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The help of every CADSECTION window – the same text you see with F1 in the program. 60 articles.
Project and field data
- ImportA level field book (BS / IS / FS with offsets) is reduced and split into sections; an Excel layout (Layers, Series, Classic, Fixed distance, Formation), CSV, an .ESP project or LandXML is read as it is. Blank Layouts gives the empty Excel layouts.
- SettingsThe ground and the design layer that are measured, hatches, the band table, text sizes, the L-section, the datum and more area combinations (blanket, cess …). Scales and the sheets are in the Print Center. A settings file takes all this from another project.
- Settings fileSaves the settings of this project – drawing and report settings, the title block, layers, templates, the BOQ, the curve design – to a .cxsettings file, or takes the chosen parts of such a file into this project (one step of Undo).
- New projectA new project: its name and type, and – if you like – the project details right away: typed in, taken from a details file (.json), copied from the open project or read from a drawing. Anything left out is filled in later in Project details.
- Order of the band rowsThe rows of the band table under the cross sections (or the L-section): the top of the list is the row next to the drawing. Move rows up and down; untick a row to leave it out of the drawing.
- Band sizesThe text height and the row height of each row of the band table, in mm on the sheet. An empty cell (or 0) means automatic – the sizes of the Settings window.
- Blank LayoutsThe Excel layouts that Import reads: level field book (BS / IS / FS), Layers, Series, Fixed distance, Classic n-layer, Formation, Apply CS template, Vertical alignment and CSV.
Check and correct
- Compare projectsThis project (1) against another one (2): an earlier survey, a corrected copy, the contractor's joint levels. For the chosen layer each chainage is the same, changed (levels differ by more than the tolerance, or the width or the number of readings changed), only in 1 or only in 2.
- Check dataFinds what is usually wrong in field data: missing centre readings, short or long sides, stray offsets, spikes, duplicate offsets, gaps in the chainages and arithmetic slips in the level book. Double-click a finding to open the section.
- Edit sectionsThe offsets and levels of each layer of a section with the drawing beside it, changed live. Del removes a reading, typing in the last row adds one. Every change is a step of Undo.
- InterpolateLevels at an interval or at given offsets from the readings, or new sections between two (morphing) – for gaps in the survey.
- Undo historyEvery change of the project with its name and time, newest first. Go back to just before any of them in one step, or forward again to a step you undid.
- Duplicate layerCopies every point of a layer, in every section, to a free layer – keep the original field data while you change the copy (by hand, with rules or the AI assistant). One step of Undo.
Design
- Apply templateGives each section a template (or an assembly) and works out the design layer from it. The table lists every section with its template, shift of the centre line, ground and result layer and final level.
- TemplatesA template is a list of elements from the centre line out: horizontal, vertical, gradient (width and slope %), slope (width and ratio) and daylight (meets the ground with the cut or fill slope). Symmetric templates mirror the right side.
- ComponentsComponents are the things built along the line, drawn as they are on site: RCC U-drains with their cover slab and PCC bed, masonry and earthen drains, box and pipe culverts, retaining and breast walls, rails, sleepers, the ballast and the whole track, OHE masts, bridge decks with girders, piers on piles, crash barriers, kerbs, poles, fences and trees. Each has a section (with its materials – RCC, PCC, masonry, ballast … – and their textures) and a plan (lines along the alignment, sleepers or posts repeated, or a symbol).
- ComponentA component is a list of shapes in its own frame: in the section x runs across (+ away from the centre line on the right side), y up from the insertion point; on the plan x runs along the alignment and y across (+ right). Every value can be an expression of the parameters – W/2, max(T, 0.15), sqrt(1+K^2), if(D>1, 0.2, 0.15).
- Place componentsEach row puts a component on the sections from one chainage to another (the same chainage for one section) and on the plan. It sits on a layer: at the point of that layer with the given name – the Point name of the template element, e.g. Toe or Shoulder – or, with no name, at the offset; Dx moves it outwards, Dy up. Both sides puts it on the left too, mirrored.
- Template libraryStandard sections ready to use: RDSO broad gauge single and double line with blanket, IRC / MoRTH roads, PMGSY rural roads, canals and drains – and the templates you saved from your own projects.
- FormationThe formation (final) levels of the design: typed at chainages or worked out from PVIs with vertical curves. Best fit finds a grade close to the ground.
- Derived layersLayers made from others: upper / lower envelope, difference, cutting and filling rows, offset and interval layers, road crust layers. They are kept and worked out again after edits.
- Widening and strengtheningThe existing road (a surveyed layer) and its carriageway edges – typed, or from point remarks such as EOP or EDGE – and the new carriageway: its edges, crown and camber. The crown level comes from the formation / vertical alignment, or is as low as the overlay allows over the old road.
- Canal hydraulic designEach reach has its discharge, bed slope, Manning's n and side slope. Manning's formula Q = A R^(2/3) S^(1/2) / n gives the section fixed by the bed width / depth ratio, the bed width or the depth; Lacey's regime theory (unlined alluvial canals) gives its own section and slope from the silt factor.
- Save to the template storeKeeps the ticked templates and assemblies in your template store, for every project on this PC. An assembly takes its templates, layer names and area combinations along.
Alignment and plan
- Superelevation and wideningHow the templates change on the curves of the horizontal alignment. Roads: superelevation e = V² / 225 R up to the maximum, IRC extra widening, run-in along the transitions (or 2/3 before the curve without one). Railways: equilibrium cant capped at the maximum, about the inner rail, formation widening.
- Horizontal alignmentThe IPs of the alignment: the first row is the start point, the last the end point. Radius 0 means no curve at that IP, Ls 0 a simple circular curve. IRC radius and Ls sets the minimum radius and transition for the design speed.
- Sections from the TINCross sections cut from the survey points along the alignment: stations every interval (closer on curves, and at the curve points), offsets every step out to the widths left and right, the levels from the TIN into the target layer.
- Sections from survey coordinatesPoints shot along the section lines – from a CSV / TXT file (name, easting, northing, level, code) or the survey points of the project – are put on the centre line: each gets its chainage and offset. Points closer than the tolerance along the line make one section; its chainage is that of its CL point (or the mean, or rounded).
- Sections on the planDraws the section lines of the project across the alignment plan, from the left to the right end of the ground, with the chainage – and, if wanted, the levels at the points and the contours of the ground.
Draw and print
- Print CenterStep 1 sets the scales, the sections per row and the area table; step 2 the sheets (A0–A4, border, title block); step 3 what to print and where – PDF one per sheet or all in one, a printer, or only drawn.
- Project detailsThe name of work, agency, agreement number and date, the level books and the signature captions – typed once and printed in the title block of every sheet and in the heading of the reports.
- L-section: lines, structures and rowsFurther lines: the level of any layer at any offset of every section – the full supply level of a canal, the rail level of the other track, a toe – drawn on the profile (dashed if wanted) and printed as a band row.
- Plot sheetsThe CADSECTION sheets already drawn in this drawing: tick the ones to print. Each sheet is plotted 1:1 on a page of its own – a PDF per sheet, one combined PDF, or a printer.
- Title block detailsThe layout of the title block on the sheets: the heading, where the texts go and the free drawing area inside the border (found automatically when ticked).
Reports and export
- ReportsArea and volume reports in Excel with live formulas, by average end areas or the prismoidal formula, for the main pair of layers or every area combination; the abstract of quantities; mass haul, setting out, the bill of quantities; and the data exported as Series, Layers, CSV, LandXML or a project copy.
- Mass haulThe running total of cutting − filling along the chainage, with the cut factor (shrinkage or bulking) and the fill factor (compaction). Where the curve rises the work is in cutting, where it falls in filling; each loop between two balance points balances.
- Setting outWhere the design meets the ground on both sides of every section (toe of the bank, top of the cutting), with offset and level and, with the horizontal alignment, easting and northing – for the slope stakes in the field.
- TurfingThe slope length of the design line on each bank of every section, the mean of two sections × the distance, for the filling and / or the cutting slopes; berms and slopes flatter than the limit are left out; an anchoring allowance and a deduction can be added.
- Bill of quantitiesEach row is an item of the schedule of rates: item number, description, unit, where its quantity comes from, × factor, rate. The quantities of cutting and filling (any area combination), turfing, benching, overhaul, surplus and borrow are measured from the sections; Typed quantity is for anything else.
Survey tools
- Survey pointsThe surfaces of the project: the ground (the first) and any other – a design surface, the ground after excavation. Import points reads CSV or text with or without a header; check the first points to see that easting and northing are the right way round. From sections places a layer of the sections on the plan.
- ContoursContour lines of a surface every interval (chosen from the level range unless typed), every n-th one major and labelled along its length; the points, the TIN and the alignment can be drawn too.
- Spot levelsThe level of the surface at any point: click the plan or type the easting and northing. Grid on the plan writes a spot level every n metres inside the surface; Picks on the plan writes the clicked ones.
- Surface volumeCutting and filling between a surface and a level or a second surface: the area is divided into square cells and each cell's difference is added up. The area can be the whole surface, its boundary, a band along the alignment or a boundary file.
- TIN and contoursTriangulates the selected points, level texts or 3D polylines and draws contour lines at the interval; every so many is a major contour, labelled along its length if ticked.
- Surface from the sectionsEvery point of a layer placed on the plan with the horizontal alignment – chainage and offset become easting and northing – to make a surface (TIN) and contours from the cross sections.
- Import pointsCheck the first rows of the file before the points come in: easting and northing the right way round, the level and the code in their columns. Automatic reads a header row (else Name, E, N, Z, Code); choose the order by hand when it guesses wrong.
- Traverse adjustmentType the legs – from, to, bearing (degrees or ddd°mm'ss") and distance – or import them from a CSV file, and the start coordinates. Closed traverses end on the start, open ones on a known point; the misclosure is spread by the Bowditch or Transit rule.
- Lat/Long ⇄ UTMConverts one point or a whole CSV file between WGS84 latitude / longitude and UTM easting / northing. From UTM back to latitude / longitude the zone and the hemisphere (north or south) are the ones set in the window.
- UnitsLength, area – including bigha, katha and decimal (the local values can differ: check the factor) – volume and angle.
AI assistant
- Connect AI appsPro Max, Govt / Railways and Firm seats with the own-AI-key add-on: AI apps you already use – Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code with GitHub Copilot, Codex, Gemini CLI, LM Studio and others that speak MCP – can work in CADSECTION: look up readings, areas, volumes and checks, change settings, layers, sections and templates, import level books, write reports and PDFs, and show a section. They use your own AI subscription; no CADSECTION AI credits are used.
- AI connectionsThe AI connections the assistant can use – your Claude account through Claude Code (no key), a Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini API key, or a local Ollama model. Keep several and switch between them; Test connection checks the one shown.
- Learn from correctionsGive the original field data and the version you corrected by hand: CADSECTION finds the rules that turn one into the other, with their parameters, and shows how much of your corrections they reproduce.
- RuleA rule changes the field data the same way every time: what it does (shift levels, clip widths, smooth, remove spikes …), where – the layer, the chainages from and to, the left, right or both sides – and its values.
- SkillA skill is a job for the assistant with a name: either rules that run without AI (the same result every time) or an instruction for the AI that adapts to each survey.
Account, updates and help
- Getting startedThe steps from field data to drawings and quantities, each with the window that does it. The sample project is a made-up road to try everything on.
- Your accountYour plan, until when it runs and the AI credits left. Start the free trial, choose or renew a plan, buy more AI credits, move the licence to another PC or sign out.
- Sign inSign in with your account: a code is sent to confirm it is you. New here? Create an account with your mobile number and e-mail (codes by SMS and e-mail confirm both) and the free trial starts.
- Recover unsaved workCADSECTION closed before these projects were saved; their last autosave copies are kept (encrypted for your Windows user). Open one to carry on and save it; Delete ticked removes copies you do not need; Later asks again next time.
- UpdateA new version is ready. Install now downloads it, checks it against the signed release, asks to save your work, closes Studio and starts the new version – your projects and settings stay. Later reminds you next time.
- Report a problemDescribe what happened; the versions, the log of the last days and – if ticked – a copy of the project go into one zip on the desktop. Send it to support yourself: the program sends nothing.
In CADSECTION, F1 opens the help of the window you are in, and All commands (CXHELP) lists everything it does. See also the features.