offset poly

[Shannon Knox]

I am an engineer that works for a heavy highway and bridge construction
company. The current software that we use it not very good and I am looking
for a better
solution. Most of what I do is estimating and bidding except for
subdivision work which I do most of the design work except permitting THANK
GOD, so I am way behind the times in the latest cad design package. All I
want to be able to do is efficiently generate existing and finish grade
surfaces to do earthwork calculations and for my surveyor to be able to
generate his staking information and to be able to manage point list better.
So I will be posting a lot of "Can I do this questions" in order to decide
what to purchase. Here is the first.

My surveyor wants to be able to do the following after entering a horizontal
and vertical alignment.

1. Place points parallel to the alignment by giving a range of stations and
a constant horizontal offset and a grade by either slope
or elevation change.
Example:
form station 1+00 offset 12' @ 2%
to station 3+00 offset 12' @ 2%

2. Same as above but, vary the horizontal offset for tapers.
Example:
form station 1+00 offset 12' @ 2%
to station 3+00 offset 18' @ 2%

3. Same as above but , vary the grade by starting and ending slope for
supers.
Example:
form station 1+00 offset 12' @ 2%
to station 3+00 offset 18' @ -2%

In each case he wants to be able to place the points at a given interval
such as every 50' on lines and 25' on curves.

It would be nice to be able to create 3D Polys the same way.
I have a demo of your current software but, I have not gotten to far with it
yet. The main reason he does not use templates in due to the fact that most
of the FDOT work we do would require many templates. Some with inside curb
some with traffic separators
ect. Again I have not gotten very far with the demo but, it seems like you
can only process a road using one template.

Any advice will be helpful

Shannon Knox
stknox@southlandconstruction.com
Southland Construction, Inc.

[Michael Ricci]

Shannon,

I am mostly a user of the mining module, so I probably qualify as a light
weight user of some of the civil routines. I recently ran into a road
design that I needed to do that required 2 templates. I discovered that
there is a 'template transition" option that lets you use a template, and
then at a station you specify, say 1+00, begin transitioning to another
template, completing the transition at another station that you specify, say
3+00. I did not need to transition again, but in looking at the literature,
it appears that you can include multiple transitions. The transition only
lets you modify the grade distances and slopes. Apparently, curb, cut/fill,
and such can not be changed with this routine.

IMPORTANT -- This is not the module I use often. There may be other and
better solutions.

Hope this helps at least a little.

Mike Ricci
"Shannon Knox" <stknox@southlandconstruction.com> wrote in message
news:alllbg$rtf$1@update.carlsonsw.com...

I am an engineer that works for a heavy highway and bridge construction
company. The current software that we use it not very good and I am
looking
for a better
solution. Most of what I do is estimating and bidding except for
subdivision work which I do most of the design work except permitting
THANK
GOD, so I am way behind the times in the latest cad design package. All I
want to be able to do is efficiently generate existing and finish grade
surfaces to do earthwork calculations and for my surveyor to be able to
generate his staking information and to be able to manage point list
better.
So I will be posting a lot of "Can I do this questions" in order to decide
what to purchase. Here is the first.

My surveyor wants to be able to do the following after entering a
horizontal
and vertical alignment.

1. Place points parallel to the alignment by giving a range of stations
and
a constant horizontal offset and a grade by either slope
or elevation change.
Example:
form station 1+00 offset 12' @ 2%
to station 3+00 offset 12' @ 2%

2. Same as above but, vary the horizontal offset for tapers.
Example:
form station 1+00 offset 12' @ 2%
to station 3+00 offset 18' @ 2%

3. Same as above but , vary the grade by starting and ending slope for
supers.
Example:
form station 1+00 offset 12' @ 2%
to station 3+00 offset 18' @ -2%

In each case he wants to be able to place the points at a given interval
such as every 50' on lines and 25' on curves.

It would be nice to be able to create 3D Polys the same way.
I have a demo of your current software but, I have not gotten to far with
it
yet. The main reason he does not use templates in due to the fact that
most
of the FDOT work we do would require many templates. Some with inside
curb
some with traffic separators
ect. Again I have not gotten very far with the demo but, it seems like
you
can only process a road using one template.

Any advice will be helpful

Shannon Knox
stknox@southlandconstruction.com
Southland Construction, Inc.