Polynomial Regrade Command
COMMAND LICENSING AND DEFAULT MENU LOCATIONS
- The Polynomial Regrade command is part of the RPS Tool Shed Toolbox.
- The command is located on the Tool Shed macros menu ribbon.
- The command is located in the Piling menu group.
COMMAND DESCRIPTION
Automatically generates polynomial best-fit lines through selections of pile locations for solar farm array regrading purposes. Provides a detailed analysis of the deviations between the original points and the created 3D lines and reports the results to Excel or PDF, with on-screen, color-coded labeling of the points.
SETUP AND CONFIGURATION
Command Interface Description
The Polynomial Regrade command dialog looks as follows:
Command Overview
The Polynomial Regrade command creates best-fit lines through design pile locations to provide a smooth regrade surface for each of the selected solar arrays. The command will generate a report showing the delta Z values between the regrade line and each point. The report can be output to Excel or PDF. The command will also label all the points with values selected by the user.
If you make the selection of the array polygons and points before running the command, they are prepopulated into the Points and Boundaries selection locations in the dialog.
Points:
Select the pile location design points for which you wish to compute the regrade lines. The selector will only allow the selection of points, so there is no need to isolate only the point data before making the selection.
Boundaries:
Select the solar array table boundaries. These are used to group the selected points into arrays, and the points are then sorted into an order based on the selected direction (see below). The selector will only allow the selection of closed lines, so there is no need to isolate only the line data before making the selection.
Polynomial Settings
Polynomial order:
Select the polynomial degree that you want to apply to the regrade lines being created.
A polynomial order of 1 will provide a straight best-fit line between the points. Orders of 3 or 4 will typically produce the best results by minimizing the Z deltas while providing a smooth regrade line. Orders greater than 4 will fit the points more closely with smaller delta Z values but will have more vertical curvature through the points, which is likely to be less desirable.
Adjust polynomial order:
Check this box if you want the computations to automatically try to fit the appropriate polynomial order to the points in each array to achieve the tolerance that you are looking for. Note: This will take longer because each set of points needs to be tested multiple times to find a suitable result. This will also tend toward higher-degree polynomials, which may be less desirable.
This process starts at the polynomial degree that you define, e.g., 3, and ends at polynomial degree xx, where xx is the number of points in the array being analyzed. The regrade lines will always be created using the polynomial line that provides the best fit to the data, whether the result passes or fails the tolerance.
Polynomial Layer:
Select the layer on which you want to draw the regrade lines that are created. The normal New Layer control and layer list filter controls apply.
Tolerance:
All points are tested against the resulting regrade line using the value entered here. The report will highlight the lines that pass or fail tolerance and will color-code the generated labels based on their Pass (Green), Fail High (Red), or Fail Low (Blue) status. The tolerance is a +/- value.
Direction:
The direction determines the order in which the points within each solar array boundary will be sorted. The general thinking is that solar farm piles are typically placed north to south or south to north. However, in some cases, they may be placed at a skew angle relative to north, so you may wish to order them west to east or east to west. Select the required order. The direction of the polynomial lines that are created will be determined by this setting.
Label Points
All of the points will be labeled at the point location when you check the Label points checkbox. When enabled, define the label that you require on each point using the Label Point editor (click the pencil icon to edit the label content). You can label the points with any or all of the following values:
- Point Name
- Point Elevation
- Polynomial Regrade Line Elevation
- Delta Elevation (Point to Line)
You can prefix or suffix each label with user-defined text as needed.
Label text style:
Select the text style for your point labels. Define a text style using the Text Style Manager from the Drafting Menu or the RPS Text Style Manager from the Tool Shed Menu. Choose a text size that, when combined with the Plan Scale setting (Project Settings - View - Plan View - Plot Scale), creates text items that are readable and do not overlap.
Label Layer:
Select the layer on which you want to draw the regrade labels that are created. The normal New Layer control and layer list filter controls apply.
Additional options
Block name template:
If the solar array table boundaries are unnamed, they will be automatically named when selected and used in this command for reporting purposes. This will allow you to more easily correlate the report data with the arrays for the project. The numbering scheme goes from west to east first and then from north to south. You can define how you want the boundaries named.
For example, BlockName {row} - {col} will create names like BlockName 1-2 for the array in the first row and second column. The column numbering is determined from the column furthest to the west in the selected data. The row numbering is determined from the furthest north row in the selected data.
Plot origin line checkbox:
When checked, a simple multi-segmented line joining the design points together in sequence in the defined direction will also be generated.
Origin line layer:
When you elect to create the origin lines, define the layer onto which those lines will be drawn. The normal New Layer control and layer list filter controls apply.
EXECUTE
Export Excel
Once the computations have been completed and the on-screen report has been generated, you can export the results to Microsoft Excel by clicking this button.
Print Report
Once the computations have been completed and the on-screen report has been generated, you can print the results to a printer or PDF file by clicking this button.
On screen report
The on-screen report is displayed in the Results pane and is divided into the boundaries that you selected. Each point in each boundary is listed, and the delta Z between the point and the regrade line is displayed. The Point ID is hyperlinked to the TBC graphics. Click the Point ID to move the graphics directly to that point when troubleshooting the results. You can also copy the on-screen report data to the clipboard and paste it into Word or Excel as an alternative approach to generating the report.
COMMAND TIPS
The Command Tips pane shows you how to access Help for the command (this web page) and provides other useful information that may be helpful. You can minimize the Command Tips pane using the orange arrow in the top-left corner of the pane.
HEADER BAR COMMANDS
The following commands are enabled in the header of the RPS Polynomial Regrade command:
- RPS Help
- RPS Settings
- Takeoff Lines
- Smart Edit
- Adjust Linestring Elevation
- Advance Select
- Select by Layer
- Explore Object
- Create Surface
- Add/Remove Surface Members
- Create Surface Edge Breakline
- Add/Remove Surface Boundaries
- Profile Viewer
APPLY BUTTON
When you tap Apply, the regrade lines and labels will be computed and drawn in the graphics, and the results will be generated and reported. You can then elect to run the Excel or PDF report output. The command will prepare itself for another selection set and another process execution. If you do not want to make a second selection and repeat the process, tap Close to finish the process.
CLOSE BUTTON
Closes the command without further execution.
VIDEO DEMONSTRATION
The following video shows how to utilize the Polynomial Regrade command:
USE CASE VIDEOS
The following videos show the use of the Polynomial Regrade command in a workflow context:
FEEDBACK AND ENHANCEMENT REQUESTS
If you would like to provide feedback on the use of the Polynomial Regrade command or to request enhancements or improvements to the command, please click Reply below.