Applying Section View Styles

Now that you have studied the display and annotation of sections, let’s take a look at the appearance of the section view that provides the backdrop for the sections. Once again, there are many similarities between section views and profile views. Both have the capability to display a grid, both can apply a vertical exaggeration, and both can use bands to provide supplemental information along the bottom or the top of the view. In fact, the only significant difference between profile views and section views is that profile views display stations (read along the alignment), whereas section views display offsets (read perpendicular to the alignment).

To change the appearance of section views by applying different styles, complete the following steps:

The Exercise File can be downloaded at the end of the article  

1. Open the drawing named Applying Section View Styles.dwg located in the Chapter 11 class data folder. Once again, you are viewing the three design cross sections that you have been working with in previous exercises.

2. Click the lowest section view, and then click Section View Properties on the ribbon.
3. On the Information tab of the Section View Properties dialog box, change the style to Design 10V Major And Minor – No Padding. Click OK. One way that you might use this section view style is for close inspection and detailed editing of the section since the grid lines appear very frequently and the vertical dimensions of the sections are exaggerated even more.

All That with One Style?

When you changed the section view style from Design 5V Major And Minor to Design 10V Major And Minor – No Padding, the following changes were made to the section view:

• The vertical exaggeration changed from 5 to 10, causing the elevation changes within the sections to be much more dramatic.
• The elevation grid interval changed to increase the frequency of both the major grids and minor grids along with their associated labels.
• The space beneath the sections (padding) was removed.
• The minor interval of the offset grid lines was increased.

This is a classic example of the power of styles. To make all of those changes manually would have taken several minutes to figure out—even for an experienced user. Instead, all you have to do is assign a different style, and all of these changes are applied instantaneously.

4. Use the Section View Properties command to change the style to Design 1V Major And Minor – No Padding. This view is similar to the previous one but this time there is no vertical exaggeration.
5. Use the Section View Properties command to change the style to Design 1V – No Grid. Because this section view style excludes the grid and labels, you might use it to create illustrations for a report.
6. Use the Section View Properties command to change the style to Design 5V Major Only. This view is similar to the other views immediately above it except that the minor grids are not displayed.

7. Press Esc to clear the previous selection. Zoom out and pan north to the three sheets of section views. Click one of the section views, and select View Group Properties on the ribbon. This opens the Section View Group Properties dialog box.
8. On the Section Views tab, click in the Style column in the first row across from Section View Group – 1.
9. Select Road Section Type 2 and click OK. Click OK again to dismiss the Section View Group Properties dialog box. The new section view style applies a vertical exaggeration of 2, so the section views take up more space top to bottom. In the next step, you’ll rearrange the views within the sheet so that they’re easier to read.

10. With one of the section views still selected, click Update Group Layout on the ribbon. The sections are rearranged, and the new layout must include a fourth sheet to accommodate the extra space that is now taken up by the section views (see Figure 11.6). This is the code that you will use.

    Figure 11.6  A fourth sheet is created as a result of changing the section view style applied to the section view group.

Download Exercise File :

• C11 - Applying Section View Styles - Metric     --- ( 1.88 MB )
• C11 - Applying Section View Styles - Imperial  --- ( 1.6 MB )