How to Draw Survey Lines in CAD

Draw a line in CAD using the application's standard line or polyline command. Enter the endpoints using the mouse or plot the points on the Cartesian grid using the keyboard. For example, most programs define the first and last points of a line as "@x,y,z," where "@" defines the point as relative to the origin, "x" is the horizontal distance from the origin, "y" is the vertical distance from the origin and "z" is the height above the origin. The line will be drawn in the CAD application's default line type and weight, which is usually a continuous line with moderate weight. Note the purpose of the line drawn.

Define the purpose of the line and change the line type and weight to match the purpose. The line type can be changed by typing "linetype" into the CAD command line, and the line weight can be changed by typing "lineweight" into the CAD command line. The five different types of survey lines are the boundary line, the feature or profile line, the existing contour line, the proposed contour line and the detail line.

Change the survey line type and weight using the commands in Step 2. Boundary lines have heavy line weight and are a dash-dot-dot-dashed line, so change the weight to "0.25 mm" to "0.50 mm" and choose the appropriate line from the CAD library. Feature lines have a moderate line weight and are continuous lines, so change the weight to "0.15 mm" to "0.20 mm" and do not change the line type. Existing contour lines have a moderate line weight and are dashed lines, so change the weight to "0.18 mm" to "0.20 mm" and choose the appropriate dashed line from the CAD library. Proposed contour lines have a heavy line weight and are continuous lines, so change the line weight to "0.25 mm" to "0.35 mm" and do not change the line type. Finally, the detail line is a light line weight and are continuous lines, so change the line weight to "0.05 mm" to "0.15 mm" and do not change the line type.

Print a test plot of your drawing and adjust the line weights and types according to need.