After running OpenRoads for the past nearly 6 years, I feel like I should be past this question but I'm not. And for that matter, I'm surprised it's a new question for me. I don't know whether it's a new question because of a difference in workspace or because I have a new requirement that I hadn't faced before. I'm running Geopak 08.11.09.918 with Microstation 08.11.09.916.
I have a template with a couple points that use the feature definition Underdrain. I want them to show up in plan for reference and so that I can look at the profile and most importantly, see a report on the profile. I know that I can use the tool Plan by 3D Element (and if I use that tool, I get what I expect), but I want it to update automatically with each corridor update. Besides, the corridor generates plenty of other lines in plan view; I just want this to be another of them.
I've reviewed the linear features in 3D to be sure of the right path through the feature definition structure. In Civil Standards for this feature definition, Create Template Geometry is set to true. The Plan section shows that it should follow an element template, and this element template has assigned level, color, line style, and weight.
I've resynchronized from the template library (where I'd made my most recent changes) and reprocess the corridor. When it's done, I see evidence of other changes I've made.
The appropriate level is set to display in the plan view, but nothing is on that level.
I'm surely missing something, but what?
Only a point that is on top and part of a component will display in "plan" 2d view as geometry. And only when "Create Template Geometry" is turn on in Openroads standards under Feature defintion
Regards
Chris
AECOM Roads UK&I Digital Engineering, Design & Solutions Lead | Sector Information Management Lead
Associate Director – Digital
OpenRoads Designer 10.12 | MicroStation 2023 | ProjectWise CE 10.3.4 | ContextCapture | ProjectWise PowerShell 2023 | ProjectWise WSG API | Generative Components | OpenBridge Designer 10.12
Civil 3D 2023 | Dynamo | Navisworks Manage
PowerShell | Visual Studio | Office 365 | Power Platform | Teams | SharePoint | Visio
Speckle | BIMVision | Revizto | Solibri
Well, that's...inconvenient, and I feel like it's inconsistent with my own previous experience, but I could be wrong.
Assuming your observation is right, do you mean that the plan line won't be constructed unless it's part of the top surface of the template at large, or unless it's a top point within the component it belongs to?
I need the flow line, not the top of the pipe nor the top of the backfill. I guess that means I need to create a fictional component that will never show up anywhere, and if it needs to be part of the top surface of the template, that'll mean I can't get the flow line at all (except with the workaround that I've already mentioned).
I agree with Chris Andrew that the point has to be on top. I tested and was able to switch display on and off by changing the component properties of a component that was above it to check "Exclude From Top/Bottom Mesh". If the component above it is exclude, then the line will show up. If it is not set to exclude the component above will "block" display of the line below it. Since you are looking at a storm drain line it is probably blocked by the pavement. I notice that if the line crosses multiple template drops that all create some component then it has to be set to exclude in all the template drops.
Answer Verified By: Derek Schmidt
Thanks for sharing your observations. I guess this might be the first time I face this because it's the first time I'm doing anything like it.
Now, any idea how best I might suggest an improvement to this algorithm?
It sounds like a good idea. I suppose one solution would be a separate corridor that only has the flowline in it but that has the same constraints as in the main template. Or perhaps you could save a copy of the template(s) where everything above it is set to exclude from top mesh, and then just sync the templates to that temporarily when you need to see the line in plan view, then sync them back to the normal ones. Or just edit template drop and temporarily set the stuff above to exclude if there aren't too many of them.