Z value (elevation) from stake objects in worksheets

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

Can anyone enlighten me as to how I might be able to obtain the Z values of stake objects in a worksheet database row? I need to do average building elevation calculations for which the elevation at points every 10' around the building perimeter need to be averaged. Thanks!

Cheers,

Markus

[Jonathan Pickup]

a worksheet will do this for you. You can create a worksheet using the Create Report... command, but that will only do half the job. the other half you have to do manually, you have to edit the header to =ZCENTER to get the elevation of each stake object.

If you need a tutorial on worksheets, check out the short sharp manuals i have written

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

Jonathan, thanks for your reply. I'd tried =ZCENTER before and got no value in return -- VW doesn't seem to interpret it as a function, at least not 2008, which for better or worse is what I'm still on. Is it perhaps simply that VW can't obtain a Z value for a stake object but would be able to do so for a 3D locus? Though if I understand it correctly, the stake object is positioned using a 3D locus. Or is it functionality that was added with '09 or '10?

Thanks,

Markus

[Jonathan Pickup]

Did you make the report for all the stake objects?

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

Yes, the report should be returning all of the stake objects on my site model layer, in the ABE (average building elevation) class -- see attached screen shots of the database criteria, the worksheet, and the OIP for one of the stake objects. Is ZCENTER definitely a supported function for VW 2008?

[Jonathan Pickup]

i think it is the way you have created the report. listing objects by their layer and type rather than their record formats. Creating a report using the record attached to objects is a powerful and easy way to get the information attached to objects. I have written manuals on this. If anyone wants a simple introduction to worksheets, get the Essential Tutorial Manual from the training guides page:

http://www.nemetschek.net/training/guides.php

can you send me the site model part of you file, and I'll see if I can make it work.

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

Thanks Jonathan, that's very kind of you. I thought about trying to use the stake object record format, but I didn't see a record field in that format that looked like it would contain the elevation. In any event, I'll attach a file with the DTM, stake objects, and the worksheet.

[Jonathan Pickup]

your average is 3402.075ft

Edited February 2, 2010 by archoncad

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

I'm not sure how you got that result - the stake object elevations range from around 275' to 289'and the average that I calculated by hand was 298.95'. Were you able to extract Z values from the stake objects in the worksheet?

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

oops, that was supposed to be 283.95' -- either way, it's definitely not in the three thousands...

And I'm still wondering whether 2008 supports =ZCENTER ???

Cheers,

Markus

[Jonathan Pickup]

I've changed the units in the file to Feet, now I have 283.506' as the average of the 20 points. I'm not sure why it doen't work with feet and inches, but it works with pure feet.

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

Are you using ZCENTER in the database row? I still don't get a valid function in my worksheet using that, regardless of whether I set the document's units to feet, inches, or feet & inches...

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

OK, I've finally upgraded to 2010 and ZCENTER does now work, although oddly I'm having to divide the elevation by 12, even though I have the field set to use the doc's default dimension unit -- feet & inches -- but that's no big deal.

Now I'm trying to extract the ID Number in a database field as well, but can't seem to find a record field for it. Is this a piece of data that is embedded in the PIO that you can't access in a worksheet? The Stake record format does have "Stake #" and "polyline ID", but those are different than the "ID Number" that you can set in the Stake Object's OIP.

Cheers,

Markus

[Pat Stanford]

ID Number 'Stake Object'.'ID'

Also check out the script for listing the fields of PIOs located here:

http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=108487#Post108487

[Markus Barrera-Kolb]

Thanks Pat, that's a great script. Funny enough, Julian Carr just emailed it to me as well, after I'd asked him about WinDoor record fields. I'm sure it'll be useful on more than one occasion...

Cheers,

Markus