Ezigrade has a PDF report where you can specify to plot out the pipe profiles. However at present they are fairly rudimentary and lacking a lot of detail. In this FAQ I will describe how you can create a more detailed view and if necessary export it to a CAD package for further embelishment.

 

Before continuing make sure your version of Ezigrade is after Jan22, 2025. We needed some tweaks which we have incorporated into the software for this to work.

 

You need to have created your pipe design in Ezigrade including the design of the pipe depths. Open your job in Ezigrade and you may see something like this:

 

 

Now click on Pipes -> Save Strings (Convert)

 

This creates a series of strings joining points. Each point has a surface height and a design height of the pipe. Now go to CDS which is included in the purchase price. Click on File -> CDS from Ezigrade.

 

We now have the job open in CDS. We are going to use the road works routines to plot the profile. CDS doesn't care whether the profile is the center of a road or a pipe. In CDS we have the following:

 

 

You can see the pipes. However CDS doesn't know what a pipe is and these are in as strings. To display a profile of one of these pipes/strings then do the following. Under the  Road -> Natural Profile -> Profile Parameters. Make sure the "use strings" is ticked and select the string to display. In this case it is in the "main" folder. So open up this view and tick the pipe_0 string.

 

 

 

Now look at the icons along the bottom row and click on the profile view. We have the reference line displayed. Right click and select the "Reference Line (design heights) to Design". We now have this:

 

 

You can right click in here and clik on "plot parameters" and change colors etc. Also click on Road -> Display Plotting -> Profile Parameters. You can set the number of box's, horizontal and vertical scale etc.

 

 

and if you do a File -> Print Preview and you can print to a printer.

 

 

You can also export the profile to your CAD editor. Click on Export -> DWG and you get this. If you want extra embellishments you can do this in your CAD editor.