity and advanced features.  We have targeted our CAD exports generally at people who are less proficient with CAD than you.  Because of that we have tried to keep it fairly simple in terms of the number of layers and detailed options.

For the rotation I would suggest you consider using a separate CAD file which xref's our export.  This would allow you to change your UCS.  Although you would have to do this manually the first time, it would mean that if you re-export from our software you won't have to repeat the process.  This approach is generally quite useful for more advanced CAD work and can help you avoid having to repeat steps each time you export.  I'm not an expert on this myself, but I think perhaps this could work for you.

Regarding the additional separation into layers, and font sizes: We're very open to suggestions but at the same time we are always a bit stuck with not wanting to change things often, since it can disrupt the workflow that our users have developed around the exports as they are.  I think grid lines are on a separate layer already, so am I right in thinking that this is what you are after:

1) Separation of cut/fill grid points into "cut"/"fill"/"no cut or fill" layers
2) Separation of cut/fill surfaces into "cut" and "fill" layers
3) Settings text size and rotation on the cut/fill grid points

Is that it?  I'd be interested to know why you are wanting to display only the cut or the fill.  We might have some ideas on other ways to achieve this.


Leo

Currently it appears the only way to have a grid is with direct north/south coordinate lines.  This grid is utilized when exporting cut fill information to Autocad as a dwg file.  Frequently in autocad we use a user coordinate system, and when we do the grid information is not aligned with the user coordinate system due to its operation being hard coded to the actual coordinates.

It'd be useful if we could pick a user coordinate 0,0 and a user rotation for north / south, so that the cut/fill information on the grid drops in at a text rotation and at locations that is coordinated with our user coordinates in Autocad.  I can make all sorts of adjustments once it's exported, but I'd rather not have to do so.

Further, it'd be useful to be able to control the rotation and size of the fonts for the cut/fill information, and to have different layers for the cut, fill and no cut/no fill information so that they can be turned off and on without having to change them after export.  I'd also like to see the grid lines, cut/fill hatches and other lines be controllable with their own layers.

Doable?

Hi Inxpot1,

Everything's doable!  However, it's a struggle for us to get the balance on the exports between simplicity and advanced features.  We have targeted our CAD exports generally at people who are less proficient with CAD than you.  Because of that we have tried to keep it fairly simple in terms of the number of layers and detailed options.

For the rotation I would suggest you consider using a separate CAD file which xref's our export.  This would allow you to change your UCS.  Although you would have to do this manually the first time, it would mean that if you re-export from our software you won't have to repeat the process.  This approach is generally quite useful for more advanced CAD work and can help you avoid having to repeat steps each time you export.  I'm not an expert on this myself, but I think perhaps this could work for you.

Regarding the additional separation into layers, and font sizes: We're very open to suggestions but at the same time we are always a bit stuck with not wanting to change things often, since it can disrupt the workflow that our users have developed around the exports as they are.  I think grid lines are on a separate layer already, so am I right in thinking that this is what you are after:

1) Separation of cut/fill grid points into "cut"/"fill"/"no cut or fill" layers
2) Separation of cut/fill surfaces into "cut" and "fill" layers
3) Settings text size and rotation on the cut/fill grid points

Is that it?  I'd be interested to know why you are wanting to display only the cut or the fill.  We might have some ideas on other ways to achieve this.


Leo


Yes, that's it.  Of course I can do all these things manually (I do this), but the reason I do is that once the elements are exported into my drawing, I then go about setting them up to match the rest of my drawing.  For example, I utilize the same fonts and the font sizes are modified depending on the scale in my paperspace, and matched to the other font layers and styles I have in my plan.  I also go about adjusting the font sizes and types so that they don't conceal too much of my drawing.  Depending on the scale, the fonts can be quite large and bold.  I also go about cleaning up the drawing so that stray readings that are neither cut nor fill are removed.  I do it manually now, but having them on their own layer would make this an easy chore.  Similarly for the cut/fill numbers, as I would be able to control their color in my plan by layer rather than using the default colors.

Further I separate the grids from the cut/fill lines so that I can hatch the fill and the cut areas with different colors (I suppose it'd be nice also to have this done automatically, and be able to control the layers and colors of the cut/fill areas).  The grid gets in the way, so if it's easy to turn off and on I can dig in easily and hatch the areas.   There is still a bit of cleanup here and there I need to do but it's not a big deal (cut and fill lines trailing out toward the tails precisely one on top of the other, for example, and grids may be labeled by elevations in a way that I don't want such as 40.25, 41.50 rather than 40.00, 41.00), but it would save me some drafting time with these few features.

As far as the UCS that's a good idea.