Create and Edit a Sheet Set

Use the Create Sheet Set command to create a second-level collection (beneath a plan set) that contains elements that you want to appear on every sheet in a common set of sheets. You can create these types of sheets sets:

  • Cross-section - This type of drawing illustrates cross-sections at stations along an alignment. These will include the cross-sections of multiple designated surfaces, and the cross-section grid and labeling. For a cross-section sheet set, use the Sheet Set Editor to specify the sheets' axes, grids, text and line styles, labels, and more, as well as which surfaces, subgrades, and strata are displayed.
  • Custom - This type of drawing is typical of that used for a simple project for which a cross-section view is not warranted. It simply presents a plan view of the alignment-based corridor. In many cases, the geometry of the alignment and the corridor width is such that two strips of plan views can easily be placed on one sheet. You may, therefore, create either single or double plan sheets. You can create a miscellaneous sheet at any location within the plan set. Such a sheet will include the contents of the master sheet and the appropriate title block information, sheet number and drawing ID, as desired. You can then draw within these sheets, or place dynaviews as needed to meet your needs for any type of drawing.
  • Plan grid - This type of drawing is used to plot a grid of plan sheets with a selected grid style. This type of sheets set requires a previously defined grid style and dynaview boundary collection.
  • Profile - This type of drawing illustrates the geometry and elevations of a vertical alignment. On profile sheets, you can also opt to show the corresponding plan view of the alignment/corridor.

Tip: You can apply a different view filter to each sheet set. In the View Filter Manager > Advanced View Filter Settings dialog, you can customize the appearance of lines per view filter; this allows you to set different colors, line styles, and line weights in different view filters for flexibility when plotting. For example, you may want a set of lines (such as contours) to be bold, colored, and solid in one sheet set but fine, black, and dashed in a different sheet set. Typically, however, you would apply different view filters to dynaviews on specific sheets. These settings override the line color, weight, and style properties of the lines themselves. See Create a Dynaview for more information.

Prerequisites:

To access the command:

  • Select Create Sheet Set in Drafting > Sheets.
  • Right-click a plan set in the Project Explorer and select Create Sheet Set.
  • The Create Sheet Set command also opens automatically after you create a plan set.

To create a sheet set:

  1. In the Plan set list, select the plan set for which you want to create a set of sheets with a common page layout.
  2. Enter a unique identifier for the sheet set in the Sheet set name box as you want it to appear in the Project Explorer.
  3. Select an option in the Sheet set type list:
    • Cross-section - Select this to lay out sheets for cross-sections along an alignment-based surface/corridor. Then select the roadway or other corridor for which you want to plot cross-sections in the Corridor list.
    • Custom - Select this to manually create individual unique sheets, such as a title page or a sheet with objects from other views presented in one or more dynaviews. Then type a name for each sheet in the box below.
    • Plan Grid - Select this to use a predefined grid style and boundary set to create sheets. Then select a Dynaview boundary collection and Grid settings in the lists below. To offset the dynaview on each sheet, enter an X,Y distance in the Offset box. The origin is the lower-left corner of the dynaview.
    • Profile - Select this to lay out sheets for a profile of an alignment-based surface/corridor. Key vertical alignment points along the profile can be labeled on the sheets. Then select the roadway or other corridor for which you want to plot cross-sections in the Corridor list.
  4. In the Paper size list, select the size that you want to plot, or select Custom to define a unique size. Your selection in this list determines both the read-only Sheet width and Sheet height and the editable Plottable width and Plottable height (the 'printable area', which is the selected paper size minus a standard margin area that most printers cannot access) that appear below it.

    Note: The size that you specify is independent from the paper sizes that your printer or plotter can output. For instance, you could specify to create a Letter (8.5" x 11") sized sheet (7.7" x 10.2" printable area default) to print on your 36" plotter. Specify the printer, orientation, and paper size you will use in Page Setup and Print, not in this command.

  5. Select an orientation option.
  6. If needed (or if you selected Custom as the paper size), edit the Sheet width and Sheet height of the plottable area.
  7. Specify other settings depending on the type of sheet set you are creating:
    • Cross-section - Select the corridor for which you want to plot cross-sections.
    • Custom - Type one name on each line for each sheet you want to create, e.g., Title page, Plan and cross-sections combined, etc.
    • Plan grid - In the Dynaview boundary collection list, select a previously created grid of dynaviews, or select <New> to create one. In the Grid settings list, select a previously created grid style or select <New> to create one. In the View filter list, select a filter to apply to all of the dynaviews in the selected dynaview boundary collection.

      Note: If your Plan View and Plan Grid sheet set have different view filters applied, the Sheet View will likely look different than the Plan View for the same area.

    • Profile - Select the corridor for which you want to plot profiles.
  8. Click OK. The Sheet Layout Editor appears (See To edit a sheet layout below).

To edit the sheet layout for cross-section or profile sheets:

  1. Using either the station box or the station slider, specify a representative station that you want to use when setting up the sheet layout.
  2. If needed, click the + next to Sheet Settings to expand the tree of properties. Expand additional sub-groups as needed.
  3. Select any row in the tree to see its settings in the pane to the right.
  4. Edit the setting as needed, depending on the type of sheets you are creating:
  5. Review the settings at various stations along your corridor to ensure that they are applied as desired.
  6. Run the Build Sheets command and open individual sheets in the Sheet View to review and edit them.

To add sheet numbers, names, and counts to sheets:

Add smart text at the sheet set level to have it display on all sheets you build or manually create (custom sheets) for the set.

  1. In the Project Explorer, right-click the sheet set you want to number, and select New Sheet View.
  2. Select Create Text in Drafting > Text.
  3. In the Create Text command, click the Browse button next to the Text box (or in the Properties pane as described above) to access the multiline Text Editor.
  4. In the Text Editor, enter any text that you want to precede the smart text, e.g., "Page".
  5. With the caret where you wish to insert the smart text, click the Insert Smart Text button.
  6. In the Insert Smart Text dialog, select Object-based in the Property list.
  7. Select Sheet in the Extract property at/from list.
  8. Type one of these two-character codes in the Code box:
    • SI - Use this to show a sheet number (sheet index).
    • SN - Use this to show a sheet name (cross-section sheets are named by their beginning station).
    • CT - Use this to show a sheet count.
  9. Click OK, and review the code in the Text Editor.
  10. To display all of the values on your sheets, add all three codes in a row or stacked. Here is how it looks in the editor:

    @<OD,H,SN>@, @<OD,H,SI>@ of @<OD,H,CT>@ (e.g., text would be 100+00.00, Sheet 21 of 39)

    @<OD,H,SN>@
    @<OD,H,SI>@
    @<OD,H,CT>@

  11. Back in the Create Text command, move your cursor from the Text insertion point box into the Sheet View and click to place the smart text. The value for the text will be "?" in the view because it is not an actual sheet, but the appropriate value will appear on each sheet built under the sheet set.

Options:

  • Click Scan to rebuild the surfaces along the alignment as you make changes.

Dependencies:

  • The sheet set will inherit any objects that its parent plan set includes.

Related topics

Cross-section Sheet Set Layout Options

Profile Sheet Set Layout Options

Build Sheets

Use a Sheet View

Create a Custom Sheet Manually

Workflow for Sheet Plotting