Trimble Business Center

Creating and Editing Side Slopes

About this tutorial
In this tutorial, we will show you the power of Trimble Business Center (TBC) by guiding you
through a simple exercise for creating and editing side slopes around piles and a building
footprint. You will use the Create Side Slope and Edit Corridor Template commands to:
• Model the building foundation surface by offsetting pile elevations downward to get an
overexcavation for the bottom of the footings, and then offsetting them again to get a
layback and slope to the finished pad elevation.
• Edit the cross-sectional template that was applied along the pile and footprint’s selected
'master' lines to model the side slope geometry.
The linework created by this command can then be tied to one or more surfaces to model
scenarios such as levees, curb-and-gutters, above-ground pipe coverage, and other structures
where side slopes are needed.

Note: In this project and your own, you will want to reform any complicated master lines (shapes
from which the side slopes are created) that include interior angles (such as the building
footprint). Doing this helps avoid overlapping side slopes and make the design surface less
complex for excavator operators. Doing this may result in more material being removed, but
work will be faster for the machine operator.
Note: When simplifying the master lines used for side slopes, also make sure to reflect any
elevation changes in those ‘source’ lines.
Note: If you need more information when you are working in TBC, press F1 to display the help.

Prerequisites:
To use the side slope commands. you must have one of these TBC licenses:
• Survey Advanced
• Site Modeling
• Site Construction
• Infrastructure Construction
On the TBC ribbon, select Support > License Manager to see if you are licensed for this feature. If you
are not licensed, contact your dealer for help.

Tip:
Unless you have two, side-by-side monitors, you may find it easier to print this tutorial so that
you can maximize the program on your screen. Working from a printed copy also prevents focus
issues caused by switching back and forth between the tutorial PDF and the program.

Time:
This tutorial should take you 1 - 2 hours to complete.

Creating and Editing Side Slopes 2

Credits:
Thank you to Patrick L'heureux from Severino Trucking for the data set used in this tutorial.

Creating and Editing Side Slopes 3

Step 1. Create Side Slopes for Building Piles
In this step, you will open and view the project data and add side slopes around several piles that will be
added to support a new building.

Note: The downloaded CreatingandEditingSideSlopes folder contains this PDF file, the
CreatingandEditingSideSlopes.vce project file, and an Adjusted outlines for walls and piers.vcl file.

1. In TBC, select File > Open.

2. In the Open File dialog, browse to ..\CreatingandEditingSideSlopes\CreatingandEditingSideSlopes.vce
and click Open.
As the starting point, this project’s data set shows a Plan View of a building footprint with pile
locations. The light green lines are the pier and footprint lines. The red lines are the first side slope
that was added so you can use the same template it uses without having to create it ‘from scratch’.
The dark green rectangle around the site is for a hypothetical existing ground surface.
The pre-defined side slope template drops down from each of the pier ‘master lines’ by 1.0’ and then
offsets them by 1.0’ with a 1.5:1 slope back to the main pad elevation.

3. If desired, select File > Save As and save your project with a new name.

Creating and Editing Side Slopes 4

4. Select Home > 3D View and rotate the model (press Control + right-click and drag).

Tip: You can press Control + Shift and roll the mouse wheel to increase the vertical exaggeration.
Notice that the building footprint drops in elevation along the sides.

5. Switch back to the Plan View and select Data Prep > Create Side Slope (in the Lines group) on
the ribbon.

6. From the Master line box, zoom in and pick one of the green squares in the Plan View.

7. Skip the Optional reference line box.

8. In the Begin station box, accept 0+00.00 as the station from which to start the offset lines (they will
continue to the end of the master line). This setting applies more when creating a side slope along an
alignment.

9. For Options, select Copy definition - No edit; this enables you to select the existing side slope
template used in your project without opening the Corridor Template Editor. Side slope templates
are the same as cross-sectional templates used to create a corridor surface.

10. Leave the Side slope layer list and Line layer list set to DESIGN – Side slopes as they are.

11. Because this is a simple side slope model, you can also leave the Sampling distance set to 1000.0 for
the interval between the offset lines. Only one interval line will show on the side slope.
When you set the sampling distance to a very small value for complex shapes, if two section samples
are closer than 0.02 feet, one is discarded as redundant.

12. In the Copy from template list, select Pier 1 - 0+00.00, Pier Footing which is the pre-defined
template used for the side slope in red.

Creating and Editing Side Slopes 5

 Step 1. Create Side Slopes for Building Piles

13. Click Insert to create the side slope object and place the template at the specified starting position
(afterward indicated by a small yellow diamond). The new side slope appears around the pile.

14. Click back in the Master line box, pick another pile outline, and press Enter to create the next side
slope.

15. Continue to do this for each of the 8 remaining square pile outlines (skip the complex shape).

Creating and Editing Side Slopes 6

 Step 1. Create Side Slopes for Building Piles

16. Notice that the shape of the footprint and one of the compound piers is complex. This can
cause problems with overlapping side slopes, so you should simplify it.

17. In the tutorial folder, drag-and-drop the Adjusted outlines for walls and piers.vcl file into the
Plan View to import it. This simplifies the shape of the building outline and one of the interior
footings so the excavator will not have to ‘cut out’ complex shapes unnecessarily.

18. In the Create Side Slope command, click in the Master line box again and pick the simplified
compound pier shape (Wall - Adjusted Outline),

Creating and Editing Side Slopes 7

 Step 1. Create Side Slopes for Building Piles

pick the template again (in Copy from template), and press Enter to create the side slope.

19. Switch back to the 3D View and orbit the data to see the elevations. You will create a side slope for
the building footprint in a minute.

20. Switch back to the Plan View. If you look carefully at the end of the line indicating a side slope
template’s starting point, you will see a small, yellow diamond on each pier.

Creating and Editing Side Slopes 8

 Step 2. Edit the Side Slope Template

21. Select one of these diamonds, sub-select Template, and press F11 to open the Properties pane.

22. Review the template properties. Notice that you can also set the default sampling distance in
Project Settings > Computations > Corridor > Maximum sampling distance.

Step 2. Edit the Side Slope Template

1. At the top of the Properties pane, click the Edit Corridor Template icon. The Corridor Template
Editor and Edit Corridor Template command open.

2. Close the Properties pane to make more room for the command and editor.

Creating and Editing Side Slopes 9

 Step 2. Edit the Side Slope Template

Note: If you are unfamiliar with the Corridor Template Editor, press F1 and read the related help
topics.

3. Review the instructions used to build the side slope:

A. Select the first instruction (1st row in the table). The first node was created as an
Offset/Elevation instruction from the Previous node (which is the Master line you picked).

B. Generally, you should always use Previous node to make reusing the template easier. If
you specified a specific line or node to offset from, you could not reliably reuse the
template in other scenarios.

C. The first instruction is not assigned to a Material layer (box is unchecked) because you do
not want a vertical line drawn from the master line to the node in the first instruction
node. You can just add the side slopes to the surface, rather than the reference lines.
You can have as many material layers as you want, and you can create instructions that will
be drawn on different material layers, but only instructions that are assigned to the Finish

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 Step 3. Create the Building Footprint Side Slope

layer are drawn in the graphic views.

D. Overall, notice how the side slope is defined by:

1. Start from the bottom of the pier (master line), drop 1.0’ in elevation
2. Then offset outward by 1.0’
3. Then go back to the main pad elevation with a slope of 1.50:1

4. And tie to the Finish material layer.

Step 3. Create the Building Footprint Side Slope

1. Close the Edit Corridor Template command for now and return to the Plan View.

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 Step 4. Create Surfaces Using the Side Slopes

2. Reopen the Create Side Slope command.

3. Pick the simplified building footprint as the Master line.

4. In the Options list, select Copy definition; this time you do want to edit the pre-defined template
to tie it to Existing Ground rather than Finished Design.

5. In the Copy from template list, select any template, and click Insert. The side slope appears around
the building and the template editor opens again.

6. Select the last instruction in the list (1 below) and change the Target surface to Original Ground
(2).

7. Click Save (you may have to scroll down to see it) and then close the command.

Step 4. Create Surfaces Using the Side Slopes

Now you can add the side slopes to the appropriate surfaces.

1. On the ribbon, select Home > View Filter Manager.

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 Step 4. Create Surfaces Using the Side Slopes

2. In the Surfaces group, right click 01 – Original Ground and select Properties.

3. Make sure that Surface Classification is set to Original (the default is Unclassified).

4. Do the same for the 02 – Building Foundation surface to make sure its classification is set to
Design.

5. In the View Filter Manager, check the box next to 02 – Building Foundation to make that surface
visible.

6. On the ribbon, select Surfaces > Surface Members so you can add objects to the foundation
surface.

7. In the Surface list, select 02 – Building Foundation.

8. Click Options and choose Advanced Select.

9. Under Apply This Selection To, choose All data and replace the current selection.

10. In the Data type list, select Side slope, and click OK.

11. Click Add and close the command.

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 Step 4. Create Surfaces Using the Side Slopes

12. Review the side slopes in your surface in the 3D View. It looks great!

Now add this new surface to the 01 – Existing Ground surface.

13. Select Surface > Merge Surfaces.

14. Add 04 - Merged as the name of a new merged surface.

15. Select 01 - Original Ground for Surface 1.

16. Select 02 - Building Foundation for Surface 2.

17. For Type of merge, select Finish replaces existing. This is where the surface classifications you set
are used.

18. Click OK.

19. In the View Filter Manager, uncheck boxes for all surface except for Merged.

20. Review your results in the 3D View. You can send this surface or just the 02 - Building Foundation
surface to the excavators on site.

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 Step 4. Create Surfaces Using the Side Slopes

This completes the tutorial.

Creating and Editing Side Slopes 15

 Step 4. Create Surfaces Using the Side Slopes

-------------------------------------------Ignore below here---------------------------------------------------

Alan’s steps:
21. Review anomalies in the corners.

22. Modify the sample distance to 50 in the template’s properties to fix the issues. The model is
simpler, and the file is smaller for the machine.

23. You could also draw additional breaklines to fix this.

24. Enter one or more template instructions to define the cross-sectional shape of the side slope,
starting with selecting the master line in the ... from list, e.g., Offset/Slope from. Use the Side
Slope instruction type to tie your template lines to one or more target surfaces. For more info,
press F1 to see any Create ... Instructions help topic.

25. As soon as the side slope template is defined, the side slope lines are created in the model. Side
slope templates do not appear in the Project Explorer.

26. If needed, select the lines and use them to define a surface (side slope lines do not need to be
added to a surface if they are already tied to the surface using a side slope template).

27. You can edit the side slope object and change the master line and optionally add a reference line.
The reference line will be displayed in the template editor.

28. If you edit the master line, the dependent lines created from it are updated accordingly. If
you delete the master line, the side slope template and object are deleted (externally saved
templates remain).

29. Create a surface called Footings from your selection

30. Turn off Isolate layer and review the surface in the 3D View. This is the model the excavator would
work with.

31. Notice that:

• They have nice angular corners
• All laid back
• No cut offs on the corners

32. Zoom out to see the dark green rectangle that represents the finished ground elevation that
you will tie the building footprint sides slopes to. If you had a true original ground surface,
you would use that.

33. Pick the building footprint line and specify the Original ground surface as the surface to tie to.

34. Switch to the 3D View and orbit to see how the side slope laybacks are formed.

35. Add these lines into the Finished Design surface model.

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 Step 4. Create Surfaces Using the Side Slopes

36. Return to the Plan View and close the Create Side Slope command.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Side slopes from a corridor

1. Start with a corridor alignment with reference lines plus an original ground surface.
2. Make sure the corridor has the OG as a reference surface and uses the reference lines.

3. Use the Connect Instruction type to create a surface between the nodes of the reference line.
4. Run the Station Offset Elevation Report.

Creating and Editing Side Slopes 17