Terramodel Command List (including TMLs) compiled by Geocomp Systems

Create a set offset from a selected alignment.

Create a set in the current layer connecting points offset from an alignment.

The default horizontal and vertical offsets may be set to non-zero values.

If a VAL is also selected from the Profile View, points are created with elevations interpolated from the VAL, adjusted by the vertical offset, otherwise the points are 2D.

The default HAL is the active alignment, if set. The default VAL is a profile with the same name as the HAL, or a profile which refers to the HAL, if possible.

See also GC28, GC99 and SIDESLOPE.

Filter superfluous points from a DTM.

This is useful for filtering point clouds generated by laser scanners, hydrographic surveys and other large DTMs where much of the data is not significant.

Filter points on spikes, on similar grade and where removal would make insignificant changes to the volume. The filtered points be made moved to layer 0 or made non-contourable, and the point colour is also modified.

Max Triangle Grade

Filter out spikes and troughs. If all triangles about a point exceed the enter value and all are either sloping away (peak) or sloping toward (trough) then the point is removed.

Max Common Side Grade Diff

Filter out points where the triangles about the point have a Common Side grade range within the value entered. Look at all the triangles about a point and check to see if or grades are within the entered range. If so the point is removed. This filters large triangles of similar grades.

Max Volume Diff

Filter points that make a difference to the volume less than the value entered. The volume down to a datum is worked out using just the triangles about a point. The volume is then worked out with the point tested removed. If the volume difference is less than the stated value the point is removed. Filters small triangles with little change to the volume, even with large slope variations.

Max Effective Area

Filter points where the total area of all the triangles around the point is less than the value stated. This leaves large triangles unchanged.

Max Number of iterations

Reform the DTM and filter again until the maximum number of iterations. If zero, continue until less than 10% is removed in the last iteration.

Colour of Removed Points

Set the colour of the filtered points. Points can be then deleted by colour.

Move Filtered Points to layer zero.

Filtered points are either moved to layer 0 or made non-contourable.

Keep Points on Breaklines.

Protect points that lie on a breakline.

Keep Points on DTM Edge.

Protect remove points on the DTM Edge.

Keep Points > 3 Standard Deviations.

Protect points that are outside 3 standard deviations from the newly formed DTM surface.

Generate Report.

Report to P3Pad.

See also FILTER to filter plines, BLFILTER to filter along sets, GC31 to remove duplicate points and GC53 which changes and identifies non-contourable points. GCGEOCODE is a separate application, which can quickly filter points not close to an average surface model.

Create MCA file for Topcon 3D-MC Machine Control.

Compute cross sections where xlines intersect selected 3D sets, then export hal, val and sections to a single MCA file and report to P3Pad.

MCA files are the input files for the Topcon 3D-MC machine control system. Some newer Topcon 3D machine control systems use DXF instead. Check with your Topcon dealer.

Report 3D lengths and angles of a set.

Report the record number and name of a set, then the following values for each point: Back Point Number, Intersection Point Number, Forward Point Number, True 3D Angle, 3D Chainage of Intersection Point, Horizontal Deflection Angle, Vertical Deflection Angle, Bearing In, Bearing Out, 3D Distance In, 3D Distance Out, Zenith Angle In, Zenith Angle Out, Slope In and Slope Out.

This information is especially useful for designing and laying out long pipe networks.

The report can also be written as a CSV fle.

Report Terramodel version number and modules.

Report Terramodel version number, Terramodel Toolpak version, copyright details, and list Modules.

If there is no Products button, the Terramodel key cannot be found and Field data is the only module. If you were expecting other modules, including CAD, see www.geocomp.com.au/support/dongle.html.

Click on the Modules button to see the list of modules:

Family

List modules for families of Trimble products other than Terramodel

Serial Number

The serial number is also the licence number written on the key. The - extension indicates the number of times the key has been updated with different modules.

Lock version

The lock version enables certain versions of Terramodel.

Days of trial

The number of days remaining on any trial period

Order form

Report of the key details to printer or email

Upgrade

Enter Upgrade codes when requested by a Trimble dealer.

See also GCHELP.

Set prefix abbreviations for labelling and display.

Abbreviations are used in display, reports, and labelling. They apply to both attribute text and text objects created while labeling. Once you have made changes to the abbreviations, attribute text will be updated when the display is redrawn, but text objects created by labeling must be re-labeled to be updated.

Curve

Abbreviations for circular curves. Each label can have a maximum of eight characters. You can use any ASCII character in a prefix label by entering "\" and the number of the character. For example, enter \131 for the delta symbol in TMODELF.FNT.

Spiral

Abbreviations for spiral curves. Each curve prefix label can have a maximum of eight characters.

Vertical

Abbreviations for vertical curves. Each curve prefix label can have a maximum of eight characters.

Table

Line and curve table headings for LABELTABLE. Each label can have a maximum of 16 characters.

Point

Abbreviations for point names. Each prefix label can have a maximum of eight characters. These abbreviations are only used by commands that create points along an alignment at positions where IP or curve information are listed.

Set, clear or list the current active alignment.

Active alignment

Select the set or pline to be the active alignment

Set

Make the set or pline the active alignment

Clear

Clear the active alignment

Active alignments are used for four main purposes:

• Select alignments quickly
• Reference objects to the alignment so that they can derive their chainage properties from the alignment
• Reference objects to the alignment so that during labeling the referenced objects can be replaced automatically
• Control the display visibility of referenced objects

See also GCACTIVE which selects the active alignment from alignments registered in HALMANAGER.

See also REFER which refers objects to an alignment.

PROFILE refers the profile it creates to the selected alignment. Objects in the profile are invisible if the are referenced to alignments other than the active alignment. If the selected algnment is referenced to another alignment, PROFILE will use the chainages of that other alignment.

Set active chainage (station).

Set, clear or list the current active alignment and chainage.

If you selected US English during Terramodel installation, this command is called ACTIVESTATION and the command dialog and Settings menu will refer to Station. If British English, Chainage.

When cross sections are drawn in the cross section view mode using RDX, RDX_GC, XSHEET or XSHEETGC, this command controls which chainage will be displayed. When these commands create the cross sections each object is referenced to the alignment and given the chainage of the cross section as the elevation of the object. Only those objects that are referenced to the active alignment and chainage will be shown. If there is no active alignment or chainage then all cross sections will be displayed, generally on top of each other.

When any command creates objects in the cross section view the current active alignment and active chainage are used to make these objects a part of the cross section. If there is no active chainage or active alignment then any objects created will be displayed in any cross section.

These simple rules enable all cross sections to be created in the same coordinate system (on top of each other) and then viewed one cross section at a time. This allows you to use coordinates of offset and elevation to draw, edit, inverse and so on.

Align

Select the set or pline to be the active alignment

Chainage

Select the chainage along the alignment to be the current active chainage

Next

Make the next xline with a larger chainage, along the current active alignment, the current active chainage

Previous

Make the previous xline with a smaller chainage, along the current active alignment, the current active chainage

Set

Make the selected set or pline the active alignment, make the specified chainage the active chainage and exit the command

Clear

Clear the active alignment and active chainage

Add prefix or suffix to names of selected points.

Change the names of selected points to add a common prefix or suffix.

02/11/09

Geocomp Update or $100

Add prefix or suffix to selected point numbers.

Change the point numbers of selected points to add a common prefix or suffix.

If you are adding alpha characters, or any modified point number will exceed the "Max integer pn" in POINTSET, ensure that SYSTEM has sufficient "Max Alpha pts".

Add prefix or suffix to selected text.

A common use is to add parentheses around text.

Extended text objects with more than 255 characters are not supported.

Add an image located by multiple plotboxes.

Add an image to multiple plot boxes.

These plot boxes may be placed using MATRIX.

This command is useful where you have created many sheets requiring the same graphical logo, especially in conjunction with PLANSET.

Add the depth indicated by an isopach layer to the points contained within a DTM layer.

Determine the depth of the isopach at the location of each point on a DTM surface, then add that depth to the elevation of selected points.

If the DTM point is beyond the limits of the isopach layer's DTM edge, the point's elevation is unchanged.

See also GC54.

Add tide corrections to depth records.

Apply or reapply tide corrections from a tide file to selected depth records within a time period.

The tide file must in the format dd/mm/yyyy,hh:mm:ss,t.ttt where t.ttt is the tide value in metres and correctly sorted by increasing date and time.

Depth records are points with negative elevations when deeper than tide datum or positive when drying heights (above water). The point name must have been formatted by HDMS.

Restore any HDMSRTR-rounded depths prior to running ADDTIDES. Relabel depths after running ADDTIDES.

Adjust a lot to match a specified area.

See also PREDAREA.

In Terramodel 10 help, this TML is also called AdjustArea.

Create and edit command aliases.

Use command aliases to call commands by command line, menu, toolbar or toolbox button, workspace using names and arguments of your choice.

ALIAS command edits the current aliases. If you use a text editor, changes will take effect when Terramodel is restarted.

ALIAS enables you to substitute for commands which need command line arguments or are unfamiliar, renamed, misspelled or replaced. You can make your own for a local language, dialect, idiom or standard. For example:

Aliases should be defined in an ALIAS.INI file in the Terramodel Search Path (TSP). The alias.ini installed by the Geocomp Update (...\Terramodel\Geocomp\ALIAS.INI) has over 1000 aliases including French and Spanish commands.

If Terramodel is not finding your aliases, check the search path. If the correct ALIAS.INI is shown in TSP, then check whether there is a list of aliases in TMODWIN.INI. If so, these take precedence, so remove them and restart Terramodel.

Use EXEC in an alias to execute an external command. The maximum argument is 66 characters. If you need to exceed this, see RUN.

You can't alias to an alias, but you can copy the command and arguments using ALIAS command.

To add comments to alias.ini, start the line with a semi-colon ";" so it is hidden in the Alias Editor.

See also TMLLIST.

Import alignments from an ASCII text file.

Import HAL, VAL or SLOPE alignments with horizontal curve radii or vertical curve lengths from a comma-delimited file.

Browse or enter the filename.

The Settings button controls the Name, Colour, and Linetype for the alignment created.

The check box "Adjust for HAL Equations", allows you to select the registered HAL from which to extract chainage equations.

The current view determines how the file is interpreted. Where there is no curve, omit the value in [ ].

Plan (Y before X in View Settings OFF)

East,North,[,Radius]

Plan (with Y before X in View Settings ON)

North,East[,Radius]

Profile

Chainage, Elevation[,Vertical Curve Length]

XSect

Offset, Elevation[,Radius]

Super

Chainage, Elevation[,Vertical Curve Length]

See also GC65FILE.

Import alignments offsets from a text file.

Import chainages and offsets for a horizontal or vertical alignment.

These are added to the Alignment Offsets in the HAL or VAL Manager.

• Browse to select the comma-delimited file.
• The format is assumed to be: Chainage, Offset.
• Pick the Pline or Set that you want to use for the registered HAL.
• Enter a name for the HAL to be registered. The default is the filename.

This will overwrite any already-registered HAL with the same name.

See also GC65FILE.

Make text perpendicular to alignment.

Rotate selected text to be perpendicular to alignment.

Display all visible objects in the active view.

Refresh the current view at a scale such that all visible all objects, except objects in blocks, are within the window.

Use ALL to see the effect of changes to vertical exaggeration in VIEWSET.

Report angle-right between points.

Reports the horizontal angle at an instrument point subtended to the right from the backsight point to the foresight point.

Also reports the distance from the instrument point to the foresight point.

Uses the current Angle Units setting.

If all three of the coordinate locations are point objects, the point numbers will be displayed.

See also IDANGLE, GCANG, GCLABIP and LABELANG.

Draw a pline arc from any three parameters.

Choose one of 10 Types of arc, for example "Start, Center, End" or "3 Point".

ARC defaults to the last Type used.

If you need Sets, use CONVERT or GCCONVRT command to change the Plines to Sets, or use GCARC.

The arc is drawn from the first point to the last point.

If a radius is used, a negative radius will draw the arc on the right-hand side.

The Terramodel Help, this is called ARCS.

See also ARC2P and ARC2PSET.

Create an arc pline by two locations and a radius.

The arc is drawn anti-clockwise to the left of the locations.

Use a negative radius to draw the arc on the right-hand side.

See also ARC, ARC2PSET and GCARC.

See also ARC2P and ARC2PSET.

Create an arc set by two points and the radius.

The arc is drawn from the first point to the second point.

Use a negative radius to draw the arc on the right-hand side.

See also ARC, ARC2P and GCARC.

See also ARC2P and ARC2PSET.

Create breaklines along the arc segments of all sets on a designated DTM layer.

Create points at regular intervals along the arc and connect a set from the existing first TP to each of the new points and finally to the end TP of the arc. The number of chords created is based on a specified maximum middle ordinate (arc-to-chord tolerance) value which indicates the maximum allowable deviation from the true arc for any breakline chord.

The elevation of each point is interpolated along the arc from the elevations of the points at the arc TPs. If either TP has an undefined elevation, Breaklines will not be formed along that arc, and a warning message will be issued in the message area.

The new sets are named "SETARCBL", and given the current line colour, so they can be selected separately from the arcs.

See also GCARCBL to make the chords invisible and BLFILTER to filters out excess breakline points.

Replace arc segments in sets with points and arcs or chords.

Replace all arcs in selected sets with additional segments by number of points, chords or an arc-to-chord tolerance.

Points

Create the specified number of additional points per arc and replace the arc segments with new arcs.

Chords

Create the specified number of additional points per arc and replace the arc segments with chords.

Arc to chord

Create additional points and replace the arc segments with chords at the specified maximum distance from the arc to the chord.

The smoothness of the set is not changed so closed breaklines with dead smoothness still define dead areas for contours.

The maximum arc-to-chord is reported to indicate whether sufficient points were created.

See also GCARCBL which creates additional chords.

Toggle visibility of set arc centres.

Report the area inside plines or sets.

Report the area and perimeter if closed and length if open.

Line

Report to message scroll the area of a single figure and the accumulated area after subsequent selections.

Multiple

Report to P3pad for each selected figure including the sum.

Digitiser

Report area inside selected locations, without creating having to create a new object.

The unit labelling is configured by UNITSSET.

The message "Unable to get record's area" usually means that the figure crosses itself somewhere. If you cannot find where the set or pline crosses itself, you can get the area using GC10 and User Defined REPORTS such as Closure Report and Geometry Report. With GC10 and REPORTS the area inside the enclosed part is subtracted from the larger part, not added, and figures with spirals are not valid.

Import an Ashtech points file

Import an AUSgeoid98 DAT file

Import N-values as decimal latitude and longitude into the current layer.

Use GCCOORD to convert to Easting Northing coordinates.

Use GC54 to subtract the N-value from ellipse height points.

To download the AUSGeoid DAT file, WINTER software or for more information, go to Geoscience Australia.

Create line, block and text features based on field codes.

This is described in the Field Data Module User Guide.

See also BLKPTS, GCIMPORT, GCINSBLK, GCJOINMP, GCJOINPT, MAPPOINTS, PTJOIN , PTLAYCOL and RELAYER.

Enable automatic saving of project files.

AutoSave automatically backs up the current project file at a user-specified time interval. Use this feature to protect your work from unexpected power failures or computer difficulties. The autosave file has the same title as your project file, but it has the *.SAV extension. The autosave file is saved in the folder you specify in the AutoSave Configuration dialog box.

To use AutoSave:

1. Click FILE, Config System, and AutoSave [AutoSave].
2. To turn AutoSave on or off, click the AutoSave On check box.
3. To set the time interval for each autosave, type the time (in minutes) between autosaves into the Check Every box.
4. To change the directory for autosave files:
   1. Turn off AutoSave (see step 2), and click Browse. The Browse for Folder dialog box appears.
   2. Find and click on the folder for the autosave files.
   3. Click OK. The new folder name appears in the Directory for AutoSave Files area.
   4. Turn on AutoSave if desired.
5. Click OK.

AutoSave is a convenient safeguard for your work. If it does not automatically save your projects as you expect, see if you can determine the cause and resolve the issue yourself.

Recommendations:

• Check to see if you have enough disk space. The drive may be full. If you have little or no room on the disk drive, delete unneeded files, archive old files, or obtain a larger hard drive.
• Check to see a directory used by Terramodel was deleted.
• Make sure your network server is working properly if your computer is on a network.
• If your SAV path is on a network, check if another user has the project file open and it's their autosave file.

Create a clockwise set joining points.

See also QSET, GCTRACE, TRACEBDY and LOTJOIN.

Command

Draw\Set\Autoset

S

Compute volumes by end-area given an alignment, Xlines and two dtm layers

Use this command to compute volumes if you do not have the Site Design or Roadway modules.

Create XLINES along an alignment first. Smaller intervals give more accurate volumes.

Options

ALIGN

Enter the alignment (pline or set object) along which Terramodel will compute volumes. Select the same alignment you used to create the xlines.

OUTSIDE

Select the first DTM layer from which you will calculate volumes. This layer should completely encompass the second, or inside, layer and must contain 3D points.

INSIDE

Use this layer control to select the second DTM layer. Make sure that, within the limits of the xlines, the points on this layer lie within the extents of the outside layer and have elevations.

CALC

Specify the chainage limits of the volumes and whether to send the report to the screen or to an external file.

See also VOLUME to compute cut and fill volumes between surfaces, GRIDVOL, GCGRDVOL and GC20 to compute volumes between surfaces within multiple boundaries.

GCGRDVOL can also report volumes within chainage ranges so it can give a similar report to AVGEND but with more accurate volumes.

EARTHWRK, GCEARTH and XVOLUMES report volumes of roadways.

If you get zero volumes when you expect sensible values, see FIXLAYERS.

Create a point at the intersection of two bearings or two lines.

Select a point or line to indicate the starting and second point and bearings. If you select a point, enter a bearing to indicate the direction from the point.

For each solution, BBEAR creates a new point at the intersection of the two bearings on the current layer.

Create a point at the intersection of a line and an arc.

Solve for the intersection of two arcs or distances, and create a point object at the intersection.

Each arc is defined by a centre point and distance or by selecting an arc segment to define the centre point and distance.

Relayer within boundary and bandwidth.

Relayer objects on layer list layers that are within a bandwidth of selected objects.

Add a datum angle to bearing text.

Add a specified datum angle to the text value of selected text which includes values in degrees.

Create a bench string.

Create a bench string beside an existing set.

There are settings for chainage range, batter slopes, whether to batter to DTM, datum or offsets, side, current layer, interval and corner tidying.

Draw a curve of best fit through a series of selected points.

Draw a line of best fit through a series of selected points.

Create an elevation view of points.

Copy selected points into an "Elevation" drawing in View 6.

The position of the point along the selected Baseline determines the horizontal position in View 6, while the Z coordinate of the Point determines the vertical position in View 6.

The points in View 6 are placed on the same layer that the points were originally placed on in the Plan View.

The points in View 6 are given an alphanumeric identifier (point number). If the baseline has a Name, then this name and the original identifier are combined to create the identifier for the point in View 6. If the baseline does not have a name, a (2) is combined with the original identifier to create the identifier for the point in View 6.

Max Alpha Points must be set in SYSTEM to a large enough number.

See also FLIPUP.

Create a coloured image from depths.

Create a coordinated image file of colours representing the elevation from hydrographic data created using HDMS.

Create a breakline set.

Create a set that is also a breakline.

Create set between points that have elevations and are on the same layer as the first selected point. The set is created on the same layer.

See also SET.

Create a pline with right angles.

Specify an origin, enter a bearing and distance then OK to enter the first wall segment.

Then enter a positive distance to create a segment to the right, a negative distance for a segment to the left, New for a new building, Undo to undo the last segment or OK to complete the command.

See also BUILDING, QSET, TRAVERSE.

Filter excess points from breaklines.

Select breaklines by a DTM layer. Limit by multiple boundaries.

The initial filter is based on the orientation of the first two vertices on the pline. The length of the filter is measured in the direction of the first segment of the polyline, the width is measured across the polyline and the height is measured vertically.

BLFILTER checks for additional vertices that are contained within the limits of the filter tube. Any vertices inside the tube are discarded. The first vertex Terramodel finds outside of the tube is kept, and the last discarded vertex inside the tube is added back to the polyline. The tube is then reoriented based on the last two vertices, and the process is repeated.

Filtering is similar to FILTER command, except that BLFILTER also tests for elevation tolerance.

SETFILT and GCFILTER filter by 2D offset tolerance instead.

See also ARCBL which adds points and breaklines points into arcs and 3DFILTER which filters insignificant points from a DTM.

Check for crossing sets on a layer.

Wherever sets on the selected layer cross, create a point with the name "bl-cross" on layer CROSSING and labelled with symbol 40 (circle).

These points give an indication of crossing breaklines.

Some points may be created at set segments which are not breaklines, such as arc segments or sets with points that are 2D, non-contourable or on different layers.

Any previously created points on layer CROSSING will be deleted.

As each set is checked against all the other sets, the count will appear slower at first then speed up.

Use CROSSCHK to check all selected sets or plines.

Place blocks at points based upon names in the BLOCK.MAP file.

Replaced by AUTODRAFT for most purposes.

Reread a block

Replace an internal block with a different external block with the same name.

See also MKBLKINT.

Create, place, list or delete blocks.

Combine objects into a single object that can be manipulated as a block. The block can be inserted multiple times into projects, shared between projects, scaled, rotated and otherwise edited. You can create both internal blocks (which can only be used within a single project file) and external blocks (which can be referenced by any Terramodel project file). If you specify an External block, Terramodel will use the first block with that name on the Terramodel Search Path.

Block Options

CREATE

Create a block definition, given a group of objects and the origin of the block. Use Name button to enter a block name of up to 15 characters, a description, and define it as an internal block or external block with .BLK file extension.

SETTINGS

Establish default parameters used when inserting blocks. These block settings apply to all subsequently created blocks.

SCALE

Enter a scale factor for the X, Y, and Z dimensions of all inserted blocks. The factors are measured in relation to the sizes of the original objects. For example, if you want to place a block 2.5 metres in diameter, and the block you are placing is 1 unit in diameter, use a scale factor of 2.5.

ROTATION

Establish the amount of clockwise rotation for the X, Y, and Z ordinates of each inserted block, rotated about the insertion point.

INTERNAL/EXTERNAL radio buttons

Specify whether all blocks are to be created as internal or external.

AUTO SCALE

Apply the current drawing scale of the active view to the block insert. Use this feature when you want to keep the plotted size of the block the same regardless of the current drawing scale. One example would be a north arrow that you always want plotted 4 inches high regardless of the drawing scale.

AUTO ROTATE

Cause blocks to rotate automatically through a dynaview as the dynaview is rotated. This should not be used with a north arrow but could be used with other symbols to keep them oriented upright on the final plotted sheets.

CLIP

Clip the block to the limits of rectangular dynaviews, even if the insertion point falls outside the dynaview. Clipping complex blocks such as hatch patterns can cause the screen redraw speed to decrease.

MAP COLOR

When a block is inserted, it is assigned the line colour of the current layer. This block colour is retained if the block is later relayered.

ON

All objects within the block are drawn with the colour of the block.

OFF

The objects in the block are drawn with their original colours. Blocks which contain block objects with colour 0 are drawn with the colour BYLAYER.

EDIT

Edit the attributes of an inserted block.

LAYER

Lists the available layers, where you choose one on which to place the block.

COLOUR

Modify the colour of the inserted block.

ATTRIBUTE

List any attributes that have been attached to the block. Any attributes must be edited using specific commands.

GROUP

Modify the integer group number. Set 0 for no group.

REF. OBJ

Specify record number of a parent object to which the blocked is referenced.

OBJ

This area displays the record number of the block.

NAME

Modify the name of the block to match another available block. For example, if you change the name of a block named CIRCLE to TREE1, the circle block will be replaced with a tree canopy block of different size.

DESCRIPTION

Displays the description you assigned to the block definition when you created it.

ORIGIN

Modify the X and Y of the origin of the block.

ELEV

Modify the elevation of the block. See PN below.

SCALE

Modify the X, Y or Z scale of the block.

ROTATION

Modify the X, Y, and/or Z rotation angles of the block.

AUTO SCALE

Apply the current drawing scale of the active view to the block. This feature is used when you desire to keep the plotted size of the block the same regardless of the current drawing scale. One use of this could be to make a north arrow that you always want plotted 4 inches high regardless of the drawing scale.

MAP COLOR

ON

All objects within the block are drawn with the colour of the block.

OFF

The objects in the block are drawn with their original colours. Blocks which contain block objects with colour 0 are drawn with the colour BYLAYER

AUTO ROTATION

Cause block objects to rotate automatically through a dynaview as the dynaview is rotated. This should not be used with a north arrow but could be used with blocks that oriented to the top of final plotted sheets.

PN

When a subject point number is specified the block origin is computed relative to the coordinates of the point. When the point is deleted any attached block will also be deleted. EAT text in the block can refer to the subject point.

INSERT

Insert a block into a project file.

Block name

Specify the name of the block you want to insert. Pick from a list of blocks already inserted in the project, or type in the name of a block in the Terramodel Search Path.

LOC

Locate the origin of the block.

SCALE

Set the size of the block relative to the size of the block definition. Most blocks are defined as one unit high so the scale you enter becomes the height of the inserted block in the units of the view. Note that the CIRCLE block is one unit in radius, and point label blocks vary in height as specified.

ROT

Enter the rotation of the block around the origin.

MAP COLOR

When a block is inserted, it is assigned the line colour of the current layer. This block colour is retained if the block is later relayered.

ON

All objects within the block are drawn with the colour of the block.

OFF

The objects in the block are drawn with their original colours. Blocks which contain block objects with colour 0 are drawn with the colour BYLAYER

INSERT

Insert the block once you have set the location, etc.

LIST

List the internal and external blocks contained in your project file. The list includes the block name, whether it is an internal or external block, the view in which the block was created, the number of lines (polylines or sets) contained in the block definition, the number of text objects contained in the block definition, the number of inserted blocks of that block definition, and the description of the block.

SAVE

Save a block definition as an external BLK file.

NAME

Select the block definition you want to save to an external file from this drop-down list box of blocks you have created.

FILE

Enter up to 8 characters for the name of an external .BLK file.

SAVE

Save the block definition as an external block.

MODIFY

Select one block from a list of external blocks that have been inserted and modify it to an internal block. See also MKBLKINT.

MULTIPLE

Place multiple identical blocks on selected points.

Name

Specify the name of the block you want to insert. Pick from a list of blocks already inserted in the project, or type in the name of a block in the Terramodel Search Path.

Pts

Select the points.

SCALE

Set the size of the block relative to the size of the block definition. Most blocks are defined as one unit high so the scale you enter becomes the height of the inserted block in the units of the view. Note that the CIRCLE block is one unit in radius, and point label blocks vary in height as specified. Also enter the rotation of the block around the origin.

MULTIPLE

Insert the blocks on each selected point.

PURGE

Delete unused unblock definitions in the project file.

See also AUTODRAFT, BLKREAD, BLKPTS, GCEXPLOD, GC09, GCINSBLK, HATCH, MKBLK, SCLBLKS, TEXT2PNT and UNITBLK.

Create a chart of blocks.

Create an array of labelled blocks in the sheet view.

The chart shows all blocks listed on separate lines in a text file called BLOCKSPT.LST.

The blocks must be internal blocks or external BLK files in the Search Path.

You may wish to make the external blocks internal using MKBLKINT.

A BLOCKSALL.PRO with matching BLOCKPTS.LST are installed in ..\Terramodel\Geocomp\Docs folder.

DOCUMENTS includes links to BLOCKSALL.PRO and charts of the blocks in PDF files.

Draw a pline box.

Draw a rectangular pline at specified opposite corners.

See also POLYGON, PLOTBOX and PAD.

If the box is to be used for a DYNAVIEW, we suggest that you adopt the convention of locating the first corner in the bottom left so that the insertion point of any rectangular dynaview can always be found at the bottom left.

Break a pline or set into two parts.

Break a pline or set into two parts at location.

Select a pline or set, then a break location. The pline or set is broken into two parts at the location.

Repeat

Enable this checkbox if you want the command to stay open until the Cancel button is clicked.

Set or pline

Select the set or polyline you wish to break.

Break

Enter a location along the line where you want to break it.

A polyline cannot be broken within a spiral or vertical curve.

To break a pline or set by removing a segment, use DELETESEGMENT.

In Terramodel prior to 10.5, BREAK deletes set segments like DELETESEGMENT does now.

Construct a building with perpendicular or angled sides.

Construct a building with perpendicular or angled sides based on positive (right) and negative (left) offsets. Close the building by direct closure to the beginning point or close on a perpendicular to the beginning line. The beginning line can be cut or extended to match the closing line.

See also BLDG, QSET and TRAVERSE.

Label objects with predefined callout text.

Create, edit, store and use predefined callout styles to label commonly encountered site features and objects. A callout style can be defined to enable you to quickly label objects that you frequently encounter, without having to type the text each time. The stored callout style typically defines the textual content of the label, including EAT codes, and the leader line and text border styles that you wish to use to label a particular type of project feature, such as a curb inlet or manhole. Predefining the callout style saves time and produces consistency, while reducing the chances for error.

Callout styles are stored within external libraries. You might wish to organize these callout style library files based on categories of site features such as storm structures, sanitary sewers, water, general labeling, etc. You can load each of these external library files for use as needed.

Callout Options

CALLOUT

Create or edit a callout style, load and clear the styles contained within an external callout style library (.COS) file, and select the callout style to be used.

HAL

When the currently selected callout style contains EAT codes intended to display the station and offset of an object, this field is enabled, allowing you to associate the callout text object with the horizontal alignment from which that object is to be stationed.

LDR / SUBJ

Designate the subject of the callout, i.e. the object being labeled. The subject record number is associated with the callout text object, so that EAT codes referring to the subject can be expanded. If the callout style includes a leader line, the position to which the leader line points will be based on where you snap the cursor in this control. If you have defined a callout style that does not employ "\SUB" EAT codes and that does not use a leader line, this control serves no function and can be skipped.

LOC

Enter the insertion point of the callout text object. Once you have entered the insertion point location, the coordinates will appear in the Loc box. If you pick a location graphically, the text will be placed. If you enter the coordinates in this control, you can click on the Text control to place the text.

ROT

The bearing control presented on selecting this command button lets you enter a bearing or an angle of rotation (measured from due north) at which the text is to be placed. Valid rotation angles range from 0° to 360° and can include negative angles. The default rotation is 90° which generates horizontal text.

PROPS

Designate a leader line style and a border style and their properties. You can also edit the text object's subject record and its subject HAL record from within this dialog box.

TEXT

Place the text once you have typed it and set the other text parameters to your liking.

Configure plotter carousels.

Select and edit plotter pen carousel definitions.

Each carousel defines the colour, in RGB, and width in mm, for "pens" to be used when plotting.

Use PLOTSET, to map the object colour to a pen number and PLOTTERSET to assign the default carousel for each Plotter Configuraton.

To copy a carousel, manually copy a pen carousel definition (PENDEF) within TMODWIN.INI.

Create a catenary.

Create a segmented pline, between two attachment locations in the profile view, following the path of a cable suspended between two points.

The settings button allows weight and tension values to be specified.

Create an initial design profile for a cul-de-sac or kerb return.

To create a kerb return,

• Select the kerb return horizontal alignment at Culdesac.
• Click Begin info and select the centreline hal of one road, the vertical offset of the kerb alignment at the start of the kerb and the design profile of the that road.
• Click End info and select the centreline hal of the other road, the vertical offset of the kerb alignment at the end of the kerb and the design profile of the other road.
• Click Create to create a profile pline with chainages from the culdesac alignment and four segments containing vertical curves end matching the grades and elevations of the design alignment profiles.

The kerb return has four segments with vertical curves.

See also GC51 and GCPRFEDT.

Recentre views based on chainage.

Ideal for working along a long narrow alignment such as a road, rail or pipe.

For any selected roadjob, nominate a chainage by selecting a location in the plan, profile, super or xsect views. The plan, profile and super views, if open, are recentred on the horizontal or vertical alignment at the selected chainage. The active chainage is set to the nearest cross section, and the Xsect view is fitted to the data.

If the selected view is the Xsect, the active chainage is used, if set.

The match button uses the centre of the active plan, profile or super view to recentre the other views. If the profile view is active, the plan and super views are scaled to fit the chainage range.

There are buttons to zoom in or out by 25%, to fit data in all four views, and to move to the next or previous chainage then making it active.

On starting this option, the views are horizontally tiled.

Compute superelevation from existing crossfall.

For every point in a centreline set, compute the crossfall perpendicular to the HAL from the centreline to left and right edge-of-road sets. These crossfalls are placed in the Super view on the current layer so you can design to match existing superelevation.

Xlines are ignored as these are not interpolated linearly.

Set the start chainage (or beginning station) of a HAL.

If you selected US English during Terramodel installation, the command dialog and Settings menu will refer to Station. If British English, Chainage.

Using ALIAS, STATION may be executed from the command line by CHAINAGE, STARTCHAINAGE and so on.

Sets and plines are always chained from the first point created to the last point created. Chainage equations can be assigned by using HALMANAGER.

See also ACTIVECHAINAGE, SETSTA, REVERSE and GC74.

Check and correct roadway alignment registration.

See also GCSUBGDE and GCDTMGDE.

Change colour bylayer to colour by colour number.

For every selected object that has colour number = 0 (= BYLAYER), change the colour number to the colour of the layer.

The displayed colour will not appear to change until you change the layer of the object or the colour in the layer settings.

For example, select all objects by view to change to from a colour by layer convention to a colour by object convention. To change all from colour by object to colour by layer, COLOUR by view to colour 0.

Change elevation by point name

Change the elevation of all selected points to match the numeric value of the name.

All digits and the last decimal point in the name are considered; all other characters are ignored, for example:

point name	new elevation
123.456	123.456
R.L.=123.456	123.456
123.456 I.L.	123456.00
90301	90301.00
TOP01	1.00
RCP dia. 225 class Y1	0.2251
give way sign	*
	*

You may need to tidy up the names with GC01, SNR or CHNGNAME first.

Replace characters in names based on a dictionary.

Replace characters in names of selected records within a range according to a selected dictionary.

Create a dictionary file using a text editor, following this example:

#Dictionary file format
# Lines with first char as # are ignored
#  use ' character as limiter
#'Current Text','New Text'
#
#'English','Espanol'
'Feasibility Study','Estudio de factibilidad'
'Road design','D seño decarretera'
'North','Norte'
'Cross-Section','Corte'
#
#'English','Francais'
'CHAINAGE','PK'
'CH','PK'
'SCALES','ECHELLE'
'SCALE','ECHELLE'
'Scale','Echelle'
'LONGITUDINAL SECTION','Profil en Long'
'CROSS SECTIONS','Profil en Travers'
'OFFSET','Distance du centre'

Note that the changes are processed in dictionary file order, so be careful. If, in the example, 'CH' replaced was before 'CHAINAGE', you would get 'PKAINAGE', not 'PK'.

The name of a text object has the same value as the text, so use CHNGTEXT to change multiple text objects. Do not select text objects, if you do not want to change the text.

See also SNR (Search and Replace), and CHTXT.

Replace selected text based on a dictionary.

Replace characters in selected text records according to a selected dictionary.

Create a dictionary file using a text editor, following this example:

#Dictionary file format
# Lines with first char as # are ignored
#  use ' character as limiter
#'Current Text','New Text'
#
#'English','Espanol'
'Feasibility Study','Estudio de factibilidad'
'Road design','D seño decarretera'
'North','Norte'
'Cross-Section','Corte'
#
#'English','Francais'
'CHAINAGE','PK'
'CH','PK'
'SCALES','ECHELLE'
'SCALE','ECHELLE'
'Scale','Echelle'
'LONGITUDINAL SECTION','Profil en Long'
'CROSS SECTIONS','Profil en Travers'
'OFFSET','Distance du centre'

Note that the changes are processed in dictionary file order, so be careful. If, in the example, 'CH' replaced was before 'CHAINAGE', you would get 'PKAINAGE', not 'PK'.

If the new text is a different length, you can match the text width attributes to suit.

You can also refer to characters by their three-digit decimal ASCII value. For example, \010 for new line and \176 for degree (°) sign. What you see depends on the font. Not all fonts contain all characters. For example, in some fonts degree sign is \127. In fonts such as symbol.fnt, you can specify a symbol by this method.

See also SNR (Search and Replace), CHNGNAME and CHTXT.

Report chainage, offset and height difference from DTM.

Report the Point Number, Chainage, Offset, Point Elevation, Design DTM Elevation, Elevation Difference and Name in a table, given a HAL, a Design DTM, and some points.

If CSV, is selected, the report includes commas, so you can then save the report as a text file to CSV. No separate CSV file is created.

Convert stationing text to chainage text.

Convert text objects representing distance along an alignment from USA stationing format, for example nn+nnn.nn, to UK/AUST chainage format, for example CH nnnnn.nn.

See also CHNGTEXT and SNR.

Create a circular pline.

Create a closed pline of four equal arcs centred on a specified location, with a specified radius.

Remove unnecessary points from sets.

Delete each point in selected sets with the same point number as the previous point. This also removes zero length arcs.

Consecutive points can be created accidentally or exist in imported data. They may can cause some commands to behave in unexpected ways.

See also DUPLTRIS.

Clear the message scroll window.

Clip plines and sets to boundaries.

Clip plines or sets where they cross selected closed boundaries.

The objects can be clipped to remove that part Inside or Outside the boundaries, or to Break at the boundary.

The boundaries can be closed plines or outside text objects. The clipping boundary of text objects is at the extent of the text scaled by the text clip margin defined in DRAFTSET.

To clip hatching, EXPLODE to plines first.

Close the current project without exiting Terramodel.

Close the current project file (.PRO) and the corresponding .PLK file that was opened with the project.

Close selected sets and plines.

For selected sets and plines, create a segment from the end to the start.

Optionally, use name masks from a file.

Modify the color of selected objects.

Since Terramodel 10.40, with US English installation this command is spelled COLOR. To use COLOR with the British English installation, alias COLOR to the command COLOUR.

Change the colour of points relative to the current roadway.

Since the ranges are by 3D distances from the current roadway, this works best with approximately circular shapes such as those used in tunnels.

Select points from those on a selected DTM layer.

The Settings button allows you to assign colour numbers for use within distance ranges.

Choose whether to change the colour of the existing points or create new points on a new layer with the desired colour at the same location.

If you choose to create new points, you can set the elevations of the new points to the ("offsets" (difference in 3D distance) between the points and the current roadway. This can be modelled to create a difference DTM and determine the zero ("offsets" line.

The 3D distances are interpolated from cross sections extracted at the specified interpolation spacing.

See also COLORPT and HDMS.