Working with Alignments and Parcels

5
In this chapter
Working with alignments Working with parcels

Creating alignments and parcels with AutoCAD Land Desktop is a two-step process. First, you create the geometry, such as the roadway centerlines and parcel boundaries, and then you define the geometry as alignments and parcels.

83

Introduction
You can draft horizontal alignments and parcels at any time during the project process. You can begin by drawing objects, such as lines, curves, spirals, or polylines, to represent the geometry of an alignment or parcel. Then, you can define an alignment or parcel to a database. All data is stored in an external database and all drawings in a project can access that data. Because of the external database, you do not need to draft alignments or parcels in a drawing to reference them. After you define objects, you can delete them from the drawing. Then, if you must visually reference alignments or parcels, you can import them into the drawing.

Working with Alignments

The plan view of roadway geometry is called a horizontal alignment. For alignments, you can define roadway centerlines and create offsets that represent lanes, shoulders, and rights-of-way. You can create station labels along an alignment, and generate stakeout reports for surveyors. Because alignment definitions are stored in a database outside the drawing, you have the following added flexibility when managing alignments:

If other projects contain alignments that you want to include in a current project, then you can merge alignment databases and import alignments into a drawing. If someone on a network needs write access to the alignment you have set as current, then you can close the alignment database or select a different current alignment while you keep a drawing open. It is not necessary to keep alignment objects in a drawing. You can delete them and import the alignments only when needed.

You can edit the data in the alignment database by using the Alignment Editor. Any changes that you make to an alignment in the Alignment Editor are updated in the drawing. The Alignment Editor can also generate reports. The civil engineering tools provide advanced roadway design capabilities, such as profile and cross section design.

Multi-User Alignment Database

The alignment database can be accessed by multiple people working over a network. Locking works on a per-alignment basis. To release the lock on an

84

Chapter 5

Working with Alignments and Parcels