How to Use InRoads to Produce Plans for a Roadway

By Michael Mosley Winter 2007 Under the direction of Dr. Saito

Table of Contents
Introductions to Inroads................................................................................................... 2 Getting Started ................................................................................................................ 2 Write Locks ..................................................................................................................... 3 Isolating Surface Data ..................................................................................................... 3 Importing Existing Surfaces into InRoads ..................................................................... 4 Creating Horizontal Alignments ..................................................................................... 9 Creating a Profile ............................................................................................................ 15 Creating a Vertical Alignment ....................................................................................... 17 Typical Sections............................................................................................................... 25 Cut and Fill Tables ........................................................................................................ 26 Using the Roadway Modeler .......................................................................................... 26 Saving Your Work .......................................................................................................... 31 Roadway Modeling Continued ..................................................................................... 32 Producing Cross Sections ............................................................................................... 33 Keys to Plotting and Layout........................................................................................... 34

Introductions to Inroads
Inroads functions different than AutoCAD. It is an application that works at the side of MicroStation (Bentleys Drafting software.) Inroads holds data for surfaces, geometry, and cross-sections. When used in conjunction with MicroStation, Inroads becomes a powerful drafting tool. Take note that as Inroads drafts objects into MicroStation, it just places lines into the drawing. All of the real data and information that has been developed in Inroads is saved in the Inroads files and can be viewed and drafted into any MicroStation file. In order to get started, the following data and resources are needed: Contour surface data from Dr. Saito The Zen Guide to Inroads Essentials Workbook and Data CD (this data is referred to as Ztrain) Preference files from Dr. Saito

Getting Started
Open the surface contours of the site using Inroads in the Caedm lab, which is found under the Start Menu > CE Programs > Inroads. Inroads runs in conjunction with MicroStation through the Cirix server. Open the MicroStation DWG file, called ce561_Fixed.dwg (this file will be given to you by Dr. Saito) Set the units to be in feet.

As you open the drawing file, two messages will pop up which say that the Preferences are Read Only. Click okay for both. Next, the Preferences must be changed in Inroads. Use the arrows on the bottom right of the workspace bar to go to the Preference tab in Inroads. Load the preferences provided to you. These preferences are called Springville_civil.ini and wysiwyg.ini. This is done by right clicking on the existing preferences and clicking OPEN. Notice that the first preference ends in a civil.ini and the second in wysiwyg2.ini, as seen below. 2

Write Locks
InRoads has a special function called Write Locks. These allow designers to design in InRoads and not permanently write into the drawing file while they are fine-tuning their settings. The Write Locks has two main settings: pen and pencil. Pen is a permanent writing into the drawing file, whereas pencil is temporary and can easily be deleted if necessary. If both of the locks are turned off, then nothing will be drafted into the drawing file and will immediately disappear as soon as the view is regenerated. The Write Locks can be accessed by right-clicking on the Menu bar of InRoads and selecting LOCKS. They will appear as seen below.

Isolating Surface Data

We will now isolate the contours of the surface file.

Turn off the levels (layers in Autocad) that are not contours. This is done by going to the MicroStation main menu and clicking on SETINGS >LEVELS>MANAGER. In the Level Manager, remove the check marks of the global display for the levels that are not needed, as seen below.

Note: Levels cannot be turned off if they are set active, meaning the level that is in use at the time. Right click on the contour layers to set them active.

Importing Existing Surfaces into InRoads

In Inroads, right click on the Surface tree and click New.

This will bring up a window in which all of the different objects in Inroads can be created.

Make sure that you are on the Surface tab, and then type the required information

Click the Apply button to add the new surface, and then close the window. This surface is empty still and so our next step is to import the information into Inroads. Go the Inroads Menu and click on FILE>IMPORT >SURFACE.

Fill in the appropriate information. Under the drop down menu, Load From, make sure it is set to Fence. Use the fence tool to put a box around all of the contours, and then click Apply. If you look at the bottom of the Inroads Screen or the bottom of the MicroStation screen, a note will come up that says Import Complete. Close the Import Surface window. Note: This area is a good place to look when you are not sure what to do. Often little messages can help you along and let you know what the program is doing. A new surface called Contours was created. There should be some data associated with this surface, as seen below.

When there is a surface imported into Inroads it gives the program something to work with when creating the alignments. Note: To make sure that the surface is in Inroads, all of the existing levels in MicroStation can be turned off. Then you can view the surface by going to the Inroads Menu SURFACE>VIEW SURFACE> CONTOURS. A warning box will pop up and tell you that the surface needs to be triangulated. This means that Inroads will draw triangles between the imported contours. It makes the surface a three dimensional. Click Yes.

Inroads will then produce in MicroStation what it has stored in Inroads.

Creating Horizontal Alignments

Creating the horizontal alignments is very similar to importing a surface. In Inroads, click on the Geometry tab and right click on the Geometry tree to create a new Geometry Project. Type all of the necessary information in each field. Click Apply and close the window. A geometry project is where the geometric data will be stored for your project.

Now the Horizontal alignment can be drawn in MicroStation. The easiest way is to create a new layer for the horizontal alignment and draw it using the Smart line command found in MicroStation.

The smart line can produce both straight elements and circular ones.

To be accurate, an aerial picture can be imported and scaled to get a better idea where each alignment should be placed.

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In this case the green line is the future horizontal alignment of 89 South. Isolate this line by turning it off and deleting the contours produced by Inroads. Remember that when you delete these lines in MicroStation, they are not deleted in Inroads and can easily be reproduced by following the previous steps of viewing contours. Just remember that the data is stored in Inroads. After turning this level back on, import your horizontal alignment into Inroads as a Horizontal Alignment by doing the following:

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In the InRoads menu, click on FILE > IMPORT > GEOMETRY. Fill in the required information for Name and Description. Then check the box which says All Selected Elements Added to Single Alignment. Before clicking Apply, use the selector tool in MicroStation to select the entire alignment

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You will see the Horizontal Alignment appear under the Geometry Projects tree. To review the geometric data that was imported, right click on the new Horizontal Alignment and then click REVIEW

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InRoads now contains the data for this Horizontal Alignment. The Smart Line drawn in MicroStation can now be turned off or deleted. To view the current Horizontal Alignment, on the Inroads main menu, click on Geometry > View Geometry > Active Horizontal.

After the Horizontal Alignment is created, the Station and other data can be displayed along the alignment. Go to GEOMETRY >VIEW GEOMETRY >VIEW STATIONING. 14

Each setting in this window can be customized and saved to your Preferences. For more information about each setting, click on the HELP button in each tab. Remember that when adjusting your settings, you can turn off the write lock so that you dont have to delete the graphics every time that you want to change by clicking APPLY. Also remember to save your preferences by clicking on Preferences and then clicking save.

Creating a Profile
Before creating a profile, open a new MicroStation drawing file. This is done by clicking on FILE > NEW > and placing it where you want it in your directory. Give it a descriptive name. In the new file, display the active Horizontal Alignment. This is done by clicking GEOMETRY > VIEW GEOMETRY > ACTIVE HORIZONTAL. Then click the Zoom to Extense buton in the bottom left-hand corner MicroStation. By creating a profile, the designer gives InRoads a place to create a Vertical Alignment. In the InRoads main menu, click on EVALUATION > PROFILE > CREATE PROFILE. The following window will appear:

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These settings can be adjusted to match the needs of your project. Just click APPLY and InRoads will ask you to identify a location. Identify your location in MicroStation by clicking on the screen. Next, close the window.

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This profile is created under the Horizontal Alignment tree in Inroads. Now that it is created, a Vertical Alignment can be created in this new profile.

Creating a Vertical Alignment

Your profile should look similar to the image seen below before you create a Vertical Alignment.

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Zoom in to the left edge of the profile, where the surface intersects the left axis.

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In Inroads, right click on the Horizontal Alignment and click NEW The same New window pops up. Use the drop down menu under Type to select Vertical Alignment. Now give it a name and a description. Then Click APPLY and close the window.

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The Vertical Alignment is now ready. As of right now, the Vertical Alignment created does not have any information. As the designer, you will create that. First, right click on the InRoads main menu and click Customize. Scroll down and check the Vertical Curve Set, as shown below.

This will bring up a new toolbar on the InRoads interface, as seen below. 20

Note: New tools are available now. Moving the mouse over the new buttons will help you know what each will do. Click on the Add PI

Click APPLY

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The instruction given at the bottom of the screen is to identify the end of the alignment. Do so on the left side of the profile. Hint: Click both buttons on the mouse to snap to the end of objects. Click continuously to add PIs all across the alignment. Always left click to confirm your decisions of where the PIs are located. In the screen shot below, the green Bs are the PIs which were placed.

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Now we will define the curves using the Define Vertical Curve button

as seen in the Inroads tool bar.

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The vertical curves are defined by their length. Use trial and error to adjust the lengths according to what best fits the design. Use the Next button to go the next curve in the Vertical Alignment. If the length is too long, an error will come up in the bottom of the Inroads window. Do this for each curve in the Vertical Alignment.

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After the lengths are defined, the PI can be adjusted using the Move PI Button. After the Vertical Alignment is placed, it can be annotated. This is done by clicking the GEOMETRY menu > VIEW GEOMETRY> VERTICAL ANNOTATION.

As with the Horizontal Stationing, the Vertical Annotations setting can be changed to display the information that is desired to show in the final plan set. Remember to save your Preferences.

Typical Sections
In order for Inroads to design the roadway it needs typical sections to be defined. There are two ways of accomplishing this. First, predefined cross-sections can be loaded from a Typical Section Library. Right click on the current Typical Section Library and click OPEN. Then you can use the Typical Section Library that came with the Zen Guide to Inroads. This file name is called Zen_Typicals2.tml. The second way is to define the need typical sections yourself. This process is outlined and explained in the Zen Guide to Inroads Ch. 2.7. 25

Cut and Fill Tables

Cut and fill tables allow the designer to define the side slopes. Click on the Typical Section tab. Right click on the Cut/Fill Tables then click EDIT. Click NEW to make a new table. In the Edit Cut/Fill Table window, there are two tabs: Cut Slopes and Fill Slopes. Change the slope to the percent that best fits your design and click NEW. This will update the Cut and Fill side slopes. Close this window and move on to the next section.

Using the Roadway Modeler

This section of Inroads is the most complicated, due to the complexity of designs that Inroads is capable of producing. In order to use the Roadway Modeler, the following items must already be created and be open: Existing Surface Horizontal Alignment Profile Vertical Alignment Template Library To model the roadway is to push the defined typical sections through the existing surfaces which will create the new surface of the roadway. This is done as follows: First, make a new Roadway Library.

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Next, define the roadway by going to the main menu MODELER>DEFINE ROADWAY.

Roadways are defined along different station distances.

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Next, click on the Edit button in order to define the limits of this roadway.

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Notice there is nothing in the window yet. You must create the limits of the roadway. Click NEW The starting station for the typical section of the roadway is defined in this window. A couple of options are given to define the roadway. Use whatever templates fit your roadway and for the catch point drop down box, set it to cut/fill tables. Use the Cut and Fill table that you made. Select this by finding it under the Name pull down menu.

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Repeat this procedure for the different typical sections of the roadway.

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After you have defined the segments of the roadway, remember to save them.

Saving Your Work

Saving in Inroads is different than saving in Autocad or other design programs. You must save your project as an .rwk file. This is a file that contains options to save and update your surfaces, geometry preferences, etc. Instructions in detail for saving your file can be found on pg. 376 in the Zen Guide to InRoads Essentials Workbook.

Save each portion of your project, such as surfaces and geometry, individually and then save them together in a project file. Use the Browse button to find the files that you want to open each time that you open the project.

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Note: Add means open and Update means save when your file is closed and reopened using the project file. After going through the options and clicking Add and Update for each one, also make sure that each portion of your project has a File Name path. Then click SAVE to save your project file. Next time you open Inroads, this project file can be opened and it will open with it any surfaces, geometry, or preferences linked to the project file.

Roadway Modeling Continued

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We now are ready to model the road. Go to MODELER> ROADWAY MODELER The default setting should be sufficient in most cases. (Make sure that the correct preferences are loaded.) The roadway modeler takes a few seconds to process, but it then produces the design into MicroStation and makes a few new surfaces.

It will also produce a road in the plan view of the drawing file.

Producing Cross Sections

Producing Cross Sections is the final step to the roadway design process. This is easily done after the modeler has finished its work. Go to the EVALUATIONS menu > CREATE CROSS SECTION Click APPLY. In most cases, this is sufficient. But in some cases, if the alignment goes off, extra cross sections will be produced. Some adjustment may be needed.

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Keys to Plotting and Layout

To be added as soon as possible

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