Civil design is about to get a shake up

Having been involved commercially in civil design software I have thought for years we have not really advanced much from 30 years ago. Sure smarter longsection crossection plan but not really totally interactive.

Well its about to change I attended a demonstration recently of the new "Advanced Road Design" and was blown away it is in the direction I could see in the crystal ball. http://advancedroaddesign.com.au/ (there will be a name change also of the product)

Do a normal multiple road alignments,

Bring in your aerial image and drape over surface

Now the real stuff, smart road templates interacting with other alignments

A full 3d rendered image of your design with multiple materials simply assigned

Plot cross sections now super smart totally interactive put them anywhere and they still update. ie multiple layouts.

Just watch everything interact change your vertical design, render updates cross sections update dynamically drag an IP get dizzy watching it all move. The enhanced options in the cross section plotting was mind boggling what you could do.

Zoom in and any alignment or template change errors can be seen visually

Now for the fun add 3d objects from sketchup that can be fixed or can move vertically as they are attached to the design surface. We had trees, road signs, a public toilet block, user labels in 3d like height at a point. Like another post here check vehicle site distance in full 3d. Create a fly through video took absolutely no time just pick a few points for route and press go.

The render materials are assigned as part of the road templates zoomed in on the traffic islands and they had a paved brick pattern that was a photo taken of a real island pattern so add your own no must use what is supplied.

For anyone skeptical 52km of freeway including bridge and roundabout exchanges was designed for a project in Romania. All in one project.

Multiple road subdivisions with auto kerb return design.

Just to much, I am sure they will make the other demo videos available if you contact them to large to post here.

Last comment the demo used 3 screens, hmm new pc a nvidia plus on board Intel = 3.

Will this be included in our Infrastructure Design Suite Premium subscription? If not will it include everything we have now?

Well its about to change I attended a demonstration recently of the new "Advanced Road Design" and was blown away it is in the direction I could see in the crystal ball. http://advancedroaddesign.com.au/ (there will be a name change also of the product)

What is the name changing too?

They also have decent videos on their youtube channel if you haven't see than before.

Now the real stuff, smart road templates interacting with other alignments

A full 3d rendered image of your design with multiple materials simply assigned

Plot cross sections now super smart totally interactive put them anywhere and they still update. ie multiple layouts.

 

Just watch everything interact change your vertical design, render updates cross sections update dynamically drag an IP get dizzy watching it all move. The enhanced options in the cross section plotting was mind boggling what you could do.

 

Zoom in and any alignment or template change errors can be seen visually

Not sure what you mean by smart road templates intersecting with other alignments?

Have you used 12d? As far as I know this can already do all of the above including visualisation (although that costs extra so I don't have that module). I don't believe it can import sketchup models though - they do not a new 3d mesh ('trimesh') function though although I haven't used it and it seems somewhat complicated so it may be possible.

For anyone skeptical 52km of freeway including bridge and roundabout exchanges was designed for a project in Romania. All in one project.

Was this as a performance sort of test? I just don't see the practicality of doing that much design in a single project as

a) presumably it slows down the file/project and you get multiple layers/alignments/designs going on etc

b) such a project could be defined into stages which is important for

c) multiple staff would be needed to work on such a project.

multiple staff would be needed to work on such a project.

Another function is the ability to Share a project so you can link in your design another part of the project that is being designed by some one else and it updates again in real time, likewise they see what your doing.

Another function is the ability to Share a project so you can link in your design another part of the project that is being designed by some one else and it updates again in real time, likewise they see what your doing.

Have you tried 12d and any of the recent versions in the past 5 or so years? They all do this and most of the items above.