CadTools Reference Manual

CadTools Reference Manual
2014-06-20
Lars Karlsson, Sweden

1
General ................................................................................................................................................... 7
About performance .........................................................................................................................
7
About CadTools
............................................................................................................................... 7
Settings
............................................................................................................................................ 8
User Settings
.................................................................................................................................. 11
Settings form for Coordinate grid

................................................................................................. 12
Convert commands ............................................................................................................................. 13

Convert ..........................................................................................................................................
13
Arcs > 3D Polylines

........................................................................................................................ 13
Circles > 3D Polylines

..................................................................................................................... 13
Lines > 3D Polylines

....................................................................................................................... 13
3Dpolylines > Polylines

.................................................................................................................. 13
3DFaces > 3D Polylines

.................................................................................................................. 13
Polylines > 3D Polylines

................................................................................................................. 13
EPANET commands ............................................................................................................................ 14

Create EPANET Inp-file from DWG ................................................................................................
14
Text commands ................................................................................................................................... 16

Align text to UCS and scale it. ........................................................................................................
16
Align text to left

............................................................................................................................. 16
Insert character to single line text.
................................................................................................ 16
Insert line-aligned text

.................................................................................................................. 16
Remove character from single line text.

....................................................................................... 16
Export text to Excel

....................................................................................................................... 16
Text capitalize
................................................................................................................................ 16
Text uncapitalize
............................................................................................................................ 16
Place sloped Text

........................................................................................................................... 17
MText Color Override remover

..................................................................................................... 17
MText Font Override remover

...................................................................................................... 17
Block attribute to text

................................................................................................................... 18
Match blocks with lines (Drainage Evaluation)

............................................................................. 18
Export block coordinates/attributes to Excel

................................................................................ 21
Annotate block elevation

.............................................................................................................. 21
Edit Block Attribute Text

............................................................................................................... 21
Drafting ................................................................................................................................................. 24
Profile/Cross-section Note ............................................................................................................
24
Draw commands .................................................................................................................................. 25

2
General Mtext with leader
.......................................................................................................................... 25
Create coordinate grid

.................................................................................................................. 25
Draw from coordinates

................................................................................................................. 26
Polylines, point to point

................................................................................................................ 26
Polyline vertex
............................................................................................................................... 27
Circle at point
................................................................................................................................ 28
Block at point
................................................................................................................................. 28
Text at point
.................................................................................................................................. 29
Block at station/offset from polyline

............................................................................................ 29
Text at station/offset from polyline

.............................................................................................. 30
Sphere at point
.............................................................................................................................. 31
Cylinder at point
............................................................................................................................ 32
Box at point
................................................................................................................................... 32
Revision cloud
................................................................................................................................ 33
Layer commands ................................................................................................................................. 34

Layer commands ...........................................................................................................................
34
All layers of but selected
............................................................................................................... 34
All layers off but current

................................................................................................................ 34
Layer off by objects

....................................................................................................................... 34
Layer freeze by single object (Xref)

............................................................................................... 34
Move to layer by object

................................................................................................................ 34
All layers on
................................................................................................................................... 34
Set current layer by object

............................................................................................................ 34
Delete layer
................................................................................................................................... 34
Layer report to Excel

..................................................................................................................... 34
Line commands ................................................................................................................................... 35

Area Calculation ............................................................................................................................
35
Annotate Cross Section (table)

...................................................................................................... 36
Annotate polyline elevation

.......................................................................................................... 37
Export polyline coordinates to Excel

............................................................................................. 38
Create 3D alignment
...................................................................................................................... 38
Cross section area (Cut and Fill)

.................................................................................................... 40
Annotate Cross-Section/Profile slope

........................................................................................... 42
Densify polyline
............................................................................................................................. 42
Join 3D polyline
............................................................................................................................. 43
3
Length calculation
......................................................................................................................... 43
Level out 3D polyline

..................................................................................................................... 44
Make 3D solids from lines (pipes)

................................................................................................. 45
Multi offset line

............................................................................................................................. 45
Offset 3D polyline
.......................................................................................................................... 46
Reverse polyline
............................................................................................................................ 46
Point section/offset from polyline

................................................................................................ 46
Polyline Tools
................................................................................................................................. 47
Best fit
........................................................................................................................................... 47
Remove duplicate polyline vertices

.............................................................................................. 47
Simplify 3D-polyline
....................................................................................................................... 47
Profile 3D polyline
......................................................................................................................... 49
Slope and Road signs 2D (topic for road signs and

markings)....................................................... 50
Chevrons
........................................................................................................................................ 52
Give Way signs

............................................................................................................................... 52
Pedestrian crossings
...................................................................................................................... 53
Bicycle paths
.................................................................................................................................. 53
Set 2D polyline elevation by nearest text

..................................................................................... 54
Slope arrows on 3D polylines

........................................................................................................ 57
Slope and Road signs 2D (topic slope signs)

.................................................................................. 57
Stationing
...................................................................................................................................... 59
Table Edit 3D polyline elevation

.................................................................................................... 60
Transverse 3D lines Between 3D Polylines

.................................................................................... 61
Miscellaneous commands .................................................................................................................. 64

Dist with Slope ...............................................................................................................................
64
3DSolid to Excel
............................................................................................................................. 64
Region to Excel
.............................................................................................................................. 64
Text, Circles and Block station/Offset from Polyline to Excel

....................................................... 65
Station equatins
............................................................................................................................ 65
Delete Point, Circle and Text In/Outside Polygon

......................................................................... 66
Vehicle Turning Simulation

............................................................................................................ 67
Point/Circles commands ..................................................................................................................... 74

Annotate point ..............................................................................................................................
74
Annotate point elevation

.............................................................................................................. 74
Send single point to clipboard

....................................................................................................... 74
4
General Export point and circles to Excel
................................................................................................... 74
Mode commands ................................................................................................................................. 75

Command Tree ..............................................................................................................................
75
Slope
..............................................................................................................................................
75
Tools
..............................................................................................................................................
77
Surface commands ............................................................................................................................. 80

Create Longitudinal Features ........................................................................................................
80
Edit/View surface
.......................................................................................................................... 82
Import surface (triangles)

.............................................................................................................. 82
Plot triangles
.................................................................................................................................. 83
Plot perimeter
............................................................................................................................... 83
Create Wireframe Surface

............................................................................................................. 84
Drape loaded Surface (Objects)

.................................................................................................... 84
Drape loaded Surface (3Dpolylines)

.............................................................................................. 84
Single point, annotate elevations from Surface

............................................................................ 84
Annotate surface slope and direction

........................................................................................... 85
Trickle
............................................................................................................................................ 85
Trickle All
....................................................................................................................................... 85
Delete triangles with centroid outside polygon

............................................................................ 85
Delete triangles with centroid inside polygon

.............................................................................. 86
Create Surface (Triangulate)

......................................................................................................... 88
Triangulating 2D-polylines (Contours)

........................................................................................... 88
Constrained triangulations (breaklines)

........................................................................................ 88
Triangle volume
............................................................................................................................. 91
Estimated option
........................................................................................................................... 92
Almost Exact option
...................................................................................................................... 92
Report
............................................................................................................................................ 92
Isopach Surface
............................................................................................................................. 94
Triangle volume by Elevation

........................................................................................................ 95
Profiled model
............................................................................................................................... 96
Surface contours
........................................................................................................................... 98
Annotate by Fence
........................................................................................................................ 99
How to smooth the contour lines

................................................................................................. 99
Surface cross sections

................................................................................................................. 100
Display references
....................................................................................................................... 100
5
Cut and fill

................................................................................................................................... 101
Customize Cross-Section layout (in drawing)

.............................................................................. 102
Advanced use of Surface Cross Sections

..................................................................................... 103
Surface profile
............................................................................................................................. 103
Display references
....................................................................................................................... 103
View slope vectors

....................................................................................................................... 106
Xref commands .................................................................................................................................. 108

Open Xref by object .....................................................................................................................
108
Detach Xref by object

.................................................................................................................. 108
Make Xref relative path

............................................................................................................... 108
Save/Load Xref settings from file

................................................................................................ 108
Hatch commands ............................................................................................................................... 109

Export Hatch area to Excel ..........................................................................................................
109
Exporting to Excel, alternative if not Excel installed ..................................................................... 110

CadTools SpreadSheet .................................................................................................................
110
How to become a registered user

............................................................................................... 111
How to use CadTools to speed up your

work.............................................................................. 111
Known problems
......................................................................................................................... 112
6
General General
CadTools (ToolBox) is developed for Civil Engineers using AutoCAD. There is a number of great software on the market that
supports the design process for roads, rails etc. The final design of the drawing is often left for the user without any support other
than AutoCAD’s usual tools and commands. In the beginning CadTools was designed to support slope calculation (drainage).
Since the first version, over 50 useful commands have been added. Some commands have extra functionality limited for
unregistered users, to become a registered user and get access to all you must donate.
Almost all commands are developed for 3D, the main reason for this is that it's fun to create design models in real 3D. Using
Autocads Orbit command to examine the final design gives a good idea of how it's going to look when it's built. I've seen some
software doing the job in 2D but I never understood why. I work as a civil engineer with special knowledge in pavement design
and evaluation, through the years I've developed software to make my work easier. I've spent thousands of hours developing
software to do what I want, my conclusion is that software developed by users can be a god complement to more sophisticated
software. If you should ask me -what is the best civil software on the market today? My answer would be Bentley's InRoads.
CadTools provides several useful commands. The most common commands can be reached by a toolbar placed at the top.
The software runs in three modes, Slope , Command Tree and Tools. If mode is set to Tools all input-boxes and toolbars for
drainage support are hidden.
• Decimal separator for input values in CadTools should be same as operating system settings (Control panel).
• All commands are developed for use in ModelSpace, some might even work in PaperSpace.
• This software is distributed "as is", use it at your own risk.
For information and latest updates: www.glamsen.se/CadTools.htm
About performance
All commands in CadTools are based on basic geometric formulas with no optimizing techniques. Surface triangles are saved in
a very simple way with no information of related triangles (nearest neighbor). A very time consuming part is plotting to Autocad,
as result of all this many commands can be very slow, you could divide huge surfaces in smaller to improve performance. I
myself prefer to grab a cup of coffee and let CadTools do the work.
adTools is developed by Lars Karlsson (www.glamsen.se) and is distributed free. Some commands
About CadTools C
and features are limited for unregistered user. To become a registered user and get access to all commands you must donate.
There are no upper or lower limits for donations, the result is the same (full access).
Settings
The settings form is activated through the Settings menu in Main Form.
Description goes from top left down to right bottom
• Layers Settings Uncheck this if you have many layers in the drawing and want to speed up loading forms. You can always use
CTRL+R to read layers from the current drawing to the listbox at any time, or use the object picker (button with
hair-cross)
• Result to SpreadSheet This is a option to use a simple built in SpreadSheet instead of Excel. Use this if your computer doesn't
have Excel installed. Data from the output window can be copied and pasted to other Windows software (Open Office)
• Autocad version Set appropriate Autocad version by selecting version from the list. The first option in the list is "Manually
(type in self)" , this option is useful if by any reasons development of CadTools is halted and there are newer versions of
AutCAD on the market. It would be nice if you could continue to use CadTools on coming AutoCAD versions. What shall i
type in? The string (reference to COM object) used by CadTools depends on AutoCAD versions. Generally you need to
change the three last digits so it match your AutoCAD version, the list below may be useful along with some "try and
error".
AutoCAD version Reference string
2000 AutoCad.Application.15
2002 AutoCad.Application.15.1
8
• AutoCAD Cancel String IMPORTANT FOR NON ENGLISH AUTOCAD. This setting specifies the string that CadTools will
recognize as Cancel String. When you quit a command in AutoCAD you can hit the ESC key. Hitting ESC will get a Cancel String at
the command line, in English AutoCAD versions it will be *Cancel*. If you
use a localized version of AutoCAD you need to provide information of the Cancel String to CadTools. To do so hit the ESC key in a
open drawing and look at the command line. Type in the Cancel String in CadTools settings dialog. CadTools uses the Cancel String
to check AutoCAD's parameter LASTPROMPT to decide if exit current command or not. If the Cancel String is incorrect you will not
be able to cancel CadTools repetitive commands i. e Join 3D-polyline and offset 3D-polyline.
• Chord Height. Specifies the largest distance between a chord and the arc. This parameter is used to control the number of points
along a curve that are added when converted to 3D polyline. If your value is to small no converting is performed. The default value is
0,05 (if you use meter that results in a accuracy of 5 cm)
• Report and temporary files folder. Specifies folder for reports (triangle volume). If you are having problems with report files it can
help if you select a folder where you have read and write access. Remember to copy your UDS-file (User Defined Settings) to your
new folder. This can be done by clicking on the blue text at the bottom of the form. Any existing UDS-file in the folder will not be
overwritten.
Description goes from top left down to right bottom
• Save response to Clipboard copies the formatted response-string to Windows clipboard and can be pasted in to any other
Windows application
• Draw picked line draws a line from picked start point to picked endpoint. (current layer)
• Arrow Draws an arrow sign indicating slope direction. (current layer)
• Color Set color for line and arrow
• Show history Toggles history list on/off. All previous calculated values in this session is presented in a list, most recent is shown
first.
Settings 9
• Absolute values for slope annotation Leading negative sign is removed from slope annotation
• Always return focus to Toolbox If selected cursor focus is removed from AutoCAD to CadTools (ToolBox) after picking
lengths or annotation in the drawing. This can be useful if you plan to input values by keyboard frequently. If you plan to
do something else immediately in the drawing after picking or annotation this checkbox should be off. This setting only
works in Slope mode
• Scale factor when picking length with scale Using CadTools with profiles with different horizontal or vertical scale this factor
is multiplied to picked length.
• Leading/Ending Characters Calculated responses are formatted after this setting. Useful for percent sign etc.
• Decimals Calculated strings ready for annotation are rounded according these settings.
• Annotation Color Annotations is always placed at current layer, colors applies this setting
• Text Height Text height for annotated values

Note!
Some commands use text height and other settings from this form.
10
User Settings <Commands>, <Lines>, <Slope and roadsigns (2D)>
User settings is specially designed for two commands. The first is "Create Coordinate Grid" the second is "Slope and road signs 2D".
The settings can be accessed throw the menu "Settings" for each form. These settings are not stored in the Windows registry
instead the are stored in a file. You can share your settings to others by copying the file "Cadtoolssettings.uds" that's located in
same directory as CadTools executable file. Pasting (overwriting) the file to same location at another computer gives that user same
saved settings for booth "Cordinate grid" and "Slope and road signs 2D"
Settings form for Slope and road signs
Settings 11
Settings form for Coordinate grid

12
Convert commands
Convert
<Commands>, <Convert>
Arcs > 3D Polylines

Replaces Arcs with 3Dpolyline segments. The segment length is calculated using Chord Height settings (settings form)
Circles > 3D Polylines

Replaces Circles with 3Dpolyline segments. The segment length is calculated using Chord Height settings (settings form)
Lines > 3D Polylines

Replaces lines with 3Dpolyline segments.
3Dpolylines > Polylines

Flattens out 3D Polylines to 2DPolylines
3DFaces > 3D Polylines

Some triangulation software can’t read 3Dfaces, this can help but beware, very slow on huge selections.
Polylines > 3D Polylines

Replaces Polylines with 3Dpolyline segments. If there are arcs in the Polyline they will be replaced by several small
elements. The segment length is calculated using Chord Height settings (settings form)
13
EPANET commands
Create EPANET Inp-file from DWG

<Commands>, <EPANET>
This command creates an EPANET input file that can be imported to EPANET. There are three types of lines that are
supported by this command, Polylines, 3D-polylines and lines. ID:s for pipes and junctions are created by CadTools.
Pipes within the snap tolerance are merged to nearest junction.

14
Image of pipe network in a DWG-file
Image of imported network in EPANET.
Commands 15
Text commands
<Commands>, <Text>
Align text to UCS and scale it.

Selects all single line text or multiline text and align it to current UCS.
Align text to left

Selected text is left aligned to a point provided by the user. Useful for table type of text.
Insert character to single line text.

Selects all single line text and inputs trailing or ending text.
Insert line-aligned text

This command places text along a line. Two methods can be used, the first is to place user defined text along the line. The
second method is to place line length along the line. The position of the text is based on a percent value, 50% is at the middle of
the line 100% at the end and 0% at the start. A negative value will place the text outside the beginning of the line, values over
100% will not place text outside the end of the line.
Remove character from single line text.

Selects all single line text and removes characters from the beginning and end of the text.
Export text to Excel

Selected multi- or single line text in the drawing is exported to Microsoft Excel
Text capitalize
All selected text in the drawing is capitalized.
Text uncapitalize
You will get two questions, the first is "Make first letter capital?" Answering Yes on this makes the first letter in the text
uncapitalized.
Answering No will result in another question "Make first letter of word capital?" Answering Yes on this makes every first
letter in every word capitalized. Answering No has No effect on the text.
16
Place sloped Text
This command can be used to set target height based on slope and length from a base point. The text is placed at elevation based
on user input.
Tip! To get a nice design model you can triangulate text with CadTools "Create Surface" command.
MText Color Override remover
This command deletes color overrides from MText.
MText Font Override remover
This command deletes font overrides from MText.
Commands 17
Match blocks with lines (Drainage Evaluation)
<Commands>, <Block>
With this command you can evaluate drainage network drawings. Sometimes you
need to transfer drawing data to other software for further design. The idea with
this command is that you never more should spend time correcting "bad"
drawings. The result from this command will be exported to Excel and contain
information about possible pipe connections and dimensions.
Unregistered user can test the function, the result is limited to five rows in the
Excel-file.
First of all, make a copy of the drawing and work with the copy. Delete or freeze
all unwanted objects except manhole (blocks), pipes (lines/polylines) and
dimensions (text). You should end up with something like the picture below.
Lines don't need to intersect with blocks, CadTools evaluates closest solution,
that’s the whole idea!
Tip!
If You don’t have manholes as block you must create these. Make the block with an attribute (ID). Insert the block at all
manhole positions. Use the CadTools command "Edit block attribute text" to make a counter for all attributes (ID)
If the manhole elevation is in a single line text you can use the command earlier to fetch the text to another attribute in the
same block
Block commands
Block attribute to text

<Commands>, <Block>
This command converts all attributes for a selected block to plain text. First you pick a point in the drawing where the text will
placed then you select the block.
You can only use this command for a single block, selections of several blocks is not supported.
In the Image below you see the attribute as green text and the extracted text as white.
18
In the first section you select a block (manhole), use the button "Pick" and select a block in the drawing. CadTools lists all attributes
in the block in two DropDowns. Select attribute for identification (ID) and if you have a attribute with elevation you can select it as an
optional attribute. Elevation value will not be processed just passed to the Excel-file as it is so you can use it for other purposes.
Blocks that not contain the tag for Identification value will be ignored (filtered out). You can process much different kind of
blocks at the same time, the only demand is that they must have the specific attribute that you selected. The name of the block is
not important, the tag is.
Tip!
If your block doesn't have a tag for elevation, then make one. If the elevation of the block itself is the correct one you can use other
commands in CadTools to annotate block elevations to the drawing and then use the CadTools command "Block Attribute Text Edit"
to fill the attribute with the annotated elevation. Using the optional attribute as an elevation will make it easy to calculate slopes in the
resulting Excel file.
Next section describes the maximum distance from the lines end or start point to nearest block (picture 2, value A). If possible block
is at a longer distance it will be excluded. You can change color for lines and attributes that have been found and used, this may help
if something seems to strange. A very high value can give the result that a block is reported in many places, the software always
calculate the nearest block.
The third section is used for pipe dimensions. You can set up a maximum perpendicular length for the text (picture 2, value C) . To
prevent text that is closer to the line but also closer to the endpoints you set a percentage value of the total line length (picture 2,
value B). If the total length of the line is 100 units the value 10% will make text at a range of 10-90 units inside the line possible (the
point where the perpendicular line from the text insertion point to the line must be at the range 10-90% of total line length)
You can exclude polylines based on vertices, this might help to filter other lines than pipes.
You can change the color for text that has been found and used
Commands 19
Picture 2
After you pressed Execute, use a crossing to select all objects. Unwanted objects will be filtered out. CadTools calculates the
most likely solution for all blocks (nearest block relative endpoints) and then starts Excel with the results. The resulting Excel
Worksheet contains columns with values. Attribute 1 and 2 are blocks with attribute tags according to your settings, the line
text is the text along the line and theoretical distance (shortest) between the blocks.
20
After you figured out how this function works it's easy to use it in many other ways.
Export block coordinates/attributes to Excel
<Commands>, <Block>
Export block information to Microsoft Excel. Attributes with values are also exported. If you want to do the reverse se "Draw from
coordinates"
Commands Annotate block elevation < Commands>, <Block>
Use this command to insert single line text with the elevation of blocks in the drawing. Position of text relative block insertion point
and annotation height are optional.
Edit Block Attribute Text
<Commands>, <Block>
CadTools provides a simple method for editing Block attribute Text. This method changes all selected blocks individually based on
your settings. First you select one of the blocks you are interested in, do this by pressing the Pick button. All attribute Tags from that
block is then extracted into a Attribute list. Select tag in the attribute list and change appropriated settings as you please on the form.
Remember, in this function only blocks with selected name and tag are processed.
Adding a counter to a block attribute
This is a handy command if the block are manholes and you want to add a unique id to an ID-tag. If you planning to use "Drainage
Network Evaluation" this command can help you to insert elevation. The elevation option is developed for situations when the
elevation is placed in a attribute value. Beware! Don't add or remove any text to same attribute that contains elevation when
using "Set Block elevation to selected block attribute value", that will result in wrong elevation.
The counter is inserted in the same order as the block was selected.
21
Before
After
Inserting text within distance to block attribute
Use this command to insert text to attributes within a distance from blocks. You can change settings so that blocks that found a text
change color. You can also prevent text to be inserted multiple times (in more than one block). Furthermore you can move used text
to current layer and exclude text outside a given range. CadTools evaluates all blocks and text to find the closest text to every block.
The "Block Attribute Text Edit" function can be used in many ways to manipulate attribute values with coordinate based text. You
could combine this with other functions in CadTools to accomplish what you need.
I.e. Exporting block values to Excel, manipulating them with formulas and then paste them back to the drawing with CadTools "Draw
from Coordinates". Then using this function to insert the value in a attribute.
Before
After
Commands 23
Drafting <Commands>,
<Drafting>
Profile/Cross-section Note
Use this command to insert annotation text in Cross-sections or Profiles. CadTools calculates elevation and station relative a
base point. The user input the base point and exaggerations for booth X and Y axis. The text can be rotated and you can use
prefix and suffix of your own. As an option you can freely place the annotation by toggle the "Ask for Annotation Location" check
box.
The two offset parameters are for vertical and horizontal. If you have station equations in your profile you can change the
base point during the process.
24
Image of result in drawing
Draw commands
Commands>, <Draw>
Mtext with leader <
This is a easy way to insert text with leaders to the drawing.
Input sequence as below
1. Input insertion point for the annotation (MText).
2. Type of arrow
3. Number of lines
4. Text for line 1, confirm text input with enter
5. Text for line 2.....etc
6. Point for leader arrow
Create coordinate grid <Commands>, <Draw>
This function draws a coordinate grid with coordinate cross and annotations. You can select two types of grid, Mathematical or
Geographic. The difference between them are the annotation, for Geographical the X coordinates are read as Y coordinates and Y
coordinates are read as X coordinates. (X=Northing and Y=Easting)
Don't be misled by the labels (North,X) when toggling between the options geographical or mathematical. The reason for this
behavior is that it's more convenient to keep the text prefix the same for booth type of grids.
Annotate columns or rows
Select where annotation should be placed by using the check-boxes to the right. Checking the middle box gives the result of
annotation for all Coordinate-cross. Settings In the picture results in annotation of left column and top row.
All last used settings but Layer name will be saved when the form is unloaded. Saved user settings can be selected from the
dropdown list. You can prepare your own settings for different drawing scales.
You build your own library of settings for coordinate grids. In the left bottom there is a drop down list with all your saved settings.
Selecting any of these settings will change all input values in the form.
Edit or add new settings by using the menu "Settings" in the form. You can share your settings to others by copying the file
"Cadtoolssettings.uds" that's located in same directory as CadTools executable file. Pasting (overwriting) the file to same location
at another computer gives that user same saved settings for booth coordinate grid and slope (road markings)
Resulting Grid in AutoCad with settings to the left.
Commands 25
Draw from coordinates

<Commands>, <Draw>
A simple but extremely useful command, get same result as a Autocad expert would get with scripting.
With this command you can let CadTools draw Polylines, Circles, Blocks and Text from a grid. You can cut and paste ranges
between Microsoft Excel and CadTools. All cells are editable but none of the cells can bee empty. Selecting type from the
dropdown list makes the grid change number of columns needed for the input.
This command is very helpful if you have done the "Drainage Network Evaluation" and looking at the result in Ecxel. Perhaps
CadTools had difficulties to find the dimension text along lines and therefore you may need to evaluate them once again. If there
are a big number of lines it can be time-consuming to evaluate the whole network. If you sort out the coordinates for those pipes
or manholes that didn't worked as expected it’s easy to draw them in a different color or at another layer and run the evaluation
again but now at the newly drawn lines. This can be done by selecting pipes, manholes and dimension (text) one by one instead
of using a crossing.
By running the evaluation again with other parameters and with fewer objects it’s easy to catch the correct text along the
lines.
How to edit values in grid
The grid is mainly designed for pasting from Excel but you can edit rows and cells like any other standard grids. To edit a cell,
place cursor at the cell and press Enter. You can also double click on the cell to get into edit mode. To update the cell press
Enter again or place the cursor elsewhere in the grid. After you are done editing you can change cell or row using the arrow
keys.
How to sort values

Sort columns by clicking the column caption, click again to alter sort order (ascending, descending)
Tip! When you paste from Excel you might end up with no values in one or more column. Insert zeros in these
columns by right-click at any cell in a column and select "Fill empty cells with zeros"
Six types of features can be plotted to the drawing, all types are described with images of input and result below.
1. Polylines, point to point
2. Polyline vertex
3. Circle at point
4. Block at point
5. Text at point
6. Block at station/offset from polyline
Polylines, point to point

Creates polyline segments between two coordinates (XYZ - XYZ)
26
Polyline vertex
Creates one or several polylines from the vertices in the list. To draw separate polylines you must insert line breaks at the end of a
line. This is possible by using the column "Action". Place the mouse over the position in the grid where you want to break the line
and right-cklick, select the <EOL> type of action to insert, <EOL> stands for End Of Line.
You can also use the Action <LAYER=> to change layer name for separate polylines, type in your layer name after the "=" sign. The
layer name action overrides the default layer name and can be placed at any row in the grid. The layer name override is used for the
corresponding polyline when it's plotted, a layername action followed by a end of file action a couple ow rows below will work as well
as a layer name action on same row as a end of file action.
If you planning to paste values into CadTools from Excel you could prepare the Action column in Excel and paste all into CadTools.
Image below illustrate plotting of two polylines, the first four points creates a polyline on layer "First layer" which is set to cyan in
AutoCAD. The second polyline includes rest of the points in the grid with a layer name action (second layer) that gives a yellow
polyline due the layer is set to yellow in utoCAD.
Commands 27
Circle at point
Creates circles from the vertices in the list. You can override radius and layer by assigning values for separate circles (rows).
28
Block at point
Creates blocks at points in list. Blocks insertion point is used. When the form is loaded all block information is red from the active
drawing, if you change drawing the information block information needs to be updated. You can do this by placing the mouse
pointer in the block list and press CTRL + R, all block names from current drawing will then be accessible from the list. A quicker
method to get a block name is to use the pointer button to the right of the block list and then pick a block in the drawing. If you
omit the value for Scale a value of 1 will be used.
Text at point
Use the option "Layer Name same as Text" to create layers from the text strings in the grid.
Commands Block at station/offset from polyline
If type is block and the selected block contains attributes the grid adds extra rows for attribute values. You can type in your own
values in attribute columns. These values will be inserted in the block attributes by CadTools. Pressing ctrl+R in one of the
dropdown-list forces CadTools to reload Layer and Block information, this is handy if you added layers or blocks during the process.
If you type in a layer that doesn't exist, CadTools creates that layer in current drawing.
If you chose to plot blocks along a Polyline you get a question to rotate the block to match the Polyline tangent. If answering with
"Yes", blocks are rotated relative the blocks X-axel as shown in picture below. The station value is always horizontal values, if you
use a 3D polyline the real length is ignored.
If your polyline (alignment) has a different starting station the zero you can type in desired starting station in the text box "Line start
at:", before inserting the block CadTools will recalculate the station according to typed value.
The "Block-Z relative polyline Z" check box can be used if you want to use elevation (Z) in the grid as an relative elevation to the
polyline. If the line is a 3Dpolyline the block elevation will be based on polyline elevation at the station + Z value in the grid. This can
be useful if you want to place blocks at a specific station with a elevation relative the line i.e. lamp post
29
If you omit the value for Scale a value of 1 will be used.

Text at station/offset from polyline
This function inserts text along a polyline (2D or 3D). Rotation of the text is relative the tangent of the line at current station.
Station value are always horizontal values, if you use a 3D polyline the real length is ignored.
If your polyline (alignment) has a different starting station the zero you can type in desired starting station in the text box
"Line start at:", before inserting the text CadTools will recalculate the station according to typed value.
The "Text-Z relative polyline Z" check box can be used if you want to use elevation (Z) in the grid as an relative elevation to the
polyline. If the line is a 3Dpolyline the text elevation will be based on polyline elevation at the station + Z value in the grid. This
can be useful if you want to place text at a specific station with a elevation relative the line.
This function inserts Spheres

Commands 31
Sphere at point
Cylinder at point
This function inserts Cylinders
32
Box at point
This function inserts Boxes
<Commands>, <Draw>
Draw old fashion revision cloud. Works in both model and paper space, Points a
1. Specify cloud starting point

2. Pick next point
3. Pick next point.....
4. Close cloud
Commands 33
Revision cloud
Layer commands
Layer commands
<Commands>, <Layer>
Layer commands commonly used to speed up work. These commands can also be found in the topmost toolbar
All layers of but selected

Select an object in the drawing to turn all layer of but the selected objects layer.
All layers off but current

Turns of all layer off except current layer.
Layer off by objects

Select objects in drawing, all layers other selected objects layers will be turned off.
Layer freeze by single object (Xref)

Select a single object in a drawing and get layer information. You can then decide to freeze that layer. Works fine with
External references. This command even works in layouts (PaperSpace) if they are activated.
Move to layer by object

Change layer for selected objects to layer by selected object.
All layers on
Turns all layers in drawing on.
Set current layer by object

Change current layer by selecting a object. That objects layer becomes current layer.
Delete layer
Deletes selected layer, included entities will also be deleted.
34
Layer report to Excel
Sends layer properties to Excel, layers are sorted by name.
Line commands
Area Calculation <Commands>, <Lines>
This function calculates Polyline areas based on user selections. Area annotation is placed at the first vertex of each polyline. If
Annotate Total Area is checked CadTools ask user to pick annotation point in for total in the drawing. After calculation the results can
be exported to Excel (message box asking user). Closed status of calculated lines are in third column.
Prefix override works like this: If you don't type anything in the textbox for Prefi CadTools will create a label like "Area(1) 21,466" in
the image below. If you type in a text that text string will override the default label.
You can filter polylines based on display color and layers, i.e. only calculate yellow lines on a specified layer.
There is a better command for cross-section Cut and Fill areas, please follow link: Cross section area
Tip! When calculating areas in cross-sections, use Autocad's BPoly to create closed polylines of areas. To create end area volumes
you can export all values to Excel and create your own formula.
Commands 35
Annotate Cross Section (table)
This command calculates offset and elevations in cross-sections (and other drawings containing polylines). Polylines can be
en you select lines for calculation CadTools adds the points to the table. Points with
exaggerated in both X or Y direction. Wh
same offset and elevation will be considered as duplicate points, they will not be added. You can add extra points to the table by
using the "Add points to table" button.
CadTools provide a table of calculated points and their offset from a base point, the table can be pasted into the drawing. This
table can be useful for constructors, both for staking out the cut and fill and as input-data in other software.
"Annotate table points" will annotate all points in the table. "Paste table" will create a table containing all points and their offset
and elevation relative the basepoint. Starting point-number can be set by the user. You can copy entire table to Windows
clipboard by using right-click in the table, this makes it possible to paste the table into any other Windows software.
For Cut and Fill area calculation of cross-section look into: Cross section area
When executing cross-section sets you must remember to do the following for every new cross-section
• Clear the table

• Select a new basepoint
• Change base-point elevation (if different)
How to annotate a set of polylines and some extra points

1. Select basepoint in the cross-section (any point on cross-section centerline that can be identified with a elevation)
2. Type in basepoint elevation
3. Be sure to use correct exaggerations
4. Select polylines in the drawing (use crossing or pick one by one)
5. If you want you can add extra points of interest to the table by pressing "Add point to table"
6. If desired, paste table in the drawing by pressing "Paste Table"

36
Image of result in drawing
Commands>, <Lines>
Annotate polyline elevation <
Annotates vertex elevation of 3D polyline. Text height and number of decimals are optional. Vertex to be annotated is also optional,
First, Last or All (default)
If you are looking for a command to annotate at given interval use "Transverse 3D lines between 3D polylines"
Commands 37
Export polyline coordinates to Excel

<Commands>, <Lines>
Export polyline vertices to excel. You can use this command together with "Draw object/text/polyline from coordinates" to draw
blocks etc at vertices.
For 2D Polylines the coordinates are in the entity's object coordinate system (OCS).For 3D polylines the coordinates are in the
World cordinate system (WCS)
38
Create 3D alignment
<Commands>, <Lines>
This command creates a 3D alignment from two 3D polylines. The vertical polyline must start at the vertical frame line. The end
of vertical polyline must be at least same station as end station of the horizontal. If shorter the new polyline will be as long as
the shortest line (vertical or horizontal) Remeber to check direction (start and end) of polylines!
1. First you need a 3D polyline that describes the alignment in plan. If it's a road alignment the easiest way to do this
is to create a smooth line by using Autocads "Draw Polyline".
2. Convert the polyline to a 3D polyline with CadTools "Convert command"
3. Now you have two options, load a surface and drape the line to get a surface profile or use CadTools "Surface
profile". If you decide to go for the first option you drape the line and then use "Profile 3D polyline" on the draped line,
the second option "Surface profile" has some similarities but instead of profiling the line you use it as reference line.
4. Plot the profile in current drawing near the plan line.
5. Now you have a 3D polyline describing the alignment in plan and a profile of the terrain beneath it.
6. Once again using Autocads "Draw polyline" you create a smoth profile line in the plotted profile frame. If you used
a vertical scale in the frame CadTools will take care of that. 7. When you
are satisfied whit the line, convert it to a 3D polyline.
8. Now we need to merge elevation data from the profile to the plan line. Do this by using the "Create 3D alignment"
in the menu of the "Profile 3D polyline" form.
9. Follow the instructions on the command line. (select frame, horizontal line, vertical line)
10. The resulting alignment is created as a new 3D polyline.
Note! When converting arcs in both ordinary arcs and arcs in polylines, CadTools inserts vertices (replacing arcs with
straight elements). You can change setting for chord height in the "Settings form" However the accuracy of the result
may not be suitable for certain conditions. You should also consider the possibilities of "bad" angles between elements.
It's up to the user to decide if this method is appropriate or not.
1. First a 2D polyline is drawn in the plan (red line). When satisfied the line is converted to a 3D polyline.
3. Draw a new profile line for the alignment as a 2D polyline (white line in the profile frame).
Sample of resuming work.
A. Continue with offset 3D polyline to create shoulders. Create longitudinal features and tickmarks.
Triangulate longitudinal features to a design surface. Edit the triangulated result (delete unwanted triangles) and save it with "Edit
2. The 3D polyline is used as reference line in the "Surface profile" command. (you can also use "Profile 3D polyline")
4. Using the "Create 3D alignment" command the resulting 3D alignment shows up as a thick white line.
B. Result is real 3D!
Commands 39
surface"). Calculate cut and fill volumes. Annotate centerline and shoulder elevations (transverse features), ditch bottom slope arrows.
Create cross-sections of existing ground, design and other surfaces with "Surface cross-section"
40
Cross section area (Cut and Fill)
This command calculates areas between polylines and areas for closed polylines. Polylines can be exaggerated in both X or Y
direction. This command is very useful for end area volumes, plot your cross-sections with CadTools or any other software as
long its polylines. Use the command calculate cut and fill area between existing ground an the proposed, annotate the result in
the drawing and finally do your end area volume calculation by hand (or using Excel).
Calculate end area volumes like: (End area 1 + End area 2)/2 + length.
For annotation of Cross-section points Annotate Cross Section (table)
How to calculate area

1. Be sure to use correct exaggerations
2. Select calculate method , "Cut- and Fill area" or "Closed polylines (components)
3. Press "Calculate area"
4. Select Existing ground polyline in the drawing
5. Select Proposed polyline in the drawing
6. If desired, paste calculated values in the drawing by pressing "Paste Area"
Tip! You can replace step 6 by marking the "Paste result after calculation" this option has same effect as if you press the
"Paste Result" button.
When calculating closed polygon areas the polygon must not cross itself. If so the area will be wrong.
Image of result in drawing. Text in magenta color are annotated from this command. Other features in the image are created with the
"Annotate Cross-section command"
Note!
The Cut&Fill calculation is based on some simple rules, lines must not have "loops" and the proposed line may not exceed the
existing line. "Loops" are reversed portions of the line, all offset values must be descending or ascending. The line can't change
direction in any part, if so CadTools will inform the user. Image below shows a unsupported line
Commands 41
Annotate Cross-Section/Profile slope

<Commands>, <Lines>
Use this command to annotate slope in Cross-Sections or Profiles. You have two options for annotation type, Percentage or
Ratio. Annotation precision is 2 decimals . Vertical exaggeration can be set for use in Cross-sections and profiles with different
vertical and horizontal scale. Default Text height is same as in CadTools settings, you can change size during initializing of the
command.
How to use the command:
• Execute the command by menus, button or the command tree.
• Select Percentage or Ratio (Default)
• Input vertical exaggeration( 1 is default, same as no exaggeration meaning same scale
• on both axes)
• Input Text height for annotation
• Now you select first point of a imaginary slope line (use Autocad's snap)
• Select last point (annotation is performed)
• Select first point.........
CadTools now calculates slope between your points and places the text at midpoint of a straight line between the two points. The
text is rotated to align the slope.
Slope values are absolute values (no negative sign) and the annotation is always positioned above the line. Insertion point of the
annotation is bottom-middle, by picking your points smart it's easy to make the text appear in desired position along a line. To
make the procedure swift the command runs in a loop, after annotation CadTools asks for a new set of two points.
To terminate the command use the ESC-key.
Image below is an example of annotations in a Cross-section.
42
Densify polyline
<Commands>, <Lines>
Use this command to interpolate new vertices at given interval or a number of vertices. This can be useful when triangulating
surfaces, if a constrained triangulation fails this sometimes can help. This command might result in duplicate point on the polyline,
these can be removed by using the "Remove Duplicate Points" command
Before
Commands>, <Lines>
Join 3D polyline <
Joins 3Dpolylines. The first line becomes the master line, lines selected after the first line inherits colors and layer properties.
All lines must have exactly the same coordinates (startpoint-endpoint) otherwise they will not be joined.
Commands>, <Lines>
Length calculation <
Calculate line lengths and radius on active AutoCAD drawing.
First you select the layer for the lines to be calculated. Layers can be selected from the drop down list. Lines on frozen or hidden
layers are not in the list. Lines from external references will not be calculated.
If you want to select lines by color (visible color) you select a color from the color drop down list. The filtering process will exclude all
lines with a different visible color than the one selected.
You can put annotating for Arc radius on current layer. When calculating curbs etc you may want annotations only for arcs with
radios below a given value. In some cases arcs that are almost straight can be treated as lines and therefore this feature is handy.
The annotation is placed at the midpoint of the arc.
Pressing Execute will start the process. First you will be asked to select lines, use AutoCAD’s commands (crossing, all etc.) After
selection the software will calculate line lengths and showing a grand total.
Pressing "Export to Excel" will start up Excel and transmit data to Excel. Before the export begins you will get a question if you want
to sort on radius. Answering no will keep all data in same order as selected in the drawing.
Tip! If your drawing has polylines with arcs you may save it as a copy and explode all lines. Then run CadTools LineCalculation to
extract radius.
Annotation of radius
Excel output
Commands 43
Level out 3D polyline

<Commands>, <Lines>
This command levels out elevation for a 3Dpolyline, it was developed mainly to solve problems when working in 3D with
simple intersections but it's useful in many other situations.
The command first calculates difference between start- and end elevation. The difference is equally distributed along the line so
all other vertices gets same slope as if there was only one single line. There must be at least three vertices, lines with less
vertices will not be processed, one or more Polylines can be processed at the same time.
Sample for adding a "3D curve" between two 3D polylines.
1. Picture to below show two 3Dpolylines and a arc. There

is nothing like a 3D arc so we haft to convert it to a 3D
polyline.
. Use CadTools command "Convert arc to 3D
olyline"
44
3. Use Autcad's 3D Orbit to rotate up front 4. Snap first and last points of the converted arc to line
ends
5. Use CadTools "Level out 3D polyline" on the converted

arc to get a smooth transition between the lines.
Tip!
The "level out" command works with multiple selections.

You can put all arcs on a unique layer and turn off all layer
but that before using "level out". Do this before picture 5
and then select all in the drawing.
Commands>, <Lines>
Make 3D solids from lines (pipes) <
This command generates 3DSolids (cylinders) from lines. The line remains inside the solid, it’s not deleted. This command can be
used to generate a model of a network of pipes.
Lines used of this command can be booth Bottom, Center, Invert or Top levels. If other then Center levels are used the insertion
point of the used circle is adjusted in X, Y and Z before it's extruded. Vertical parts of the line will still use the adjusted insertion point.
If you need those parts to be aligned to a centerline you need to separate them and process them with the option "Center Line"
Multi offset line <Commands>, <Lines>
This command offsets a line (3D polyline, Polyline and Line) to more than one position relative the source line. Input parameters are
Horizontal offset distance and vertical offset distance and layer name. If layer name is omitted the offset line will have same layer
and color as the origin line, that means there is no need for layer information. If there are duplicate points in the line they will be
removed. If you offset lines to the concave side on narrow corners you might end up with loops in the resulting line.
Duplicate points will only be removed if the source line is a 3D polyline. 2D polylines that use an arc as starting element sometimes
can be treated with wrong offset side, if your offset values are symmetric you will not notice anything. If asymmetric values and
wrong offset you could try to reverse the polyline before using this command or use the checkbox "Mirror Horizontal". The latter is
also useful if you use a saved setting that contains offset conditionsfor one side and want to use it for conditions for the opposite
side.
Totally empty rows will be ignored so you don't need to remove them. Before processing CadTools does a check of decimal
separator, if mismatch with computer settings (localized) then the user gets a warning. You can paste data from other software into
the grid, use mouse right click or the menu "Edit". A similar procedure evaluating decimal separator is performed if you paste into the
grid.
You can save grid values to a file for later use by using "File, Save settings"
Above the grid there is a graphic view of current settings, the red circle in center is the source line, yellow circles represent offset
results. You can Hoover the mouse over the graphic view to get a tooltip with horizontal and vertical position.
This form can be resized.
Image below (orbited) showing result in drawing. The middle line (red) is the source line, by leaving layer name empty the target line
inherits layer and color properties from the source line. Offsets with layer name gets color by layer. The sample illustrate a method to
create tunnels, after offset the lines can be triangulated to two surfaces, bottom and top.
Tip!
If you have a typical section (DWG) for the tunnel and want to create a setting you could use the Annotate Cross Section (table) to
get the offset values. You can copy entire table to Windows clipboard by using right-click in the table (Annotate Cross Section), and
then paste the table into Excel. Finally copy the appropriate columns from Excel and paste it to the Multi offset table.
Commands 45
Offset 3D polyline
<Commands>, <Lines>
This command offsets a 3DPolyline. Input parameters are Horizontal offset distance and vertical offset distance. If there are
duplicate points in the line they will be removed. If you offset lines to the concave side on narrow corners you might end up with
loops in the resulting line.
Reverse polyline
<Commands>, <Lines>
This command reverses a polyline. The polyline must be on current layer. This command is also useful if you have different
linetypeson based on direction. Guardrail lines in plans often have a symbol for the upright, one linetype for each side. Instead
of changing linetype if uprights are on wrong side you could reverse the line.
This command is also useful when using "Stationing" if the direction of the line is wrong.
Point section/offset from polyline

<Commands>, <Lines>
Select a line and any point in the drawing, get perpendicular line with section (station) and offset from the line.
46
1. Before reverse erse
Commands>, <Lines>, <Polyline Tools>
Polyline Tools <
Here you will find some other handy polyline commands.
Best fit
Use this command to replace a 3D-polyline with a linear regression of all vertices (X,Y and Z). This is done in the same manner as
you would do in a Excel chart when creating a “Trend-line”. The result is a straight line with two vertices. The linear regression
algorithm uses the X (eastings) to adjust the Y (northings).
Tip! If you want to use this method on points you can export the points to Excel with CadTools point command (Export to Excel) an
then draw a line with the "Draw" command.
It the polyline is a 2D-polyline, convert it to 3D-polyline using CadTools Convert command and then use this command.
Remove duplicate polyline vertices
Use this command to remove duplicate polyline vertices (2D and 3D polylines). The line must be open and not contain any bulges
(arcs)
Simplify 3D-polyline
This command uses the Douglas-Peucker algorithm to reduce vertices in a 3D polyline.
The Douglas-Peucker (DP) algorithm uses the closeness of a vertex to an edge segment. This algorithm works from the top down by
starting with a crude initial guess at a simplified polyline, namely the single edge joining the first and last vertices of the polyline.
Then the remaining vertices are tested for closeness to that edge. If there are vertices further than a specified tolerance, ε > 0, away
from the edge, then the vertex furthest from it is added the simplification. This creates a new guess for the simplified polyline. Using
recursion, this process continues for each edge of the current guess until all vertices of the original polyline are within tolerance of
the simplification.
More specifically, in the Douglas-Peucker algorithm, the two extreme endpoints of a polyline are connected with a straight line as the
initial rough approximation of the polyline. Then, how well it approximates the whole polyline is determined by computing the
distances from all intermediate polyline vertices to that (finite) line segment.
If all these distances are less than the specified tolerance ε, then the approximation is good, the endpoints are retained, and the
other vertices are eliminated. However, if any of these distances exceeds the ε tolerance, then the approximation is not good
enough. In this case, we choose the point that is furthest away as a new vertex subdividing the original polyline into two (shorter)
polylines, as illustrated in the following diagram.
Commands 47
This procedure is repeated recursively on these two shorter polylines. If at any time, all of the intermediate distances are less than
the ε threshold (tolerance), then all the intermediate points are eliminated. The routine continues until all possible points have
been eliminated. Successive stages of this process are shown in the following example.
48
Commands>, <Lines>
Profile 3D polyline <
Link to "Create 3D alignment" If you created a simple terrain model by using "triangulate" and then draped the surface with a
3Dpolyline you can use this command for profiling the 3Dpolyline. Select insertion point and vertical scale to plot the profile to current
drawing. The start height is placed as a single line text at the beginning of the profile.
This command can be useful when profiling the terrain, by check out the annotation checkbox you can add more profile lines to the
frame. Beware! Minimum value must be the same in the existing profile and the line that you plan to add.
First you press "Select line" to let CadTools evaluate the line and suggest min and max elevation for the vertical axis. You can
change these values before pressing "Execute". Pressing "Execute" start the profiling, first place the cursor at insertion point in the
drawing. The insertion point of the profile frame will be at the intersection of X and Y axis. Add more lines to same frame by
repeating the command from beginning, remember to set annotation unchecked to avoid any more annotations to the frame. It’s
important to set exact same min elevation and scale to add lines otherwise the elevation will mismatch. Setting same min elevation
and scale makes it easy to use same insertion point (intersection of X and Y axes) for added lines.
Vertical lines at vertices creates supporting lines from the base line to the vertex point.
For more information about draping objects to surface, see Drape Lines in section Edit Surface
As alternative to this function you could use "Surface profile"
Result in drawing
Commands 49
Slope and Road signs 2D (topic for road signs and markings)
<Commands>, <Lines>
It’s easy to draw road markings and signs with CadTools. Pedestrian crossings, bicycle paths, give-way and chevrons will be
described in this section. Surely there are more types of lines and signs that can be drawn with CadTools Slope mark function.
The Slope sign command was one of the first commands in CadTools. This was a powerful function from the beginning. By
extending it with the possibility to draw other than perpendicular lines it now can be helpful when constructing Road markings.
You can prepare your own settings for different drawing types of tasks. Use the menu "Settings" on this form to load the user
settings form. You also have the option to create road marks as closed hatched Polylines. Creating signs as Polyline gives a
better result than using solid lines. Many design manuals for road signs describes width and space between road signs. Mark the
checkbox "Keep interval as free space" to obtain same space between signs as in input interval. If you tilt signs by providing an
angle, CadTools always plots the Polyline correct width. One benefit of using ordinary Polylines is that they easily can be edited
in AutoCad. Other software might do this more user-friendly by calculating drawing scale and filling arrows but it can't be edited
unless you have the software that created them.
The typical flow of creating road signs with CadTools is:

1. Create supporting 2D polylines by offsetting design lines with Autocad's offset. As an alternative you could convert
3D lines to 2D with CadTools "Convert" command. 2. Set up your
desired input values in Cadtools, press Execute 3. Pick top line (first
line) 4. Pick bottom line (second line) 5. Erase or hide supporting lines
50
Important!
If you have set hatched properties and the result is empty polygons, try to change hatch scale. (Use appropriate decimal
separator! Same as your operating system) You can not save intersections to tempfile when using the "Draw as Polylines"
command.
Remember to set max length when creating markings for shoulders and other thin lines, otherwise there might be unwanted
lines.
The possibility to change angle in SlopeMarks is only available for registered users!
Tip!
• You can use this command to create parking lot markings. Set interval to the parking space for one car, set Minor tick size to
100%. Draw two parallel lines for the front and the back of the parking space. Run the command! Consider the opportunity
to set an angle here, that would also create another type of parking lot.
• Use CadTools command "Area calculation" to get road sign areas to Excel
• You can also export Hatc areas to Excel, look at Hatch Commands
Save commonly used type of markings (settings)
You build your own library of settings for any type of markings or what ever. In the left bottom there is a drop down list with all your
saved settings. Selecting any of these settings will change all input values in the form.
Edit or add new settings by using the menu "Settings" in the form. You can share your settings to others by copying the file
"Cadtoolssettings.uds" that's located in same directory as CadTools executable file. Pasting (overwriting) the file to same location
at another computer gives that user same saved settings for booth "Cordinate grid" and slope (road markings)
Commands 51
Samples Images below shows settings and result for some types of common markings, depending on country the settings
might be different.
Chevrons
52
Give Way signs
First you draw a couple of Polylines (reference line in the
middle and two lines for the traffic). Draw Slope marks from
the centerline towards the outer lines, toggle the negative
sign of in the angle before executing the second line.
Now change the global width of the two outer lines in

Autocad and it beginning to look familiar. The arrow can be
done in same way, draw a Polyline and change start width in
Autocad.
Steps to create
Chevron
Draw a Polyline and use AutoCad’s

offset to get two Polylines. Set Start
and End Width in cadTools, draw
slope marks between the lines.
Remember to set Interval to twice the
Start Width.
Steps to create Give Way signs
Pedestrian crossings
Commands Draw a Polyline and use AutoCad’s
offset to offset the line to desired width of the
crossing. Set Start and End Width in cadTools, draw
slope marks between the lines.
Ste
cro
Bicycle paths
Draw a Polyline and use AutoCad’s offset the line. Set

Start and End Width in cadTools, draw slope marks
between the lines.
Steps to create Bicycle paths
53
Set 2D polyline elevation by nearest text

<Commands>, <Lines>
This command can be useful if you receive a drawing with

contours where elevation is zero and you need to create a
surface. Often there are some elevation annotations near the
contour lines, these text-strings are used by this command to
change elevations for the closest contour line.
It's important to understand how this command works, by knowing

this you can get better results so please read this section carefully.
The command can process 2D-plylines, and single line text, polylines
containing arcs are not supported. You can convert polylines with
arcs to 3D polylines and then convert back to 2D polyline to get arcs
converted to polylines. If polylines are in 3D with bad elevation you
can convert them to 2D- polylines with CadTools Convert commands
before running this command.
Cleaning up lines by using simplify will speed up the process,

CadTools provide a simplify command for 3D-polylines, you can
convert 2D-lines to 3D-polylines before using the simplify command
and convert them back to 2D after.
The user selects text and 2D-polylines or in the drawing by using the
"Select objects" button and then use AutoCAD's crossing or select
objects one by one. In the section "Status" amount of selected lines
and text are presented.
Pressing "Execute" button starts the process. The first line is

compared with every text, the perpendicular distance between the
text and all polyline segments is calculated. In this process all
vertices except the first and the last also is evaluated against the
text , the nearest text value is then used for elevation of the
line.........and so on. (the text itself is also moved to that elevation)
Same text can be used as elevation for more than one line, you can prevent bad elevations by setting the max value to a small
value.
This command is extremely time-consuming 100 text and 100 lines gives 10 000 solutions to process.
You should always use this command with a backup copy of the original drawing. After completion lines can be triangulated with
CadTools "Create Surface" command.
Max-value
What if the max value is set to high? Well, think of the value as a seek perimeter to the line. A huge value can get bad
results
54
Commands Color for successful lines
Polylines and text that gets elevation from text can be colored.
Move successful lines to layer
Polylines and text that gets elevation from text can be moved to a layer. Use layers in the drawing or type in a new layer.
Using Ctrl + R in the layer dropdown refreshes layer information.
Add result lines to layer
Draws a line between line and the text that was used to set elevation. This is useful when looking for errors, you should
place the result lines on a different layer than the lines.
55
Sample of input data below

Sample of result below, green objects was successful. If you look closer you can see the white result lines between the text and
the line.
Slope arrows on 3D polylines <Commands>, <Lines>
Creates slope arrows on 3D polylines. Interval and arrow size are optional. You can create arrows as solid or as polylines.
If the 3D polyline has flat elements no arrow will be created for that element. Arrows will point in downhill direction. This command
works with multiple line selections.
Commands Slope and Road signs 2D (topic slope signs) < Commands>, <Lines>
This command was developed to draw slope signs (ticker marks, batter ticks) but I discovered that with a few minor changes it could
extend to support all kinds of road signs. These methods are described in a separate topic, se "Road Signs".
To draw ordinary slope lines you first select top and bottom polylines and slopesigns will be drawn at current layer. You can prepare
your own settings for different types of tasks. Use the menu "Settings" to load the user settings form.
The settings are:
• Set interval for lines between polylines.
• Max length is useful when intersections are found at not desired points.
• Minor Tick Size adjust every second line length, a value of 50 results in half distance.
• Start and End Width can be used to create slope lines shaped like triangles.
• Layer for the slope lines
• Color for slope lines
• Angle for slope lines
• Tick-marks in reverse direction (draws tick-marks from Toe to Top)
57
TIP!
You can use this command to find the centerline between two irregular polylines. Sometimes it’s a good supplement to
AutoCad’s Hatch command.
If the checkbox "Save intersections to tmp-file" is marked CadTools writes all intersection coordinates to a file in the
application directory. The name of the file is "SlopemarkTemp.txt" if there is a previous file it will be overwritten.
Manipulate this file with Excel and use the command "Draw from coordinates" to plot a Polyline between the minor ticks.
TIP!
As you know CadTools uses the first picked line (Top) as reference line to create tick-marks. In fill conditions you pick the
shoulder line first and the tick-marks will be created towards the terrain. In cut conditions there might be some problems,
picking the terrain line first will generate correct but not so nice result. To fix this you should use the “Tick-marks in reverse
direction” option (draws tick-marks from Toe to Top).
This feature is not accessible when “Plot as closed polylines” is enabled.

Commands>, <Lines>
Stationing <
Use this command to stationing 2DPolylines or 3DPolylines. Annotations for Major stations and end station are optional by using the
checkbox. Length for major and minor perpendicular lines can be set. Offset for annotations are calculated from the outer point of the
major perpendicular point, negative values will bring annotations closer to line. Stationing values are horizontal values of the line.
User can set value for start station, that means that the first station on the line get same value as typed in. You cannot station parts
of the line if that is needed, break the line before stationing.
The "Place Annotation at Polyline elevation" option uses elevation at current station of the polyline. The station length is always the
horizontal length though.
Image below shows stationing with checkbox "Skip end annotation" marked and a plus-sign as delimiter.
Commands 59
Table Edit 3D polyline elevation

<Commands>, <Lines>
This command is used to edit polyline vertices elevation. Editing vertices elevation in AutoCAD is rather tedious, this
command might speed up that kind of work.
In the list there are three columns, the first contains accumulated length (blue) and vertex length, this column cannot be
edited. Second column contains vertex elevations and elevation difference (green). The third column represent slope in
percent. You can edit: Elevation, Elevation difference and slope by changing values in the grid.
You can choose to display true or horizontal vertex length, it doesn't affect the
calculations. You can copy entire grid or a cell range and paste it into Excel. To
select entire grid and copy it click on # in the top left corner of the grid, right- click in
the grid with your mouse and select copy in the popup menu. You can also use the
Edit menu to copy selected cells.
Press Read Line a nd select a 3Dpolyline in current drawing, all lengths (3D
length), elevations and slope are loaded into the list. Use arrow key to position in
list, change elevation or slope as needed. The slope is calculated and updated
immediately, changing slope recalculates following vertex elevation.
Pressing Update Line updates the 3D polyline in the drawing. Trying to quit
without updating the line or selecting another line still with unsaved data in the
table generates a message to the user.
Use the position marker to make it easier to see where on the line your current
table row is. When position is over a vertex or a flat element the marker is shaped
as a rectangle otherwise it will be a arrow pointing in slope direction.
Note! The position marker is a real 3D-object and can be saved with the drawing,
although CadTools try to clean up when you update the line or close the
command.
Saving the drawing before cleaning up will result in saved marker.
Image of position marker at vertex position
Image of position marker at sloped element
60
Commands Transverse 3D lines Between 3D Polylines <Commands>, <Lines>
This is a very powerful command! Works similar to Slope marks in 2D but with this command you create real 3D slope
marks.
Use this command to draw perpendicular lines between two 3D polylines. This command is first of all designed for use with
"Create longitudinal features" command. After generating longitudinal polylines you often want to get some tick marks for the
ditch slope etc. If you prefer to add slopemarks in one command the "Create longitudinal features" has an option for that but
sometimes it's more convenient to draw them after the design is done.
You can annotate Reference line or Target line Elevation at every major intervals. If you want to check slope between lines you
can chose to annotate slope as well. The slope is always relative the Source line, negative values indicates that the slope is
downhill.
This command can also be used to annotate a single line elevation, use CadTools command "Offset 3D" do create a
reference line before executing this command.
Examples of use
• Annotating elevation at given interval of a road or ditch.

• Annotating horizontal distance at given interval of a road.
• Annotating superelevation (%) at given interval to check if all is as it should be.
• Prepare data for triangulation, minor lines that will be triangulated can make the triangulated surface more accurate.
• You want to draw a parallel line between two 3D polylines, for this you must set then intervall to small value andset minor to
50%. Then us the "Save intersection to tmp-file" option and then paste the minor coordinates back to CadTools and
draw a new polyline (vertex)
• Use "Save to tempfile" for grabbing the data and use it Excel or paste back portions to CadTools "Draw from Coordinates"
command.
Tip! When creating transverse features (tick marks) for fore slope in cut sections, pick the ditch bottom line nearest the
polyline first. When creating the back slope features pick second ditch bottom line first. For the fill sections pick main line first.
Doing this gives neat transverse features at exact same station.
If working with pads there might be problems with uncontrolled tickmark crossings, set max length to avoid this behavior.
61
62
This form is built in three parts.
Upper part
The upper part has input fields for horizontal interval, max length and minor tick size. Max length is used to prevent creating
unwanted tick marks, if set to 10 no tick marks will be created if length is above 10.
If minor tick size is set to 100% the minor line is full length between polylines.
Notice!
Normally the "Use first..." should be on! It's important for the behaviour of all tickmarks. If on, the decision of where minor
ticks should start (based on elevation) is handed over to CadTools, the result is always correct. This is a very important
setting, therefore the setting always is on as default. If this option is unmarked minor tickmarks start point is drawn from
the first selected line, the real slope direction is not evaluated. This .
might result in wrong directions, its up to the user to decide.
Image of left line picked as top (reference) results in nice tickmarks.
By using this option you are guarantied that minor tickmarks are created correct. (based on elevation of perpendicular start and end
elevation). Minor tick marks starts at the polyline with highest elevation
Image of right line picked as top (reference) results in ugly tickmarks.
Middle part
The middle part of the form has settings for annotations. This is useful for annotating transverse slope or annotating reference/target
line elevation at given interval.
• Ditch bottom elevations at given interval
• Centerlines elevations at given interval
• Backbones elevations at given interval
In image below transverse slope is annotated, no transverse lines are drawn. Could be used to check super elevations.
Commands Use the offset to "push" annotations. Rotation is executed after offset
63
Image showing annotations of reference line elevation.

64
Bottom part
Here you set layer for annotations and features, useobject picker button to get layer from any object in the drawing. Another
handy thing is that you can save all calculated intersections to a temp-file. This file can be opened with Excel (as textfile,
CSV-file) and imported to Excel directly. Do your own calculations in Excel and then paste the result back to CadTools with the
"Draw from coordinates".
Miscellaneous commands
<Commands>, <Miscellaneous>
Dist with Slope

If you want to know horizontal length between two 3D objects in the drawing this command can be helpful. Certainly you can use
Autocad's "Dist" command but if snap is on you may end up with only real length.
With this command you can use the snap option in Autocad and easily get horizontal length, real length, start- and stop
elevation and slope.
3DSolid to Excel
Send 3DSolid volume to Excel
Region to Excel
Send region area to Excel
Text, Circles and Block station/Offset from Polyline to Excel
Use this command to evaluate station and offset for text circles or blocks in a drawing. After executing you will be prompted to select
objects (text and blocks will be filtered). Then you select polyline (2D or 3D) and finally you input polyline start station. CadTools
evaluates nearest perpendicular text or block compared to the line and sends the result to Excel. If an object is placed at the center
of a circle or arc the first position is used otherwise all objects are displayed at the nearest station (shortest perpendicular offset to
the line).
Image below shows how stations are calculated on a 3D-polyline, text within the "gap" won’t be recognized because they are not
perpendicular to any of the polyline elements. Using a 2D-plyline with arcs will give a more accurate result. However a simple
method to get a value is to evaluate distance between an object and a vertex.
If no perpendicular hit is registered CadTools can evaluate shortest distance to a vertex, before the command executes this option is
presented to the user by a message dialog. The result will contain a column for "Target type" so it's easy to separate both values.
This option catches objects that are positioned in the "gaps" but still the result might be in accurate compared to using a 2D-polyline
with arcs.
Beware! This command can be extremely time consuming. If the polyline has more than 500 elements you'll get a message
suggesting you to do a simplify of the polyline before using this command.
Station equatins
This command is hard to explain but I'll give it a try. Railroads often has kilometers not exactly 1000 meters long, they can be booth
longer or shorter than 1000 meters. Usually there are signs with station names along a railroad alignment, these signs have a digits
for both kilometers and meters and they are separated with "+" sign telling you to read it like Kilometer this plus meters that.
"232+1023.56" should be read like Kilometer 232 plus a length of 1023.56 meters.
Commands Some of CadTools commands can't be used with this kind of alignments and therefore I've come up with this simple
approach. Usually it's the type of commands that I use to read or write text at stations that needs to be taken care of.
65
In the left pane you type in the station name (Ahead Station) and location relative polyline start point (Back Station), when done
you can save values to a file. Select station conversion option in the middle pane and finally paste or type in your values in the
right pane (table). Press Execute to calculate, values from the calculation are presented in the grayed column.
You could also combine this method with other commands to achieve a reasonable result. First you need to create some data
to describe the actual station (length from your alignment start point) that your Kilometer sign is placed on. After that you can
convert any station label to real length along the polyline from start point.
To get your data you can use the command "Text, Circle and Block Station/Offset from Polyline to Excel" found in the
miscellaneous menu. This command calculates station and offset for objects along a line and can be suitable for grabbing station
signs from a drawing. Beware of how that command does the calculations, it can give you bad result if you use wrong type of
polyline.
Paste these values into the left table and make sure there is a "+" sign as a separator for kilometer and meter (edit the grid). In
the Backstation column you paste the real length from the polyline start point, save the file so it can be used later.
Now you can select type of output "Ahead to Back" to convert any station of the type 232+876 to real length or "Back to
Ahead" to convert any real length to a station label.
Let’s say you have a College whose profession is rail track design, he is handing over a file to you with some information
based on station equations. Your task is to put some information along a polyline at correct stations, how will you do that?
First you load your station equation file. Now select the option "Ahead to Back"and paste the information into the first column of
the grid to the right and press "Execute". CadTools calculates real length (from polyline start point) of the station and the result is
placed in the "Back station" column of the grid. Now you can use CadTools "Draw from Coordinates" to put our information at
correct stations (by copying and pasting values between these dialogs)
Of course you can do the opposite, type in a real length and receive the station name for that location.
Remark! By nature 3D-polylines are a set of straight line elements, therefore curves have elements that are non-
collinear. Using 3D-lines as alignments in CadTools will give you result that's not exact but it could be close enough
for earthwork design.
Delete Point, Circle and Text In/Outside Polygon

Use this command to delete Points, Circles or Text (Single line or MText) that have insertion points inside or outside a closed
polyline. Only Points,Circles and Text will be included in the selections set (other objects are excluded by CadTools)
66
Vehicle Turning Simulation
This command simulates vehicle turning at low speed and determines vehicle tire tracking and swept paths. The command can be
used in the design of road intersections, parking lots and other vehicular facilities. The main purpose of this command in CadTools is
to supply a simple tool for non critical conditions of vehicle turnings. Although the resulting swept path from CadTools is identical to
results from other software it's likely some difference in the behavior.
It's highly recommended that you obtain as much information about the max turning angles of used vehicles, consider supplied
default vehicles in CadTools as proposal.
To use the turning command you need to provide a steering path that describes the location of the centre of the steering axle of the
vehicle. The path can be either 2D or a 3D polyline. Best performance is obtained if the path is a 2D polyline due to the amount of
segments.
You should use the vehicle turning command in model space and world UCS. The resulting swept paths and vehicles are created as
blocks in the drawing, you should therefore use this command in a copy of the original drawing.
This command is not intended to be a source for design information, you should always rely on currently available design guides for
your location. The result is a idealized path and may not be replicable under real conditions and you should therefore add some
extra clearance for safety.
During the calculation two angles are monitored, the turning angle of the truck and the angle between following segments. The
maximum angles used for the path are presented at the bottom left part of the form. If one of the angles exceeds the input value for
maximum angle the calculation will be stopped and the vehicle will be plotted at a position previous to the problem station.
You should use a copy of your design drawing. Resulting swept paths and vehicles are placed in two separate blocks in the drawing.
If same steering path is used these blocks should be deleted by the user between two calculations
There is no evaluation of unsaved data in this form, any modifications should be saved by the user immediately after editing.
Selecting a different vehicle in the list will abort unsaved data without any warnings.
The vehicle turning algorithm takes small steps along your path and therefore you must set correct units for your vehicle. If you are
using millimeters as your drawing scale you must use a vehicle with all dimensions in millimeter. You also must set vehicle spacing
and Vehicle path units in current units. "Vehicle path units" and "Max vehicle Plot Spacing" settings are located below the vehicle list.
Tip! You can copy a vehicle, recalculate dimensions and save it with different units. In that way you end up with vehicles for different
drawing scales
Independent Active Rear Steering
Only applicable for Semi-Trailer types vehicles. Forces rear axle to follow the steering path. When you select a vehicle of that type a
Check Box will be visible. Note! Consider this option as experimental.
Supported units
• Meters
• Decimeters
• Centimeters
• Millimeters
• Feet
• Inches
When you select a Vehicle in the list a minim raduis is calculated. This radius is the minimum turning radius for the vehicles
centerline.
Image below shows vehicle with wheels turned to steering lock position and how minimum turning radius is calculated. Slip angle =
max front wheel turning angle.
Commands 67
Tip!
You can evaluate the speed for a path by setting speed to zero and then execute. After calculation the lowest speed will be
displayed in the statusbar (bottom of the form). Note that this speed is only based on Lock to lock parameter and can not be
used as a design speed.
Typical use
1. Select vehicle from the list
2. Get minimum turning radius for selected vehicle from bottom of form
3. Draw the vehicle path as a polyline in your DWG. You can use AutoCAD's fillet command and the minimum radius
4. Set Speed to zero (prevent stopping when Lock to lock is exceeded)
5. Execute
6. Check output values at the bottom of the form
If Lock to lock time is exceeded the simulation is halted. If you want to evaluate critical parts for the lock to lock speed you could
use the Lock to lock Report tab. As an alternative you could also input "Lowest speed along path"value as speed and execute.
This will force the simulation to stop at first problem station.
Image of the forms bottom part after executing, values inside red frame are results from last simulation.
Image of Vehicle Details tab
Below is an image of resulting diagram in the Turning report tab. The lines represent turning angles of included segments in percent,
it's easy to detect if the vehicle maneuver is near the limits. Click on the graph and then move the mouse over the graph to get
information of station and angle.
Commands 69
Image of Lock to lock Report tab

Image of output color settings form. If you explode output blocks after calculation all elements will reveal their layers.

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Settings form for Coordinate grid

Convert commands ............................................................................................................................. 13

Arcs > 3D Polylines

Circles > 3D Polylines

Lines > 3D Polylines

3Dpolylines > Polylines

3DFaces > 3D Polylines

Polylines > 3D Polylines

EPANET commands ............................................................................................................................ 14

Text commands ................................................................................................................................... 16

Align text to left

Insert line-aligned text

Remove character from single line text.

Export text to Excel

Place sloped Text

MText Color Override remover

MText Font Override remover

Block attribute to text

Match blocks with lines (Drainage Evaluation)

Export block coordinates/attributes to Excel

Annotate block elevation

Edit Block Attribute Text

Draw commands .................................................................................................................................. 25

Create coordinate grid

Draw from coordinates

Polylines, point to point

Block at station/offset from polyline

Text at station/offset from polyline

Layer commands ................................................................................................................................. 34

All layers off but current

Layer off by objects

Layer freeze by single object (Xref)

Move to layer by object

Set current layer by object

Layer report to Excel

Line commands ................................................................................................................................... 35

Annotate Cross Section (table)

Annotate polyline elevation

Export polyline coordinates to Excel

Cross section area (Cut and Fill)

Annotate Cross-Section/Profile slope

Level out 3D polyline

Make 3D solids from lines (pipes)

Multi offset line

Point section/offset from polyline

Remove duplicate polyline vertices

Slope and Road signs 2D (topic for road signs and

Give Way signs

Set 2D polyline elevation by nearest text

Slope arrows on 3D polylines

Slope and Road signs 2D (topic slope signs)

Table Edit 3D polyline elevation

Transverse 3D lines Between 3D Polylines

Miscellaneous commands .................................................................................................................. 64

Text, Circles and Block station/Offset from Polyline to Excel

Delete Point, Circle and Text In/Outside Polygon

• This software is distributed "as is", use it at your own risk.

For information and latest updates: www.glamsen.se/CadTools.htm

• Text Height Text height for annotated values

• Clear the table