In open roads, what is the difference between a civil element, and a traditional element? Where are these properties inherited from, are they immutable? Where is this documented for us as users? Is there a list of "element types" and which tools

It feels like every time I use any tool on any element it in open roads (10.10) it results in a vague error that's impossible to troubleshoot unless I perfectly complete like 15 actions. I have an alignment I'm trying to set to a terrain model, I don't know if the alignment element is 2D or 3D or where it inherited it's attributes from, or how to check, I got it from another team member, lets pretend I can't ask them or recreate it. A similar workflow to ours is shown in this linkedin tutorial, about 1 minute in is where I'm struggling. I have a civil alignment and terrain model stored in separate files and referenced into my current drawing. If I try to use the "Open Profile Model" on my referenced in alignment, I get "Element type not valid for this tool".

I'm trying to start using open bridges (10.10) with an existing alignment, but this alignment has "No active profile available" when I try to associate a bridge with it. Rather than fixing my specific issue, I'm much more interested in where any of you that are super users even found the resources to become one? I asked bentley to join the developer program but they wanted like over 4 figures I wasn't willing to pay that for something that probably wouldn't help. I can't ask a forum every time, Bentley's training videos don't have seem to have the answers, most of their official videos seem to be their employees also seeing the software for the first time. Would be nice to get some scripted training that's actually been reviewed by an educational professional or someone qualified, but for now, I appreciate any help or tips any of you can provide that might help me figure out how they want people to use this to produce drawings.

For reference, I've been drafting with various systems including microstation for 16 years, not new at drafting, just new with ORD/Open Bridges features.

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  • I appreciate you taking the time to respond, but you didn't answer my question at all, my issue is that I have a bunch of civil elements that are "forgetting" they're civil elements, always centerline profiles. We don't currently use OpenBridges in my Organization, we're exploring the idea, and I can't even start getting into the processes without first getting a working alignment with an associated profile. I don't know how, why, or if it's old versions being incompatible, bad work flows or what, but the civil elements break like 50% of the time I've tried to import or manipulate them and I have no idea what's causing it.

    In other CAD software, it's a somewhat trivial task to open up the object explorer, and manually override an element's property's to basically anything you want and they have supporting documents online telling you how to do it that are good wihout paying for them. That is the reason I'm asking "what is the difference between a civil element and a non-civil element". Unfortunately, more introductory YouTube training will not resolve my issue.

  • Please contact me at alex.mabrich@bentley.com


    This is a test

  • Hi Dane,

    Asking this is the ORD forum may help if its specifically about ORD Geometry. There are some rules to creating ORD data that OpenRoads users use that are a bit convoluted to start with, but ultimately organize and group data to make the data easier to deal with later down the track.

     

    Personally i'd recommend creating your alignment data using the ORD 2d/3d workflows and then work purely in 3d for Terrains and OBM (although i disagree with that official workflow).

     

    Youtube now has a lot of resources that can help - this is a good one to understanding Geometry basics:

    OpenRoads Designer: QuickStart for Civil Geometry - YouTube

    Regards,

    Mark


    OpenRoads Designer 2022 R3 (10.12)  |  Microstation 2023.1  |  ProjectWise CE 3.4