How-to guide
Roads, railways, pipelines and cable routes are built along a line, and what matters is where each crew is and when: whether the drainage gang is far enough behind the earthworks, when the traffic management can move. A time-chainage (or time-distance) diagram puts chainage along one axis and time down the other, so each operation is a line moving along the job. Metre2 Programme Studio Pro draws it from the programme's activities and their chainages, so it stays in step with the logic.
Open your programme, or choose Highways and drainage on the start screen: earthworks, drainage runs, kerbs, sub-base and surfacing over two sections between chainage 0 and 500, with traffic management phases.
Choose View > Time-chainage. Chainage runs across the top (0+000 to 0+500) and time down the side. Each operation is a line from where it starts to where it ends; areas occupied for a time, such as a traffic management phase, can be drawn as blocks. Ctrl and the mouse wheel zoom in time.
Hover over a line for its dates, chainage and float, and click it to select it. Its properties, logic and float open on the right, and it is the same activity as in the Gantt chart.
In the properties panel, Chainage from and Chainage to are in metres, and Shape chooses a line (work moving along) or a block. Here the section 2 drainage is extended to 560 m and the diagram follows straight away.
A programme for linear projects drawn with distance along the route (chainage) on one axis and time on the other. Each activity is a line or block showing where along the route the work happens and when, so the movement of crews along the job can be planned and checked.
The distance along a road, railway, pipeline or other route from a fixed start point, usually written as kilometres plus metres, such as 0+250 for 250 metres.
Yes, they are names for the same kind of diagram. Line of balance is its relative for repeated locations such as plots or floors.
Programme Studio is free to open and view programmes of any size and to build or edit programmes of up to 50 activities. Pro adds this and every other planning tool, with no activity limit, for £29.99 a month or £249 a year. The 7-day free trial needs a Metre2 account but no payment details.
