If you know what swing ties are then you know you have been thinking of how to put those measurements in a table without the manual data entry. I don’t have an AutoCAD only solution for making tables of those measurements yet. However, you can use Civil 3D to make line tables from those lines you create in this labeling method I demonstrate below. When I get to it I will publish that solution on AdvSurveying.com. (My apologies for the bait and switch on tables. I started this post 6 years ago and never finished it.)

Swing Tie Labels

I came up with a solution that is just labels but not a table. Here is a drawing file that automates the creation of swing tie labels using plain AutoCAD. Just to clarify, you download the drawing file and insert that drawing as an exploded block in the file you want to create labels in.

My long winded take on when and where to use swing ties.

You document the location of an underground water valve by measuring the distance from two very obvious objects conveniently located nearby. The first distance is from a utility pole at the back of the sidewalk. The second distance is from the left front house corner. The two distances are used at a later date to form intersecting arcs. Using a tape measure you swing an arc from the utility pole then another arc from the house corner. Where the two arcs intersect is where you should find the location of the water valve. Since the water valve is not visible it is underground you will use a metal detector to confirm the location where you will dig a hole to find the water valve. (Not everyone installs a valve box at the surface that is easy to locate by sight alone.)

Back at the office you take your field sketch and update the utility location plan with the two distances you measured and the approximate location of the utility pole and house corners relative to the water valve. In this scenario you draw lines to represent the measured distances. The length of the line matches the measured distance. The direction of the line is approximate because the location of the utility pole and house corners are approximate. Their locations may have been drawn by tracing over an aerial photo or just copied from your hand drawn field sketch.

All this work is done in the absence of good asset management data where the utilities have been located by survey and the location mapped in state plane coordinates and the data stored in a database table that is part of a utility layer in your Geographic Information System (GIS). This scenario I use as an example is the reality that many utility divisions must manage from years of historical data generated before computers were invented. Building a GIS with utility layers takes desire, expertise, time, and money. The practice of documenting valve locations with swing ties is a step in the right direction and requires the field crew to only carry a tape measure rather than a GPS device or other survey equipment. The data collected can be incorporated into a GIS. This swing tie table example serves the needs of the field crew with data they can use in the field in the form of a utilty location sheet and serves the needs of asset managers by digitizing the location of a water valve to add to the GIS.