HP 48 Traverse File Format
The HP 48 file import format is not a text file: its fields are delimited by the ASCII character 13 (in hexadecimal 0xD) which cannot be generated by most text editors. The following tables describe the fields in the HP48 file format.
Section Data
Section Number
Station
Station number
Distance
Horizontal Distance to next station
Slope
Percent Slope to next station
Bearing
Bearing Ahead
Quadrant Flag
Bearing/Azimuth format 1,2,3 or 4 for quadrants NE, SE, SW and NW respectively. 0 indicates Azimuth.
Azimuth / Bearing 11 indicates horizontal distance, 31 indicates slope distance measured between stations.
Side Shot Data
Slope
Percent slope
Slope Distance
Slope distance
Turning Point
'T' indicates turning point, blank for no turning point
End Station Data
Shot Set Delimiter
Must always be 666
Comment
Comment or label for the station (max. 20) - must be terminated with ASCII characters 11 and 13. (in hex: 0xD 0xA)
Station Delimiter
Must always be 777
Note 1: Every field, including the Comment field must be followed by ASCII character 13 (hexadecimal: 0xD).
To discuss the file format we adopt the following notation. (*1) [Station Data][Side Shot Data] ... [Side Shot Data][End Station Data]
Line (*1) will represent the concatenation of the first collection of fields above (called [Station Data]) with a list of the second collection of fields (called [Side Shot Data]) with the last collection of fields (called [End Station Data]). As all these fields together comprise the data for a given section, we will refer to the list of fields given by (*1) as [Section Data]. A HP48 import file can then be expressed as: [Section Data][Section Data] ... [Section Data]
Note 2: There are no supplementary delimiters needed between collections of fields.
To discuss the list [Shot Data]...[Shot Data] in (*1) we will use a subscript to refer to a specific [Shot Data] within the list. (*2) [Side Shot Data]1 [Side Shot Data]2 [Side Shot Data]3 [Side Shot Data]4 [Side ShotData]5
Every list of [Side Shot Data] must contain one which represents the center line. (See description of [Side Shot Data] in table above).
The left most [Side Shot Data] corresponds to the shot the furthest from the center line to the left. Moving to the right in the list corresponds to moving towards centerline. After centerline is reached, continuing to the right moves away from the centerline to the right.
The slope and slope distance are taken with respect to last reference point (moving from the centerline outward). The centerline [Side Shot Data] is always the first point. If the Turning Point field in a given [Side Shot Data] is set to 'T', then this [Shot Data] becomes the new reference point.
Suppose in line (*2) that [Side Shot Data]4 is the centerline and [Side Shot Data]2 is a new reference point. In this case, the slope and slope distance of [Side Shot Data]3 and [Side Shot Data]2 will relative to [Side Shot Data]4; [Side Shot Data]1, however, will be relative to [Side Shot Data]2.
Example
Section Sta H.D.% Slope Azimuth Comment
10+00 60+12 167.3 JCT SPUR
Side shots
5/50 40/10 70/4T 0/2 0/0 18/3 0/15 -35/20 -10/50
Data File Contents
1section no 1
0station no 0+00
60horizontal or slope distance = 60ft
12slope between stations = 12%
167.30azimuth or bearing = 167 deg 30 min
00 indicates azimuth, 1-4 indicates quadrant for bearing
1111 indicates HD, 31 indicates SD
55 % slope -- beginning of left side shots
5050 ft slope distance
blank for no turning point
4040% slope
1010 ft. slope distance
blank for no turning point
7070% slope
44 ft slope dist
Tturning point
00% slope
22 ft. slope dist
0centerline always 0%
0centerline always 0'
18beginning of right side shot data
3
0
15
-35
20
-10
50
666end of topog data
JCT SPURcomment for section 1
777end of data for section 1
2section 2
60station 0+60
