Project objects onto section views

Last updated: 2026-01-06

Total video time: 39:18

xsec-prjct-objct-01.mp4 1:26

Sample line sources

The following objects can be sampled with Sample Lines. This is covered elsewhere.

  • Surfaces
  • Corridors
  • Pipe Networks

To sample new objects with existing Sample Lines/Section Views:

Select a Sample Line > Contextual Ribbon > Sample More Sources

Projections and crossing sources

The following objects can be projected to section views:

  • Points
  • Solids
  • Blocks
  • Multi View Blocks
  • 3D Polylines
  • Cogo Points
  • Feature Lines (Typical at WisDOT)
  • Survey Figures (Typical at WisDOT)

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Home Tab > Profile & Section Views Panel > Section Views > Project Objects to Multiple Section Views

or

Home Tab > Profile & Section Views Panel > Section Views > Project Objects To Section Views

  1. Select the receiving sample line group or section view group
  2. Uncheck all objects except Feature Lines and/or Survey Figures
  3. Select the Source Layers and/or Source Display (styles) to be projected

    Tip: This allows the objects to be filtered by layer or style. This is especially useful when using Option B and C below.

  4. Edit Output Display > Click[...]

  5. There are three ways to show a feature lines or survey figure in cross section views.
    1. Option A: Crossing Marker Styles.

      1. Tip: Examples include utility survey figures, utility feature lines, right-of-way feature lines and beam guard feature lines. These styles utilize marker styles which are defined in the feature line and survey figure style.

      2. Crossing Marker Style: Use Object
      3. Crossing Label Style: <None>

      4. Elevation Options: Use Object (or appropriate design or existing surface)

    2. Option B: Description Crossing Label Styles

      1. Tip: Examples include any object where a custom label is desired in section views. It also works for labeling utility feature lines and survey figures, right of way lines, and centerline/reference lines. This requires a description to be added to each object and the description will then be displayed in the section views.

      2. Crossing Marker Style: _No Display
      3. Crossing Label Style: Desc-Object (black), Desc-Utility Type
      4. Elevation Options: Use Object (or appropriate design or existing surface)

      6. Add a description to objects to be shown in the section view
        1. Select the feature line(s) or survey figure(s) in plan view > Ctrl+1 to open Properties palette
        2. Properties palette > Description field: Enter the desired description/text to be shown in the cross section

    3. Option C: Pre-Defined Crossing Label Styles

      1. Tip: WisDOT has predefined crossing label styles for utility survey figures and feature lines.

      2. Crossing Marker Style: _No Display
      3. Crossing Label Style: Match the appropriate style to each object in the dialog (There are label styles for each type of utility)
      4. Elevation Options: Use Object (or appropriate design or existing surface)

    4. OK > OK

  6. If there are existing projections in the section views, a message will appear, asking how to proceed.

    1. Override with new settings: Objects that were previously projected to the section views will be updated to the new settings defined in the Display Options dialog box. If Layers or Styles are used to filter the selection set (Step 3 above), only the objects in the selection set will be updated and objects that do not match the layer/style filtering will retain their old settings in the section views.
    2. Keep old settings for duplicated objects: Objects already projected will not be updated with the new settings. Only new objects will be updated.

xsec-prjct-objct-03.mp4 2:40

Utilities can be projected to cross sections in the form of feature lines or survey figures. No matter the object type, WisDOT templates contain feature line and survey figure styles for all possible utility types.

Feature Line Insertion

Most of the time, utilities will come in the form of survey figures. If they are not survey figures, they could be polylines or feature lines. If they are polylines, they must be converted to feature lines to be projected to cross sections. At this point feature lines are not easily shared through data shortcuts or survey databases (unlike alignments and survey figures). To share into a cross section drawing, they are simply copied from the original drawing and pasted into the cross section drawing.

  1. In the source utility drawing, select the utility feature lines to be shared
    1. Right Click > Clipboard > Copy
  2. In the cross section drawing
    1. Right click > Clipboard > Paste to Original Coordinates

Survey figure insertion

Survey figures need to be inserted into the drawing from a Survey Database to be able to be used in Cross Sections.

  1. Toolspace > Survey tab > right-click on Survey Databases > Set Working Folder
    1. Browse to ProjectID\BaseData > Click Survey folder >OK
  2. Right-click on SD-ProjectID > Open Read Only
  3. Insert the survey figure data into file using one of these options:
    1. Expand Survey Queries > Right click on the appropriate figure query (example: utilities would be UtilFigures query) > Insert into Drawing
    2. Click Figures. In the Preview area at the bottom of the toolspace, Ctrl+Select the object type figures from the list of figures in the database > Right-click on one of the selected figures > Insert into Drawing.
    3. Expand Import Events > Expand the import event that holds the object type > Right-click Figures > Insert into Drawing Not all Import Events will be named in a way to be the obvious event to choose so this may not be the best option.

  4. Right-click survey database > Close Survey Database

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Option A: Crossing marker styles

  1. Home Tab > Profile & Section Views Panel > Section Views > Project Objects to Multiple Section Views
  2. Select the sample line group or section view group
  3. Uncheck all objects except Feature Lines and/or Survey Figures
  4. Edit Output Display > Click[...]
    1. Crossing Marker Style > <set all> >Use Object
    2. Crossing Label Style: <None>
    3. Elevation Options > <set all> >Use Object (or appropriate design or existing surface)

Option B: Description crossing label styles

  1. Add a description to objects to be shown in the section view
    1. Select one feature line or survey figure > Right Click > Select Similar
    2. Ctrl + 1 to open the properties palette
    3. Properties palette > Description Field Enter the desired description
    4. Repeat for other types of objects (Other utility types)
  2. Home Tab > Profile & Section Views Panel > Section Views > Project Objects to Multiple Section Views
  3. Select the sample line group or section view group
  4. Uncheck all objects except Feature Lines and/or Survey Figures
  5. Filter the objects by layer or style
    1. Click **Varies** under either Source Layers or Source Display
    2. Deselect all object layer or styles except 1 style/layer.

    3. OK

  6. Edit Output Display > Click[...]
    1. Crossing Marker Style: _No Display
    2. Crossing Label Style: , Desc-Electric(Match the objects that are being filtered)
    3. Elevation Options: Use Object (or appropriate design or existing surface)
    4. OK
  7. Repeat for other types of utilities/objects, matching the crossing label style to the layer/object style filter.
    1. Since this process utilizing filtering by Layer or Style, Override with new settings can be chosen in the Project Objects - Override Object Settings dialog box.

Option C: Pre-Defined crossing label styles

  1. Home Tab > Profile & Section Views Panel > Section Views > Project Objects to Multiple Section Views
  2. Select the sample line group or section view group
  3. Uncheck all objects except Feature Lines and/or Survey Figures
  4. Filter the objects by layer or style
    1. Click **Varies** under either Source Layers or Source Display
    2. Deselect all object layer or styles except 1 style/layer.

    3. OK

  5. Edit Output Display > Click[...]

    1. Crossing Marker Style: _No Display
    2. Crossing Label Style: ElectricOr style that matches the objects being projected.
    3. Elevation Options: Use Object (or appropriate design or existing surface)
    4. OK
  6. Repeat for other types of utilities/objects, matching the crossing label style to the layer/object style filter.
    1. Since this process utilizing filtering by Layer or Style, Override with new settings can be chosen in the Project Objects - Override Object Settings dialog box.

xsec-prjct-objct-05.mp4 7:11

For all situations mentioned above for projecting utilities to the cross sections, the overall print color of the objects can be modified to fit different situations. The display objects and labels for utilities utilize the layers to drive their display. WisDOT has multiple layer states available that modify the standard layers depending on the desired print output.

  1. Review the Layer States Palette to see how to access.
  2. Select the layer state for the desired plot output
    1. Set Utilities to Plot in Color
    2. Set Existing Utilities to Plot Black
    3. Set Darker Existing Features
  3. To return back to default plotting standards:

    1. Layer State: WisDOTxx All Layers (Default)

Tip: Once the layer states are loaded into the drawing, utilize the Layer States drop down to switch between.

There are times when the layer states don't accomplish the desired plot output. Utilize the following options to modify the plot output.

xsec-prjct-objct-06.mp4 5:57

This workflow could be useful for the following, depending on project data:

  • Centerline or Reference Line Alignments
  • Beamguard
  • Right of Way (Existing and proposed)

Convert alignments to feature lines

Alignments need to be converted to Feature Lines prior to projecting to section views.

  1. Create data shortcut references of alignment objects
    1. Toolspace > Prospector > Data Shortcuts > Right click desired alignment > Create Reference
  2. Create data shortcut references of profile objects
    1. Useful to automatically assign elevations to feature lines created from alignments.

    2. Toolspace > Prospector > Data Shortcuts > Alignments > Right click desired profile > Create Reference

Home ribbon > Create Design panel > Feature Line pull-down > Feature Line from Alignment

  1. Site: None
  2. Name: Name of the alignment
  3. Profile: Select the Design Profile
    1. Weed Points: Unchecked
  4. Style: select a style appropriate to the object type (example: E RW Existing Right-of-Way Line for a RW line)
    1. Alignments: Unchecked
    2. Right of Way: E RW Existing Right-of-Way
  5. Layer: Specify an appropriate layer for the object
    1. P_ALI_XX for centerline/reference line alignments
  6. Create dynamic link to alignment: checked
  7. OK

Add elevation data to feature lines

If the feature line create from the alignment does not have elevation data (typically from a profile), add elevation data to the feature line from a design or existing surface.

  1. Select the feature line

  2. Contextual Ribbon > Edit Elevations Panel > Elevations from Surface

  3. From the drop down, select the desired surface
  4. OK
  5. Use the pick box to select the feature line and assign elevations.
  6. Enter

Project alignment feature lines to section views

Utilize Option B to project feature lines that have been converted from alignments. This allows a user to assign a description to label the object in section views.

  1. Add a description to objects to be shown in the section view
    1. Select the feature line (converted from the alignment)
    2. Ctrl + 1 to open the properties palette
    3. Properties palette > Description Field Enter the desired description
    4. Repeat for other objects
  2. Home Tab > Profile & Section Views Panel > Section Views > Project Objects to Multiple Section Views
  3. Select the sample line group or section view group
  4. Uncheck all objects except Feature Lines
  5. Edit Output Display > Click[...]
    1. Crossing Marker Style: _No Display
    2. Crossing Label Style: , Desc-Object (black)
    3. Elevation Options: Use Object (or appropriate design or existing surface)
    4. OK > OK

xsec-prjct-objct-07.mp4 8:25

While utilizing feature lines, many objects may be projected and labeled in the cross section views. Some examples include (but not limited to):

  • Beam Guard

  • Right of Way

Using Option B along with the crossing label style Desc-Object (black) opens up limitless possibilities of what can be labeled on cross sections. The objects described below may come from sources of many shapes and forms. The goal is to convert those objects to feature lines to provide the most flexible options of projecting to the cross sections.

Beam guard

If the corridor contains beam guard objects as part of the assembly, those should project through into the cross sections while using the XS Sheets codes sets. No further work is needed. The following covers situations where the beam guard is not part of the design corridor.

Workflow:

  1. Beam guard feature lines must be manually drawn or converted from other objects.
    • The beam guard line must be drawn along the proposed face of rail.
  2. Assign the beam guard objects appropriate beam guard feature line styles.
    • P BMGRD Guard Rail LT
    • P BMGRD Guard Rail RT
  1. Utilize Option A to project to section views
  2. Home Tab > Profile & Section Views Panel > Section Views > Project Objects to Multiple Section Views
  3. Select the sample line group or section view group
  4. Uncheck all objects except Feature Lines
  5. Edit Output Display > Click[...]
    1. Option A: Crossing Marker Styles.
    2. Crossing Marker Style: Use Object
      1. Crossing Label Style: <None>
      2. Elevation Options: Use Object (or appropriate design or existing surface)

Right of Way

  • Right of way feature lines must be manually drawn or converted from other objects.
  • Assign the right of way objects appropriate feature line styles
    • E RW Existing Right-Of-Way Line
    • P RW Proposed Right-Of-Way
    • There are other usable right-of-way feature line styles, both existing and proposed
  1. Home Tab > Profile & Section Views Panel > Section Views > Project Objects to Multiple Section Views
  2. Select the sample line group or section view group
  3. Uncheck all objects except Feature Lines
  4. Edit Output Display > Click[...]
    1. Option A: Crossing Marker Styles
      1. Crossing Marker Style: Use Object
      2. Crossing Label Style: <None>
      3. Elevation Options: Use Object (or appropriate design or existing surface)
    2. Option B: Object Description
      1. Crossing Marker Style: _No Display
      2. Crossing Label Style: , Desc-Object (black)
      3. Elevation Options: Use Object (or appropriate design or existing surface)

  5. OK > OK
Object Abbreviation
Building BLDG
Centerline C/L
Conduit CDU
Electric ELEC
Fence FNCE
Fiber Optic FO
Gas GAS
Marsh MAR
Match Line MATCH LINE
Overhead Utilities OH
Pipeline PIPL
Permanent Limited Easement PLE
Reference Line R/L
Railroad RW
Right of Way - Existing EX RW
Right of Way RW
Sanitary SAN
Septic SEP
Storm Sewer - Existing EX SS
Storm Sewer SS
Telephone TEL
Temporary Limited Easement TLE
Tree TREE
TV TV
Water WAT