The furure for Roads without Autocad

[ColC]

Does the dropping of Autocad as the engine for Standalone mean that any requests for improvements in Roads be put further on the back burner ?
I have been asking for a simple addition to the Draw Sections options for several years. If the energy is directed to a new engine what will happen to those long standing requests ?

I would like to plot the offsets,stations & Natural & design levels in a horizontal label box at the base of each section. Currently I can only plot levels etc., in a confused mess along the section profile. It seems a very simple option to have data at the same Y position in each section.

[Jason]

There will be no new Carlson Roads. Instead there will be new Carlson Civil which includes everything in Roads and more. We are still working on features. In fact the 2009 release has a bunch of label improvements for drawsct. We have not done a hz label box. Please email me @ jdumas@carlsonsw.com and let me know how you would like the sections to draw and my programmers will see if they can match the format.

[cujo]

We've recently used the SurvCE Roads module to do some amazing things in staking a freeway off-ramp. Alignment, Profile, Super-Elevation, Transitioning Sections, Catching Slopes... pretty neat.

It seems that the latter part of the setup (templates and transitioning) can only be done in SurvCE. We have Carlson Survey 2008 Standalone for all the office technicians. I am understanding that I additionally need Roads or Civil to work with the templates.

Looking forward I see that one of the listed features of Carlson Survey 2009 is New Road API – New API with a collection of Lisp functions for centerlines, profiles and road templates.

Will this mean that I can completely setup the most complex of road staking situations from the office?

[DaveG]

Looking forward I see that one of the listed features of Carlson Survey 2009 is New Road API – New API with a collection of Lisp functions for centerlines, profiles and road templates.

I haven't done it, but using the Road API along with the Coordinate API, you probably could setup staking situations from the office.

Here is a condensed version of the 2009 Help file listing the Road API functions:

cl_location_at_pt
calculates the station-offset and centerline position from a specified centerline and point

cl_location_at_sta
calculates the point and vectors for a specified station on a centerline

cl_sta_range
returns the start and end stations for the specified centerline

profile_sta_range
returns the start and end stations for the specified profile

profile_z
calculates the profile elevation for the specified station on the profile

road_z
calculates the road design elevation for the specified point and design files (centerline, profile and templates)

[cujo]

DaveG,

What you describe doesn't seem to cover it.

I need to be able to create (to be transferred to SurvCE):

.tpl template files
.tsf template series files (transitions)
.sup super elevation files

As it stands in the office I can only make the alignment and profile files.

Template Editor SurvCE v2.x
Templates for roads, levees, ditches and other earthwork can be created in Carlson
Software products such as Carlson Civil or Carlson Roads, or alternately they can
be entered in the field using Input/Edit Template...
Currently, SurvCE uses only templates created in Carlson Civil and Carlson Roads
or entered directly within SurvCE using the command Template Editor.

I agree that needing to have the Roads office software ontop of Surver is reasonable, but hearing that it will no longer be offered, it seems a bit out of line to require a construction surveyor to have to purchase the civil package over the survey package just to be able to more easily perform stakeout. We're not interested in designing the road, just taking the info from a planset and staking it out. This is what I'm trying to figure out and from reading the manual, it doesn't seem to be there. If not, I think the ability to set those files up on a computer, instead of on the little field screen, should be added to Survey for better use of the SurvCE Roads module.

[DaveG]

I need to be able to create (to be transferred to SurvCE):
.tpl template files
.tsf template series files (transitions)
.sup super elevation files

Sorry, I thought you wanted to calc points from existing design files, not create the design files - bad reading on my part.

[Nava Ran]

To do what you want you need Carlson Civil 2009.