Creating a Border File with the Cursor

Method
In the BORDER EDITOR, the cursor method is a quick and easy way to define your borders
if you have a background file of your survey area available to you.

Use your cursor to define the perimeter of your area. These locations appear as open circles at
the map location. The BORDER EDITOR also, automatically generates small, black “virtual
waypoints” between each pair of defined waypoints. At any time, you can click and drag a
waypoint or virtual waypoint to a new position. If you reposition a virtual waypoint, it
becomes a waypoint and two additional virtual points appear on either side of it.

Note:You may need to repeat this process multiple times if you must define more than one
area.

1.Open the background file in your project.

2.Open the BORDER EDITOR by selecting PREPARATION-EDITORS-LINE EDITOR.

3.Specify that you are creating a new file by selecting FILE-NEW.

4.Click [Cursor]. The BORDER EDITOR minimizes and a BORDER EDITOR button
appears on the toolbar, leaving the map unobstructed.

5.Click on the map at enough locations around the perimeter of your survey area to define its
shape.

6.Restore the BORDER EDITOR to the screen by clicking [Border Editor]. It will display a
spreadsheet of all points you have selected.

BORDER EDITOR

7.Check or clear the Outside option to indicate the area in which you want to keep your data.

8.Edit your points at this time if necessary using the Add icon and right-click menu.

Once a border is defined, you can select any point in the border, which will turn it red, and
modify the file as follows:

•Overtype any coordinates you want to change.

•Click and drag a waypoint or virtual waypoint to a new location.

•[Add]: Inserts a waypoint at the end of the spreadsheet mid-way between the first and last
points.
A right-click on the selected point accesses the following menu:

•Insert: Adds a point mid-way between the selected point and the point before it.

Tip: Alternatively, HYPACK automatically generates a virtual point in the area map at the
midpoint between each point defined in the BORDER EDITOR. Virtual points only become
part of the border file if you click on it. At this time, two new virtual points appear before and
after the new border point.

•Delete: Removes the selected point.

•Delete All: Removes all waypoints in the current file.

•Copy: Copies the selected coordinate pair to the Windows® clipboard.

•Paste: Overwrites the selected coordinate pair with the copied coordinate pair on the
clipboard.

9.Preview your entries by clicking [Preview]. The BORDER EDITOR minimizes and the area
map zooms in on your points. When you are finished previewing, restore the BORDER
EDITOR.

10.Save the file. When you are satisfied, click FILE–SAVE AS. You will be asked to name
the border file which will be saved, by default, with a BRD extension to the project directory
and enabled (drawn to the screen) in your project.

Note:The BRD file stores the waypoints in XY coordinates. Alternatively, you can save the
same file with WGS-84 coordinates (*.B84) for use outside of HYPACK®.

Creating a Border File with the Spreadsheet

Method
In this method, it is useful if you know the coordinates of your shoreline, islands and any
other areas you want to exclude from your survey area that is currently covered by your
planned lines.

Note:You may need to repeat this process multiple times if more than one area must be
defined.

1.Open the BORDER EDITOR by selecting PREPARATION-EDITORS-BORDER

EDITOR.

2.Click on FILE-NEW to clear the spreadsheet.

3.Set the format in which you want to enter your target positions. You can enter position data
in either X,Y or Lat./Lon. format. Toggle between these options using the EDIT-UNITS menu
selection. Lat./Lon. displays follow the default setting found in the General Tab of the
HYPACK Control Panel.

4.Enter the coordinates for your boundary. To enter your waypoints manually:

a.Click the Add Point icon for each point needed to define the area perimeter. Each point
will be automatically filled with the coordinates of the upper left corner of the area map.

b.Edit the coordinates with the waypoint position information for your border file.. Remember
that the points must form one continuous line.

5.Check or clear the Outside option to indicate the area in which you want to keep your data.

The BORDER EDITOR Window

6.Preview your entries (Optional) Click [Preview]. The BORDER EDITOR minimizes and
the area map zooms in on your points.

7.You may edit your points as necessary by reopening the BORDER EDITOR and making
any changes using the right-click menu.

Once a border is defined, you can select any point in the border, which turns it red, and
modifies the file as follows:

•Overtype any coordinates you want to change.

•Click and drag a waypoint or virtual waypoint to a new location.

•[Add]: Inserts a waypoint at the end of the spreadsheet mid-way between the first and last
points.

Tip: Alternatively, HYPACK automatically generates a virtual point in the area map at the
midpoint between each point defined in the BORDER EDITOR. Virtual points only become
part of the border file if you click on it. At this time, two new virtual points appear before and
after the new border point.

A right-click on the selected point accesses the following menu:

•Insert: Adds a point mid-way between the selected point and the point before it.

•Delete: Removes the selected point.

•Delete All: Removes all waypoints in the current file.

•Copy: Copies the selected coordinate pair to the Windows® clipboard.

•Paste: Overwrites the selected coordinate pair with the copied coordinate pair on the
clipboard.

8.Save your file by clicking on FILE-SAVE, giving it a name and saving your file to your
project. Your Border File will be saved with the BRD extension in your project directory and
enabled (drawn to the screen) in your project.

Note:The BRD file stores the waypoints in XY coordinates. Alternatively, you can save the
same file with WGS-84 coordinates (*.B84) for use outside of HYPACK®.

Border Files
Border Files (*.BRD): A user-defined listing of XY positions that defines an area in your
project area. Typically, Border files are created in the BORDER EDITOR and stored in your
project folder. They have several uses, most often to clip data or limit program calculations to
a user-defined area.

Importing Border Points to the BORDER

EDITOR
The Border Import dialog enables you to extract data from ASCII text files and use it to
populate the fields of the BORDER EDITOR. Each line (or record) in the text file must
contain the data for one point in the border and present the data in the same order.

1.Open the BORDER EDITOR from the Editors menu in the HYPACK shell.

2.Select FILE-IMPORT. This will give you the dialog box which you will use to set up your
import of the text document.

Border Import Dialog--importing the first two fields of each record: the XY positions

3.Select and order the fields used to create your new border file.

a.Place a check in the box for each field in your text file you want to use to populate the
border file.

b.Use the cursor to drag the fields into the order that they appear in your file.

•To skip a field in the string, check ‘Ignore’ and drag it to the position of the field to be
skipped in the list. If you need more than one Ignore field, click [Add Ignore Field] to
generate as many as you need.
Ignoring Fields in the Import String--Ignoring the Second Field in an XY Import

4.Choose the correct delimited format. The program supports comma, tab and space
delimiters.

5.Load the text file. Click [Load File], select your file and click [Open]. In the Lines area, you
will see your border points as they appear in your file and you can see the syntax of the
records.

6.Check the syntax of your file against the field list. (Optional) This process verifies that your
configuration settings are compatible with the text file you have loaded.

a.Select a line from the Lines area.

b.Click [Check Syntax]. A message window will appear to tell you how many records of the
total number can be converted using your current settings.

7.Click [Convert] A message window will appear to tell you how many records have been
converted.

8.Click [Exit]. The Import dialog will close and the BORDER EDITOR will be populated
with the data from the text file.

9.Save your border file by selecting FILE-SAVE and naming your file. Your file will be
saved, by default, to your project folder.

Home > Preparation > Border Files > Adjusting Border Size in the BORDER EDITOR

Adjusting Border Size in the BORDER

EDITOR
If you find an existing border file is incorrectly sized, you can quickly expand or contract the
border by a user-defined amount.

If the value is mathematically impossible to implement based on the original border

measurements, the editor displays a message and aborts the adjustment.

1.Open the BORDER EDITOR by selecting PREPARATION-EDITORS-BORDER

EDITOR.

2.Open the border file you want to resize. Select FILE-OPEN, select your file, and click
[Open].

3.Select EDIT-OFFSET BORDER. The Adjust Border Size dialog appears.

Border File Adjust Dialog

4.Enter the distance, in survey units, by which you want to shift the border waypoints and
click [OK]. A positive value expands the border area, and a negative value decreases the
border area.

The adjusted waypoints replace the original waypoints in the BORDER EDITOR spreadsheet,
and a preview of the adjusted border appears in the HYPACK Map display.

Three Border Files—The Original BRD, a BRD Increased by 50 and a BRD Decreased by 50

5.Save your border file.

•To overwrite the original border file, select FILE-SAVE.

•To generate a new border file, select FILE-SAVE AS and name your file. Your file will be
saved, by default, to your project folder.

Border File Display Options

You can display border file areas with a color fill in the HYPACK Map window. The fill
option applies to all border files in the display, but you can configure the transparency of each
file individually.

The border fill feature applies only in 2D Mix and 3D Mix mode.

Border Fill—No Fill (left), Transparent Fill (center), Opaque Fill (right)

If your border file is hidden behind other files, check the following:

•Bring it to the front of the chart draw order:

•Right-click the file name in the Project Items list and select Bring to Front.

•Use the Chart Draw Order dialog (right-click and select Chart Draw Order).

•If you are drawing in 3D mode, check the Z-level for border files in the 3D Options tab of
the Control Panel.

Border Reports
The status bar of the BORDER EDITOR displays the perimeter distance and area of the
current border file. Alternatively, you can generate a border report with the same values from
the HYPACK Project Items List.

1.In the Project Files list, right-click on the border file for which you would like to generate
the statistics.

2.Select ‘Border Report’.

Sample Border Report

The Border Report calculates area based on the survey units set in GEODETIC
PARAMETERS.

Note:For topographic applications, you can calculate area in acres or hectars in the BORDER
EDITOR. Select EDIT-AREA UNITS and your prefered units. The calculations in the status
bar update accordingly.

Exporting Border Files (*.BRD) from TIN

Models
Generating border files representing the perimeter of your TIN Model is a simple task in TIN
MODEL. The border can include all the curves of your survey data—a True Border—or be a
simple convex shape; you can designate the side of the border on which that all-important
In/Out point will reside. (The In/Out point determines which data is saved and which is
discarded when the border is used in other programs.)

1.Select EXPORT-BORDER.

Border Export Dialog

2.Set the location of the In/Out Point (Pivot Point).

3.Choose your border type.

True Border (left), Convex Envelope (right)

4.Click [Output File] and name your border file.

5.Click [Export]. The border file will be saved, by default, to your project directory.

Exporting Zone Borders from ADVANCED

CHANNEL DESIGN
If you have defined zones, you may also have use for border files that outline each zone area.

Once you have defined your zones, just click [Save BRD] in the Zones tab. The program will
automatically generate one border file (*.BRD) for each zone and save them to the project
directory named ZoneName.BRD

Channel Zones Saved to BRD

Vertical Walls in One Zone

If you have a vertical wall in your channel, you can not select it to assign it to a zone.

Channel Faces Joined by a Vertical Wall

If the faces adjacent to the wall are in the same zone, you have two choices:

•[Save BRD] creates separate borders for each level naming the borders ZoneName.BRD and
ZoneName1.BRD.

•[Save BRD-Flat] ignores the changing Z-level (at the wall) and creates one border around the
full horizontal area naming the border ZoneName.BRD.

Border File Results—[Save BRD] (left) and [Save BRD-flat] (right)

More Information
•Creating Channel Zones in ADVANCED CHANNEL DESIGN

Home > Preparation > Planned Survey Lines and Channel Designs > Creating Channel Zones
in ADVANCED CHANNEL DESIGN

Creating Channel Zones in ADVANCED

CHANNEL DESIGN
If you are using ADVANCED CHANNEL DESIGN to build a channel file, your project area
is probably irregular to some degree. Meaningful volumes calculations in such a channel add
an extra challenge.

A TIN-to-channel comparison in the TIN MODEL program typically reports a volume for
each face of your channel. In a complex channel, it might be more helpful for you to define
the areas in your channel for which volumes will be calculated. That is exactly what we do
with channel zones. Before you can calculate the TIN-to-CHN volume with zones, you will
define your channel template (*.CHN) and your desired zones in ADVANCED CHANNEL
DESIGN.

The TIN MODEL and CROSS SECTIONS AND VOLUMES programs can both calculate
volumes of user-defined channel zones. CROSS SECTIONS AND VOLUMES calculates the
volume in each zone for each section.

Once you have defined your project area, you can define your channel zones in ADVANCED
CHANNEL DESIGN:

1.Open the Zones tab. The map view will display your channel with a cross-hatched pattern.

2.Name each reporting zone.

a.Click [Add]. The Zone Attributes dialog will appear.

Adding your Zones

b.Enter the zone name.

c.Choose the zone color by clicking in the color box and selecting from the colors dialog.
(The color is only to clearly distinguish between zones in the map view.)

d.Enter the Volume Calculation options:

•Apply for All Zones applies the Overdepth and Overdepth Method settings to all zones in the
channel. Otherwise, you can set those options for each zone.

•Overdepth: Allowable distance to dredge past the design grade.

•Overdepth Method: Contour or Non-contour. Select None if your overdepth is zero.

e.Click [OK].

f.Repeat the process for each zone.

3.Assign each face in the channel file to a zone. ADVANCED CHANNEL DESIGN paints
the selected faces with the zone color.

Note:Vertical walls can not be assigned to zones.

Assigning Zones

a.Select the target zone by clicking in the list on the left.

b.In the map view, select each face that belongs to that zone.

•Use the Arrow cursor to select each face that belongs to the selected zone.
ADVANCED CHANNEL DESIGN paints the faces with the zone color as you click on
each one.

•To create a polyline selection, use the Select tool to mark polyline points through the
zone. Right-click the last point. ADVANCED CHANNEL DESIGN assigns every face
intersected by the polyline to the selected zone.

•To use the polygon function, use the Select tool to define the zone area, enclosing its
faces. Right-click close to your beginning point. Every face intersected with, and located
within, the polygon is then assigned to the selected zone.

c.Repeat the process for each zone.

Important: Be sure every face has been assigned to a zone.

4.Save the channel. In the ADVANCED CHANNEL DESIGN shell, click the File Save
icon and name your file. It will be saved, by default, to your project folder.

TIN-to-Level Calculations
TIN-to-Level (reservoir volumes) calculations compute the volume of material above one or
more user-specified levels and the volume of material required to bring any low areas up to
the same levels. It also calculates the area of the model that lies above and below the specified
levels.

1.Create the surface model.

2.Select CALCULATE-VOLUME and your desired level in the Volume Calculations Control
dialog. When you click [OK], the volume calculation will begin.

Tip: To significantly speed up your volume calculations, turn the Show Picture option off.

•The Volume Above shows the number of cubic meters (or cubic yards) which must be
removed to get the channel to the specified level.

•The Volume Below is the amount of material that would have to be added to bring the
surface up to the design surface or level.

•The Area Above and Area Below are the surface areas above and below the specified level.

TIN-to-Level Settings enable you to set a depth or range of depths to be used in calculations.
TIN-to-Level calculations can be limited to user-defined areas by adding one or more borders
in the Borders tab.

Sample TIN-to-Level Settings

•Volumes for Multiple Levels

•Volume at One Level

Volumes for Multiple Levels

To calculate volumes to a range of levels, enter a range of levels and the level increment. For
example, you can calculate the volumes between your data set and 5, 10, 15 and 20 foot (or
meter) levels by entering From = 5, To = 20, Step = 5.

Alternatively, you can check Use Color Table for volumes calculations at each level defined
in your project colors file.

Include options: Choose which calculations you want to include at each level.

Sample TIN-to-Level Volumes Report—From 40 to 55 with Step=2.

Return to Top

Volume at One Level

To calculate volumes at only one level, enter the same level in both the From and To fields
and set Step=1.
TIN-to-Level Calculations
TIN-to-Level (reservoir volumes) calculations compute the volume of material above one or
more user-specified levels and the volume of material required to bring any low areas up to
the same levels. It also calculates the area of the model that lies above and below the specified
levels.

1.Create the surface model.

2.Select CALCULATE-VOLUME and your desired level in the Volume Calculations Control
dialog. When you click [OK], the volume calculation will begin.

Tip: To significantly speed up your volume calculations, turn the Show Picture option off.

•The Volume Above shows the number of cubic meters (or cubic yards) which must be
removed to get the channel to the specified level.

•The Volume Below is the amount of material that would have to be added to bring the
surface up to the design surface or level.

•The Area Above and Area Below are the surface areas above and below the specified level.

TIN-to-Level Settings enable you to set a depth or range of depths to be used in calculations.
TIN-to-Level calculations can be limited to user-defined areas by adding one or more borders
in the Borders tab.

Sample TIN-to-Level Settings

Restricting Volumes Calculations with

Border Files in TIN MODEL
TIN-to-Channel, Dual TIN-to-Channel, TIN-to-Level and TIN-to-TIN calculations can be
limited to user-defined areas by adding one or more borders in the Borders tab.
Managing Border Files in TIN MODEL

To Add a Border, click [Add Border]. A File Open dialog will appear to select the border
defining the area where you want to calculate volumes. All Border files affecting the volume
calculations will appear in the list in the dialog.

To Remove a Border, select a border file in the list and click [Remove Border].

Sample TIN-to-Level Report Limited by a Border Files

Dual TIN vs Channel Volume Totals - Itemized by Border File

Volume unit: Cubic Yard

TIN File: C:\Test Projects\Sample_Volumes\Edit\b106pd4pat.log

Second TIN File: C:\Test Projects\Sample_Volumes\Edit\b150ad4pat.log

CHN File: C:\Test Projects\Sample_Volumes\JAX.chn

LNW File: C:\Test Projects\Sample_Volumes\JAX.LNW

BRD Files:

C:\Test Projects\Sample_Volumes\CrossCHN.brd

C:\Test Projects\Sample_Volumes\LeftEndInside.brd

Global Overdepth: 1.0

Design Overdepth Design Overdepth

Cut NonCont. Fill Fill

Border Volume Volume Volume Volume

----------------------------------------------------------------

CrossCHN 301.5 1093.0 23.9 997.9

LeftEndInside 567.3 1878.2 95.8 4295.6

----------------------------------------------------------------

Total 868.8 2971.2 119.7 5293.5