QA Lines Command
Command Licensing and Default Menu Location
- The QA Lines command is part of the RPS Tool Shed Toolbox
- The command is located on the Reporting macros menu ribbon
- The command is located in the QA menu group
Command Description
The QA Lines command provides the ability to display slope direction, slope %, length (2D or 3D), bearing and color code selected lines or utility pipes based on whether the line / pipe slope is within one of a predefined set of tolerance bands - allowing you to instantly identify lines / pipes that are too steep, too shallow or in a defined tolerance range.
The command is ideal for the following QA processes
- Checking gravity storm or sanitary sewer pipe slopes and lengths
- Checking drainage swales and landscape drainage pipes for slope conformance
- Checking flows to inlets along curb lines
- Identifying flat spots on curb flow lines where bird baths are likely to form
- Checking ADA slope requirements on ramps and sidewalks
- Checking or extracting slope data from flipped sections or imported corridor surface models
- Checking lengths and bearings of property boundary lines
Video Demonstration
The following video shows how to utilize the QA Lines command
Command Updates
May 5 2023
The command has been updated to facilitate the following
- Fix a defect where slopes are reported as e.g. 100% when they are 1%
- Added the ability to Explode and color lines - this creates 3D lines for each colored segment of selected lines that carry the color defined in the edit colors function.
Command Interface Description
The QA Lines command dialog looks as follows
Select lines / pipes:
Select the lines / pipes that you wish to analyze. You can use normal selection methods or use the Options button to use the advanced selection methods available (Select by Layer, Select by Elevation, Advanced Select etc.).
Show transition locations checkbox:
Check this checkbox to display a small diamond indicator at the locations along lines where the slope transitions from an uphill to downhill, downhill to uphill, slope to flat or flat to slope change.
Show direction arrows checkbox:
Check this checkbox to display the slope direction arrows on the selected lines / pipes. In this command the line / pipe directions can be displayed per line / pipe segment and in the direction of slope rather than the traditional line drawing direction. When checked, select whether you want to display the Downhill or Uphill direction using the radio buttons provided.
Labeling selections:
Check the checkboxes beside the values that you wish to display on each line segment. The options include Slope %, Bearing and Distance. When you select distance you can display the 2D / horizontal or 3D / Slope distance.
Text:
When label values are selected, choose the text direction for the labels with respect to the line / pipe segments that the labels represent. The options are perpendicular or parallel to the selected line or pipe segments.
Color:
Select the color for the text labels that will be displayed.
Text size slider control:
Use the slider control to increase (right) or decrease (left) the size of the text used to display the slope % values.
Edit colors:
The edit colors button allows you to define highlight colors for the selected lines / pipes that display whether the slopes are within a tolerance band or not.
For example for gravity sewer systems, you may have a minimum slope of 0.5% and a maximum slope of 5% allowed for any single pipe segment.
Anything lower than 0.5% is too shallow and will likely cause blockages, anything steeper than 5% is too steep and will likely cause pipe scour over time.
We want to display line / pipe segments that are between 0% and +/- 0.5% in Blue, anything in the ranges 0.5% to 5% or -0.5% to -5% in Green and anything in the range >5% or <-5% in Red. To set this up, use the color settings as shown below.
This will then color the selected lines / pipes while in this command as shown below
Instantly you can see the red pipe in the center of the model (this has a slope of 7%), and the blue pipe in the SW corner of the model (this has a slope of 0.2%) as failures with respect to the defined tolerance bands. All other pipes are Green, so are within the defined in tolerance bands.
If you zoom in on the failed pipe areas, you will see the slope % values displayed
The slope arrows allow you to check the flow directions of the line / pipe segments.
If you are checking slopes for ADA Ramps and Sidewalks, the following setup of the color map will provide appropriate color controls. For example in the State of Iowa, the ADA design specifications call for the following settings
ADA Landing Pads - max slope 1.5%
Sidewalks - target slope 6.25%, max slope 8.3%
Cross Slope of Sidewalks - target slope 1.5%, max slope 2%
Cross slopes of Road Crossings - No Stop Intersections - Max cross slope 5%
Cross Slope of Road Crossings - Stop Intersections - Max Cross Slope 2%
Setting the color band breaks to 1.5%, 6.25%, 8.3% and 16.6% provides a solution for all longitudinal slopes and landing pads. Changing the values to 1.5%, 2.0%, 5% provides a solution for checking cross slopes.
Command Hot Keys:
When you zoom in or out you may want to refresh the arrows and slope text items to resize based on current zoom scale - use the R key to refresh the graphics. Note that if you are zoomed out and you press R the arrows will be made larger. If you are zoomed in and you press R then the arrows will be made smaller. To quickly increase the size of the arrows zoom out and press R and then zoom back in again.
Command Tips
- A reminder that F1 is your shortcut to this help document.
- Lines with no elevation or a single elevation will be displayed in the secondary highlight color.
- Press “R” to refresh the size of the direction arrows and slope labels to your current zoom level.
- Adjust the Show Direction Settings arrow transparency in RPS Settings if the direction arrows and highlight colors overlap too much.
Header Commands
In the header bar of the command you will find command icons that link you to other commands that you may need access to while using this command. In this command the following commands are linked
- Help - this document access
- RPS Settings
- Takeoff Lines
- Smart Edit
- Adjust Linestring Elevation
- Convert to Linestring
- QA Notebook
- QA Points
- QA Road Lines
Explode and color lines
When you click this button, the source 3D lines will be exploded at all color break locations and the exploded line segments will be colored based on the color settings. Note that this does not currently work with single pipe / utility line elements but it does work with multi segment utility lines e.g. Water Main.
Note:
When you run the Explode and color lines function the original utility line objects are deleted and you will be left with just lines so only use when necessary.
Associated Commands:
To set the direction arrow size / scale and transparency, use RPS Settings from the header bar of the QA Lines command and review the settings under the Show Direction section. If the text is hidden by the direction arrows, set the arrow transparency to a higher degree of transparency.
To set the line highlight colors and lineweights which affect the color highlighting of the lines / pipes selected, use RPS Settings from the header bar of the QA Lines command and review the settings under the Highlight Colors section. Note that a highlight lineweight of 0.05 to 0.09mm is normally the limit of where you need these settings to be.
The slope text color is currently controlled by the secondary highlight color in the RPS Settings - Highlight Colors section.
The image below shows the display of slope % and slope distances for all the pipe segments in view.
Close
Closes the command without further execution.
Use Case Videos
The following videos show the use of the QA Lines command in a work process context
Feedback and Enhancement Requests
If you would like to provide feedback on the use of the QA Lines command or to request enhancements or improvements to the command please click Reply below