All
Am having a think about the creation of bearer arrangements for turnouts in both PRT SS4 and in OpenRail. My main thoughts are towards using civil cells as sleeper/bearer geometry in order to show the correct arrangement and orientation about the lead rail, that would allow changes if this turnout is in similar or contra flexure. I would like to know Bentleys approach to this in OpenRail in order to focus my efforts.
The current create sleeper tools in OpenRail shows sleeper in turnouts graphically in 3D. However is assumes a constant sleeper arrangement through turnouts, which is not the case in the UK as turnout sleepers are defined as per manufacturers drawings, and are more complex than stating a spacing/centres, with a linear change from origin to last long sleeper, which is what I assume OpenRail does at this point.
I would like to suggest an improvement to OpenRail that allows the sleeper alignment to be defined in the DGNLIB that holds the turnout information, making a note that this is defined about the lead rail - which is a half gauge offset from the CL of the track (maintain length along inside rail to IP in SS4 turnout library file). This would mean that if the turnout is curved, then the sleepers would be orientated correctly. Kivanch if you are involved in thinking about turnouts, and this is something that could be developed, and I can help in any way - please let me know
In addition, with regard to my civil cell approach, currently, Civil Cells in SS4 cannot be used in OpenRail, and vice versa. Is this likely to change? I am quite progressed with this, using 2D geometry in civil cells to define how bearers look in turnouts and would like to maintain my resource when we move to OpenRoads.
Would appreciate any help
Thanks
Alastair
Hi;
Thank you for your suggestions, we will be improving sleepers, and this was one of the topics that I want to focus on. Let me work on this a bit and I will definitely reach you for help. One thing I have in mind is to have sleeper definitions per turnout, in the dgnlib (just like you described), that defines precise locations of sleepers as a list (relative to turnout points), so we can address any sleeper configuration required. Another thing is to have these turnouts created as parametric cells so they can be any shape required.
Currently civil cells does not read turnouts, but we are working on making them work together. We are targeting Q1 release for this.
Kivanch After jpln solved my issue with Civil Cell placement in a later thread in the forum, I have worked up a bit of a trial Civil Cell for turnout bearer placement. It may be that aspects of this would help with what you are thinking of developing. Each line is placed with a delta offset constraint on each end, with the origin being the intersection of the toe line and the lead rail. Sleeper widths are then defined as an offset which is mirrored, and then joined up to form complex geometry.
See video for info
https://youtu.be/9mCRBo3p6PM
This is a very interesting application of civil cell, it looks really nice. Current sleeper tool does a similar work, using turnout branch geometry and main line geometry. Extending the turnout width to have same offset as it was in a single track.
Kivanch Thanks. It is a work in progress, but it benefits us because it uses mainline geometry only, not branch geometry, as this is how we define them in the UK. We can also use it now in PRT SS4 with OpenRail Technology as opposed to a full OpenRail CE install, which we have not deployed yet.
The way OpenRail does it is beneficial because it is already written into the software, and makes for excellent visualisation. As noted, if we could define a table or tables of stations, offsets and widths from a datum on the main line lead rail then the OpenRail solution would be must more representative of real life for UK turnouts. I am actually really excited for what it can do.
Perhaps the tables could be tied into the sleeper sets (different table for straight vs curved sleeper set) and then the sleepers defined in the tables could link up with Item Types for the sleeper designations for take off!
Very interested to see what is the outcome.