I have been tracking the progress of ORD and it looks promising, but I have a few questions.
We still use SS2 for the majority of our production work since it is very stable and we already know how to use it. This includes using Corridor Modeler and Roadway Designer (no longer using criteria files). We do, however, use SS4 for Survey and Terrain work. I just find that it is cumbersome to have to export everything back to the legacy products to finish producing plans. I have managed to use SS4 for roadway modeling on a test basis to recreate a design that I was doing concurrently in SS2. It seems like I still needed to revert back to SS2-era tools for final plan production.
I'm wondering if, when we upgrade, we should just bypass SS3/SS4 and jump right into ORD. My thought was to let the other ORD users find out what its limitations are before we jump into full plan production work with it. I also understand that Survey hasn't been incorporated into ORD yet, so I don't understand how we would begin a new project in ORD. I also would like to see a clear path for upgrading all of our current standards so they are usable in ORD at least to some extent. I'm not sure if I want to start from scratch.
What are the pros/cons of using SS2 vs. SS3/4 vs. ORD? I'm hoping someone who has been through an upgrade can shed some light on this.
Long story short... Where do we go from here? Keep using SS2 for now? Spend time upgrading to SS4? Or wait until ORD is a complete package, from Survey to Design to Plan Production to Construction?
Thank you,Josh Mauritz
My short version ... Stay on SS2 ... skip SS3/4 ... start testing ORD and move to it when it's complete.