Home > Survey Mode > Tools > Draft Expert > Draft Expert Overview
The Draft Expert functions assist with the bulk of CAD line work necessary to take a field survey to a draft topographical plan stage, with minimal editing.
This CAD linework generation can be done when:
Importing a coordinate file.
Clicking from existing DTM point to point.
As an example of it's capabilities, while a simple terrain file may look like this...
...Draft Expert can create this:
Note the following in the above example:
Entities are drawn with settings for colour, line style and layer.
Lines, 2D and 3D polylines, splines, circles, block inserts, single and multiline text are options.
If the layer doesn’t exist, it will be created.
Entities can be drawn with a label along the edges e.g. Edge, Fenceline, C/L.
The label can include the elevation of the point e.g. FL=123.46.
Block inserts are used to draw symbols.
In the field, points can be named with a prefix or suffix character to mark a new start or stop of a sequence of points. The character is an exclamation point by default but you can change this by selecting Options Settings ► Survey ► Draft Expert page.
For example, consider the ET points below:
The red numbers indicate the order in which the ET points were measured. They are interspersed with measurements of other named points as it is not necessary for the sequence to be uninterrupted. See the actual coordinate data below:
Point #6 has an exclamation point suffix indicating the polyline stops here.
Point #7 will start a new polyline.
Point #14 has an exclamation point prefix indicating the previous polyline stops at #13 and a new polyline starts at #14.
You can use the prefix or the suffix, or both, interchangeably.
In the field, a point can be given a code with a delimited list of names. By default, the delimiter character is a white-space, but you can change this by selecting Options Settings ► Survey ► Draft Expert page.
As an example, in the building and fence line below, the two “WC FE” points are used for the building polyline and the fence polyline.
Civil Designer can handle sequences of same-named points measured in the field in parallel.
In the PATH points example below, the red numbers indicate the order in which the PATH points were measured. They are interspersed with measurements of other named points as it is not necessary for the sequence to be uninterrupted.
The settings for the PATH name is set to be measured as zigzag. Side-to-side is also possible.
The following is an example of a coordinate file:
ET,50200.000,3760000.000
ET,50147.826,3760000.000
ET,50109.462,3760000.000
ET,50065.276,3760000.000
ET,50022.460,3760000.000
ET!,50000.000,3760000.000
WC FE,50136.565,3760069.020
FE,50122.179,3760069.020
FE,50122.179,3760096.080
FE,50194.110,3760096.080
FE,50194.110,3760035.109
FE,50136.565,3760035.109
WC,50159.515,3760069.020
WC,50159.515,3760052.921
WC FE,50136.565,3760052.921
ET,50000.000,3760020.000
ET,50039.929,3760020.000
ET,50080.000,3760020.000
ET,50087.122,3760022.980
PATH,50043.054,3760025.519
PATH,50040.538,3760027.152
PATH,50047.867,3760035.048
ET,50090.000,3760030.000
ET,50090.000,3760066.665
PATH,50045.090,3760039.062
PATH,50045.724,3760047.109
PATH,50041.616,3760050.800
ET,50090.000,3760106.356
!ET,50110.000,3760106.356
CL1,50100.000,3760106.356
CL2,50200.000,3760010.000
CL2 CL1,50100.000,3760010.000
CL2,50000.000,3760010.000
ET,50110.000,3760070.775
ET,50110.000,3760030.000
ET,50112.269,3760023.657
ET,50120.000,3760020.000
ET,50159.472,3760020.000
ET,50200.000,3760020.000
PATH,50044.851,3760056.214
PATH,50044.777,3760063.313
PATH,50049.552,3760066.621
PATH,50047.623,3760072.683
PATH,50049.025,3760078.536
PATH,50044.096,3760081.386
PATH,50043.397,3760087.859
PATH,50040.928,3760086.155
FLOOR,50178.654,3760085.418,123.456
MH,50071.784,3760097.064,654.321
!WC,50014.877,3760081.684,0.000
WC,50014.877,3760059.640,0.000
TRE,50181.675,3760062.466,0.000
WC,50004.703,3760059.640,0.000
WC,50004.703,3760037.596,0.000
TRE,50024.553,3760046.188,0.000
WC,49994.529,3760037.596,0.000
WC,49994.529,3760081.684,0.000
TP,50011.784,3760097.064,0.000