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Subscribe to:	Zen Illuminations Newsletter

Zen Illuminations is a periodic issue offered to our readers on our mailing list, to give them extra helpful tips and pointers not found anywhere else.

Over the years as project engineers, consultants and instructors, we've discovered common threads to the confusions experienced by someone not yet proficient with the software. A lot of these questions stem from a lack of understanding of one or more key basics. Without a thorough understanding of these fundamentals, higher levels of application can appear confusing and remain out of reach.

Our guides are the result of our work with InRoads since its official entrance into the civil marketplace in the late Eighties. Our intent is to present the subject of InRoads in down-to earth, common terms that you can absorb with relative ease, and with enough detail that you will understand what you are doing when you do it. It was brought to life by the insistent questioning and prodding of many of our students who wanted more material than was available in existing InRoads documentation and within the software Help.

Please take a moment to view our back issues.

Issue 67

November 24, 2008
Map Check report has been added to the XML report options for InRoads v8.9 SP-2. Go to Tools>XML Reports>Map Check and select the alignments to create the XML file for. Alignments may be open or closed and the output precision and direction may be specified. The XSL file may be found under the MapCheck folder in the InRoads Report Browser, and only one XSL file is listed there called Mapcheck.xsl In InRoads 8.9 SP2 the Import Survey Data>SDR33 has added the ability to specify the coordinate sequence of Easting/Northing on import by using the Tools>Variable Add-in Manager in the Formatting Section. They have also increased the number of characters for the description field to 31.

Issue 66

September 11, 2008
Map Check report has been added to the XML report options for InRoads v8.9 SP-2. Go to Tools>XML Reports>Map Check and select the alignments to create the XML file for. Alignments may be open or closed and the output precision and direction may be specified. The XSL file may be found under the MapCheck folder in the InRoads Report Browser, and only one XSL file is listed there called Mapcheck.xsl In InRoads 8.9 SP2 the Import Survey Data>SDR33 has added the ability to specify the coordinate sequence of Easting/Northing on import by using the Tools>Variable Add-in Manager in the Formatting Section. They have also increased the number of characters for the description field to 31.

Issue 65

August 21, 2008
Parametric labels can now be input into an ASCII text file and bulk loaded. From the Roadway Designer>Tools>Parametric Constraints press the Import command to load the ASCII text file. The file format of the text file should be Label | Type | Start Value | Stop Value | Start Station | Stop Station. Asterisks may be used as comment lines, fields are separated by |. *Label |Type |Start Value |Stop Value |Start Station |Stop Station *------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thickness |Distance |- 0.05 |-0.10 |10+23.00 |26+45.00 InRoads 8.9 SP-2 will now allow the triangulated surface to show in the cross-section display window for the Roadway Designer. Go to Roadway Designer>Tools> and check on the toggle option in display for Triangulated Surface.

Issue 64

July 30, 2008
InRoads 8.9 –SP2 will now allow a direct method of producing reports from the Roadway Designer. In the Roadway Designer go to Tools>Design Input Report.ird. This will create an XML file which will utilize XSL style sheets created in Roadway Design. Defaults style sheets provide for Corridor List, Roadway Design Super elevation to Event points, Roadway setup, Template drops, and Template Drop Constraints. InRoads 8.9 SP-2 will now allow the annotation of drafting notes for Pay Item Name, Code and Description for surface features.

Issue 63

May 22, 2008
When viewing InRoads 8.9 SP2 XML reports, a "cookie" is stored on your machine. This cookie contains information regarding the last browser reporting session. These items include the Format Option settings, the last source (XML) file retrieved and the last format file (style sheet, *.xsl) used. You can delete your cookie from the temporary internet files and the options will revert to the default settings. When using InRoads 8.9 –SP2, Any InRoads Group command that manipulates the view will now maintain the current active z. The display depth will be fitted as before, and then expanded to include the active z if necessary.

Issue 62

May 19, 2008
InRoads Version V8.09 Service pack 2 is now available from Bentley. This version has added new commands such as the Horizontal Curve Set > Table Editor which allows edits of a horizontal alignment within a table format. This command only works with simple alignments containing linear elements, simple curves, and/or Spiral-Curve-Spiral curve set elements. In the Tools> Variable Manager> you can check on the Tools – Simultaneous Tracking option which will allow you the ability to track the active horizontal alignment and the active vertical alignments at the same time when using the Tools>Tracking>Horizontal or Vertical Alignment commands.