Excellent Profiles

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Excellent Profiles

• Charting Profile Maps using Microsoft Excel

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Topographic Map
A Topo map shows the elevations of the
landscape from an aerial view. As if you were in
an airplane looking down on the earth.
The elevations points are joined by curved
lines called contour Lines
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A Profile Map
A Profile map shows the landscape as if it was
cut vertically and viewed from the side. The
elevation values are shown with horizontal graph
lines
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Creating a Profile Map
Concept
A horizontal line is drawn through the
Topographic map. The intersection points of the
horizontal line and the contour lines are
projected vertically to a graph
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Creating a Hand Drawn Profile
1. Draw equally spaced horizontal lines on the
sheet of paper you will be using to create the
profile map (graph paper is good to use since the
grid lines help keep lines parallel).
2. Label the horizontal lines with the values
of the elevations from the Topographic map.
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Creating a Hand Drawn Profile
3. Tape the Topographic map above the graph lines
you created for the profile map
4. Draw a horizontal line through the
Topographic map at a desired location. This line
will be referred to as a cutting line through the
remainder of the presentation.
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Creating a Hand Drawn Profile
5. Draw vertical lines from the points where the
contour lines intersect with the cutting line
down through the graph lines.
These are drawn as solid lines but are shown
dashed here for better visualization.
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Creating a Hand Drawn Profile
6. Determine where the vertical lines intersect
the appropriate graph lines and draw a dot,
i.e. the vertical line drawn for the 20 contour
line must be marked on the 20 graph line, etc
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Creating a Hand Drawn Profile
7. Draw curve lines through the dots to create
the profile map
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Creating a Hand Drawn Profile
Profile can be colored in to better visualize the
cross section of the landscape
Task Completed
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Now lets look at creating a Profile map using
Microsoft Excel.
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Creating a Profile in Excel
Place a transparent grid over the Topographic
map (make a transparency of graph paper on a copy
machine or print out a grid on transparency paper
from a computer printer).
If you do not have transparency paper the grid
lines can be drawn on the topo map
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Creating a Profile in Excel
Look at the grid marks between the contour lines
and equally space the distance to determine the
horizontal values for each grid mark..
Make sure you understand this process before
going on..
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Creating a Profile in Excel

• Start Microsoft Excel (if you have access to a
  computer you can do this along with the
  presentation)
• In Column A, Row 1 place the text Profile 1
• In the remaining columns type in the values found
  for the cutting plane (20,24,28,32,35,38,40,40,38,
  35,32,30,30,30)
• Highlight row 1 by clicking on the number 1 in
  thegray column at the beginning of the Excel
  worksheet

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Creating a Profile in Excel
5. Press the F11 key on your keyboard to create
a chart A new worksheet is created
displaying your chart The column chart is
displayed as the default chart.
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Creating a Profile in Excel
6. If your chart toolbar does not appear you will
need to open it by clicking on the View
pull-down menu, go to Toolbars and click on
Chart. From this toolbar you can look at
your chart using different viewing options
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Creating a Profile in Excel
7. On the chart Toolbar click on the drop down
arrow beside the Chart Type (the picture of
the chart). This will open up the Chart
Type options
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Creating a Profile in Excel
8. Choose the Area Chart (the first button in
the first row) This options makes your
chart look more like a profile map.
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Creating a Profile in Excel

• On the chart Toolbar click on the drop down arrow
  beside the Chart Type and choose the 3D Area
  Chart
• (the second button in the first row)
• This options gives your profile map a
  3-dimensional look.

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Creating a Profile in Excel
10. On the chart Toolbar click on the drop down
arrow beside the Chart Type and choose the 3D
Line Chart (the second button in the
fourth row) This option shows a 3-D profile
map of only the surface.
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Creating a Profile in Excel
Lets create a second profile
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Creating a Profile in Excel

• Enter the data for the second profile in the
  second row of the Excel workbook.
• Select rows 1 2 by clicking on the number 1 in
  the gray box at the beginning of the row and
  dragging down to through the number 2.
• Press F11 to create the chart

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Creating a Profile in Excel
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Creating a Profile in Excel
You can continue to add profile information into
the spreadsheet. The closer the grid lines on
the Topo map the better your Excel landscape will
appear.
Try your hand at creating your own profiles in
Excel
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THE END