Best way to design ditches

Hi, 

I have a problem with designing ditches which have own vertical alignments. When I create vertical alignment of ditch in point nr 2, the alignment is shorter then the axis of ditch - so when I project the slope for ex. 2% it will have on the ditch less then 2%.

When I create vertical alignment of ditch in point 3 and then displays profile with vertical alignment elevation of axis is different in cross section then in profile (difference is about +-1 cm) becasue the cross section is made in stationing of the axis of road, while the profile has own stationing which is a bit longer.

So what is the best way to desing a vertical alignment of a ditch?? How to do it in InRoads without little misteakes?? Is there a special tool to create vertical alignment of ditches?

Parents
  • Hello,

    I am not sure whether it is worth its effort. Actually I am sure it is not. I usually follow your workflow and do not take care of the difference on curves. Typically I have vertical alignments for each side ditches designed in the mainline horizontal alignement. Of course there are some situations when you are close enough to the allowed grade limits to take care of this problem. However in most cases the difference is negligible. This is not Inroads or other software issue it refers to roads designing at all.

    Adam

    Best,

    Adam


    OpenRoads Designer 2023   |  OpenRail Designer 2023

                 

  • Since InRoads allows multiple vertical alignments on a horizontal alignments, I have found that using a ditch vertical alignment with a separate horizontal alignment for the ditch centerline makes it easy to controll the ditch elevations since the station for the verical is the cenerline station.

    I have also allowed the ditch to float - no horizontal alignment - based simply off side slopes and grade elevation.


    Charles (Chuck) Rheault
    CADD Manager

    MDOT State Highway Administration

    • MicroStation user since IGDS, InRoads user since TDP.
    • AutoCAD, Land Desktop and Civil 3D, off and on since 1996
  • I agree with caddcop , ditch vertical alignments are easier to control as a vertical alignment under the centerline horizontal alignment.  Also this makes it easier to display and annotate in your centerline profiles.  Anymore, I create all my ditch profiles under the centerline alignment.  I control the ditch horizontal alignment by either points controls or a horizontal alignment only.

  • As a new user, can you direct me to any guidance on how to display these secondary profiles on the centerline profile? I'm coming from OLD Land Desktop AutoCAD world where I had a specific tool for projecting profiles onto the main one. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Reply Children
  • If you are using InRoads, the vertical alignments are children of the horizontal alignment - you can display any of the child verticals on any profile view of the parent horizontal.
    If you wish to project a vertical alignment from a different horizontal alignment, under the Evaluation > Profile menu there is a Alignments to Profile tool – projects the vertical alignment from one horizontal alignment onto a profile extracted along another horizontal alignment.

    Charles (Chuck) Rheault
    CADD Manager

    MDOT State Highway Administration

    • MicroStation user since IGDS, InRoads user since TDP.
    • AutoCAD, Land Desktop and Civil 3D, off and on since 1996