Using OpenRoads Designer for Production

The 3D modeling tools are fairly solid and stable ... on the other hand plan production tools seem "half-baked" ... my major heart burn is the cross-section "deliverables" (Oh-Boy!).

ORD creates a drawing model for EVERY station where you slice a cross section! This is how ORD keeps the connection between your 3D model and cross sections presented in the sheets LIVE.

You could easily end up with hundreds of cross section models in your drawing (for large projects) and the processing can take hours. This has made managing ORD cross section sheets so tedious that we had no other choice but revert to revert to SS4 or other legacy formats just for the plan production ... especially cross sections, which defeats the purpose of OpenRoads Technology!

I've had discussions with key people in our firm who adamantly expect to be able to edit cross section graphics. They explained to me that in complex urban projects they need to make small adjustments to cross section elements and that it would be tedious and time consuming to make these tweaks using the corridor template. 

We have a simple macro that Merges Cross Section Drawings to Master for incomplete models to allow for CAD manipulation of elements - not an option?

That option will work but it severs the connection between the cross section and the 3D model. So any change in design forces you to discard the cross sections and start over. Annotations would also need to be adjusted manually. I guess I could merge the incomplete section into the drawing model and edit it there. 

Absolutely! There comes a point where you will reach diminishing returns if you try to adjust the templates and model the corridor for every small adjustment - the possibility of breaking something that was working is never nil. There's always some odd section here, or some small existing condition there. Near the end of a project, when we are out of time and budget, it's much, much more efficient to make the changes in the actual drawings. I'm sure there are ways to get it all done with end condition exceptions and point controls and, and, and...but not everyone at the firm is going to be a master modeler and sometimes the work just needs to get out the door.

ORD has no allowances for that whatsoever.

Absolutely! There comes a point where you will reach diminishing returns if you try to adjust the templates and model the corridor for every small adjustment - the possibility of breaking something that was working is never nil. There's always some odd section here, or some small existing condition there. Near the end of a project, when we are out of time and budget, it's much, much more efficient to make the changes in the actual drawings. I'm sure there are ways to get it all done with end condition exceptions and point controls and, and, and...but not everyone at the firm is going to be a master modeler and sometimes the work just needs to get out the door.

ORD has no allowances for that whatsoever.