I have an alignment with a profile that came from an ALG. The profile is effectively a profile from surface created in the ALG before import. I'm trying to use the best fit profile tool to create a new profile that is always above the exiting profile, but some sections had a raised median. To modify my source profile, I've used the Profile Offset Transition tool to create a "sub-profile" to create a lower section where the median areas are. Now, I need to open up two intervals on the original profile so I can complex all these pieces together and finally generate the best fit profile.
But I can't seem to find any tool that allows me to create the interval. Partial delete seems to do nothing. Trim multiple looks promising, but I need to open one interval in the middle, the other interval really needs to go from a certain point to the end of the profile - in effect, cutting it off for the last few hundred feet, leaving nothing of the original profile beyond the start of the interval.
I tried dropping the elements hoping I could work with simple MicroStation graphics, but that just made them disappear completely.
I must admit that I am finding working with Civil Geometry to still be fraught with frustration as seemingly simple workflows turn into frustrating efforts in futility.
As I was finishing this up, confirming that everything I am reporting is accurate, I crashed ORD. When I reopened the file and profile model, I actually had my intervals and was able to run my best fit.
Now, in InRoads, at this point, I would use the Vertical Elements tools to see where I could replace multiple short curves with a single longer curve. My efforts to replicate this are not working. I tried the Profile Curve Between Elements tool - the Parabola between and the profile curve between modes. it neither opened an interval nor did it trim or extend. So Now, I'm back to manually opening an interval, which may work, if I crash out of the product, or may just raise my blood pressure.
And even if I get it to work, making edits to curve lengths and modifying PI's is neither intuitive nor as simple as the tools of InRoads.
Follow up Thoughts and discoveries:
On most projects, developing the main alignments can be iterative but usually, at some point, their design is pretty static. Where the design intent is more important is for the ancillary alignments that need to tie to these which frequently change during the design process. In Ss4, we envisioned developing the main alignments in the native product and using the Civil Geometry tools for those ancillary alignments, since it was possible to edit a main alignment in InRoads and update the imported alignment without breaking an association.
But for ORD, the Edit in Native option is gone. So what other options are there? Well, it just so happened that something got corrupt in my main alignment file resulting in attached reference files failing to show up in any downstream products - plan & profile sheets, for example. So I decided to create a new main alignment DGN file and was trying to decide how to "access" my main alignment going forward. While using it as a reference was an option, I also wanted to be able to edit it and since I wanted a clean break from this problem file, I settled on LandXML
Upon re-import, I found I had a simplified, all in one profile that was now easily edited on a PI to PI basis, where I could adjust a PI graphically and also now edit the length of curves or segment slopes. What I need to test is if one can update an alignment by reimporting the same alignment from another LandXML file.
If not, I think it should be something that should be added to the product. I do not see a GUID in the XML file - I think it should include that and during import, compare it to the GUID's already in a file and offer you the choice of replacing or issuing a new GUID, renaming the alignment in the process if necessary as well.
Charles (Chuck) Rheault CADD Manager
MDOT State Highway Administration
Hear! Hear!
Geometry edits are perhaps the most frustrating tasks in OpenRoads. The developers don't seem to be aware that geometric design is an iterative process so haven't provided appropriate tools or workflows to do this type of work. The Horizontal/Vertical Elements tools from InRoads are invaluable in building and editing geometry. The curve editor allows creation of a compound curve with combining spiral in one step, fancy that!