ORD 2020 R3 - 2021 R1 Horizontal Geometry Edit Problem

Hi to all developers and community members,

As we are working on mountainous regions for wind turbine equipment transport, our horizontal geometries comprise many curves and need to be edited several times during design stage. We insert, remove or move the PI points also change radius many times on every geometry. Thus it is not applicable to draw the tangent lines first and apply arcs.

In our workflow horizontal and vertical geometry need to be edited iteratively and we need to see the corridor results instantaneously.

Up to now we tried to use simplify geometry command, tried to export and import the geometry (in every possible export format) just to reset everything, investigated the geometry objects to get any idea for the rules applied also tried to use "geometry builder editor".

Everything is alright up to any edit in table editor or before simplify geometry command. We want to preserve every other PI position during editing.

You can find the video below showing how the problematic situation occurred and what the problem was.

Hi to all developers and community members,

As we are working on mountainous regions for wind turbine equipment transport, our horizontal geometries comprise many curves and need to be edited several times during design stage. We insert, remove or move the PI points also change radius many times on every geometry. Thus it is not applicable to draw the tangent lines first and apply arcs.

In our workflow horizontal and vertical geometry need to be edited iteratively and we need to see the corridor results instantaneously.

Up to now we tried to use simplify geometry command, tried to export and import the geometry (in every possible export format) just to reset everything, investigated the geometry objects to get any idea for the rules applied also tried to use "geometry builder editor".

Everything is alright up to any edit in table editor or before simplify geometry command. We want to preserve every other PI position during editing.

You can find the video below showing how the problematic situation occurred and what the problem was.

Importing alignments and using the PI tool you show will cause this issue.  The process that seems to work best is to create separate elements, then apply the curves and complex them together for the final alignment.  Use the "arc between elements" command to place the arch between previously created tangent lines.  That arc tool will trim the tangent lines back as needed and heal as you shift other portions of the design around.  

Looks like after the table editor modifies the alignment the rules of the alignment are changed.  The "simplify geometry" was suppose to fix that.  You could try and right click on the alignment and remove the rules then run the "simplify geometry" command.

Last resort:

If you open your "feature definition toolbar" and turn the snap on , you could snap to the circle center which will make a rule.  Then use the circles as your PI control.   Move the circle to modify the point. 

Thanks for your quick response guys.

As a palliative solution we will use circle objects and spaping PI point to centers.

Simplify geometry doesn't do anything even after deactivating rules.

"Insert fillet" command in modify menu stil protects the integrity of the complex element while inserting new PI but there is no remove PI command like that. If anybody knows a way of removing PI other than Table Editor, it will fix most of our problem for now.

You can use the legacy "Drop complex" tool to drop the alignment down to it's core elements... remove the segments and add single element removing the PI.  Recomplex the alignment using the create complex tool ensuring the feature name is the same as what you dropped. 

It appears to me that you have hit upon one of ORD's greatest weaknesses - its almost nonexistent support for iterative design.  This has frustrated me to no end.  It's to the point where I've taken it back to InRoads SS2 where it's quicker to revise the geometry and rerun the corridor than it is to simply revise the geometry in ORD.

I have occasionally had luck using the MicroStation "Delete Vertex" tool to delete PIs.  Use it once to delete the curve and a second time to delete the PI itself.  I don't know how that will affect your trouble moving PIs.