There appears to be an issue with the use of Variable Constraints for barriers on a skewed bridge. We use variable constraints to add slopes and varying heights to our approach barriers.
The variable constraints appear to measure from the control line (centre of the bridge). See below screenshots to help explain the problem.
The "Relative location" of the variable constraints should be measured along the line of the barrier, not the centreline of the bridge. This creates a clear error when the skew is significant, however if you had a small skew this error could go unnoticed and create flow on issues.
You can see in the screenshot below that between -10m and -5m (5m total length), the height of the barrier should be 1m. However, when you look at the 3D and section view you can see that the 1m tall section is actually only 1.5m long (instead of 5m as prescribed). This caused plenty of confusion for my design team.
Our workaround is to draw lines perpendicular to the control in plan view and measure the required distances to put into "Relative location", however this opens itself up to potential manual error.
I think this is a bug that needs fixing. In our region the vast majority of our bridges are skewed, so this will be an issue on almost every project we do.
Additionally, we need the ability to set the cut method at each end of the barrier individually. i.e. skew at one end and perpendicular at the other.
Hi Colby, Can you please log a service ticket. Agree it should be fixed.