Global Mapper v25.0

Curves on a line

RGBrown
RGBrown
in Suggestion Box

Using GM v22.1 64 bit plus Lidar.

When defining a pipeline route GM is really good for the IP's and the Vertex Editor works very well. However defining curves for a long pipeline route is a pain. My present workflow puts it in a spreadsheet to compute the tangent points and chord length and bearings. I then use this data in the COGO arc function. EG. Editor output

image.png

Into Excel, below is the sheet I have been working on today. Note some columns are hidden.

image.png

Saving the curve data to the text file in the COGO input editor produces a file of format:

C 1730.363 R 2000.0 C N20.02019E R meters.

However, it only relates to the single curve and I manually put in the N/S & E/W bearing seed which is a pain. Could we use bearings instead? I use grid N in the vertex editor.

The main question: Is it possible to include the start TP coords of each chord in the saved file? e.g

E 463195.95 N 5737220.63 C 1730.363 R 2000.0 C N20.02019E R, from IP15 and then of course assemble all the curves in one file to read all the curves in one go, in this example over 30 curves. A route sample is below.

image.png

I dont have AutoCAD but have been looking at IntelliCAD as a work around, but GM is nearly there, it it just needs a bit of finishing.

Hopeful regards.

Answers

  • CarrickCon
    CarrickCon

    Hi @RGBrown

    I feel your pain! 😫 I've given up trying to do curve geometry in GM. I was doing something similar to you with importing curve geometry from Excel but it just got too hard.

    I now use AutoCAD LT (only costs about AUD$50/month) which is fine for horizontal and vertical geometry like this if you don't need the 3D/surface modelling capabilities of full blown AutoCAD.

    Cheers,

    /al

  • RGBrown
    RGBrown

    Hi Carrick,

    Thanks for your helpful comment again. I must admit to finding AutoCAD a bit daunting so was trying to avoid it but I will have a look at AutoCAD LT. I've been told you use the fillet command so will have to see if I can work out the workflow. Any ideas?

    I would like to persevere with GM as I need the route profiles and other engineering type stuff. The company I work with actually have ESRI ArcGIS and use the arcmap functionality to share data with the engineers and do regulatory stuff but its a bit of a mangy dog for doing engineering things. As an Engineering GIS GM is actually hard to beat, it handles massive multibeam files when AutoCAD and ArcGIS just crash and the rectification function is really good. The biggest file I have run had 34 million points. BM just need to do a little work on updating the COGO stuff as the vertex editor is fine, well I guess it could have the option of adding the curve radii to the IP's and just do the whole lot in one go but that would be to easy - I'll put that in as another suggestion.

    Looking at the new developments they do the GM team seem to be concentrating quite a lot on Lidar stuff, but if they allocated a bit of time to thinking about road and pipeline routing they would have a brilliant GIS product, that would outperform MicroSurvey and NRG software as well.

    Cheers

    RGB

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