Advanced Road Design

Advanced Road Design - The Basics

Date: 18th January, 2010 Author: Andrew Banson Version: ARD 2010.02

Introduction
This document will introduce you to Advanced Road Design (ARD) and explore some basics of the software, such as working with the user interface, understanding ARD data storage, and understanding the relationship between ARD and AutoCAD Civil 3D. ARD has been developed to work with AutoCAD Civil 3D to automate the design of roads, intersections, kerb returns, cul-de-sacs, knuckles, roundabouts, and stormwater and sewer systems. To create these design features, ARD utilisers two Civil 3D objects, the Alignment object and the Surface object. In order to start running ARD commands, it is essential that at least one Alignment object and one Surface object exists in the current drawing.

Guidelines for Suitable Alignment Creation

When creating a Road Alignment for use with ARD, there are a number of important things you should remember. They are... 1) The Alignment geometry should be tangent. Each entity along the Alignment should be tangent to the previous entity. If an ARD Road has been created, the tangency of the Road Alignment can be checked by running the command [Roads]-[Edit] [Check Road Alignment Tangency]. 2) The Alignment must be contained within the Surface. If any part of the Alignment falls outside the Surface, ARD will not be able to sample the Alignment and create a Road. 3) The Alignment should not loop back onto itself (i.e. to form a P road). If you are designing a P road, then 2 Alignments should be used so that the second Alignment connects into the first Alignment. 4) It is important that all Entities that make up the Alignment are joined together and no breaks exist between Alignment Entities. Below is an image containing some guidelines for Alignment Creation...

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5) On Alignment creation, it is important to include a code in the Alignment Description field depending on the type of design feature being created. If creating an Alignment that will be used for a Road, it is important that an R- is included in the Alignment Description Field. If two Alignments cross each other and both contain an R- in their Description Field; than ARD knows that a Road Intersection exists at that location. When creating a Kerb Return, Knuckle, or Cul-De-Sac Alignment using ARDs automated layout tools, ARD will insert the appropriate code in the Description field on Alignment creation automatically. Below is a table that outlines the different codes used by ARD. Code (not case sensitive) rkkncdsARD Feature Road Kerb Return Knuckle Cul-De-Sac

Running Commands Menus and Toolbars

Advanced Road Design commands are split into four categories, these are, Roads, Pipes, General, and Drainage. Roads Pipes (new) General Drainage (old) Contains commands pertaining to the ARD Roads Module Contains commands pertaining to the ARD Pipes Module Contains commands pertaining to any ARD Settings. Commands pertaining to the old legacy drainage software. The Drainage module has been replaced by the ARD Pipes module. These commands are accessible via the AutoCAD Civil 3D Menu.

There are three different ways of accessing ARD commands 1) ARD commands can be accessed via the AutoCAD Civil 3D Menu.

The AutoCAD Civil 3D Menu can be shown by activating it from the AutoCAD Civil 3D Quick Access Toolbar as shown below.

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2) ARD commands can also be accessed via the AutoCAD Civil 3D Ribbon. ROADS RIBBON PANEL:

PIPES RIBBON PANEL:

GENERAL RIBBON PANEL:

3) ARD commands can also be accessed via AutoCAD Civil 3D Toolbars. There are three main toolbars; Roads, Pipes, and General. These Toolbars also contain flyout Toolbars, which are activated by holding down certain buttons on the Main Toolbar. These flyout Toolbars are a collection of similar commands.

Roads - Main Pipes - Main General - Main

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Understanding ARD Data Storage

When running an ARD command for the first time and if the DWG file has been saved, a folder will be created that is used by ARD to store data. The folder is named by taking the name of the DWG and adding -Data to the end. For example, if the DWG is saved as Introduction.dwg, then ARD would create a folder named Introduction-Data. On running the command Show Data Path, ARD will create the Introduction-Data folder path and the following message box will be displayed...

By default and if otherwise specified, ARD will always expect the -Data folder that it creates to be stored in the same location as the DWG file. If the -Data folder isnt in the correct location, ARD will create a fresh -Data that contains no data. So it is important the -Data folder is always stored in the same location as the DWG file unless specified otherwise. If you want to specify another location for the -Data folder, the following command can be used, [Roads]-[Settings] [Project Administration] [Set Data Path]. Once this command is run and a location for the -Data folder is specified, the location information is stored within the DWG where it can be accessed by ARD.

Accessing the ARD Settings Folder

The ARD Settings Folder by default is stored in the location, C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\CADApps\ARD\Common. This folder is used by ARD to store files that can be utilised by all projects created using ARD, rather than the Data folder, which is only utilised by the one project. Some of the files stored in the ARD Settings Folder include DWG files used for Block insertion or Title Blocks, Public Cross Section Templates, Superelevation Tables, and Global Drawing Settings. Rather than using Windows Explorer to access the ARD Settings Folder, the following command in ARD can be used to quickly display the folder, [Roads]-[Settings] [Project Administration] [Open Settings Folder]. If you wish to change the location of the Settings Folder, you can use the command, [ Roads][Settings] [Project Administration] [Set Settings Path].

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