With our new line modelled - we now have 2 clearance concerns. Clearance to objects (houses and fences) and clearance to the ground.

To check our ground clearances, we need to set up our clearance rules.


As mentioned before - we have already set up our standard clearance line (blue line appearing on our profile) to be 5.5m. To change this we can:

  1. Select Clearances in the menu bar
  2. Specify new clearance height or add clearance line, I am going to specify 8m as my new requirement


We should also now set up our clearance rules in the clearance rules table. This is a matrix that defines the clearance requirement depending on the kV of the line and the type of object we want to measure to.


For example, I am going to also make sure that the ground clearance in my clearance rules is set to 8m.


  1. Select Clearance in the menu bar
  2. Specify 8m in the 11kV x Ground cell
  3. Apply HOT in the environments field (this is the environment that we want to check our ground clearance under)



How to check ground clearance


There are two ways to check for ground clearance violations. The easiest is to check for violations in the profile view.

  1. Select a circuit to show in the profile view
  2. Look for areas where the conductor breaches the blue line (clearance line)

You can also get the accurate measurements out by creating a groundclearancereport in thee custom report builder.

  1. Select the + sign next to the profile view tab
  2. Select create custom report in the pop-up
  3. Type in Ground Clearance Report and select the report in the choose data source for custom report field
  4. Select create to add the report to our views



Similarly, this newly created table will tell us the minimum clearance or each span under the environment specified in the clearance tab and whether it fails or passes the criteria that we have set (6m).


We can use the filter to filter out the results to only see the spans that are failing the clearance requirement. 




To fix this clearance issue, we will replace pole 3 and 4 with 17 metre poles to raise the clearance of this span. We can also increase the tension of the line.


Now to check our conductor clearance to nearby objects.


Since we are building in a suburban area we need to check for clearances to nearby houses. Neara is able to do obstruction modelling, allowing users to use prisms, cylinders and fence.


  1. Select the Obstruction Tool
  2. Define the type of obstruction to place down in the properties tab (Prism, Cylinder or Fence)
  3. Place the obstruction down on the map by left-clicking



Now that an obstruction is placed we can either drag the vertices to fit a general shape or define precise eastings and nothings in the properties tab when the obstruction is selected. We can also insert more vertices if needed by selecting insert after in the properties tab. We can also specify it's roof height and floor height.


Now to measure the distance between a conductor and any other object (Obstruction, Pole, Another Span etc) do the following:

  1. Select the conductor clearance tool (you will now see that sag and blowout outlines have appeared)
  2. Select the conductor outline to measure the clearance distance from (the environment of the outline will be shown in the properties tab)
  3. Select the object you would like to measure the distance to


By default, the shortest distance between the two objects will be displayed.



Now that we have checked the clearances to ground and objects we can now start to export reports.


Here is the link for this design: https://app.neara.com/powerapp#designId:dxSB9cnJwMvY