140 — The Slope Calculator in AutoCAD

When a ledger or a row of weld plates follows a sloped roof or a sloped bearing line, each panel along that line needs its own elevations. The Slope Calculator is a small worksheet for that arithmetic: you give it the length of a sloped run and the elevation at each end, and it reads back the elevation at the distance you ask for. You then type that number into the dialog that needs it.

It is a calculator, not a panel feature. The dialog has no OK button — only Back, Clear All, Cancel and Help — so it draws nothing and stores nothing in your drawing.

Where it is

  • Toolbar: the Slope Calculator button on the ConstructiVision Site & Tools toolbar, just after Revision History. Its tooltip reads Slope Calculator.

  • Menu: ConstructiVision → Slope Calculator.

  • Inside a feature dialog: the Slope Calc button at the bottom of Ledger and Top Plate Details and of Weld Connection Details opens the same calculator. Back returns you to the dialog you came from.

There is no command of its own to type. The button and the menu item run ConstructiVision’s main command with the calculator chosen for you.

It opens with a panel drawing open — AAA039 and CSB001 in this lesson.

Try it on AAA039

  1. Open AAA039 from the Arlington Airport A project.

  2. Click Slope Calculator on the ConstructiVision Site & Tools toolbar, or choose ConstructiVision → Slope Calculator.

  3. The Slope Elevation Calculator opens. Every box starts at zero: Total Distance 0'-0", Starting Elevation 0", Ending Elevation 0", Distance Change 0'-0", and Elevation 0" at 0".

  4. Enter the run: Total Distance 12'11, Starting Elevation 22'1, Ending Elevation 24'6 – a ledger line that rises from 22’-1” to 24’-6” over 12’-11”.

  5. Type the distance you want into Distance Change – 2'11 – and press Enter. The Elevation … at … line reads 22’-7 9/16” at 2’-11”, and Distance Change now shows 2’-5”: the total rise over the run.

  6. Type the next distance into Distance Change – 7'11 – and press Enter. The line reads 23’-6 3/4” at 7’-11”.

  7. Click Cancel to close the calculator. AAA039 is left as it was.

From inside Ledger or Weld Connections

You do not have to leave the dialog you are filling in.

  1. With CSB001 open (the ConstructiVision Sample Building), click Weld Connections (or Ledger / Top Plate) on the ConstructiVision toolbar. ConstructiVision – Weld Connection Details (or ConstructiVision – Ledger and Top Plate Details) opens.

  2. Click Slope Calc at the bottom of the dialog. The Slope Elevation Calculator opens on top, with the same boxes, all at zero.

  3. Work out the elevation you need.

  4. Click Back. The calculator closes and the feature dialog is in front again, ready for the number.

Reading the dialog

The dialog has two groups and a row of buttons.

what it is

Total Distance

the length of the sloped run the two elevations belong to — typically the wall line

Starting Elevation

the elevation at the start of the run

Ending Elevation

the elevation at the end of the run

Distance Change

where you type the distance along the run you want an elevation for; after Enter it shows the total rise over the run

Elevation … at …

the answer: the elevation, and the distance it was worked out at

button

what it does

Back

closes the calculator; from a feature dialog’s Slope Calc, returns you to that dialog

Clear All

sets every box back to zero

Cancel

closes the calculator

Help

opens the help

Keep both ends in the same convention as the dialog you are feeding. Ledger elevations read to the top of the ledger; weld-connection elevations read to the center of plate.

The slope is still your decision. The calculator does the arithmetic between two elevations you give it. It does not choose a slope or check one.

What this lesson does not cover

  • The browser’s Slope Calculator is a different tool. In ConstructiVision on the web (lesson 417) the slope calculator converts between rise and run, angle, percent and ratio. The AutoCAD calculator in this lesson works in distances and elevations and has none of those notations.

Watch the lesson

The video follows Try it on AAA039 (steps 1 to 7). It does not open the calculator from inside Ledger or Weld Connections.