5.2. AEC Survey Points

An AEC Survey Point is a full civil survey marker storing a complete set of survey attributes alongside its drawing position.

Place with Civil › Points › Civil Point or the ribbon button, then fill in the properties in the Object Inspector.

5.2.1. Properties

Property	Description
PointNumber	Numeric survey ID. Used as the primary key in the database and displayed as the point label.
PointName	Descriptive name.
Northing / Easting	World coordinates. Moving the marker on the canvas automatically updates Northing and Easting, and vice versa.
Elevation	Z value stored with the point.
RawDescription	Survey field code (e.g. EP, BM, CL).
FullDescription	Expanded description used in reports and exports.
PointGroup	Assigns the point to a named group.
LockPoint	Prevents the point from being moved accidentally.
PointStyleName	Selects a named point style from the library.

5.2.2. Point Style Library

Named point styles control the marker shape and label appearance. Nine built-in presets are always available:

Style	Default marker	Label
Standard	Dot	Name and elevation
Benchmark	Circle with cross, yellow	Name, elevation and description
Control Point	Triangle with dot, red	Name, elevation and number
GPS Rover	Square with cross, green	Name, elevation, northing and easting
Iron Rod	Cross, cyan	Name and elevation
Detailed Points	Dot, cyan	Elevation with El: prefix
Spot Elevation Cross	Small cross	From the surface’s spot elevation label style
Spot Elevation Dot	Small dot	Elevation value only
Empty	Hidden	Hidden

Edit or add styles via Format › Point Style… (Ctrl+Shift+D).

5.2.3. Importing Survey Points from CSV

Open the Point Manager (Civil › Points › Point Manager…) and click the Import button on its toolbar to open the CSV import dialog.

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  File:  [path/to/file.csv          ]  [...]            │
│  Format:  [Auto-detect (by column count)           ▼]  │
│           ☐ Skip first line (header row)               │
│  Point group:  [optional group name       ]            │
│  Preview (first 5 lines):                              │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │ 1,538345.123,4872341.456,412.5,BM-001            │  │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
│  Imported 25 points successfully.    [Import] [Cancel] │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Supported formats:

Format	Column order
Auto-detect (by column count)	Detects automatically from the number of columns.
P, N, E, Z, Desc	PointNumber, Northing, Easting, Elevation, Description
N, E, Z, Desc	Northing, Easting, Elevation, Description
N, E, Z	Northing, Easting, Elevation
P, E, N, Z, Desc	PointNumber, Easting, Northing, Elevation, Description
E, N, Z, Desc	Easting, Northing, Elevation, Description
E, N, Z	Easting, Northing, Elevation

Accepted file types: .csv, .txt, .pts. Lines starting with # or ; are treated as comments. Decimal separator is always ..

5.2.4. Point Groups

Use Civil › Points › Create Group… and Add to Group… (or the Point Manager’s group tabs) to organise points into named groups.

┌──────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Groups          │  Points in: GroupA  (3)              │
│  ┌────────────┐  │  ┌──────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │ GroupA (3) │  │  │ #1  N=538345.12  E=4872341   │   │
│  │ GroupB (1) │  │  └──────────────────────────────┘   │
│  └────────────┘  │  [Add Points...]  [Remove Selected]  │
│  [New][Rename]   └──────────────────────────────────────┘
│  [Delete][Desc]
└──────────────────                           [Close]

• New — create a group.

• Rename / Description — edit group metadata.

• Delete — remove the group (points are not deleted).

• Add Points… — opens a checklist of all database points; check to add.

• Remove Selected — removes highlighted points from the group.

From the canvas: Select civil points on screen, then either:

• Run ADDTOGROUP (ATG) and pick or type a group name.

• Right-click the selection — the context menu shows existing groups and a New Group… option for instant assignment.

Other commands: REMOVEFROMGROUP (RFG) removes selected points from a group; CREATEGROUP (CRG) creates a group and lets you click points to add.

5.2.4.1. Converting AutoCAD Points

The CONVERTPOINTS command (alias CPT) converts standard AutoCAD point markers into AEC civil survey points. This is useful when importing DXF files that contain point entities with X/Y/Z coordinates but no civil metadata.

Workflow:

1. Select one or more AutoCAD point entities on the canvas.

2. Type CONVERTPOINTS (or CPT) in the command line.

3. Optionally enter a group name to assign all converted points to a point group. Press Enter to skip.

4. Choose whether to delete the original point entities after conversion (Y / N).

Each converted point receives the next available point number and inherits its X/Y/Z coordinates from the original point entity.

5.2.5. Point Manager

The Point Manager is a spreadsheet-style window for viewing, editing, importing, and transforming survey points. Open it with Civil › Points › Point Manager or the ribbon button.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ [Import][Export] | [Copy][Paste] | [Add][Delete] | [Renumber]  │
│ [To Group][Ungroup][Lock] | [Translate][Rotate][Scale]         │
│ [Swap E/N][Helmert]                                            │
├──────┬───────────┬───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬───────────┤
│  #   │  Easting  │  Northing │Elevation │ Raw Desc │ Full Desc │
├──────┼───────────┼───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼───────────┤
│  1   │ 612500.00 │4123000.00 │  245.300 │ BNCHMRK  │ Benchmark │
│  2   │ 612510.50 │4123005.20 │  246.100 │ EP       │ Edge Pvmt │
│ ...  │    ...    │    ...    │   ...    │   ...    │    ...    │
├──────┴───────────┴───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴───────────┤
│ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐                        │
│ │All Points│ │ GroupA   │ │ GroupB   │  (sheet tabs)           │
│ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘                        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
25 points | Sheet: All Points | Total DB: 25

Layout:

• Toolbar at the top with all operations.

• Grid in the centre — 7 columns (#, Easting, Northing, Elevation, Raw Desc, Full Desc, Lock). All cells are editable; changes are applied immediately to the database and the canvas updates.

• Sheet tabs at the bottom — “All Points” shows every point in the database. Each point group appears as its own tab, showing only the points in that group.

• Status bar — current point count, active sheet name, total database count.

5.2.5.1. Toolbar Operations

Button	Description
Import	Opens the CSV/TXT/PTS import dialog. Imported points are added to the database and appear on the canvas.
Import from Drawing	Reads the point groups of another IQcad drawing (.iqz or .ixml) and lets you tick the groups to bring in. The first entry, _All Points, imports every point of the file whether grouped or not. Groups are created or merged by name. A point whose number is already used in this drawing gets the next free number above both drawings; the summary reports how many.
Export	Opens the export dialog. If a group tab is active, only those points are exported; otherwise all points. Supports CSV and Excel (XLSX/ODS) formats.
Copy	Copies the selected rows to the system clipboard as tab-separated text. Can be pasted into Excel, LibreOffice, or a text editor.
Paste	Parses tab-separated text from the clipboard and creates new points in the database. Only works on the “All Points” tab. Expected columns: Number, Easting, Northing, Elevation, Description (optional). Header rows and duplicate point numbers are skipped automatically. Ideal for pasting data from Excel or LibreOffice Calc.
Add	Creates a new point at (0, 0, 0) with the next available point number. Edit the coordinates in the grid afterwards.
Delete	Deletes the selected points from the database and the canvas (with confirmation).
Renumber	Opens the renumber dialog to reassign point numbers.
To Group	Assigns selected points to a group (new or existing). A dialog asks for the group name.
Ungroup	Removes selected points from the current group (only available on group tabs, not “All Points”).
Lock	Toggles the Lock flag on selected points. Locked points cannot be moved accidentally on the canvas.
Translate	Opens the Translate dialog — shifts selected points by dE, dN, dZ.
Rotate	Opens the Rotate dialog — rotates selected points around a base point.
Scale	Opens the Scale dialog — scales selected points from a base point.
Swap E/N	Swaps the Easting and Northing values of selected points.
Helmert	Opens the Helmert transformation dialog — 2D conformal transformation (translate + rotate + scale) fitted to control point pairs.

5.2.5.2. Sheet Tabs & Group Management

The tab bar at the bottom of the Point Manager shows one tab per group plus the “All Points” tab which always appears first.

Right-click a tab to open the group context menu:

• New Group… — create a named group.

• Rename Group… — change the name (not available for “All Points”).

• Delete Group — remove the group; points are not deleted from the database, only the group membership is removed.

Typical workflows:

1. Create a group from selected points: select rows on “All Points”, click To Group, type a name.

2. Remove points from a group: switch to the group tab, select rows, click Ungroup.

3. Paste points from Excel: copy rows in Excel (columns: Number, Easting, Northing, Elevation, Description), switch to “All Points” tab in the Point Manager, click Paste.

4. Export a group: switch to the group tab, click Export.

5. Apply a coordinate transform: select rows, click one of the transform buttons (Translate, Rotate, Scale, Swap E/N, Helmert).

5.2.5.3. Inline Editing

Click any cell in the grid to edit it directly. Changes are committed when you press Enter or move to another cell. The following columns are editable:

• Easting, Northing, Elevation — numeric coordinates.

• Raw Desc, Full Desc — text descriptions.

• Lock — type Yes or No (case-insensitive; also accepts True / False / 1 / 0).

After editing, the canvas entity is updated immediately via UpdateSurveyPointsFromDB. The point number column (#) is not editable from the grid — use the Renumber button instead.