OpenRoads: vertical curve definition

Hi All,

I have a 30 km longhighway schema. Client requirement is to design vertical profile with vertical curves set as circural elemetns.  I set in Civil settings vertical curve parameter to Rvalue. 

Designing vertical alignment goes quite seamles. I added a number of vertical  circural curves with approperiate tools with no problemems at all. The problem occures when I need to export my geometry back to native (InRoads) alg file. It stops importing vertical alignment on the firs station where Reverse Profile Transistion was used. I genereated report and was surprised to find out that this transition was definied with parabolas.

In alg file we must not have mixed vertical curve types. I hopped to change InRoads option for Geometry to enforce parabolic definition but it switches back to circural on every export try. It looks that when the firs openroads element matters: if it is a circural arc - alg would have circural definition set for cvertical curves. If it is parabola, the alg definition would be set to parabolic type.

With all that being said, now I want to annotate my profile. Can not be done without alg file and I can not create that file now. I need to delete all elements created with Reverse Profile Transition and redesign my vertical profile. The  workflow would be needed as well if someone accidently mixed vertical curve types in civil geometry.

Is there a tool to design reverse profile transition with ircural elements? Is there a way to avoid mixing vertical curve types when designing profile. Is there a way to unify vertical curve types on export to alg file?

Thanks.

Adam

Parents Reply
  • Sanders,

    I wasnt clear enough. Circural curves are maintained in alg file when importing from civil geometry. However when you mix curve types in your Civil Geometry (circural and parabolic curves) than you can not import alg. I was using circural curves tools and added a number of circural curves. However I used Reverse Profile Transitions as well and this tool created parabolas in my vertical alignemnt. Said that, I couldn't export civil geometry to native.

    Best,

    Adam


    OpenRoads Designer 2023   |  OpenRail Designer 2023

                 

Children
  • Hi Adam,

    Thanks for clarifying for me, I was able to export my geometry. However, the geometry exported to native InRoads ends where the curve type changes, only exporting a very short segment of my original alignment. This issue has been filed as defect 143493.

    Thanks,
    Sanders

    For more information about the Road and Site design tools, visit the Road and Site design WIKI at: http://communities.bentley.com/products/road___site_design/w/road_and_site_design__wiki



    Answer Verified By: Adam Wieczorek 

  • I have never heard of anyone creating a vertical alignment with both parabolas and circular curves (and obviously native InRoads commands do not support it). Can you explain under what circumstances such a profile would be created?
  • Sorry, I see now in your original post why you are combining the two types. The Profile Reverse Transition command only constructs parabolas. This is probably the true request here... to enhance the Profile Reverse Transition command to allow circular vertical curves.
    As a workaround, I was able to build reverse circular curves using the Circular Curve From Element, Circular Curve Between Elements, etc... commands. These commands should be able to build what you need for the transition, just a little more manually that the one command.
  • Kevin,

    Neither I have heard of anyone combining two types of vertical curves. But with OpenRoads tools it is very easy to do it accidently. There is no kind of switch to change vertical curve type and you can just choos wron tool icon from your task. Moreover when you set in civil settings Rvalue for curve parameter it is even more confusing. Like in example with Reverese Profile Transition - I key-in R value and it looks fine. The only info it is parabola you can find either in report or in element information. Even in help file for that tool it is not specified it would create parabolas.

    Your workaround it is what I acctualy did - I just deleted all reverse transition from my 30 km long profile and replaced these with circural arc from element an an arc between elements. It is not a big deal. The problem is that you can easy mix vertical curve types when creating your alignment. My idea is to modify task bar but then you will have more environemnts to manage. cumbersome when you are working on a few projects simultanously.

    Adam

    Best,

    Adam


    OpenRoads Designer 2023   |  OpenRail Designer 2023

                 

  • Thanks Sanders,

    that's the part of problem. The other one is that OpenRoads tools allow tou to mix vertical curve types in a single vertical profile. And some tools like Reverse Profile Transition need to be elaborated a little more in help file - it is not stated this tool creates parabolas. When I set vertical curve vicil setting to RValu I was asked to key-in R. so I did and parabola was created.

    Best,

    Adam


    OpenRoads Designer 2023   |  OpenRail Designer 2023