Below are the commands for this Ribbon Panel.
Any commands that are specific to Civil 3D will be together. AutoCAD/BricsCAD commands will be noted at the bottom of the page.
| Settings | Stringer Settings Parameters | Tree Block Definition | Select Different Surface |
| Correlation File | |||
| Creating Correlation File |
Settings Setting your Stringer Settings File as the Default in the Template
-To do this you need to go and open your DWT (Drawing Template),
-Open Stringer Settings and set the CSV file in here
-Select No so it sets the CSV as the Master Allocation
-Save the DWT and get out of that drawing template.
Everytime you start a new drawing your Stringer Settings CSV file should already be set as the default.
The Stringer Program is designed to make stringing of Survey Data easy in the AutoDesk Civil3D enviroment.
The program uses the raw point codes from the field in the drawing for creating polylines. The codes are interrogated and those with numeric suffixes are regarded asStringable. With this system points can be strung even if not provided for in the settings file. This settings file allocates the layers to be used for the Strings and it also allows you to specify what sort of line you want the points to be joined with e.g. 2d polyline, 3d breakline, 3d poly or Do Not Join. Parameters associated with the points and strings can be used to enhance the polylines drawn in the program.
Fig. 1
The above form is made directly from the DESCRIPTION KEY SET. When setting up for survey work and how it gets strung the most important item to get right is the Description Key Set. Once this has been completed and you have all your codes on a different layer Stringer Settings can quickly make a CSV file the correlates between the points and the strings in the drawing on the field codes you have set up in the Description Key Set. To make a Stringer Settings CSV file you need to go to the GET CODES FROM KEY DESCRIPTION button at the top right and the display at the bottom will show up.
Fig. 2
1. If you have more than one Description Key Set you need to select it here, otherwise it will already be showing the Description Key Set name you have set up.
2. Pick the Use layers from Key file + Suffix
3. Highlight the _LINE and delete it and press enter. The _LINE will come off all the 2d layer names (leave it if you want it).
4. Select a linetype. I always select 3d breakline in this form.
5. Select Use Fixed Layer for 3d Linework. This will put all your 3d linework on the one layer as they are only needed to create the breaklines in the surface and it is easier to turn off one layer than trying to search for individual layers.
6. Once you have done all this you can now SAVE TO NEW CORRELATION FILE.
Then when you have saved it, cancel out of the form you were in (Fig.2) and go and click on Select Correlation File in Fig.1 above.
You now have a Stringing file that correlates with your points file and everything is now on the same layer.
What you need to do now is to go back to Fig. 1 and go through the codes and assign the correct Linetype to each code so it will string as you have told it to every time you join your strings. An example of this is if you had a re-inforced concrete pipe going under a driveway and you want it to be strung but you dont want it added as a breakline in the surface, then you would change the 3d Breakline type to 2d Join Only. Every time this code strings it will only string it with a 2d polyline.
The profile editor enables the user to tell Stringer which point codes to connect together with 2D and/or 3D polyline and also whether or not to apply a template. The data is stored in the CSV file. You may navigate to a new profile csv file (which does not have to be called profiles.csv), either in the current folder or across a network. The folder that the profile csv is located in must also contain the template files (*.tem).
For each Code entry in the Profile, five parameters can be defined:
- 2D or 3D POLY - Allows the user to specify whether the code is strung with a 2D polyline only, 2D & 3D polylines or not strung at all
- 2D LAYER NAME - Allows the user to set the layer on which the 2D polylines are drawn. If left blank then the current layer will be used.
- 2D TEMPLATE - Allows the user to specify the template which is applied to the 2D polylines. Leave blank if no template is required
- 3D LAYER NAME - Allows the user to set which 3D polylines are drawn on. If left blank then the current layer will be used.
- 3D TEMPLATE - Allows the user to specify the template which is applied to the 3D polylines. Leave blank if no template is required
A template file (*.tem) is made up of 4 elements per line:
Horizontal Offset, Vertical Offset, 2d Layer, 3d Layer. You can have as many lines in the template file as you wish. A typical template file would look like below
In the AutoCAD version all COGO points (Points) are created using Stringer Topo commands, and are represented on user definable layers with text and blocks. The total COGO point is contained inside an attributed block, and Stringer Topo includes functionality to easily turn text elements (such as elevation) on/off and to set up text sizes and positions for different elements of text display (eg: point number, elevation and description). When a COGO point is selected it can be edited using Stringer Topo commands and also from the Attributes area of the AutoCAD Properties panel.
Stringer Topo includes a single interface for creating Point Styles, that are then set to display for particular point descriptions. The Point Style Creator is used to manage creation and editing of different Point displays:
The Stringer Settings form sets up what Point Style to display for different point Codes that you pick up in the field.
This form is significant in automating outputs. It controls your list of Point Codes that you use in the field. For each pint code:
Can change the distance between vertices on strainghts, which will add more triangles on straight lines when no points are there.
Can force the Number of numeric characters for a code, say 3 digits to 4. e.g. 104 to 4052, anything after that will be treated as a string number
You Can set the Tolerance for the Point to Point comaprison (checking in mm's)
They need to be set here as the one in the Stringer Settings form doesn't work
This display is where you set the blocks that you want your trees to look like when you replace them.
They are AutoCAD Blocks. You set this before running the Replace Tree Symbols command.
The first column is the code to look for,
The second is the symbol to use if only 1 parameter is entered,
Columns 3 and 4 are for when 2 parameters are entered,
The 5th column for when a 3rd (height) Parameter is entered.
The 3d symbol has XY scaled to the spread scale and Z to the height scale, giving you a 3d tree.
This is done based on the settings defined in the Treeinfo.dat file which is located in (C:\ProgramData\CSS\Stringer 20??)
Selecting a different surface allows the user who has more than 1 surface to nominate the surface the breaklines get added to in the drawing. Because you can only show the breaklines of one surface at a time Stringer will remember your changes to each surface and when selecting a different surface it will also show the different breaklines associated with it.
