[Plugin] ElevationProfile - Vertical Analysis of curvilinear profiles

ElevationProfile visualizes and performs a vertical analysis of profiles made of curves, in particular for elevation and slope (gradient).

Profiles can be imported in KML format and, if geolocated, can be tracked with geo-coordinates.

Here is a video giving an overview of the features:

ElevationProfile is published at Sketchucation.

9 Likes

This could be useful for pipeline profile drawings. I will give it a try.

Thanks Fredo. This is awesome!

Excelent plugin @Fredo6 . As a future feature, it would be a good improvement to be able to reverse the direction of the slope that it detects on each line. Some detect them backwards.

Very nice!

Would it be possible to have the ability to edit or renumber the Section names?
Being able to somehow export the graph chart to Layout or Excel would be a nice addition.
Would it be possible to have the option to display the chart x-axis in 0+000m format (typical of pipeline and roadway profiles)?

1 Like

Just click on the arrow to reverse the curve.

2 Likes

This is certainly possible. I guess pipelines are in km.

why not. Probably possible.

You can print the graph and table and thus can generate a PDF.
Exporting to Layout: in which form?
Exporting to Excel: I don’t think this is possible for the graph image, but the coordinates can be exported to CSV (along with the parameters for each point). Then you reconstruct the graph in Excel.

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A CSV export option for the graph would work.

If the y-axis could be toggled to “Altitude” that would be a great addition as well.

Very cool plugin. What about allowing us to edit the curves. That would be excellent for the kind of work I’m doing on roads, sidewalks, squares and park/garden paths.

I often need to edit curves to a specific percentage and it’s amazing how the workflow for doing that in Sketchup is convuluted. I ended up creating a plugin for that with chatgpt, but it’s ridiculous compared to the quality that your plugins achieve.

Creating road axis lines with tangent arcs where road slopes change as been an impossible task so far. I can only deal with approximations.

Thanks @Fredo6 I tried with right click on th edge. I didn’t think about clicking on the arrow.

This would be another plugin, dedicated to drawing and modifying curves on a terrain. I think there are already a few plugins doing that.

ElevationProfile is just an analysis tool.

2 Likes

I understand. However I don’t know of any plugin that does that. I do it by hand with a lot of calculations. It would be awesome to have the ability though it might be niche. I believe this is missing functionality that I’ve only seen in Civil 3D from Autodesk, though it probably exists in similar software. If anyone reading this knows of any plugin with this functionality, I would love to know about it.

Oh man, I’m definitely going to test this one out!!!

Quadri has some great surfacing tools and built-in SketchUp connectors, though….
:wink:

https://videos.trimble.com/heavyindustry/watch/e6rHucd2QfuJQXfz9TvGRf?

1 Like

Is it included in a Studio subscription?

For the functionality of drawing and editing curves over a terrain, I think that Nui Instant Road does it.

For Civil 3D, I am surprised they do not have a smoothing function. With TopoShaper you can set points with altitude (as Construction Points) and get a smooth terrain.

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Its just a matter of need. Civil 3D users don’t want to manipulate the data for aesthetics, it’s better to have a TIN surface from measured points adhering to whatever design standards are being referenced than to have something that is better for presentations.

BUT, I’ll say this: I’d LOVE to have a break line tool for meshes in SketchUp. Something that goes beyond the drape tool, that actually influences the mesh like break line assignment in Civil 3D.

ElevationProfile v1.1c has been released on Sketchucation:

  • Full axis configuration (via dedicated dialog)
  • small adjustments
  • Bug fixing

You can configure each of the 4 axes for:

  • show / hide axes (top, bottom, left, right)
  • choice of units per axis
  • custom title for each axis
  • type for axis (horzontal: distance / abcisse, vertical: altitude / elevation.

3 Likes

Thank you for this Fredo. This is a powerful extension with a lot of potential. My SketcUp version is Pro 2024. I have installed the extension and it worked well the first time, including the export in CSV format. Every other attempt to export in CSV format was without success - it does not give an error, just file is not recorded at the specified location and anywhere else, I searched the whole hard drive. What could be the reason? I deleted and reinstalled the extension, closed SketchUp, restarted the computer - no luck. Otherwise I have a few other suggestions. One is the scale. 1:1 is a very useful, however the use of an exact scale different from 1:1 is very common. Very often the vertical dimensions have much smaller range and it is convenient to use a larger scale for them - 2, 4, 5 times maybe. If I can successfully export in CSV format, I would show a few more suggestions. On a slightly different note - It would be great if one day we can create a full elevation of the model - along a curved line - something like an unwrapped curved cross section. Hope you can achieve that - it would be very powerful in many applications, civil engineering in particular, where we have curved walls in plan and presenting a developed elevation is a must. Thank you for your great work.

Thanks for signaling the problem.

I published a new version, as ElevationProfile v1.2a.

Can you indicate whether it solve the issue.