Share a template¶

What you get: a template saved in your project, written to a template file (.cst) you can send to a colleague, and brought into another project, ready to lay along a design route.

You need: CivilSurvey Expert installed and activated. The Lined Irrigation Canal sample, and one more project to bring the template into (the Flood Protection Bund sample will do). About 10 minutes.

Templates are kept in the project, not on the computer. To use one in another project, you write it to a .cst file and import that file there.

1. Save a template in the project¶

1. On the Start page, under Open a sample project, click Lined Irrigation Canal. (Once you have projects of your own, it is under the Sample projects button.)
2. At the foot of the Input screen, click the Canal Prism tab, then click Home › View › Template Designer (or press Ctrl+D).
3. Click Template › Type › Irrigation canals. In Template name, type a name of your own, up to 50 characters.
4. Click Template › Save to Project.

The program says Saved “…” to the project (… section points). It is listed under Templates on Design routes. Every design route can now use it: it is in the Templates list of the Design panel and in the Template column of the design sheets.

If the project already has a template of that name, the program asks before it replaces it, and says how many design rows use it. Their sections follow the new template when you Reprocess or Rebuild.

2. Open a template from the project¶

1. Click Template › Open from Project. It lists the project's templates by name, each with its kind: the designer's type (Irrigation canals, Roads and pavements…) or Point list. Here you see the sample's three point lists and your own template.
2. Click one to open it.

A template from the designer opens as it was saved, with its type in front. A point list opens as a Custom template with its points as drawn: the program says Opened “…”, a point list, as a Custom template with its points as drawn.

If the designer's template of that type has changes not saved, the program asks first whether to save them or go on without them.

Delete a template from the project¶

1. Click Template › Open from Project, then Delete from Project… at the foot of the list.
2. Click the template to delete.
3. The program asks Delete the template “…” from the project? If design routes use it, it lists them with their number of rows. Click Yes.

The design rows that used it keep its name. Place another template on them before you Reprocess. If the template is open in the designer, it stays there, now not saved.

3. Export it to a file¶

1. Open the template you want to send (or keep the one in front).
2. Click Template › Export .cst.
3. Choose a folder. The file is offered under the template's name, with .cst after it. Click Save.

The program says Exported “…” to ….cst.

Export .cst writes the template in front as it is now, saved in the project or not. A template that can't be saved (one that turns back on itself, or has no name) can't be exported either.

What a .cst file holds¶

• The template's outline as a point list: each point's offset from the centre and its level above the centre. Every version of CivilSurvey Expert reads it.
• The whole designer template: its name, its type, every value in the Template panel, its test chainages and its vertical scale. It opens in the designer as you left it.

A colleague on an older version of the program, from before the Template Designer, gets the point list only.

Tip: a point list opened in the designer and exported becomes a Custom template. In the other project it meets the ground by its own Fill slope and Cut slope, not by the side slopes in Section Settings.

4. Import it into another project¶

1. Open the other project, for example the Flood Protection Bund sample, and press Ctrl+D.
2. Click Template › Import .cst and choose the file.

The program says Template imported: “…” is in the project's list of templates. It then opens the template in the designer. If the designer has changes not saved for that type, it asks first; if you don't open it, it says Imported “…” into the project. It is not opened in the designer.

You can also import from the Input screen: in the Design panel, under Templates, click Import…; or in Template and Position, click Import… under 1 Template. The template goes into the project and into the list, without opening the designer.

The name of an imported template¶

• A designer template keeps its own name. If the project already has a template of that name, the program asks you to type another one. When the template in the project is also from the designer, the name is offered as it is: keep it to replace that template. When it is a point list, the name is offered with (imported) after it.
• A point-list file, as older versions of the program wrote, takes the file's name, .cst included, the way the samples' templates are named (Canal Prism.cst). If the project already has that name, it is not imported: rename the file, or choose another.

5. Start a new template¶

Click Template › New Template. Every type goes back to the preset it starts from. If a template has changes not saved, the program asks first.

Then pick a type on the ribbon, or draw a Custom section (see Design a template).

Using a template from a colleague¶

1. Ask for the .cst file, by e-mail or on a pen drive.
2. In your project, click Template › Import .cst (or Import… in the Design panel).
3. Open it in the designer and check it on your ground: under the drawing, click Test chainages, then From the project… (see Design a template).
4. Save any change with Save to Project, then place it along your design route (see Lay a template along the route).

What next¶

• Lay it along the route: see Lay a template along the route.
• Change a template's values: see Design a template.
• Road and rail layers: see Add layers.
• Projects and their files: see Projects and files.

If something looks wrong¶