The Cross Section Viewer includes four types of reference positions to assist with the various tools in the software. The first two are described here, while the latter two are described in other sections:
- Reference Stages
- Reference Stations
- Construction Reference Planes (CRP)
- Longitudinal Profiles
Both Reference stages and stations refer to fixed distances at a specific, monumented cross section. Stages refer to elevations and can be thought of as horizontal planes at a cross section location. Stations can be thought of as vertical lines.
Each stage and station belongs to a type. This container or parent type enables the user to group these reference distances into organizational concepts. For example, stages can refer to seasonal flows (e.g. “Mean August Flow”) and stations into width constraints (e.g. “navigational channel”). Within each of these types, the database can store a stage or station for each cross section location. Stages can only possess one entry per cross section, while stations can possess multiple entries. Typically, there are two entries for each cross section and the one with the lowest station value is considered the left bank item, while the one with the highest value is the right bank.
Reference Stage Types
To view Reference Stage Types, select Data from the main menu and then Reference Stage Types. You can add, edit and delete types using either by righting the desired item or using the Edit menu. See the section on importing and exporting data for instructions on how to bring in new elevations for a specific reference stage.
Reference Station Types
To view Reference Station Types, select Data from the main menu and then Reference Station Types. You can add, edit and delete types using either by righting the desired item or using the Edit menu. See the section on importing and exporting data for instructions on how to bring in new positions for a specific reference station type.
Additional instructions are provided for manually managing reference station data.