Category: OpenRoads Designer
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Make Your ORD Life Easier
My days of using OpenRoads Designer are behind me. I’ve moved on to contracts, lettings, and administrative support at my department of transportation. What isn’t gone though is OpenRoads Designer. In fact, it is etched into my bones and will remain there after I die. There are so many things about it I wish to…
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On Estimating Time To Complete Tasks
Introduction Everyone estimates time. The most popular way among engineers is the unit rate method. It reduces elements of a project, such as plan sheets or driveways into an hourly rate for production. One example of using the unit rate method assumes an hour for each extra plan sheet, although it equates a project we…
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How to Think Through Geopak Project Conversions – An Ark-like Idea
Introduction Converting Geopak projects to Open Roads Designer will need some amount of thinking. Depending on the project, converting will be simple or difficult. The designer must examine each element and consider the future. Will these elements need modification? Could they remain as static linework with no relationships for the rest of the project’s phases?…
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Why Your Corridors Are Slow And How To Prevent It
You’re Too Slow! Have you noticed your computer taking ages to load your corridors? Have you taken a nap and woke up to find your computer still reprocessing? Are you considering quitting and working for Publix where shopping is a pleasure? I have a few reasons for you. Keep It Simple! I’ve personally experienced over…
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5 Key Tips for Vertical Alignments in OpenRoads Designer
Here are some key tips for OpenRoads Designer users when working with Vertical Alignments. These are very useful for someone who comes from a Microstation background. I previously wrote about tips for Horizontal Alignments here. Use Smart Lines when sketching out Profiles Simple Names Use Table Editor Simplify Profiles Never use Persistent Snaps
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5 Key Tips for Horizontal Alignments in OpenRoads Designer
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 Disable Persistent Snaps Simplify Geometry Use Complex Redefine Set Design Speed Standards
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A Case for the 3D Linear Method in OpenRoads Corridor Modeling
Introduction The 3D Linear Method will help all engineers and designers model corridors. I argue that it is much simpler and isn’t as deep as using master templates. On-boarding others will be easier, making changes to the corridor will be a breeze, and no one will suffer any headaches in needing to document how each…
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A Timely New Year’s Resolution
Introduction This week is a regular week like any other week. There is work to be done, kids to be raised, and I still can’t get ahead of my outside chores. Like any other week, my family’s house is filled with great times of laughter, singing, and playing. This week is different, however, than the…
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A Thought on Saved Views
A Lower Shelf On Which The Cookie Jar Could Rest In my recent wanderings of developing a workflow for retaining wall geometric layout sheets, I stumbled upon these words in FHWA’s OpenRoads Designer manual, “Saved Views are convenient for the creation of Exhibits and One-Off Plan Sheets because the Design Scale and size of the…
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An Attempt to Build a Retaining Wall Sheet
A Change of Pace The retaining wall sheets house a series of views, each with their own important information, for retaining walls on a plan set. In the olden days, that is, before OpenRoads Designer but after the printing press and Y2K, you would use Microstation to quickly piece together a retaining wall sheet. The…