mid-continent microstation community 2008 conference

Athens Civil Platform Coordinate Geometry Tools

Robert Garrett, Technical Product ManagerBentley Systems Inc

Opening Demo .

Civil Platform is Bentley’s next generation civil initiative. It incorporates advanced interface concepts, more powerful tools and uses associative, rules-based methods to preserve design intent.

Coordinate Geometry will be the first released portion of the Civil Platform. The first release will provide a full suite of horizontal geometry tools. Profile and cross-section tools will be added in post Athens releases.

What is geometry?

Alignments?

Yes.

BUT…what about the other 99% of your project?

Alignments. Edge of Pavement. Edge of Parking.

Turn Lanes. Tapers. Median Noses. Gore Areas.

Pipe centerlines. Drainage Nodes. Trees. Utility Nodes

Utility Lines. Building Footprints. Subdivision Layout Lines

Setback Lines. Property Lines. Right-of-Lines.

Surveyed Points of all kinds.

And on and on and on.

As civil designers, geometry is everything we do. Every line we draw and every calculation we make is coordinate

geometry.

EVERYTHING!

•Geometry is all kinds of elements that we calculate.•Geometric elements do not stand alone, they are related to each other.•These relationships are often cumulative. One builds on another.•The interrelationships are sometimes complex.•We have gotten so accustomed to the relationships that we hardly even notice many of them.•If one of the calculations changes then a whole series of recalculations are required to update the project.

Historically, we have used cogo for alignment computations, then used generic CAD tools for most of the other 99%. The capabilities of non-alignment cogo tools varied between packages

The result is a dumb graphic with no relationship to the remainder of the project.

What is needed is a toolset that works like the generic CAD tools but results in intelligent elements.

•Provides a suite of next generation tools to perform the required calculations.•Provides an improved user interface providing heads-up prompting and feedback.•Calculations are rules based.•Preserves design intent - The relationships and calculation input is preserved not just the result. •Even snaps and Accudraw input are preserved•As a result, related geometric elements can provide a cascade of updated calculations when a single change is made.

•Prompts and feedback are presented at the cursor. No need to divert your attention to a dialog.

•On screen editing and manipulation.

•Customizable dialogs even to the point of no dialog being required.

Heads Up Interface and Customizable Tools

Instead of just a dumb graphic, the geometric elements are created by rules, which by definition also provides the ability to edit the rule as needed. It also is the first step in preserving the design intent.

•If you computed a curve with a tangent snap, there must have been a reason right?•If you set a drainage node 100 feet from the corner of a building on the centerline of a ditch, there was most certainly a reason.•Even an onscreen DP may have significance to you, the designer.•Civil Platform Geometry preserves this input which allows future editing, and in a sense, helps preserve your thought processes.

Rules, persisted data, properties and manipulators.

Even snaps are preserved

Not only is the design intent for individual elements preserved but the relationships between elements are also preserved.

For example: All edges of pavement are laid out based on a relationship to a centerline (or baseline) using offsets, stationing and perhaps tapers. Preserving these relationships updates the edges if the centerline changes, saving you work.

Relationships

Robert GarrettTechnical Product Manager

Bentley Systems Inc.Robert.Garrett@bentley.com

865-824-3385

Find me at the Bentley booth for additional questions

or a hands-on test drive.