5.5. Sections and Parcels

5.5.1. Cross-Sections

Cross-sections are perpendicular slices through terrain at stations along an alignment. Each section can show multiple surface profiles (e.g., existing ground, rock layer, design surface), with cut/fill computed between any two selected surfaces.

5.5.1.1. Creating a Section Sheet

Use Civil > Cross-Sections > Create Section Sheet or type CREATESECTIONSHEET (alias CSS) in the command line.

Workflow:

Select alignment
Enter surface names to sample (comma-separated)
Set station interval (default 20m)
Set left/right widths (default 20m each)
Set columns and rows per sheet
Optionally select two surfaces for cut/fill comparison
Click insertion point

The command generates sample lines along the alignment, samples all specified surfaces at each station, computes cut/fill areas, and creates one or more section sheet entities on the canvas.

5.5.1.2. Earthwork Volumes

Type EARTHWORKVOLUMES (alias EWV) to compute and display an earthwork volume table using the average end area method.

The table shows for each station: cut area, fill area, cut volume, fill volume, cumulative cut, cumulative fill, and net volume. Totals are printed at the bottom.

5.5.1.3. Cross-Section Commands

Command	Alias	Description
`CREATESECTIONSHEET`	`CSS`	Create a cross-section sheet interactively.
`EARTHWORKVOLUMES`	`EWV`	Compute and display earthwork volume table.

5.5.2. Association Highlighting

When you select a civil entity that references other objects, IQcad highlights the associated entities in light cyan to show their relationship:

Selecting a Profile View highlights the parent alignment, all surfaces sampled by the view, and any path entities used as the profile source. The surface boundary is force-drawn during highlighting even if the surface style normally hides it.
Selecting a Section View or Section Sheet highlights the parent alignment and all surfaces sampled by the sections.

This makes it easy to visually confirm which alignment and surfaces a profile or section view is based on, especially in drawings with multiple alignments and overlapping surfaces.

5.5.3. Prospector Style Columns

In the Civil Toolspace (prospector panel), clicking the Surfaces or Alignments top-level node displays a summary grid. The grid includes a Style column with a dropdown that lets you change the style of any surface or alignment directly from the prospector, without opening the Object Inspector.

5.5.4. Parcels

A parcel is a closed boundary polygon representing a land area such as a property lot, easement, or right-of-way. Each parcel stores its boundary geometry together with area, perimeter, and user-defined data fields. Parcels participate in the civil entity hierarchy alongside survey points, surfaces, and alignments, and are saved/loaded in IQML and LandXML formats.

5.5.4.1. Creating a Parcel

Use the CREATEPARCEL command (alias PARCEL) or choose Civil > Parcels > Create Parcel from the menu.

Workflow:

Type CREATEPARCEL in the command line (or use the menu/ribbon).
Enter a parcel name when prompted (e.g., Lot-1).
Click on a closed polyline in the drawing to use as the parcel boundary. The polyline must be closed (first and last vertex coincide, or the Closed flag is set).
The parcel is created and appears on the canvas with the active parcel style. The source polyline remains in the drawing.

The parcel entity computes its area and perimeter automatically from the boundary geometry. These values update if the boundary is edited. Every corner of the new boundary is also assigned a survey-style vertex name automatically — see Parcel Vertex Names below.

5.5.4.2. Parcel Properties

When a parcel is selected, the Object Inspector displays the following properties:

Property	Description
ParcelName	Display name of the parcel (e.g., `Lot-1`, `Parcel A`).
ParcelNumber	Numeric identifier for the parcel.
StyleName	Named parcel style controlling boundary, fill, and label display.
Area	Computed area of the parcel boundary polygon (read-only).
Perimeter	Computed perimeter of the parcel boundary (read-only).
UserData	Free-form key-value data attached to the parcel. Common fields include Owner, Description, Zoning, LandUse, and TaxID.
Geometry › Vertex	Vertex navigation row ([<] Vertex N of M [>]) under a Geometry group alongside Area/Perimeter/PointCount. Sub-properties: Index, Name, X, Y, Bulge. See Parcel Vertex Names.

5.5.4.3. Parcel Styles

Four built-in parcel styles are provided:

Style	Description
Standard	Boundary line only, no fill or segment labels.
Property	Boundary with semi-transparent fill and bearing/distance labels on each boundary segment.
Easement	Dashed boundary with a light fill pattern to indicate a restricted zone.
ROW	Right-of-way style with a heavy boundary and cross-hatch fill pattern.
Empty	All components hidden (`BoundaryVisible=False`). Use to suppress a parcel from display without deleting it.

Edit parcel styles via the Civil Style Manager (Civil > Styles) or Format > Parcel Styles…. Style settings include boundary colour, weight, and linetype; fill colour and transparency; label visibility, bearing format (bearing, azimuth, or angle), and segment label text properties.

5.5.4.4. Parcel Vertex Names

Every parcel corner carries a survey-style vertex name — a drawing-wide prefix plus a running number (A1, A2, A3, …). The sequence continues across every parcel in the drawing rather than restarting at each boundary, and a corner shared by two adjacent parcels always carries the same name on both sides. Vertex names are meant to double as setout identifiers: they appear on the drawing as labels and in the parcel table and parcel report instead of a bare running index.

Automatic assignment. CREATEPARCEL names every unnamed corner of the new boundary as soon as it is created: a corner that coincides with an already-named corner of another parcel adopts that name, and the rest continue the drawing’s numbering sequence. Parcels created before this feature shipped keep their corners unnamed until you run PARCELCHECK (below) — opening an old drawing never renames anything on its own.

Editing a name. Select a parcel and open Geometry › Vertex in the Object Inspector: the vertex navigation row shows Index, Name, X, Y, and Bulge for the current corner (step through corners with the [<]/[>] buttons). Typing a new value in Name and committing it:

Rejects an empty name — the field reverts to its previous value.
Propagates live to every other parcel that shares that exact corner, so a renamed shared corner stays in sync on both sides.
Warns on the command line (rather than blocking with a dialog) if the name you typed is already used somewhere else in the drawing — run PARCELCHECK to find and resolve the clash.

Grip-dragging a shared corner. Dragging a corner that two parcels share pulls only the picked parcel’s copy — the other parcel’s corner stays put. Once the two corners are no longer coincident, the one left behind keeps the original name and the moved corner is issued a fresh number. If you instead drag a corner so it lands exactly on another parcel’s named corner, the moved corner adopts that name.

Labels on the drawing. The parcel style’s Labels tab has a Vertex Labels group: a Vertex Names Visible toggle and a label-style dropdown that selects which civil label style draws the names (see Civil Label Styles in Format Settings). Vertex name labels are anchored at the corner, offset outward along the angle bisector of the two adjacent boundary segments, matching conventional topographic-diagram placement. An unnamed corner draws no label. Vertex names render both on screen and in PDF plots. The built-in Property parcel style has Vertex Names Visible enabled and pairs with the built-in Parcel Vertex civil label style (category Parcels) to display them.

Coordinate tables and reports. PARCELTABLE and the PARCELREPORT HTML report both show the vertex name in the corner column instead of a bare 1..N index, falling back to the index for any corner that has no name.

Checking and fixing (``PARCELCHECK``). PARCELCHECK (alias PCHK) is a PEDIT-style check-and-fix hub for parcel vertex issues, with four sub-options:

Option	Action
Report (default)	Read-only. Lists every duplicate boundary vertex, every unnamed vertex, every shared corner whose two sides disagree on the name, and every name that is used at two different locations. Nothing is changed; prints “No issues found.” on a clean drawing.
Fix	Repairs everything the report finds: removes duplicate vertices (the original `PARCELCHECK` behaviour, name-aware so a named vertex always survives the weld over an unnamed one), assigns names to unnamed corners (reusing a coincident neighbour’s name first, otherwise the next number), unifies mismatched shared corners, and renames the newer of two vertices that ended up with the same name in different places. Locked parcels are skipped and reported. On first use it also offers to set the drawing’s vertex prefix.
reNumber	Full re-sequence, guarded by a confirmation prompt (default No) since it is destructive: clears every vertex name in the drawing and reassigns them all from scratch in parcel order, resolving shared corners as it goes. Use it if numbering has drifted and you want a clean, fully continuous sequence.
Prefix	Changes the drawing’s vertex-name prefix directly (default `A`). Prompts for the new prefix with the current one as the default; an empty answer keeps it. Only newly assigned names use the new prefix — existing names are left untouched; run reNumber afterwards to re-assign everything under it.

Persistence. Vertex names and the drawing’s vertex prefix (default A; any text, including Greek letters, is allowed) are saved with the drawing and round-trip through .iqz and through DXF export/import (as extended entity data on the parcel). Older files with no saved names simply load unnamed.