[GPK SS4] Please refresh my memory about Native vs. OpenRoads technology in SS4?

Question

I'm back in PowerGeopak SS4, and it's been a few years... 
 As I recall, I need to develop my alignments (H & V) in the OpenRoads portion of the project, then export them to Native in order to be able to draw and annotate them for plans production. I also believe that I need to develop my corridor in the OpenRoads, then "export" my cross sections to a drawing in order to create sheets. But I'm not sure about any one of those steps...My SS4 experience and training was spotty at best, and most of that was for InRoads. Now that I'm back to Geopak, I'm second-guessing everything I thought I knew. 
 I was given a GPK file with my horizontal alignments, and I was able to import that into an alignment drawing, so I have OpenRoads alignments. At the moment, they are all in a single drawing...I think it might be better if I split them out to their own individual drawings so that different people can work on different portions of the project (One person doing side roads while someone else does Mainline1 and another does Mainline2). Or is that not going to work when it comes to modeling the different corridors to each other (Do they all need to be in the same drawing to be able to reference each other)? 
 How much of the design can we do with the native tools? And when I import Native back to OpenRoads, will it modify any geometry already there, or will it create additional geometry? Similarly, when we make adjustments in the OpenRoads technology and we need to export back to Native, does the information modify the existing COGO (etc.) or does it generate an extra set of geometry? Do we have do do corridor modeling, or are we able to use criteria files? I'm capable in either, but I want to know what options might be available for all of our team members who aren't me. 
 I was looking through the Wiki and the on-demand training, but it seemed more efficient to just come here and ask. Thank you. 
 MaryB PowerGeoPAK 08.11.09.878

Steven Litzau · Answer

Mary, 
 You are correct, you will need to use the legacy SS2 tools for annotation of your geometry. Getting the geometry back into the GPK can be done with the Export Geometry tool, or by configuring a Feature Definition to Auto Export those at which point changes to the OpenRoads geometry are immediately sent to the GPK. 
 If your workspace is configured for it, you can go directly to sheets from the corridor model from the OpenRoads tools. If memory serves you can also have the software create a "stacked" drawing that is similar to what the SS2 tools did and includes a cell so you should be able to use the SS2 sheeting process (or other tools). Since the geometry can be pushed back to the GPK, you could also do your cross sections with criteria. 
 The alignments do not need to be in a single drawing so whatever makes since for your workflow should be acceptable there. As for moving from the OpenRoads geometry to the GPK, as long as the names aren't changed, the import and export process should update existing geometry not duplicate. Beyond that there a couple of things to be aware of. If you are using the auto export functionality, deleting geometry out of the DGN file will remove it from the GPK. The reverse is not true, the import process is not a synchronization, it is simply an import, so if you delete something out of the GPK, you will also need to remove it from the DGN. For geometry naming, the OpenRoads geometry does not have the same limitations as GPK naming, so you need to make sure you are using names that will work in the GPK, the biggest thing being the length limit (15 characters I think it was). 
 All of this is dependent on the workspace, and what is configured for the respective tools. I think I caught all the questions there, and hope that helps. 
 Steve