I can not get Open Roads Designer to export a V8i/Power InRoads compatible DGN, it acts like it does but when I try to open it with PI it gives me the error something to the effect of "this file has Civil Data that is newer than the program you are trying to use. open as read only?" so I think I can work around this problem. I open a separate V8i/PI file and reference the read only ORD created option into it, then I copy the reference data into the V8i/PI DGN and start working thinking everything is ok. I'm working along creating alignments in an ALG file and drawing lines thinking I'm moving forward, I get out of the V8i/PI file to look at something in the ORD file (isn't this fun having 2 products made by the same company that are like oil and water) then try to reopen the the V8i/PI file and it gives me the same Civil Data error above. I start to question my thinking maybe it was named something else or maybe I saved it in the wrong spot, i try doing a Restart on the old computer because that sometimes fixes these things, NOPE. The file is Read Only so now I have to recreate the V8i/PI file again. It is like one of the programmers for ORD is a secret spy for AutoCad and has written code to make the new fancy smancy CAD program be so incompatible with its previous versions that it will drive you to ask the question maybe Civil3D by AutoCad is better??!? Writing deeds and rotating alignments in V8i/PI is straight forward customizable and works ORD is severely lacking and appears to be quite buggy for a program that has been on the market for 2+ years, yes I have the latest version of ORD. We are using UDOT's config file which works as far as I can tell. So yeah for a file with everything in it blah blah blah give me the ease of V8i/PI for creating deeds.
PS the curve entry in ORD Geometry Builders is also horrible, if you don't have a tangent curve or the cord information for a curve you are trying to enter have fun manually creating lines to figure out what ORD has to have to enter a curve, V8i/PI can use radial bearings but fancy prance ORD can't handle radial bearings, really?
If you made it this far thanks for listening to my rant, any ideas on how to fix any of the glitches described above would be great. I'm going to check on Civil3D prices.
Frustrated Surveyor