Written by: Bob Mecham
Did you know that with Civil AccuDraw you can work both in the plan view and profile view while placing a geometry element. In this example, we will show you how to place a profile starting at a culvert location used in the plan view.
Start by opening a profile view and setting Civil Accudraw Profile to station/profile offset.
![](https://envisioncad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/civilaccudrawprofileplanview.png)
Keep the profile view active, but TENTATIVE snap to something in the plan view (for this example the center of a culvert). Hit the Enter key and the station will be locked.
There is also a rule created to the element that you snapped. By tentative snap and then lock the station, you get more than a station rule. You get a snapped rule such that if the plan element moves, the profile updates. This is not terribly intuitive to discover, but pretty powerful once you know it.
![civil accudraw plan view station lock](https://envisioncad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/civilaccudrawprofileplanview2.png)
Move your cursor back into the Profile View and the station will be locked. Tab down to the profile offset field and enter a value. In this example we keyed in -4.
![civil accudraw profile station offset lock](https://envisioncad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/civilaccudrawprofileplanview3.png)