Among the available options for building the water networks for your design with Aqueducts, there is the option of using the Elevation Point object, which is an altimetric reference that you can insert in the drawing and that can then be used to determine, by proximity or by interpolation, the ground level of Nodes, as well as to define the terrain longitudinal profile for each pipe section of the network.
In this video we want to show you the available options in this area so that you can use it in your projects.
Let’s start.
Note that, when I edit the properties of any node in the water network that I’ve created in this project,
to the left of the Ground Elevation field there is a button. This is the elevation assignment button for Node’s terrain level.
This assignment will be made from the Elevation Points that exist in the drawing area and based on the proximity of them to the node in question.
If I click the button you will see that the calculation is not done, because no Elevation points have been detected within the allocation radius that we have entered in the general settings of the project.
In fact, in this project we do not have any elevation point created yet, and that is why, obviously, the calculation has not been possible. So let’s see how we can easily create them.
Certainly, if you check the Tools Panel in the Drawing Tab, you will see that the option to manually create Elevation Points is available. By selecting it you can define the point’s location on the drawing area and then enter its elevation value. This is, so to speak, the long route for creating Elevation Points in your projects.
But that is not what we want to emphasize at this time. We want to show you that it is also possible to import and convert the information of graphical objects contained in drawing files into elevation points.
This is what we think is the option you will most frequently use, since in most projects, the topographic survey information, required to execute them, comes in the form of points or objects in a drawing file.
Therefore, if we go to the Objects Import panel,
and present the well-known import dialog for drawing objects
and then select a drawing file related to this project,
you will see that the first group of controls allows you to select the layer and the type of object with the information you want to convert to Elevation Points.
If I activate this box
and look for the layer Pavement Elevations, which contains circles where a value of elevation has been defined to the property Coordinate Z,
and finally click on the OK button,
we will find that the import is performed quickly.
I will close this message and, to better visualize what we have now, I’m going to change the color of the layer to red.
And there they are!
Our project’s elevation points.
Now we have the information to try it out with the assignment of elevations to our nodes.
Let’s, for example, try to assign the elevation to this node.
When I click the button, even though we see that the value of the elevation changes, a warning message is shown, telling us that nearby elevation points are not in opposite quadrants.
This occurs because the elevations assignment method we have defined is the interpolation one and, in this case, it is ideal that the points used to make the weighting of the elevation be in opposite quadrants having the node as the center.
Looking at it in the plan view, it is advisable that there are elevation points here and here, instead of both being, as in this case, in the eastern quadrants.
But here, having the elevation points so close to the nodes, the best option would be to use the allocation by proximity,
so we are going to modify the method in the settings tab, General button, Drawing Area tab.
I keep the allocation radius at 10 meters. This tells the software to search only the elevation points located within this range from the center of the node, and, from them, it will take the closest one to assign it as a terrain elevation for it.
I close the dialog and go back to Node 9.
When clicking the button we see that the informative message has disappeared, assigning the value of the closest elevation point.
Of course, we do not expect you to be editing each node and pressing the assignment button to be able to define the network altimetry.
That is why in the DRAWING tab, Tools panel, you will see the Set Elevations button, which activates the assignment routine for the entire network.
Clicking on it, it will perform the assignment for each node in the network and, if no elevation points are found to define the levels of some nodes, it will list them for you in this way, so that you can take the necessary actions to correct this situation.
The next message presented is the report of elevations assignment to the pipeline sections profiles. It tells you which pipes have been modified and how many elevation points have been assigned.
That is to say, in the assignment process, the software will always seek, within the defined maximum radius, those elevation points close enough to the alignment of each section of pipe to define its longitudinal profile.
As in the case of this section.
Here, these two elevation points will be detected as the closest. And from there, the respective terrain profile has already been defined.
We will see about this a little later. For now, let’s see how we solve the lack of elevation of reported nodes.
In cases like this one, where there are not close references, there will be no other solution than entering the value manually and, for that, we activate the text boxes and introduce the corresponding values.
Note that in the automatic assignment the coverage height from the top of the pipe that we have specified for the pipeline has been respected when the rim’s elevation is calculated.
In other nodes, you can use the interpolation option with a very large radius to obtain the corresponding terrain elevation. I’m going to apply it to this node to prove it to you.
The value is assigned.
It is important that you keep both boxes activated so that, when the assignment method is changed, the values we have entered here are not modified.
Keep in mind that the validity of what I have just done will depend on how uniform the topography is in the area in which you are developing your water network design, and, of course, of your own criteria. Take it only as an alternative.
The remaining nodes without elevation can be treated in the same way.
Every time I use the global assignment button, I must revert the assignment method to the one I had initially, to avoid inconsistencies.
In this way, we have now properly defined the altimetric information of the water network.
It only remains to be seen how the longitudinal profiles of the pipe sections are generated from this information.
We will do this in the next video of this series.