Quadrant bearings and relative coordinate system?

[DaViper]

Morning gents!  So I was needing to regenerate a survey map with quadrant bearings so that I can setup our total station and shoot and locate some pipes in the ground for later reference.  My first grab was our pinnacle CAD software that we use to design parts thinking surely it would do it.  It does everything.  But I found this will become a HUGE mess.  So I figured I might see if Chief can do this, and sure enough, looking at some forum posts, it appears so!  

 

So let me explain what i'm trying to do, then onto the questions.  Lots are never a perfect square, but total stations work with Cartesian coordinates (XYZ).  I want to recreate the survey, then define my own local coordinate system so once I setup my machine on known points, I can shoot in locations of certain monuments (pipes, etc), and can relocate them at will.  I would like to add notes to points and add a Z depth as well.  

 

So onto the questions.  

 

1.  Because I would like to reference depths, should I start with a plan and ignore the layout tools?  

 

2.  It looks like you set your polyline settings for quadrant bearings?  If so, is this going to be the best route?  I want to not only define my lot, but also create a center-of-road line, and true N bearing just as a reference.  

 

3.  Once I have this laid out, I would REALLY like to set either a relative or global origin on a certain point just to make life easy.  I can certain add dimensions to every detail, but that gets exhausting and what is typical in the survey world is a point chart simply with a basic layout map, and their XYZ locations, so it would be dandy if I could generate a point chart?  I would like to put certain points in a certain layer, then be able to somehow obtain their position values?  

 

 

Now, I should clarify that a total station does NOT really spit out bearings but the software or data collector can calculate them once points are defined, but I don't need to do any of that.  Just layout my survey,  then drop some points.  What I would LOVE to do is for my local setup, simply use one of the property lines as a "baseline" which is an established X or Y zero line.  I have other options but I like simple.  I don't think Chief will allow me to adjust the origin in this way?  But it would be nice.  

[Alaskan_Son]

I have repeatedly asked Chief to provide us with X and Y location attributes for markers and other CAD based objects so that we could do exactly this type of

thing.  Super frustrating that we still don't have this.  

[DaViper]

I was just talking with a colleague wondering if there might be a simple way using common file type export to kick some of the plan back to our other CAD software an generate our points cloud there.  In part design with 50 holes, it is pretty common to simply establish a datum, then generate a point table with a point number and relative XY values.  That is pretty much all I need.  Might be interesting to see how this works.  

 

 

Hey, I have another basic question.  How can you modify dimension sizes big enough that they are visible on a large land survey?  I have been fighting with this.  If a line is 1000ft long, the text is micro! Previously I have resorted to a custom letter height for each dimension but there has to be a better solution? 

[Chopsaw]

1 hour ago, DaViper said:

Hey, I have another basic question.  How can you modify dimension sizes big enough that they are visible on a large land survey?  I have been fighting with this.  If a line is 1000ft long, the text is micro! Previously I have resorted to a custom letter height for each dimension but there has to be a better solution? 

 

If you are referring to the length and angle display for a cad line, that is controlled by text style that you are using for the cad line.  You should set one up for each scale of survey you will be typically working with.

[DaViper]

Guys, I am very close here!  I did recreate my survey and all went darn smooth there thanks to a video by dshall.  However I am down to only 2 or 3 real issues to figure out.  

 

 

1.  Probably only a minor issue but I guess when you set parameters for quadrant bearings, the dimensions that are produced will not move!  Stuck there and I have two dims on top of each other as well as needing additional language on them.  Can someone tell me where or how I might adjust this for only 1-2 values?  I can probably delete and just create txt to go there but that seems the dumb way around the issue.  

 

2. Probably my biggest issue is again, generating a sort of point table/system, etc that references back to another point.  A datum!  Since I already know this is a pissy subject with Chief, I created this plan making one of my property pins the XY0 so at least if I can get any sort of coordinate output, it will be right relative to the XY0 point.  I was going to export as a DXF to another program that will do this but I have worries about scaling and such and I sure like to keep everything in the same native program.  

 

3.  For any final drawing dressups, should this be kicked back to layout or just work the the plan?  May seem like a dumb question but was not sure if layout brings something special to the table?

 

 

 

 

 

[glennw]

Probably easier for us to understand if you post a plan.

[Chopsaw]

23 hours ago, DaViper said:

1.  Probably only a minor issue but I guess when you set parameters for quadrant bearings, the dimensions that are produced will not move!  Stuck there and I have two dims on top of each other as well as needing additional language on them.  Can someone tell me where or how I might adjust this for only 1-2 values?  I can probably delete and just create txt to go there but that seems the dumb way around the issue.  

 

Would need a little more information to know exactly where you are at and where you would like to be, and confused about why there are "two dims on top of each other".  Please illustrate if possible.

 

If I understand at all where you are going with this you might want to look at some of Modest Michael's Macro's that allow custom labeling of cad (invisible wall) lines. Or just manually use the label feature.

 

Free version : https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/11669-michaels-custom-macros-tools-symbols-and-training-services/?do=findComment&comment=103199

 

 

Paid version : https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/11669-michaels-custom-macros-tools-symbols-and-training-services/?do=findComment&comment=103706

 

 

You can also use a label with an elevation point and maybe even a macro. 

 

 

 

23 hours ago, DaViper said:

3.  For any final drawing dressups, should this be kicked back to layout or just work the the plan?  May seem like a dumb question but was not sure if layout brings something special to the table?

 

I quite often make a PDF directly from the plan file on preliminary stuff or single page projects.  Works fine for me.

 

Here is another video that I just watched that is about polyline labels that could be quite useful here : https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/topic/14010-dimension-notations-too-many-steps-for-something-that-could-be-so-simple/?do=findComment&comment=119659

 

[DaViper]

Here is a pic of what I am dealing with on the dims.  A pretty minor issue and I'm sure I could just turn one of the dims off and manually script it but figured there might be a better way.  Seems when you invoke the quadrant bearing functions, the dims stay locking in position and not free to move like manual dimension.   The issue was found when creating a property line, then the center of road line, so the two lines are 30ft apart.   

 

[Alaskan_Son]

9 minutes ago, DaViper said:

Here is a pic of what I am dealing with on the dims.  A pretty minor issue and I'm sure I could just turn one of the dims off and manually script it but figured there might be a better way.  Seems when you invoke the quadrant bearing functions, the dims stay locking in position and not free to move like manual dimension.   The issue was found when creating a property line, then the center of road line, so the two lines are 30ft apart.   

 

 

That's one of the reasons I created those "Custom Plot Lines".  We have never been able to relocate those automatic line labels (Show Length and Show Angle).  They are stuck exactly where they are and there is no way around it.