Section Manager: Contents and Structure

The Alignments/Sections area of the Section Manager contains all the profile information in the currently open data base and is arranged in a tree structure. This structure is divided into the following categories.

Category Represents
Root The complete data set and contains primary alignments and control lines.
Control Lines
Primary Alignments All primary alignments in the data set. A primary alignment is any alignment that does not have a parent alignment. A primary alignment can have alignments referenced to it, these are known as secondary alignments. Long sections can be created along primary alignments.
Cross section sets can be created from primary alignments.
Secondary Alignments All secondary alignments in the data set. A secondary alignment is referenced to a primary alignment and adopts the primary alignment chainage. A secondary alignment cannot have other alignments referenced to it.
Long sections can be created along secondary alignments. Note: These will always be created with respect to the primary alignment.
Cross sections cannot be created with respect to secondary alignments.
Other Control Lines Other control lines in the data set. There are three other types of control lines.
  1. Line objects - including Splines, Spirals and Arcs.
  2. A point range.
  3. A line between any two points or mouse clicks.

They will always sit at the same level as the primary alignments in the tree structure.
A control line cannot be referenced to a primary or secondary alignment.
The name of the control line will be dependent upon which type of control line it is. E.g. Point Range, etc.
A line object control line will get its name from the unique line number E.g. "Line 27".
A point range control line name will be created from the first and last point identifiers.
A control line between any two points or mouse clicks will get its name from the two points selected, E.g. 1--2. If the points have come from mouse clicks on the screen, i.e. No point object selected, the point will be given the name "Freehand". E.g. Freehand--Freehand, or Freehand--2.
Control Lines can only contain Long Sections.
Long Sections All long sections in the data base. A long section can be related to a primary alignment, secondary alignment or control line.
Cross Sections All cross section sets in the data base. Cross section sets are only linked to a primary alignment.

The Section Windows area of the Section Manager shows all the available windows on the currently open data base and is arranged in a tree structure. This structure is divided into the following categories.

Category Represents
Root All the long section and cross section windows open in the current data set, and contains long section windows and cross section windows.
Long Section Windows All active long section windows in the data set.
Cross Section Windows All active cross section windows in the data set.
Long Sections All long sections that are open in a long section window. Long section windows can only contain long sections
Cross Sections All cross section sets that are open in a cross section window. Cross section windows can only contain sets of cross sections.