Converting from perimeter measurements to polylengths

  • Converting from perimeter measurements to polylengths

    Posted by David Cutler on June 23, 2021 at 7:16 am

    I have a number of custom tools that are setup as “perimeter” measurements. I’d like to use the “rise/drop” feature in Revu to add a consistent length to every service in certain instances – for example when taking off water services to a distance behind curb. It appears that “rise/drop” is only available with “polylength” markups. Does anyone know if there is a way to convert a “perimeter” markup to a “polylength” markup?

    David Cutler replied 3 years, 5 months ago 2 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • Troy DeGroot

    Organizer
    June 23, 2021 at 7:35 am
    Points: 23,548
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III

    I’m not sure what you mean by “distance behind curb” in relation to the rise/drop. I’m confident you know how it works, but Rise/drop is intended to measure the vertical (unseen) part of a horizontal markup. I’d be curious to see your tools and how you’re using them. To your question.. I don’t think there’s a way to convert them, the best I can think of is to draw an example of each of your tools on a blank pdf, then draw a Polylength line next to each one. Use the Format Painter to copy the properties from the existing tools to the new polylength lines. select all of them and add the rise/drop, layers, and whatever else needs to be adjusted. Replace the tools in your toolset. I like to keep these “worksheets” to archive the process of creating tools. That way if anything breaks or gets lost I can go back to the original. I hope this helps David, thanks for posting!

    • David Cutler

      Member
      June 23, 2021 at 8:06 am
      Points: 26,448
      Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Brown Belt UC2 Brainery Advanced Advanced Brown Belt Rank

      Thank you for the quick reply @troydegroot

      “Distance behind curb” would be similar to “height above floor” for a wire run – I’m just looking to add an additional horizontal length rather than a vertical length. For the civil site side “distance behind curb” is a typical term for how far from the edge of the road we extend utilities towards the house.

      I guess the biggest lesson of the day is that our tools should be “polylength” measurements rather than “perimeter” measurements. Hopefully others can learn from this experience!

      • David Cutler

        Member
        June 23, 2021 at 8:59 am
        Points: 26,448
        Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Brown Belt UC2 Brainery Advanced Advanced Brown Belt Rank

        The plot thickens!

        One of my custom columns is setup to capture the quantity that was measured. Unfortunately the way I have this configured the quantity reported doesn’t include the rise/drop quantity – so a service that is 40 lf to the curb with a 10 lf extension that should indicate a 50 ft total still displays 40 ft…

        Time to dig back into my custom column setup and see if I can figure how to get it to capture the rise/drop quantity.

        • David Cutler

          Member
          June 23, 2021 at 9:21 am
          Points: 26,448
          Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Brown Belt UC2 Brainery Advanced Advanced Brown Belt Rank

          And thickens…

          I was able to modify the formula in my custom column for “Quantity” to include the “Rise/Drop” value. Unfortunately, when I added this to the formula the system stopped reporting a value in the “Quantity” column for any measurement that doesn’t have a “Rise/Drop” value. Ugh.

          Time to go back to the old fashioned way to get this one off my desk. I’m open to suggestion @troydegroot and others!

          • Troy DeGroot

            Organizer
            June 23, 2021 at 12:31 pm
            Points: 23,548
            Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III

            Is the quantity formula pulling the total length? I’m surprised it doesn’t include the rise/drop since that more of a background property entry.

            • David Cutler

              Member
              June 24, 2021 at 5:36 am
              Points: 26,448
              Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Brown Belt UC2 Brainery Advanced Advanced Brown Belt Rank

              I might have to turn in my Brainery card @troydegroot . Turns out it was working correctly the entire time and I didn’t realize that was the case. What was throwing me off was that the “Comments” column was indicating “L = 14′-11″ Rise/Drop = 10′-0″ ” and my custom “Quantity” column was indicating “15” when I thought it should be returning “25” (14′-11″ + 10′-0″). When I went and scaled this dimension on the plan I found that the base measurement was in this example 4′-11″ (from the water main to the curb). This means that the value in the custom “Quantity” column was correct at “15” (4′-11″ + 10′-0″).

              So a couple of lessons learned:

              1. If you want to use “Rise/Drop” make sure your tool is setup as a “Polylength” measurement not a “Perimeter” measurement type.

              2. When using “Rise/Drop” check your measurements to ensure you know what your base (horizontal) measurement is and that you are getting the output that you are expecting.

              3. The “L” value in the “Comments” column includes the “Rise/Drop = X’-X” ” quantity.

              Thank you for the opportunity to work through this. Hopefully it will help others in the future!

      • Troy DeGroot

        Organizer
        June 23, 2021 at 12:33 pm
        Points: 23,548
        Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III

        Never a need to turn in your Brainery card! 😂

        I use the Perimeter tool for retaining walls, wall panel returns, and other things that are line-based, but have a Z-plan depth value. If you’re using Quantity Link the value that is transferring to Excel is actually the “Length” value, which should also include length + rise/drop. This was a great post for thinking through how the tool actually works. Thanks for posting David!

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