Add a section drawing
Answer the follow-up question when the section goes in, so the tool knows the sheet is a section and not a plan.
- 1
Put the section in as a drawing of its own
The section is a sheet of its own, not a part of the plan. Press Add drawing next to the file name at the top, or the same button in the strip Drawings under the canvas, and pick the file.
- 2
Answer Foundation drawing to the first question
The box What kind of drawing is this? comes up as usual. Pick Foundation drawing. A drainage drawing never asks any further.
- 3
Answer Section drawing to the follow-up
Now the box asks What kind of foundation drawing? Foundation drawing is the plan from above, where lengths and areas are measured. Section drawing is the cut from the side, where width and height are measured, and those are the stirrup dimensions.
Worth knowing. If you clicked the wrong one in the flow of things, the Back link takes you to the first question.
- 4
Set the scale on the section on its own
A section is nearly always printed at a different scale from the plan, 1:20 against 1:100, and it comes in without a scale. Take Scale and measure a known dimension on that very sheet.
Worth knowing. The scale is never inherited from the plan, and that is deliberate. A stirrup measured with the plan's scale can come out five times too big without anything looking wrong on screen.
- 5
See on the card that you are standing on a section
Under the drawing in the strip Drawings it says Section drawing. The tool rail is shorter too: Pipe, Object, Area, Fill area and Find symbol are gone.
Worth knowing. Nothing on a section is a distance across the ground. Those tools would give metres that are not metres of anything, and those metres end up in a quote.
- 6
Use the tools that are left
The section adds Measure stirrup and Cross-section. Select, Measure, Angle, Arc, Count, Scale, Viewport and Copy are still there as well.
Worth knowing. On the section you measure. The panel Saved measurements lists what you have already saved, so you can open one and correct it, but it is on the foundation drawing that you set them out.
- 7
Do not count on AI reading here
Read the drawing with AI is grey on a section, and the panel says why: AI reading works on plans. On a section drawing you measure the width and the height yourself.
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Keep the plan and the section in the same project
The section sits in the strip like any other drawing, so you hop between them with one click. The stirrups you measure on the section you then set out on the plan.
Next steps
- Measure a stirrup on the section drawingTrace the legs of the stirrup on the section and save it under a name. The measurements are taken once and hold for the whole job.7 min
- Sweep a cross-section into a volumeMeasure the shape on the section, pull it out along the plan and get the cubic metres. Width and height from there, the length from here.6 min
- Set the scale on the drawingTeach the tool how long a metre is on the paper, so every length you draw comes out right.5 min
Do the steps on a real drawing
Open the tool and follow the walkthrough on the sample drawing that is already there. No login needed.
Open the toolStuck on a step? Get in touch and we will gladly look at your drawing.