I am a Civil 3D user who is not happy with the software. I'd like to hear from C3D users who have experience with OpenRoads. I have Power Civil SS1 so I have some background with Microstation but I haven't used it for plan production since it is old technology and I didn't want to spend time learning the tools. My current workflow is to do my site modeling in Power Civil and export it to Civil 3D via LandXML for pipe design and plan production.
My main concerns are product stability, performance, pipe networks and plan production. Please feel free to share your experience with me in private if you wish.
To add to my original post:
I cannot sing high enough praises for how cross sections cut from the 3D model directly, and any of its reference files. and how the sections will reflect anything displayed, no matter how it was created. On that light rail project, I was assigned to the Stations team. We did all the site design for all the stations- grading, sidewalks, preliminary retaining wall locations, etc. The station buildings were done in Revit and they had it setup to export DGN's in the same coordinate system as the project. We were able to tell when an overhang would encroach on a walkway without having to study 2-D drawings of plans, elevations and section.
At my current posting, we are getting the VBA macros of Survey to create 3D storm drain pipes from our survey figures of pipe inverts and are trying to also get a rough 3D prism to represent and inlets or manholes. We are a long way from implementation of Open Roads, but we have some SUDA features defined and as one lays out a storm drain system, it clearly builds a 3-D model of pipes and structures and when done properly, their tops are tied to the design surface and the bottoms are linked to the pipe inverts.
I cannot comment on the drainage design tools as I do not have enough background with StormCAD, which apparently is the origin of the SUDA drainage tools and am leaving that to the hydraulics guys.
Charles (Chuck) Rheault CADD Manager
MDOT State Highway Administration Maryland DOT - State Highway Administration User Communities Page
Recently in the Autodesk forum the idea of showing 3D objects in profiles (just like in cross sections) would be a very good enhancement. Does Open Roads provide that capability?
Neil Wilson (aka Neilw)
Power Civil v8i 08.11.07.245
AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018
Yes, you can do a 3D cut in profile just like in section. You don't have to define style for object in sections, object are displayed just like they really are in a 3D cut. And as they change you refresh the cut. You want to see a bridge, culvert, pipe. Just attach the reference and update your 3D cut (for the profile) and sections are dynamics.
Nice! So you could show pipes and utilities that way, yes? Can you use the properties of the objects (i.e. pipe size, diameter) in the profile annotations?
Yes you have access to the different property of the element that is crossed. The example below is just a simple storm water pipe that my profile crossed.
The way openroads work is by fields. You select the element and display it's properties in text. You have access to anything that is in the property panel of any object to display as text. Thoses property are define in your standards or your design. You can of course display pipe that are folowing an alignement onto the alignement profile and again annotate the different property of thoses pipes. You can also setup automatic annotations for different element. Thoses annotation will be linked to your feature definition of the pipe. Do you have acess to Bentley learning videos? There tons of video avaiable that would answer a lot of your questions. Or YouTube, did you checked those?
I have access to bentley Learn.I've looked for content about dynamic annotations but haven't found anything that is suitable for site work. I'll see what I can find about this. Thanks!
The best videos are the one of SIG (Special interest Group).
https://learn.bentley.com/app/Public/ViewLearningPathDetails?lpId=111750&callFrom=home
And this one also:
https://learn.bentley.com/app/Public/ViewLearningPathWithMasterCourseExpanded?lpId=112219&mcId=112219&CourseId=125926&moduleId=125927
It's a good start.
Also check anything that is named SiteOps. It is now included in Openroads as Opensite name. Very very powerfull stuff
I've followed site ops since before Bentley acquired it. I am following OpenSite development closely. Annotation is still in the works so it is basic annotation for now.