I second this request. As a holdover from the pre-modeling days when dinosaurs walked the earth, we are expected to deliver cross sections with details that are difficult or impossible to model, as well as text annotating cross drains, etc. It is not okay that we are expected to let those annotations go up in smoke every time we need to re-render cross sections.
Lacking knowledge of how cross section updates ever worked in the past (not only because I'm not the developer but also because I've never used InRoads), I have this thought: During an update, maintain the disposition of each cross section cell (X and Y and elevation and offsets of the XS cell) and refresh all the features previously rendered automatically. And it should re-render the cross sections according to the XS cells that already exist. Permit the user the option of adding to those XS cells according to their desires, and these additional XS cells should be able to be relocated upon creation.
Here's why I make these suggestions:
Let's say we have cross sections from a long time back, but now we're replotting cross sections, this time from models. We want to deliver the same cross sections but don't necessarily want to input all the information from our existing cross sections. We also want to keep as much of our cross sections that were already included, stuff like subsurface structures, pipes, box culverts, etc.
Or maybe we only want to transfer select information from another existing XS file. However, if we're not careful today (or if we were careless before, or if we had a method to peculiar madness in the past), the XS cells may not match up from today's rendering compared with the rendering of past XS cells. That means potentially every transfer we're making today requires us to relocate the attachment's XY, making much more work.
Further, as we may want more cross sections today that we hadn't processed before, we most certainly don't want them getting in the way of our previously established cross sections, so the new cross sections should be located so that they're out of the way of any previous ones.
Lacking knowledge of how cross section updates ever worked in the past (not only because I'm not the developer but also because I've never used InRoads), I have this thought: During an update, maintain the disposition of each cross section cell (X and Y and elevation and offsets of the XS cell) and refresh all the features previously rendered automatically. And it should re-render the cross sections according to the XS cells that already exist. Permit the user the option of adding to those XS cells according to their desires, and these additional XS cells should be able to be relocated upon creation.
Here's why I make these suggestions:
Let's say we have cross sections from a long time back, but now we're replotting cross sections, this time from models. We want to deliver the same cross sections but don't necessarily want to input all the information from our existing cross sections. We also want to keep as much of our cross sections that were already included, stuff like subsurface structures, pipes, box culverts, etc.
Or maybe we only want to transfer select information from another existing XS file. However, if we're not careful today (or if we were careless before, or if we had a method to peculiar madness in the past), the XS cells may not match up from today's rendering compared with the rendering of past XS cells. That means potentially every transfer we're making today requires us to relocate the attachment's XY, making much more work.
Further, as we may want more cross sections today that we hadn't processed before, we most certainly don't want them getting in the way of our previously established cross sections, so the new cross sections should be located so that they're out of the way of any previous ones.