Creating a Vertical Alignment

You can create a vertical alignment that is the sketch containing the geometry of the vertical alignment.

Before you begin: You must have created a horizontal alignment. For more information, see Creating a Horizontal Alignment.
  1. From the Road and Railway section of the action bar, click Vertical Alignment .
    1. Select the horizontal alignment you want to work with in the Vertical Alignment Creation dialog box.
    2. Optional: Click Bounding box width to refine the display of some objects you want to transfer on the vertical sketch. For more information, see Bounding Box.
    3. Under Transfered to vertical alignement, select a terrain.
    4. Select geology and layers.
    5. Select other 3D objects (for example buildings).
    6. Optional: For the layers or 3D objects, select the visualization mode of your choice. For more information, see Visualization Modes.
    7. Optional: Under Output Management, select the objects for which you want to generate an output if not already selected. The outputs will be generated during the creation of the 3D alignment.
    8. Click OK.
    A sketch is created. The selected terrain, layers, and 3D objects intersections are automatically projected in the sketcher plane.

  2. To edit the simple/compound/reverse curves one after the other, use the navigation arrows on each side of the Name box in the Vertical Curve dialog box.

    For more information, see Vertical Curve Navigation.

    Recommendation: Clear the Distorted scale option, otherwise the zoom on the curve cannot occur during navigation.
    Notes:
    • A reverse or a compound curve contains more than one curve. It is, however, considered as a unique curve during navigation. In this situation, more than one curve are zoomed in.
    • The left or the right arrow is disabled when:
      • you get to the first or last corner of the alignment.
      • there is a corner with only a point, without any spiral and tangent.
  3. To replace sag and crest curves with arcs or parabolas between two lines, select an existing vertical curve and click Vertical Curve .
    1. Choose a curve type in the Vertical Curve dialog box and select Arc or Parabola in the list. The choice is also available in the Curve Creation command, in the Alignment assistant.

      You can keep this choice for the rest of the vertical curves you will create or change it at any time. Parabola is the default value. Depending on your selection, the curve is blue (arc curve) or orange (parabola curve) in the vertical alignment. The preference is stored and managed in the RoadAlignmentDesign.xml or RailwayAlignmentDesign.xml in Data Setup, for road/railway design. When you define the value to "1" for arc and, "2" for parabola on the Vertical Curve Type line, the list displays the selected value: arc or parabola. For more information, see Alignment Design Customization. You can change the curve type during its creation and the preference is no longer taken into account.

    2. Enter a Length value in the Parameters section of the Vertical Curve dialog box.
    3. Optional: Use design rules:

      • If there is no design rule, a warning message is displayed in the dialog box saying that there is no minimum and maximum defined value.
      • If the design rules are retrieved, a message appears with the maximum and minimum defined values. The range of the length parameter editor is updated accordingly.

    You can read the Measures of this type of curve in the same dialog box. Parabolas provide smooth transitions in design.

    Note:

    By default, the Lock Rotation command , available in the View section of the action bar, is deactivated. The state of this command is not reset once you switch between alignments. You can choose to lock or unlock viewpoint rotation for the horizontal alignment and keep this choice during alignment switch. For the horizontal alignment only, the lock/unlock rotation status is kept, whereas rotation is always locked for the vertical alignment.

    During the alignment design profile, constraint detection made by the Sketcher assistant is deactivated to avoid over-constrained sketches (length and tangency constraints are not detected). Detection options are automatically cleared in the SmartPick... panel you can open in the Constraint section of Me > Preferences > Mechanical > Sketcher.

    Only coincidence constraints are detected and created. If you want to visualize more detection information, you can force them in Me > Preferences > Mechanical > Sketcher, by clicking SmartPick...

    When you exit the alignment workshop, the detection options are restored except if you have forced them during the alignment profile command.

  4. To prevent the creation of additional or inconsistent arcs when you create or upgrade an alignment, the administrator can customize arc length boundaries in the xml resource file named Alignment Design Rules located in startup\Civil\AlignmentDesignRules, from the Data Setup. For more information, see Alignment Design Rules Definition.

    When you create an arc, the Minimum/Maximum length parameters are locked: the value is retrieved from the design rule file and you cannot change these parameters manually in the user interface. You need to edit the xml file, called Alignment Design Rules, located in startup\Civil\AlignmentDesignRules.

    When the boundary values are initialized in the xml file, the Min length and Max length parameters appear in the tree under the Arc node with the icon . This icon is displayed when a Minimum/Maximum length of the arc, without formula, has been defined in the xml file. The Minimum/Maximum length of the arc is locked. Therefore, its value is updated automatically and you cannot change it unless it is unlocked.

    Select the Min/Max parameter and click the Unlock contextual command, to modify the value of the formula if it exists. When a parameter is unlocked, the following icons appear in the tree:

    • when the Minimum/Maximum length of the arc is unlocked and not restricted. You can change the length values manually.
    • when a formula has been defined in the xml file. The parameter is unlocked, you can change the formula manually.

    Notes:
    • More generally, Minimum/Maximum length constraints are created along with arcs, preventing complementary arcs to appear, inconsistent configurations (reverse/intersecting arcs). The constraints are not visualized in the 3D area and the tree. You can only see them in the Sketch Analysis tool. When the arc radius constraint is deleted, Min and Max constraints are not guaranteed on the arc.
    • Horizontal alignments created before R2021xFD02 must be upgraded to benefit from this function.
  5. Click Create Profile and create the profile along the horizontal alignment.

    The profile is created.



  6. To create a point based on stationing, click Point .
  7. From the Alignment section of the action bar, click Switch Points to switch from a vertical sketcher point to a typed alignment point, on a terrain in a vertical context.
    With this command, you can give a semantic type to the alignment points you create. It allows you to adapt to the terrain topography and differentiate these points for each construction type (bridge, dam, ground, tunnel). In the Switch Point dialog box, you can define:
    • The Label: A new keyword, %t, allows you to add a semantic type.
    • The semantic Type of the new alignment point: Bridge, Dam, Ground (for natural terrain level), or Tunnel. For example, you can create two alignment points to locate a bridge.

    Then select a point, it is automatically typed and, a flag containing the information is displayed on this point.

    To remove the semantic typing on the point, click the Eraser icon in the label.

    You can select another point and repeat the process.

    Notes:
    • To change the type of an alignment point or remove it (when you quit the command), you need to click again. If you double-click a typed or non-typed vertical point, the Point Definition dialog box is displayed but prevents you from adding a semantic type.
    • There is no concept of Start/End points for semantic typing. Type change allows you to end a typed area.
    • Each point creation generates automatically the corresponding output points to be visible and used in 3D context (outside sketch edition) but also to be transferred in 3D alignments.
    • Alignment points are generated in a 3D alignment and aggregated in the dedicated geometrical set.
    • Semantic type is stored on horizontal and vertical alignment points.
    • No warning is displayed about incoherence between the type of vertical alignment point, alignment the terrain (for example, if the terrain between two bridge points is higher than alignment).
    • Semantic types impact the Cut and Fill computation (see Computing Excavation and Filling Volumes):
      • Bridge: no creation of filling volume between the alignment, and the terrain.
      • Dam: no creation of filling volume between the alignment and the terrain.
      • Ground: creation of cutting and filling volumes based on a trapezoidal section.
      • Tunnel: creation of cutting volume based on a circular section.
  8. Click Check in the Alignment Assistant to verify your design.
    Errors are displayed in the Messages Reporting dialog box and highlighted in the geometry. For more information about design checks, see Design Checks
  9. To fix errors, right-click them in the Messages Reporting, and select Fix Error.
    Notes:
    • A check is also performed when exiting the Alignment Sketcher. An error appears if your profile does not comply with design rules.
    • Fix Error automatically changes the wrong value to the closest acceptable minimum or maximum value.
  10. To display the stationing after exiting the sketcher, click Stationings from the Civil Engineering section of the action bar and click Display vertical context.

    In the Stationings panel, docked to the right, Display commands are available. For more information, see About Multiple Stationing and Station Equations.

    The vertical alignment is created.