Hand Modified Cross Sections to Surface (SS4)

Is there a tool or workflow to turn hand modified cross sections into a surface, mesh or solid shape in OpenRoads?

  • Thank you all for the discussion and ideas.

    In SS4 I was able to find a way to build my hand modified cross sections into a surface file by;

    1. Use the cross section tools to create a .col file

    2. Use the build triangles tool to create a .tin

    3. Used that new .tin as a terrain.

  • I guess I'm not entirely clear why this can't be done by editing specific station drops.  A right-click in the dynamic section view will offer the choice to edit the station currently shown:

    That opens the template editor where you can directly make the desired changes to that section and the changes are reflected in the model when it's next processed.

    This same workflow was available in the SS2 Roadway Designer by double-clicking in the Roadway Designer section view.  I know this won't satisfy designers who are unwilling to learn to use the design tools but...(I have to stop here lest I enter a rant).

    As much as I dislike ORD (a lot) and as much as I think InRoads SS2 is a superior product (by a long shot), we have to learn to work around its shortcomings.

  • It's not always the users "unwilling to learn". Sometimes it's the engineers running the project - we've still got 5-15 years before they retire.

    And sometimes it's literally budget and hours. Making the edits to the template drops and end sections and recreating the corridor surface just takes longer than "stretch that line to there". But the minute we stretch that line, our surface is invalid and can't be used for anything else because it no longer represents the cross sections. Clip masking to draw in hand edits gives us the same problem, and now it's complicated because now there is conflicting "cross section data" (that still doesn't match the model).

    I understand that it's actually a choice of "when" we "choose" to spend the extra time...but it would be nice if we had an option to port our hand edits back into the model (or a model) somehow.

    If ORD is about flexibility, then give us the flexibility to work however our shop thinks is best (even if they are wrong).
    Tech savvy users may not be the problem here. Some of them are working for engineers who have been working in the field longer than the techs have been alive, and it's their name on the plans. What they say goes, and having software this inflexible just makes it even harder. Politics and Luddism are alive and well, and are a real factor in some people's daily lives.

    MaryB

    Power GeoPak 08.11.09.918
    Power InRoads 08.11.09.918
    OpenRoads Designer 2021 R2

        

  • Thanks Ray, I completely forgot this possibility.

    I'm also curious to know why this command wouldn't be enough for editing single cross sections.

  • If you have time to edit individual cross sections, you have time to edit individual template drops. The modified templates become part of the corridor definition and, as a result, part of the model.  When you next process the corridor those edits remain.

    p.s., After 35 years in the field and my name on many plan sets, I stand by my opinion of engineers and designers unwilling to learn and use the current tools of the trade, but that's a topic for another thread.