[IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

Zane Pratt — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 15:37:24 GMT

yet bet. I used the tracking and notes all the time.

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

MaryB — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 15:30:59 GMT

That's the most concise solution yet. Thank you.

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

Zane Pratt — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 14:40:02 GMT

Yes, If you use the Horizontal Alignment tracking it is the active profile. I also like setting up an InRoads note using Station and Vertical Elevation.

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

MaryB — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 14:36:26 GMT

Are you sure the elevation is the Profile and not the active surface?

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

Zane Pratt — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 14:06:15 GMT

Set the alignment active. In Plan view use the tracking tool. Tools>Tracking>Horizontal Alignments. Snap to the object and the readout will give you station, offset, grade, elevation. (the grade and the elevation values correspond to the active profile). If you don't have an object to snap to, draw a line or place a cell with the command so= (station,offset).

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

MaryB — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 13:58:56 GMT

Let's simplify this. Forget about my cross section. Forget that I said I was trying to draw ANYTHING.

My engineer comes up to me and asks me what the profile grade elevation is at Station X.
How do I get him that information? How many steps do I have to take (and what are they) to answer this question?

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

Zane Pratt — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 12:48:29 GMT

Alignments aren't displayed in cross sections, only surface features can be displayed. Easier way to import alignments to a surface. Go to File>Import> From Geometry. Once geometry is is a surface you can display in sections and label automatically or set a cell to be place automatically as a crossing feature. Also try using InRoads notes in your cross sections to label points. The 0,0 point of the cross section is the active profile grade point of the alignment. Note: InRoads notes in plan view will also give you profile grade elevations.

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

MaryB — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 22:20:17 GMT

I don't care if the cross section doesn't understand what a profile is - I was hoping that InRoads could understand what a profile was, enough that the same information can be queried whether I'm in Plan, Profile, or Cross Section. There seems to be a severe disconnect between the geometry as designed, and the information that's available from that design. I don't need InRoads to DRAW (display) anything for me - I just need a data point (station & elevation). Heck, if there were a way I could just query the geometry to get that information I could type it into the key-in myself.

Bentley Development Folks! Please do NOT be so wrapped up in the next best thing that you forget all about Plans Production! While the modeling is wonderful, and the promise of automatic annotation is fantastic, there is still more information that needs to go into a set of plans. As advanced as the modeling is, getting design closer to production than ever before, there are going to be items that won't/can't be designed that way that will still need to be created to produce a complete plan set. Small projects, older engineers - times when "all that modeling" is going to be seen as a big waste of time... The CAD technician will not be obsolete for a number of years yet. Please try your best to NOT lock us out of being able to do OUR jobs.

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

Ray Thwaits — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 20:12:13 GMT

I understand your frustration. I'm sure I'd be feeling the same way about GEOPAK if I had to use it after using InRoads for several years.

InRoads cross sections are based on a horizontal alignment, but that's the end of their connection to any geometry. Everything that displays in cross sections must be from a surface (surface, component or feature). It's frustrating to have to drape a right-of-way line on a surface to get it to show up in cross sections, but it is what it is.

There are some other workarounds to get what you're looking for but they all involve creating a surface feature to display and annotate in your sections. For instance, as I was typing this I remembered you can import geometry directly into a surface - bypassing the display and import from graphics I mentioned above.

As far as OpenRoads - I think you can take your GEOPAK to InRoads experience and multiply it by a factor of 50 or so (in a negative way). We started a pilot rollout of SS4 and quickly abandoned it because it was so inferior to SS2. I've been using OpenRoads for a few months now and, while better than SS4, to my mind SS2 is still a far superior product.

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

MaryB — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 19:28:08 GMT

I take it the answer is...There is no tool to accomplish this simply.

That sounds like a lot of steps, a lot of "extra" files, and a lot of work - as many steps as it takes to just "query" the profile grade at a known station.

Man, I hate InRoads some days...Does answering this kind of question get any easier in OpenRoads?

RE: [IR SS2] In Cross section, how to place an element at Profile grade location?

Ray Thwaits — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 18:41:45 GMT

You can display the alignment in 3D (Geometry>View Geometry>View 3-D Alignment) and import the displayed into a surface as an untriangulated feature. You can then display the alignment feature in your cross sections. Make sure the interval is less than and divides evenly into the cross section interval.