To measure the clearance between a conductor and other objects such as buildings or vegetation, or to another conductor, use the Clearance Measure tool instead.
That tool also provides fine tuning for specific environments, conductors in a span, and the start and end points.
To measure the clearance between a conductor and the ground use the Ground Clearance Measure tool on the toolbar:
Once selected, hover over or left-click a conductor. Neara will display the worst-case ground clearance of a span as a magenta line in both Perspective view and Profile view:
In the Properties panel in the sidebar, you can select an Environment to see clearances under different conditions, with the clearance to ground for the selected span shown alongside information for the chainage from the origin pole where the sag is being measured. The information about the temperature of the conductors and the solve method used for measuring sags is also provided.
The second row named Span Minima shows the information for the lowest clearance to ground, the chainage from the origin pole where this minimum clearance is detected, the wire temperature and the solve mode used to measure the conductor sags.
The environment dropdown can be used to select the environment for which the clearance can be reported. In the screenshot above, the Hot environment was selected and the sags calculated for clearance checks by the tool are for the Hot environment as well.
The ground line measured to is based on the terrain model chosen in the survey tool. See Create a ground / terrain profile
Set up different ground clearance heights
One of the most important aspects of any design is ensuring that conductors do not sag below a certain ground clearance height. If it sags are too low, either its tension must be increased or its supporting poles moved moved closer together.
Neara makes it easy to visualize this in the Profile view. The blue line parallel to the ground represents the clearance level, and the dotted lines represent the cable span under different environmental conditions:
Ground clearance lines and Clearance Rules can be added and modified in the project under the Clearances menu:
Ground Clearance Lines
Ground clearance lines appear in the profile view at a set offset above ground level.
Field | Description |
Label | The ground clearance line label |
Height (m) | The height above ground the ground clearance line is drawn at |
Color | The color of the ground clearance line |
Enabled | Checkbox to show or hide the ground clearance line |
Conductor Clearance Lines
Conductor clearance lines draw a clearance line beneath the conductors and support an optional height offset. They're the recommended approach over the Enabled toggle in Environments, because clearance lines respect the simulation type while the Enabled toggle does not.
Field | Description |
Label | The conductor clearance line label |
Height | The height offset at which the conductor clearance line is drawn. Entering the required clearance value for the relevant voltage is often useful, as it lets you compare the clearance line directly against ground level. |
Show | Options are
|
Min Voltage | Any voltages below this will be exluded |
Max Voltage | Any voltages above this will be exluded |
Environment | The environment to simulate for the conductor clearance line |
Color | The color of the conductor clearance line |
Enabled | Checkbox to show or hide the conductor clearance line |