Labeling Surface Slope Calculations

There are some really cool tools to label surface labels.  Nearly every government entity that I have to submit too asks for slope calculations for driveways, sidewalks etc.  I hate having to find my excel spreadsheet and pulling the design data off the plans with my scale (where did I put that?) or laying awake at night questioning if I updated or sent my calculation sheets to the review agency…

Jump with me to see a couple of tips…

First off – there is the Surface Slope Label – Two Points.   The image below show a driveway slope calculations as a part of that surface style.  Works fine – until you get lots of adjacent driveways.

image

Trying to drag the label actually moves everything.  Listing the slope arrow would be nice but this is what we get:

AECC_SURFACE_SLOPE_LABEL  Layer: “C-TOPO-TEXT”
 Space: Model space
Handle = abcf

Oops, nothing there. 

Well, feature lines do allow us to do the same thing.  I can now drag that label and give us a little more room to show those calculation.

 image

Maybe now I can actually create a dynamic table to show start, end etc… just some food to digest.

3 comments

  1. John Cobb says:

    So, what … you just lay down a feature line, assign the surface’s elevations and label it? In a dynamic table application, then, the label on the drawing would be, say “D-23” for “driveway on Lot-23”, and the table would show “D-23” and chart the slope calculations. Good working-drawing for your own review as you design, to archive with the project file and as a submittal to the review agency. Thanks, Matt

  2. The feature line to surface is a manual process. I haven’t actually used it to submit yet – will be soon. My driveways have the percent slope surface label and the review comment was “show me” your calculations.
    I think 2009 introduces line tag tables – I’ll need to check.

  3. Matt Moore says:

    Review agencies are asking to “show me” calculations for slope calcs? Should I even try and get a PE if reviewers are still going to treat me like a 4 year old? Or do agencies just think civil engineers are liars now? A bit excessive in my opinion.