With that out of the way, let’s look at section styles. Section styles are used to change the appearance of a section either directly or by displaying it on a different layer. The most common application of a section style is the differentiation between sections that represents existing and proposed ground surfaces. Section styles can also be used to show point markers at each vertex in the section line.
To apply section styles to vary the display of different types of sections, follow these steps:
- Open the drawing named Applying Section Styles.dwg located in the Chapter 11 class data folder. Here, you see three section views that were plotted to investigate the shallow rock layer. The section views show a corridor section, existing ground surface section, and rock section.
- Click the lowest section in the 8+50.00 (0+260.00) section view, and then click Section Properties on the ribbon.
Tips:Since we’re working exclusively with section views in this discuss, the drawings are set up with a single viewport rather than the multiple viewports used in prior discuss.
- On the Information tab of the Section Properties dialog box, change Object Style to Rock. Click OK to close the dialog box. Press Esc to clear the selection. The rock section now appears as a gray dashed line.
Tips:Using the Section Properties command to change the style is only one of three ways you can do this. You’ll try out the other two later in this exercise.
- Repeat the previous two steps for the section that appears above the rock layer, this time assigning a style of Existing Ground. Press Esc to clear the selection. The section representing existing ground now appears as a red dashed line along with the rock section from the previous step (see Figure 11.1).
Figure 11.1 The sections have been stylized to differentiate between rock and existing ground. Tips:If the section view grid obscures the red dashed line, select it, rightclick, and select Display OrderBring To Front.
- Click the lower section in the 9+00.00 (0+270.00) section view, right-click, and select Properties.
- In the Properties window, change Style to Rock. Keep the Properties window open.
- Press Esc to clear the selection of the rock section. Click the existing ground section, and use the Properties window to change its style to Existing Ground.
Tips:Using the Properties window to change the style is the second of three methods available to you. This method is a bit quicker because both sections can be changed within the same window.
- Press Esc to clear the previous selection, and then click one of the grid lines for the 9+25.00 (0+280.00) section view. Click Section View Properties on the ribbon.
- On the Sections tab of the Section View Properties dialog box, in the Style column, change the style of the section named EG to Existing Ground; and for the section named Rock, change the style to Rock. Click OK. All three section views should now properly display the existing ground and rock sections.
Tips:Using the Section View Properties command to change the style is the third of three methods available to you. This method shows all of the sections that are present in the section view.
A Note about Units
Throughout this discuss, you'll notice that two values are provided for units of measurement. The first value is provided for the imperial system that is used in the United States, and the second value, in parentheses, is provided for the metric system that is used in many other countries. These values most often represent imperial feet and metric meters. It is important to note that, generally, only the numeric values are entered in the software, not terms like feet or meters. Also, you should know that the two numbers provided are not necessarily equal. In most cases, they are similar values that are rounded to work efficiently in their respective measurement systems.