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Civil Engineering & Construction vocabulary · Surveying and Setting Out

Set out

Meaning in civil engineering & construction, with examples

phrasal verbCommon term

In civil engineering & construction, set out means: To mark the exact positions and levels of a building, road or other work on the ground with survey instruments, so that construction starts in the right place.

In Turkish: aplikasyon yapmak, aplike etmek, işaretlemek

How it is used

Engineers set out grid lines, column positions and road centrelines with pegs, nails and paint marks. The noun is setting-out, as in 'setting-out drawing' or 'setting-out error'. American English often says lay out.

Example sentences

  1. The surveyor will set out the column positions tomorrow morning.

  2. A setting-out error put the whole wall 50 mm off line.

Common collocations

  • set out the grid
  • setting-out point
  • setting-out drawing
  • set out the centreline
  • surveyThe work of measuring and recording the position, height and shape of land, buildings or other features, or the report and drawings that result from it.
  • total stationAn electronic surveying instrument that measures horizontal and vertical angles and distances, then calculates the coordinates of points.
  • levelThe height of a point above a fixed reference, such as a site benchmark or sea level. It is also the name of the instrument surveyors use to measure heights.
  • benchmarkA fixed point on or near the site whose height is accurately known and which is used as the reference for measuring all other levels.
  • site engineerAn engineer based on the construction site who makes sure the work is built according to the drawings and specifications, checks quality and solves technical problems day to day.

More terms: Surveying and Setting Out

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