                                PRO 5.0
                                2/2/99

                        Profile drawing program

                              By Tom Haws

                         Program instructions

1.0 PROGRAM INTRODUCTION

        1.1 Program purpose.  PRO 5.0 allows Autocad users to draw
        civil engineering street and utility profiles in Autocad by
        entering station and elevation at the command line.

        Optionally, the program will allow the input of offsets,
        slopes, and labels to be plotted on the profile.

        1.2 Program Input options.  The program has a command line
        input option and a data file input option.  Command line
        input can be saved to a data file as it is entered.

        1.3 What's new in version 5.0?  PRO 5.0 adds the capability to
        draw catch basins as well as manholes and can draw both
        broken.  PRO 5.0 also adds the capability to draw labeled,
        aligned dimensions.  For data file input, PRO 5.0 uses the
        standard station, offset, elevation, slope, and label fields
        plus one extra field between slope and label.  The extra field
        allows the plotting of broken manholes and catch basins.  It
        also provides a place other than the label to put ellipse size 
        for pipe crossings.  The extra field features are available 
        only by using data file input.  A file conversion utility -- 
        PROFC -- is provided with PRO 5.0 to convert groups of data 
        files that were made for other versions or to change the data 
        field width for groups of files.

2.0 PROGRAM STYLE DEFAULTS

        2.1 Overall appearance.  PRO draws profiles to look
        like a compromise combination of several typical profiles.
        Suggestions for style changes will be gladly considered.

        2.2 Size.  For profile annotation and feature scaling, the
        program uses the current Autocad drawing text style, dimscale
        value, and dimtxt value.  This follows the convention of the
        other standard custom commands.

        2.3 Numeric precision.  The program uses the current linear
        units precision for all numeric values except slopes, which are
        given to the nearest 0.001% unless the Precision option is used
        (see section 4.4).

        2.4 Layers.  By default, the program draws on layers with a
        "PPRO-" prefix.  Layer names, colors, and linetypes can be
        changed by editing the LAYERS.DAT file.

2.0 STARTING THE PROGRAM

        Start the program by typing PRO at the Autocad command prompt.

        2.1  The first time the program runs in a drawing session,
        certain setup tasks must be performed before the profile can be
        drawn.  A reference point for the profile and the profile type
        must be specified.  The vertical exaggeration must be set if it
        is different than the default of ten.   Because the profile
        can't be drawn until the initial setup is done, the following
        setup options are displayed until a reference point and profile
        type have been set.

        Reference point/profile Type/Vertical exaggeration/New profile/File:

        Type R to set the reference point.  The following prompts are
        displayed:

        Pick a reference point:
	Select any convenient point with known station and elevation.

	Enter reference point station as a real no.:
	Enter the station of the reference point (eg. 1200).

	Enter reference point elevation:
	Enter the elevation of the reference point (eg. 1264 or 64).
	(see section 4.1 for more information)

	Type T to set the profile type (see section 4.2
        for more information).  When finished, type [Enter] to exit the
        setup options and start plotting points.

        2.2  After the first time the program is run in the current
        drawing session, points may be plotted without additional
        setup.

3.0 PLOTTING POINTS

        When the program has been set up, the following prompt is
        displayed:

        <Station>/Label/Setup:

        The default response to this prompt is the station to be
        plotted (eg. 6732.54).  This prompt also gives the options of
        first entering a label to be plotted on the profile or
        returning to the setup options.  Keying [Enter] at this point
        exits the program.

        Once a station has been entered, the following prompt is
        displayed:

        <Elevation>/Offset:

        The default response to this prompt is the elevation to
        be plotted (eg. 1234.5).  This prompt also gives the option of
        first entering an offset to be plotted on the profile.  Keying
        [Enter] at this point returns to the station prompt.

4.0 PROGRAM SETUP

        To change the program setup after the profile has been
        initially set up, type S at the following prompt:

        <Station>/Label/Setup:

        The following prompt is displayed:

        Ref. point/prof. Type/Vert. exag./Precision/New prof./File:

        4.1  The Reference point option changes the location of the
        profile.  First pick a point using osnaps or enter a point from
        the keyboard.  Then enter the station and elevation of that
        point.

        4.2  The profile Type option displays the following profile
        Type options:

        Mesa/Gutter/PAvement/PIpe/Line only/POints only:

        The Mesa option draws a curb and gutter profile with
        elevations labeled on a 45 degree leader.  The Gutter option
        draws a fully annotated curb and gutter profile with gutter
        elevation input.  The PAvement option draws a fully annotated
        single pavement profile.  The PIpe option draws a fully
        annotated pipe profile of a specified type.  The Line only
        option plots a non-annotated single line profile on the P-LINE
        layer.  The POints only option either plots annotated utility
        crossing ellipses (by interpreting a provided Label input) or
        simply plots circles on the DEFPOINTS layer (they do not plot)
        at the specified stations and elevations.

        4.3  The Vertical exaggeration option changes the ratio of the
        horizontal scale to the vertical scale.  The default is 10 (eg.
        1"=20' horiz. and 1"=2' vert. or 1"=40' horiz. and 1"=4' vert.)
        Calculate the vertical exaggeration as horiz. scale divided by
        vert. scale.

        4.4  The Precision option allows the user to change the
        labeling precision of Station, Offset, Elevation, or Slope
        text from the defaults (see section 2.2).


        4.5  The New profile option tells the program not to connect
        the next point to the last point.  In other words, it keeps the
        program from connecting two separate profiles with a
        meaningless line and slope.  Exiting the program also causes a
        new profile to be started.

        4.5  The File option is discussed in section six,
        Using Data Files.

        Key [Enter] to exit the setup options and plot more points.

5.0 EXITING THE PROGRAM

        Exit the program by keying [Enter] at the following prompts:

        Reference point/profile Type/Vertical exaggeration/New profile/File:
        <Station>/Label/Setup:

6.0  USING DATA FILES

        In the Setup options (see section 4), selecting File displays
        the following prompt:

        Read from file/Save to file:

        6.1  The Read from file option reads profile information from a
        text file with a .PRO extension.  A file selection dialogue box
        is displayed.  After selecting a file to read from, key
        [Enter] to exit setup and begin plotting from the file.

        Note that any profile setup information in the data file will
        override any profile setup done from the console
        (keyboard/digitizer).  On the other hand, if there is no setup
        information in the data file, setup information must be entered
        before starting to read from the file.

        6.2  The Save to file option saves all subsequent console input
        to a data file for later reading or editing.  The following
        prompt is displayed.

        Create new file/Append existing file:

        The Append option adds more data to a file which was started
        previously.  Since ending PRO ends input to a file, the Append
        option is useful for continuing a file you didn't mean to
        finish.

        See the Appendix for detailed information about the format of
        data files.


                              APPENDIX
                          DATA FILE FORMAT


