Point Creator
Command Licensing and Default Menu Location
- The Point Creator command is part of the RPS Data Prep Toolbox
- The command is located on the Data Prep macros menu ribbon
- The command is located in the Create / Edit menu group
Command Description
Provides the ability to create points for stakeout on lines and alignments at intervals, extra stations, key locations, high and low points, radius points and more
The command can also be used to create points for reporting purposes from measured linework at specific station locations in relation to a selected reference line or alignment. You can then label those points using the RPS Label Points command and generate output files in CSV format as required for data deliverables.
Point Creator command technology is incorporated into other commands including the soon to be released Slope Designer and also the CivRobotics Manager commands. When combined with the Slope Designer command, you can create points at Offsets to a source line and compute e.g. building and wall corners (internal and external corners) as well as intervals along straight line or arc curve and spiral curve line segments
In the latest update we have added intervals along both horizontal and vertical curves using interval spacing, arc to curve separation and number of intervals required
Command Interface Description
The Point Creator command dialog looks as follows
Point creation style:
Select the point creation style that you require. Point creation styles are created within the RPS Settings function or by clicking the Manage styles button (which takes you to RPS Settings also). The Point creation style defines which points will be created along the selected lines or alignments and how those points will be coded and how the Point ID and Feature Code fields will be defined for each point created.
Manage styles:
When you select Manage styles, you will be taken to the RPS Settings for the Point Creator tool. If you click the RPS Settings icon 
in the header row of the command that will also take you to the same location.
The settings for the point creator tool are stored in the RPS Settings folder as defined by the File locations setting. The settings are stored outside the project so that once defined they can be used inside any project thereafter.
Defined styles:
The defined style defines the points that will be created from a wide selection of options. you can create as many styles as you may require, each with different selections of points and intervals as well as naming conventions.
To create a new style click the 
button and then enter the style name in the following dialog
To copy an existing style to start the definition of a new style click the 
button and then enter a name for the new style in the following dialog
To Edit the name of an existing style, click the 
and edit the name of the style in the following dialog
To Save updates or changes to a style, click the 
button.
To Delete the selected style click the 
button.
Description:
Enter a description for the style for additional detail beyond the style name.
Point ID:
Enter the starting Point ID for the points to be created. The definition provides a template that will be used for all the points to be created. The definition can be a simple Point ID like 1, 1000, 10000 or A1 etc. but it can also include additional information as defined with additional tags as follows. Hover over the 
button in the dialog for more details. The codes shown below should all be in upper case letters.
{#} Point number, starts at 1
{#.NNN} Point number, starts at number NNN i.e. {#.10} starts at 10
{#.NNN,INC} Point number, starts at NNN and increments by INC value i.e. {#.10,2} will number 10,12,14 etc.
{NAME} will include the name of the source line for the points i.e. a line called CB will use CB for all of the points on that line. You can use a code set like {#} {NAME} to create Point IDs like 1 CB.
{CODE} will include the key location coding defined below for the point types being created e.g. RP for Radius Point or IP for Interval Point and so on. You can use a code set like {#} {CODE} to create Point IDs like 1 RP.
Restart point numbering with each line checkbox:
Check this checkbox if you wish to reset the Point number to the starting value for each line that you create points for - checking this allows you to number the points along each line in the same way starting from the same value.
Feature code:
You can define the Feature code that will be used for each point created. We recommend that you use one of the following or a combination of the following. Note that we automatically write the source line name into the Description 1 attribute for the points created and the station along the line or the station from the selected reference line or alignment into the Description 2 attribute. Use the key location code {CODE} with or without a Prefix like STK {CODE} for Stakeout Points or CHK {CODE} for As Built Check points etc.
{CODE} to add the key location code for the point e.g. RP for Radius Point or IP for Interval Point etc.
{NAME} to add the name of the source line used to derive the point e.g. CB
{STA} to add the station of the point in relation to the selected reference line or alignment.
Offset distance from reference line:
This value controls how far away points can be created from a selected reference line. Set this value to prohibit points from being created far from the jobsite location i.e. if you select to create points at horizontal curve IPs or Radius Points, if the radius is say 10000’ then a point could be created a long way from the project - it is unlikely that you will go and stake those points so why create them in the first place. This setting controls the distance after which no points will be created.
Key locations along line:
The point creator tool creates points along selected lines and alignments for both horizontal control and vertical control locations for all elements of the lines including straight / tangent, spirals, arcs, vertical arcs and vertical curves. It also creates points at intervals along the line or at stations along the selected reference line and also the High or Low inflection points of the selected lines. You can select any combination of key location types within a style and define intervals as required for that style. For each key location you can enter a code value which is picked up by the {CODE} field in the settings described earlier.
Now that we are using the point creation styles within tools such as Slope Designer, it is very important that you create the appropriate styles for simple along line Point Creation as well as for Slope Designer, using the correct logic for each group of settings. The information below makes some recommendations in each section.
Horizontal Location Settings:
Horizontal locations - Line:
Begin
End
Nodes
Point on Tangent
Station Equation
Defined Stations
Slope Designer Recommendations - Offset Slope and Offset Elevation Types
For Offset Slope and Offset Elevation slope designs we recommend that you create a Slope - Offset Lines style, and that in that style you check the Begin, End and Nodes options for site type work. For corridors you will also need to optionally check Point on Tangent, Station Equation and Defined Stations.
Note in this mode, you should resist creating additional points at intervals along the lines unnecessarily - the key is to pick up all of the horizontal nodes where lines change direction or where lines meet arcs etc. and all of the vertical change points (VPIs). Along arc, spiral and vertical curve sections you will need to compute interval points to pick up the shape of the curves.
Slope Designer Recommendations - Slope to Surface and Slope to Elevation Types
*For Slope to Surface or Slope to Elevation slope designs we recommend that you create a Slope - Sideslope Lines style, and that in that style you check all of the horizontal line location options. In this mode you are computing the shape of the offset line where it meets an elevation, a delta elevation to the source line or where the slope projection meets the target surface. In these scenarios, simply picking up the key horizontal and vertical locations is insufficient to create the correct slope design, because at every point along the line there will be a different result. The more intervals computed, the closer you will approximate to the absolute / correct answer (within reason).
Horizontal locations - Arc:
Point of curvature
Point of tangency
Point of intersection
Radius point
Radius point elevation 2D or 3D and option to include the radius value into the feature code
Compound curve
Reverse curve
Slope Designer Recommendations - Offset Slope and Offset Elevation Types
For these types of Slope Design you will not require the Point of Intersection or the Radius Point locations. You will need all of the other location types for arcs.
Slope Designer Recommendations - Slope to Surface and Slope to Elevation Types
For these types of Slope Design you will not require the Point of Intersection or the Radius Point locations. You will need all of the other location types for arcs.
Horizontal locations - Spiral:
Tangent to spiral
Spiral to tangent
Curve to spiral
Spiral to curve
Spiral to spiral
Point of intersection
Slope Designer Recommendations - Offset Slope and Offset Elevation Types
For these types of Slope Design you will not require the Point of Intersection locations. You will need all of the other location types for spirals.
Slope Designer Recommendations - Slope to Surface and Slope to Elevation Types
For these types of Slope Design you will not require the Point of Intersection locations. You will need all of the other location types for spirals.
Horizontal Locations - Interval:
Include segment end points checkbox:
If you have already selected all of the horizontal nodes for each type of line segment (Line, Arc, Spiral) then you do not need to also create the segment endpoints when creating points at intervals along a line because they have already been defined in the style. If you opted to not create the nodes along the line then when you divide the line segments into intervals, you can elect here to also add the segment endpoints to the points being created.
Straight interval:
These points can be given their own code e.g. IP for Interval Points.
You can elect how to define the intervals along the line (straight) segments from the following options
Number of intervals
This will subdivide the line segments into an even number of intervals e.g. 4 intervals. When this option is selected the Minimum length and Maximum length of the intervals need to be defined. They work as follows.
Combine segments checkbox:
When you select the Number of Intervals method, you can also elect to check the Combine segments checkbox. When the checkbox is checked, if sequential line segments are encountered that are tangential to each other within 5" of arc, they will be combined for the purposes of the interval length computation. This will be common when creating stakeout points for buildings where you first create an offset line at e.g. a 4’ offset in order to compute the corner points (3 points at a right angle corner) which result in each side of a perfectly rectangular building comprising 3 segments for each side - one at each corner and then the main line for the segment offset. If you then create points at intervals along the offset lines to account for long building walls, you will likely want to combine the line segments together for each offset side of the building for the purposes of computing the interval lengths.
If you enter values of 5’ for the minimum and 50’ for the maximum values combined with number of intervals 4 then the following scenarios will occur.
For a line segment less than 4 (number of intervals) * 5’ long (minimum length) i.e. 20’, the number of intervals created along the line will be computed by taking the line length and dividing it by the minimum length value and then rounding down to the nearest whole number of intervals. So for a line segment 12.8’ long this will be 12.8 / 5 = 2.56 which rounded down = 2.0. Then the line length will be divided by that whole number to determine the segment length of the two segments i.e. 12.8 / 2 = 6.4’ long i.e. an interval length greater than the minimum length of 5’. A single point will be created at that distance from the start of the segment. If the Include segment endpoints checkbox is enabled then a point will also be created at each end of the segment. Where the segment ends are shared between two adjacent segments, only one point will be created at each end point.
For a line segment between the Min and Max length values i.e. between 4 (number of intervals) * 5’ (minimum length) and 4 (number of intervals) * 50’ (maximum length) in length i.e. from 20’ to 200’ in length, the desired number of segments - in this case 4 will be created, because the length of the segment can be divided into 4 and the value will fall between 5 and 50’. i.e. for a segment length of 75.3’ this will create 4 equal segments of 75.3 / 4 = 18.825’ long. 3 points will be created at those intervals along the line. Again if the include segment end points checkbox is enabled points will be created at the ends of the segment also.
For a line segment greater than 4 (the number of intervals) * 50’ (maximum length) i.e. 200’, the number of intervals created along the line will be computed by taking the length of the segment and dividing it by the maximum length value and then rounding up to the nearest whole number of intervals. So for a line segment 330.6’ long, this will be 330.6 / 50 = 6.612 i.e. an integer number of intervals of 7.0 and an interval length of 330.6 / 7 = 47.228 i.e. an interval length less than the maximum length of 50. If the Include segment endpoints checkbox is enabled then a point will also be created at each end of the segment. Where the segment ends are shared between two adjacent segments, only one point will be created at each end point.
If you always require e.g. 4 intervals on every line segment regardless of length, then enter values of 4 for the number of intervals along with a minimum value of e.g. 0.01 and a maximum value of 10000.
Interval length:
If you want your interval points to always be a constant distance apart, enter the value that you require alongside the Interval length selection. In this case, all but the last interval will be the desired value, the last interval will fill the remainder of the segment length i.e. if you select an interval length of 20’ and the line segment length is 75.6’ then the last interval will be 15.6’ and the other intervals will be 20’ from the start of the segment.
Curve interval checkbox:
Check this checkbox if you want to create points along curved sections of lines (arcs and spirals). On selection, you can enter the code for these points to be created e.g. CIP (curve interval point) and then select the method that you wish to use to define the intervals along the curves. There are three options to choose from
Curve to chord:
When this setting is chosen, enter the maximum distance that you will allow a chorded line to get from the curve at the chord midpoint to define the interval distance computation. When the curve to chord distance exceeds the defined value the curve will be subdivided to keep the curve to chord distance below the entered value. Entering a small value like 0.01’ will cause more points to be created around the curve than a value like 0.5’. Entering a smaller number will cause more points to be created. With this value, the radius of the curve will contribute to the number of points being created - larger radius flatter curves will create fewer points than tighter radius sharper curves.
Interval length:
When this setting is chosen, enter the desired interval length between points. If the curve segment length is 23.5’ and you enter an interval length of 5’ then the first intervals will be 5’ and the last interval will be 3.5’ in length.
Number of intervals:
When this setting is chosen, enter the desired number of intervals along the curve segment. This method will always subdivide the curve into an equal number of intervals regardless of the length or degree or subtended angle of curvature.
Note: the ability to enter different interval values for straight and curved sections of lines and the ability to use interval or number (of segments) for curved sections of lines allows you to create stakeout data as needed for these types of element independently.
Slope Designer Recommendations - Offset Slope and Offset Elevation Types
For these types of slope design, you do not really need to create additional points along the source line to accurately compute the offset lines unless the source line is a curve in which case the best option to chose is the curve to chord option so that the offset line accurately captures the shape of the source curved line segments.
Slope Designer Recommendations - Offset Slope and Offset Elevation Types for Buildings
If you are creating interval points along an offset staking line for a building or wall, then you may wish to add interval points along those lines using a 0 offset and 0 elevation or slope delta to capture the line at intervals close enough to string a line or a tape measure in the field. We recommend that you create specific slope designer styles for those purposes that reference specific point creator styles for offset line corners (external and internal corners) and for interval locations in order to create all of the required staking locations for the feature.
Slope Designer Recommendations - Slope to Surface and Slope to Elevation Types
For these types of sideslope slope design, you should create interval locations along both straight and curved sections of the source line, so that you can accurately compute the elevations and daylight endpoints of the sideslopes being projected. We recommend that you use an Interval length along straight sections of e.g. 5’ and use the curve to chord interval along curved sections to most accurately compute the best results.
Vertical Location Settings:
Vertical locations - Line:
Point of beginning
Nodes / VPIs
Grade break
High point i.e. an inflection point of line segments / VPIs that form a crest
Low point i.e. an inflection point of line segments / VPIs that form a sag
Curve Interval i.e. intervals along vertical arcs or parabolic (symmetrical or asymmetrical vertical curves). When you choose this option you have three options
Curve to chord:
In the same way that is explained previously for horizontal curves, the curve to chord method will create points at intervals along vertical curves using the same curve to chord distance setting, this time applied in the vertical profile of the curve.
Interval length:
In the same way that is explained previously for horizontal curves, the interval length method will create points at an interval length along the vertical curves using the defined interval setting, this time computed along the vertical curve profile.
Number of intervals:
In the same way that is explained previously for horizontal curves, the number of intervals method will create points at even intervals along the profile of the vertical curve.
Slope Designer Recommendations - Offset Slope and Offset Elevation Types
If the source line for a slope design incorporates vertical curves, then in order to accurately compute the offset lines using a cross slope or elevation / elevation delta, you should create points at intervals through a vertical curve, so that the elevations on the offset line accurately reflect the source line geometry. Since the source line vertical high and low points will be VPIs or 3D nodes you do not require those in addition to the nodes and grade breaks for slope designer. These settings are for situations where you need to create points and label them only at the high and low points of a line and not at all 3D nodes or VPIs of a line. We recommend using Curve to Chord method to define the intervals through vertical curves.
Slope Designer Recommendations - Slope to Surface and Slope to Elevation Types
The same recommendations apply to sideslope to elevation or surface. The vertical curves need to be captured using intervals in order to accurately create the sideslope line geometry.
Vertical locations - Arc:
Point of curvature
Point of tangency
Point of intersection
Radius point
High point i.e. crest of vertical arc
Low point i.e. sag of vertical arc
Slope Designer Recommendations - Offset Slope and Offset Elevation Types
For these types of slope design you will not require the Point of intersection or the radius point locations for vertical curves. All of the other options should be enabled.
Slope Designer Recommendations - Slope to Surface and Slope to Elevation Types
The same applies to these types of sideslope designs.
Vertical locations - Vertical Curve (Parabola):
Point of curvature
Point of tangency
Point of intersection
High point i.e. crest point of vertical curve
Low point i.e. sag point of vertical curve
Slope Designer Recommendations - Offset Slope and Offset Elevation Types
For these types of slope design you will not require the Point of intersection locations for vertical curves. All of the other options should be enabled.
Slope Designer Recommendations - Slope to Surface and Slope to Elevation Types
The same applies to these types of sideslope designs.
Reference line:
When working with linear feature data e.g. for roads or retaining wall etc. you can select an optional reference line to provide “stationing” for the interval calculations for all selected lines. The locations to be generated will then be determined from the reference line and the points on all selected lines will be generated at the same station locations projected from the selected reference line.
Show line direction checkbox:
Check the checkbox if you wish to see the line direction of the selected reference line. The show line direction will place arrow markers on the selected line so that you can see the direction of increasing station. The settings that control the way the show line direction is displayed are in the RPS Settings control accessed using the button indicated below in the command pane header
Select lines:
Select the lines along which you wish to create points. Lines can be Polylines, 3D Polylines, CAD Lines, Linestrings, Circles, Rectangles, Polygons and Boundaries. Note that lines containing objects with a UCS (User Coordinate System) should be converted to normal linestrings using the Convert to linestring command prior to running this command.
Layer:
Select the layer on which you wish to place the points created by the process. If you require a New Layer or New Layer Group click the New button to open the New Layer / New Layer Group control.
New Layer / New Layer Group control:
Name:
Enter the name for the new layer
Color:
Select the color for the new layer (this becomes the ByLayer color for objects placed on the layer).
Line style:
Select the line style for the new layer (this becomes the ByLayer line style for objects placed on the layer).
Line weight:
Select the line weight for the new layer (this becomes the ByLayer line weight for objects placed on the layer).
Layer group:
Select the layer group for the new layer. Leave it as if you do not wish to place the layer in a layer group. If you wish to create a new layer group, click the New button adjacent to the Layer group control.
Layer group name:
Enter the name for the new layer group. Tap OK to complete the creation of the layer group. Tap Cancel to close the New layer group control without creating a new layer group.
Display priority:
Select the display priority for the objects being created on the layer being defined. Select from Normal, Background or Foreground. Normal is between Background and Foreground. This affects the way that elements are displayed and printed to PDF / a printer by TBC. Foreground objects of the same type will print on top of Normal objects and Normal objects will print on top of Background objects. If different types of objects are on the same layer then the object based hierarchy for display and print priority prevail. The object based hierarchy from background to foreground is as follows
- Images, Fills and Hatches
- Linework
- Text
Protect layer checkbox:
Check the checkbox if you wish to protect the layer being created from deletion when empty.
Print checkbox:
Uncheck the checkbox if you do not want the objects placed on this layer to be printed to PDF or Printers.
Takeoff settings (optional):
The takeoff settings for layers control the way that objects placed on the layers are used in the takeoff process. The takeoff process uses layers to determine which objects will be used to create surfaces like Finished Grade or Existing / Original Ground etc. The layers are also used to define the way that points, blocks, lines or polygon areas are used in association with site improvements to determine count, length, area and volumes in the takeoff process.
Category:
If you wish to categorize the layer being created for Takeoff purposes, select the Takeoff category from the pull down list. If you select Original, 3D objects placed on this layer will be used in the Takeoff Original ground surface model. If you select Design, 3D objects placed on this layer will be used in the Finished grade model. If you select Other, Unknown, Unused or Utilities from the list, the objects will be placed into those categories, and will not be used in any Takeoff surface models.
Contains potential boundary lines checkbox:
Once you have categorized the layer, you can elect to check this checkbox. By doing so, you are telling the Takeoff processor, that this layer contains lines that can be used to bound areas that can be used to assign Site Improvements i.e. if the layer contains finished grade building pads and you want to assign a site improvement that has 12" concrete and 6" rock within it for subgrade adjustments and concrete and rock quantities then add this layer to Category Design and check this checkbox.
MSI Manager button:
If you need to create materials and or site improvements from the materials so that you can use them here as you create the new layer, click this button to open the MSI Manager.
Site Improvement:
If you want to assign all objects on this layer the same Site Improvement then select it here from the available list of Site Improvements. For example if you are creating a Layer called EROS - Silt Fence onto which you will place linework for Erosion Control silt fence linework, then you can create a length based site improvement called Silt Fence in the MSI Manager and assign it here. All lines drawn on this layer will then be reported as length of silt fence for takeoff purposes.
Apply:
Click Apply if you wish to save the new layer settings and create a second or subsequent new layer.
OK:
Click OK if you wish to save the new layer settings and close the New Layer control. On closing the new layer control, the last layer that you created will be selected in the layer control of the RPS command that is running.
Cancel:
Click Cancel if you wish to close the New Layer control without saving the most recent changes.
Apply
When you tap apply, the points will be created and the command will ready itself for another selection set and repeat process execution. If you do not want to make a second selection and repeat the process tap Close to finish the process.
OK
Executes the command and closes on completion
Close
Closes the command without further execution.
Cancel
Closes the command without further execution.
Video Demonstration
The following video shows how to utilize the Point Creator command
Use Case Videos
The following videos show the use of the Point Creator command in a work process context
Feedback and Enhancement Requests
If you would like to provide feedback on the use of the Point Creator command or to request enhancements or improvements to the command please Click Reply below