OpenRoads Designer , Where to annotate coordinates, stations and bearing? Drawing model? Design Model? Sheet Model?

Adam,

Thanks for the reply.  The more I use OpenRoads Designer the more I am concerned about this issue.  I have worked on many large scale projects, including Mines, Landfills, and Energy facilities that were designed using InRoads and Microstation/Autocad.  These projects rely primarily on xyz data.  Alignments, corridors, terrains etc... may not even be associated to many of the civil drawings. So being able to annotate the native xyz and bearing data is critical to drawing production.  Also, on these projects non civil drafters/designers are using the civil drawings.  In my opinion anyone should be able to get into a civil drawing and snap to an element and pull the correct xy or xyz data.  Creating a drawing model that moves and rotates the reference files is confusing and could even be a liability for engineers.

I filed Defect 803213: Drawing Model coordinates do not match Design Model coordinates. As of now, with OpenRoads Designer (ORD) v10.02.00.60 or earlier, the Drawing Model rotates the Design Model planar to the x,y axis if creating a plan sheet. This only really affects the tools Label Coordinates and Label Element. They label the coordinate values associated with the existing model. If there are other tools this affects that I have not listed, please let me know. It does not affect annotation tools such as any of the Text tools. These tools can annotate using the Insert Field command that annotate according to an element’s property, whether the element is a civil element or not. They will display the coordinate values from the Design Model.

I recommend annotating using Civil tools, and not tools that hold no intelligence like the Label Coordinates or Label Element. The recommended workflow is to use Annotation Groups to group together multiple Annotation Definitions to annotate elements. For example, you could have an Annotation Group that has an Annotation Definition to add tick marks, a definition to annotate PIs that was generated from a Text Favorite, and a definition to annotate stationing every 100 units. The Feature Definitions can be set up to point to a specific Annotation Group that will annotate all of that at once.

If you have a random annotation that you need within a Drawing Model, use the Place Text tool to do this. You can utilize the Insert Field button to choose that you want X,Y,Z coordinates to annotate on a specific element. This can be used to replace the Label Coordinates or Label Element field. You don’t necessarily have to set up a Text Favorite unless you will use it often, and want to save it. If you are specifically wanting to use Label Coordinates or Label Element, you will want to use them in the Design Model, not the Drawing Model to get the correct coordinates

We have learning paths that teach how to set up Annotation Groups: http://learn.bentley.com/app/Public/ViewLearningPathDetails?lpId=111346. It will be the OpenRoads Designer Workspace Setup: Step 5 – Annotation and the OpenRoads Designer Workspace Setup: Step 6 - Survey Annotation. I highly recommend walking through these videos to understand how Annotation Groups and Text Favorites operate.

If there is a specific type of annotation that you cannot figure out how to reproduce with the civil tools, please let me know. Tell me which tool you are currently using to annotate, and how it isn’t functioning how you would like for it to. I will help you to get the annotation that you are looking for.

Holly

Thank you Holly,

I really like new tools for annotations.If only we could manage text favs somehow - I know development is working on such capability. And you are 100% right that it is good to have annotation updated with design changes.Also annotations groups speed up drafting works... providing you have them well developed. You have no idea how warm welcome XS annotations tools are in my team - with points filtering - we were missing that in S3/4.

Drawing models are often annotated by cad drafters who are not really familiar with Civil Tools - that would be another reason to have drawing models 1:1 with design model. And we still can use labels with text favs and cels, or annotation gorups, when drawing model is kept in design model scale and orientation.

again thanks for loging defect,..and for understanding!

Holly,

Thanks for filing the defect.  In response to your annotation suggestion. Respectfully, I have to add that you really can’t annotate lines, line stings and shapes using element fields.  The software doesn’t let the user identify which vertice or segment to target.  

Also, annotating the coordinates and bearings in the design model is a workflow I would like to avoid.  But it may be the only viable option.  Half the annotation would end up in a drawing model and half in a design model. What do you do when you have separate sheet files?

For now I may just avoid using drawing models all together for plan views. It just seems risky to advise users to annotate coordinates and bearings in a drawing model that may not have references in the correct location.

Hopefully this can get fixed.

Thanks for your time.

And the issue goes beyond annotation. We have engineers here who like to get into drawings and get the information for themselves. While these are very smart, capable individuals, they are not trained in CAD and some of them aren't even trained in the civil software. We can tell them all we want to NOT use certain files, but invariably they will, then come to us demanding to know why the information in said drawing isn't "right".