Here are some key tips for OpenRoads Designer users when working with Horizontal Alignments. These are very useful for someone who comes from a Microstation background.
Use Smart Lines and Complex Chains
- Use the Microstation smart line and fillet tools. Do not use the horizontal geometry line and curve tools.
- Using the horizontal geometry tools cause a bunch of alignments and 3D elements to be drawn that you probably don’t want floating around the Project Explorer.
- Only use the horizontal geometry tools when you are sure you want a smart ORD element, which is more rare than you think.
Disable Persistent Snaps
- Persistent snaps often work against you. They are hard to keep up with. Avoid them.
- Persistent snaps maintain things like intersection, perpendicular, and nearest snap relationships when one or more elements are moved. Sounds neat. But you have no control on what happens.
- Most people don’t know how to tell if a line has a persistent snap relationship so they’re in for a surprise when they move a line with one!
Simplify Geometry
- Always simplify alignments. They are easier to adjust.
- A simplified alignment lets you modify radii and tangents with easy to use pop-up dialogues.
Use Complex Redefine
- Major adjustments mess up alignment curves. Redraw the alignment and use complex redefine when big changes are needed.
- When you need to adjust an alignment and you screw up a curve so that it’s no longer tangent to the bearings on each side, you need to instead draw the new alignment with basic Microstation lines and fillets. Combine them as a complex chain. If your old alignment slightly overlaps the new, then you can use Complex Redefine to switch the alignment over to the new.
- It only works if the new alignment has a portion that overlaps the existing. If there are none, move the existing alignment to start at the new alignment and have a tangent portion follow along the new alignment. Then it will work.
Set Design Speed Standards
- Design speeds give you alerts when an element is breaking the design criteria for said speeds.
- These alerts appear as caution triangles and tell you if you have any kind of violation. They are incredible at providing instant feedback if your design can’t work.
- When an alignment has a design speed set, when creating other elements, ORD will use said design speed. Very handy!
