Dear All,
I have gone several times through the hard job of coordinating the elevations (or depths of burial) of different water utilities networks that were crossing each other, as may often happen in utilities that share the same road right of way. Water networks should be coordinated with sewers so that enough vertical clearance is available between the two pipes to avoid contamination, and sometimes there are up to four utilities to coordinate that way. I now feel sick of going manually through this tedious exercise, and am searching for some software to help me out automate this task (which would hopefully be AutoCAD based). I would greatly appreciate any help and/ or info about resources in this regard.
Thanks and best regards,
Amine Salameh, CEng, MIWO
Hi Amine,
Bentley has a number of software tools that can help with this task. Our Civil products like InRoads, GEOPAK and PowerCivil allow you to lay out pipe networks (and other services) and then detect clashes. Each tool is slightly different in its approach, so you should talk to you local Bentley representative for more detailed information about them. InRoads can run on AutoCAD, and the others can read/write AutoCAD .dwg files...so AutoCAD compatibility shouldn't be a problem. Alternatively, if you have pipes and services already drawn in 3D CAD files, you could use ProjectWise Navigator to check for pipe 'interference'. Navigator also supports data in a range of formats including AutoCAD, and is a very useful tool in itself.
Regards,
Mal Sharkey
Product Manager Bentley
Hi Mal,
Thanks so much for the answer. I think that my company has a subscription to InRoads, but since this is a software mainly dedicated to road and terrain design, would you please provide a procedure that shows how can this software be used for coordinating utilities vertically? Thanks in advance and best regards,
HI Amine,
I don't know InRoads as well as some on this site, so I would suggest you post your question on the Road Design and Land Development page ( http://communities.bentley.com/Products/Road___Site_Design/f/5922.aspx ) - your are likely to get some good responses there.
However I do know that you need to have a decent understanding of the InRoads fundamentals before you use it to figure vertical (and horizontal) clearance between utilities/features...so a forum post is probably not the easiest way to explain how this works.
I would suggest you take a look at the InRoads training sessions. For example, if you have a subscription for online learning, this 1 hr demo goes over some pipeline fundamentals: http://lms.bentley.com/globalelearning/DesktopModules/OfferingInfo.aspx?cid=4214&catid=82&offid=20270&tabindex=4&tabid=255
Mal