Creating A Cross-Section

Full Video Walkthrough #

This video shows you a quick walkthrough of how to create a cross-section diagram. For a more detailed guide, read the steps below.

Step-by-Step Guide on Creating a Cross-Section #

This guide will walk you through the process of creating a cross-section diagram, adding measurements and markup, and exporting it all as a PNG file to your computer.

By the end, you will have an image that looks similar to the following:

1. Open the Pointcloud Pane #

In the toolbar at the top right of your screen, click the cloud icon to open the Pointcloud Pane.

2. Create the Cross-Section Measurement #

Once the Pointcloud Pane is open, click the Cross-Section button in the Pointcloud Pane toolbar to start the measurement. You can now bring your cursor into the Pointcloud Pane and place the start and end point of your measurement with the left mouse button.

In the Cross-Section Viewer that appeared after starting the Cross-Section measurement, click Generate Cross-Section to continue to the Cross-Section Request Form.

If you want to edit the Cross-Section measurement you took in step 2, you can either click and drag the measurement endpoints, or entirely start over by clicking the retry button in the Cross-Section Viewer.

3. Generate Cross-Section Image #

Now that the Cross-Section Request Form is open, make any changes to the default selections of the form and click the submit button . For a deeper dive into the form options, go to the Cross-Section Viewer Feature Reference. If you are happy with the generated image, click the accept button and your image will be imported into the Sketchpad. To generate another image, make the changes you want in the form and then click the retry button .

If your Sketchpad is not empty, you will be prompted on whether you want to clear the Sketchpad or not prior to importing the cross-section image.

4. Placing Measurements #

Now that you have your Cross-Section image in the Sketchpad, you can place distance and elevation measurements within the image. Simply click the desired measurement type, and place the measurement within the bounds of the cross-section image.

5. Adding Markup #

For this walkthrough, we are going to add text with an arrow pointing to a feature in the image, as well as a title. To add text to the canvas, click the Add Text button in the Sketchpad toolbar. This will allow you to place a textbox in the canvas with a left mouse click and you will be able to enter the text you wish to place.

To have this text point at a feature in the image, we are going to use an arrow element. To add the arrow element to the canvas, click the Arrow button in the Sketchpad. Click and drag the arrow from the desired start point to the desired end point. You can link the arrow element from the text to the image by starting and ending the arrow where the grey highlighted area appears when hovering near an element on the canvas. This will allow you to move the elements while maintaining the arrow’s connection between them.

Now to create the title we are going to add another text element using the add text button, but this time we will change the color and the font style to stand out more.

You can also select and drag any elements to move them after their initial placement.

6. Download the Canvas #

To download the canvas, simply click the Download Canvas as Image button in the Sketchpad toolbar. This will bring up the Export Image menu which allows you to download or copy the canvas as an image with or without a white background.

You can also either download the image to your computer as a PNG or an SVG. If you want to download only a subset of the items on the canvas, you can select those items and turn on the Only Selected toggle in the Export Image menu.