Topic: Designing Roads to Back of Curb Rather than Centerline

[Dinosaur]

Great John, I am pleased that someone will be able to get some use of any forthcoming solution.  My interest is now more morbid curiosity along with a mighty dose of stubborn, but I can't give it up now.

Nice presentation Michael . . . and for anybody interested, there are about 10 downloads now available at Michael's site covering a variety of Civil 3D topics.

[mjfarrell]

Thank you sir!  Did you see anything that might help you out in there?

[Dinosaur]

I will need to watch once more sans  tonight's interruptions and digest John Mayo's contribution to be sure, but there is a glimmer of hope in there.  I found the offsets particularly interesting as I had never seen them in use before and the naming conventions  looked quite helpful as well.  one more "new" tidbit was the ability to highlight the assembly element to make different sets for each side - in our class, we still had to cycle through the selections with the space bar to do that (I never did quite get the hang of that method).  I was too jazzed last night to sleep and I am too tired to concentrate now so it is now an official weekend project.

[mjfarrell]

Right you are, things have change from the old C3D that you first met to be sure.

The tools in the video are mostly just about using Prospector to Teleport yourself around in the design.
And suggestions for letting the object names, and or group names be of some assistance in the modeling.
Later we will cover using a dummy corridor surface to  assist in our vertical design for the finished design.

[John Mayo]

I will be looking at those presentaiotns this weekend also.

Thanks!

[KW-EGA]

I found that the easiest way to do this for standard road cross-sections is just to use a vertical link at the insert point. Just calculate the elevation for difference between the back of curb and center line and add a vertical link so that the back of curb matches the profile elevation. Make sure that the VerticalLink sub-assembly is set to "Omit Link". This only works were your road cross-section doesn't vary in width or cross slope. For turn lanes and intersections, I create additional alignments and profiles at the back of curb.

[mjfarrell]

KW, one could achieve the Variable Functionality the assembly you describe lacks. Just attach a Link Offset and Slope outward from the assembly, (NOT showing the Link again) then the user would connect the Pavement, and curb Sections to the LOS. Then set the Desired Targets in the Corridor the Curb alignment and profiles control, and the Pavement Targets a Centerline Profile, and Alignment for added design flexibility.

[John Mayo]

Okay I went through the tutorial and I am left with the following questions.

1. How were the ETW & gutter PGL derived? This is the big question on the topic of designing from curb. Where you only have one travel lane you can target the CL profile superimposed onto the top of curb profile. What about the bus stop PGL?

2. Is the ETW & gutter concurrent where there is no bus stop? Do the alignments overlap? Or how do you get the outside lane of the broken back to be zero? Can you set the outside lane to zero & have it target an alignment when required?

3. How do they clean up the bowties?

[mjfarrell]

John,

I will answer all the questions in another presentation (possibly today).

Most importantly I had no bowties, and If I had (most likely with the daylight element, I could have either edit the daylight slope values in those stations as an over ride, OR attached the daylight object to an alignment to control the limits of daylighting.


The Design starts with Top of Curb PGL, and all others are derived from that.

HINT: The outside lane is Following the Lip of gutter Alignment (0.05') away from the ETW, almost like a construction joint.
Note I could have done this with a different assembly at the bus bay, that would require the use of multiple regions.

[John Mayo]

Thanks again. You have been very helpful.