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Importing and Registering Plans (D)
Control Lines (as shown on Construction Drawings) provide a critical link between the drawings and the real world. CivilPro leverages the known coordinates of various locations on these Control Lines to accurately position the drawings in space.
In this guide, we'll:
1. Prepare Control Lines for Import
Control Line coordinates are typically provided within Construction Drawing sets (look for 'Geometric Setout Details' sheet or similar), with coordinates are provided at intersection points along the Control Lines (e.g. transition points, intersection points, start/ finish etc.) - see example below:
Once you've located the Control Line tables, we need to get that information formatted for import. There are two ways this can be achieved:
- Converting the PDF table to an Excel spreadsheet (typically requires cleaning up formatting in Excel); or
- Using the OCR functionality within ChatGPT / Gemini to extract the data (preferred). To do this, screenshot a Control Line table, paste into your preferred ChatGPT / Gemini, and add the prompt, 'Convert this table into CSV format', then leave this window open.
2. Create Control Lines in CivilPro
Prior to creating a Control Line, we need to first add the local coordinate system into the project - making it selectable when we import Control Line coordinates.
Navigate to QA Setup > Coordinate Systems, then select Load from Default and select the relevant Coordinate System for your project. This is typically noted in the title block of your Construction Drawings, or known by your project Surveyor - just ask them.
Learn more about the purpose of Local Coordinate Systems here, and how transformations occur between various coordinate systems.
Once Coordinate System , open the Control Lines register and select Add Control Line. Input the Control Line name and a description.
With the newly created Control Line selected, click Import Coordinates.
Coordinate Type:
- Project Coordinates - allows you to select the projects local coordinate reference system then import local coordinates
- GPS (WGS84) - allows you to import WGS84 coordinates only (lattitude and longitude)
If you've chosen Project Coordinates, select the Import Reference System from the dropdown. If your project local coordinate system is not visible in the dropdown, add it in the Coordinates Register.
Click OK
When the Import Wizard popup appears, we'll need to navigate back to the raw data we created in Step 1 and copy it to the clipboard (Select All, CTRL + C or select the Copy icon in the LLM). Be sure to copy the Chainage, Northing and Easting columns.
After this is on the clipboard, navigate back to the Import Wizard and select Read data from the clipboard... and select Next. Data will now be shown, and headings automatically assigned if each column is labelled correctly. If this doesn't happen automatically, right-click the heading above each column and assign the correct heading for that column.
Click Import.
You should now see the Control Line in the register, with the Has Geometry checkbox ticked - indicating the Control Line has coordinates associated with it.
Although you cannot yet view your Control Line (as we haven't got any Plans to view it on yet), it'll 'cut the corner' on curves:
This is because we've only got known coordinates in discrete locations on the Control Line.
Don't worry, we'll get to this after we import out Plans (see the bottom of the article), as we'll then use the Plan as a reference for adding more points to our Control Line - smoothing out the curves.
Repeat this process for all Control Lines you wish to use to define Lots from in the project.
Once complete, we can move on to Importing and Registering Plans (D)