Sections

Many departments keep their roads as named sections: "S-12, Elm St from Main to Oak". In AssetLink a section is a named group of blocks. It has no shape of its own; it is drawn from its blocks, and a block belongs to at most one section.

Making a section

There are two ways.

• Import them. If you already keep an inventory in GIS or a spreadsheet, import it and every section arrives with its blocks matched.
• Make one by hand. On the Roads page, switch the map to Sections and press New section. Give it a name, and optionally your own section number and notes, then press Create section. The new section opens with no blocks; press Add blocks and draw around the ones that belong.

If you have no sections yet, there is no Sections view to switch to. Switch the map to Blocks instead and use Create a section at the foot of the list on the left. The Sections view appears from then on.

Correcting a section

Open the section and press Edit name, number and notes. Change what is wrong and press Save. A section number can be used by only one section.

Finding a section

1. On the Roads page, switch the map to Sections.
2. Pick a section from the list, or type its name or number in Find a section….

The map frames the section's blocks, and the panel shows its number and name, how many blocks it has, and the Census Bureau's published length for them.

Rating a section

Press Rate this section and rate it as one thing. See Rating condition for the form.

Every block in the section then shows that rating, unless the block has a newer rating of its own. If the two carry the same date, the block's own rating is the one shown.

Changing which blocks belong

• To add blocks: press Add blocks, click around the ones that belong, and double-click to close the shape. They join the section straight away.
• To take one out: press Remove beside it in the section's block list.

Removing a block from a section changes nothing else about the block.

Retiring or deleting a section

At the bottom of the panel, a section that has been rated offers Retire this section, and one that never has offers Delete this section.

• Retiring keeps the section's ratings on record and takes it off every list.
• Deleting removes it outright.

Either way its blocks are released and otherwise left as they are.