Chris Chatfield's Activities

Template Test Transition

Chris Chatfield — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 04:01:30 GMT

In writing a template for a 2 lane rural highway, I would like it to draw a 4:1 slope to existing ground (as opposed to performing a slope vs ditch routine) at driveway areas. I have this controlled by external references that indicate the locations of the driveway as well as a test end condition within the template that looks to see if there is a driveway. However, the transitions between the driveway and the non-driveway areas are a mess, with a bunch of non-sensical lines. This is not only an aspect of the graphical cross section, but appears when normal cross sections are made. Do we need to drop a different template at every driveway to alleviate this problem?

Cross Section Temporary Dimension Issue

Chris Chatfield — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 04:21:48 GMT

When I right-click in the cross section window and select, "Show Temporary Dimension", the screen flashes and nothing happens. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this?

Microstation SS3 Corridor Settings Export File Inquiry

Chris Chatfield — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 21:12:35 GMT

Is there a way to save the settings (point controls, external references, template block ranges,etc.) within a corridor so that they may be quickly loaded into another corridor? I've had to re-build corridors a few times because there were errors that I could not debug (such as elements that would not go away), but spent about half an hour doing so. It would also be nice if the settings could be saved in a file and used throughout my design office.

Microstation SS3 Plan and Profile Edits Best Practices

Chris Chatfield — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 21:51:44 GMT

Does anyone have any best practices for making edits to plan and profile elements in Microstation SS3? Typically, the handles may be used to perform quick manipulation, however these handles do not always appear. I should note, there does not seem to be any particular reason why they appear or not. The only other option seems to be to drop the element, make the change, and then rebuild the element. Is this the best option?

Super-Elevation Creation in Microstation SS3

Chris Chatfield — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 01:35:12 GMT

The super-elevation tools within Microstation SS3 are much different than SS2 and are difficult to navigate. One obstacle that I've run into is that the super-elevation calculator seems to not generate data for more than one lane. For example, I am working on an undivided two lane roadway and only the NB was calculated. There does not even seem to be an option to choose which lane to apply calculations too. Does anyone have any thoughts as to how SS3 can be effectively used to do this type of work?

Template Vs. Criteria Creation

Chris Chatfield — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 21:10:45 GMT

Does anyone know of good resources that would help the transition between criteria files and templates for cross section creation? For example, how would you get a template to do the equivalent of an 'if then' statement? or how to do search for the low point within a cross section? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Instead of referring to a set a videos, it would be great if there was anyone from a DOT or similar organization that has already gone through this transition and created documentation.