Use Model Builder to create the existing conditions model

00:08

First stage that we're going to do here is to establish the InfraWorks model.

00:12

What we're going to do is go into model builder to capture data that is available for free to give us a starting point or existing conditions.

00:22

For this, I will go to the model builder tool.

00:26

The model builder tool accesses data in the area of our project.

00:31

You can search for the area up here.

00:32

In fact, I'm going to type in, the area of the location here.

00:39

This is in British Columbia.

00:42

And then will take us near the project and this is about where the project is located here.

00:49

Now what I'm going to do is capture an area of that.

00:51

I'm going to use a poly shape instead of a rectangle.

00:55

That way I can kind of carve along where this project is located.

01:05

And model builder is going to capture the surface, roadway, rail, and waterways in this area.

01:12

Also, buildings if there are any in that, in that area.

01:17

This, I'm going to call this the park bridge.

01:21

And I will go into the coordinate systems and set the coordinate system for this.

01:25

For this, I am in a Canadian area, in the Canadian provinces, and I'm going to pick the CANBCTCN coordinate zone and assign that to the data.

01:37

You must assign coordinates, data to, the data coming from model builder.

01:42

Now at this point, I'm going to click create model.

01:45

It's going to warn us that it's going to prepare this. It might take a few minutes.

01:48

I'm going to close that out and close model builder.

01:51

If there were other models that you needed, you could go in and get those as well.

01:55

Now at this point, this will take five or 10 minutes, but our project will appear on this page when it is complete.

02:02

If you decide not to use the model builder tool to import the existing conditions,

02:09

you can start a new project file and enter GIS information, Civil 3D files, or other data that you may have available to you.

02:18

Now you can see that our Park Bridge project has appeared on our screen.

02:22

It doesn't have a thumbnail sketch like the other projects because it's new.

02:25

And if I left click on it, it will start up.

02:28

If you are working in BIM 360, now is the time to send it over to that.

02:32

That gives a lot of access to those that are in different projects in BIM 360.

02:36

This project I am working locally, so I will choose local.

02:40

The first time that you open up a Model Builder project,

02:43

it will be a little bit slower than normal just because it's starting to bring in a lot of data and connect it up under the hood.

02:52

And here's the beginning of our project.

02:54

Now this is technically a home view that you'll see every time that you come into this project.

02:59

I am going to zoom into the area there, kind of, orbit a little bit.

03:03

Now I do notice that we're in kind of a mountainous area, and so the lighting in here can be a bit shaded.

03:09

I'm actually going to go over to the manage tab of the ribbon, the display panel pull down, and choose "Sun and sky".

03:17

I'm going to change the date to the mid-year time and about noon.

03:22

That way the sun is higher in the sky, but it basically gives us a better lighting for our project as we proceed forward.

03:29

I will also come up to the proposals area and create a new proposal.

03:34

That way the master proposal is available to us later.

03:37

I'm going to call this existing, but it'll give us a chance to make some changes to the data that has come into us, from Model Builder.

03:46

Now I am going to take a look down, at our project here.

03:49

Actually, I'm going to create a home view here so that when we come into the project,

03:55

we'll always be looking at the area where our bridge is going to be or where we expect it to be.

04:00

To do that, I'm going to go over the view cube area and hover over the house icon.

04:05

I'll right click and say "Set current view as home".

04:10

Now I can go in and take a look at what model builder has brought in.

04:14

First of all, there's surface underneath the image here as well as the image on top of it, but it has also brought in roadways and rail and water.

04:23

I'm going to leave the water, but the railway, I'm going to take that out.

04:31

Just selecting each, portion of the railway.

04:34

They're using a control to select multiple, and I'll hit "Delete" and delete that out.

04:39

There's actually some extras under there as well.

04:43

I am also going to take a look at the road that model builder brought in, and you'll notice that it stops here and here.

04:49

It doesn't go on. Our project is actually going to proceed to the west and to the north and east. And so, we want a longer road.

04:57

I'm actually going to select these roadways, and you can see that they're actually northbound and southbound are separate.

05:03

So, I'll select those as well.

05:06

I'll select those and then hit "Delete" and delete those as well.

05:09

You can translate those roadways into component roads, which we'll be able to use for the bridge design.

05:15

But I want to clean out, the area there so we can have one, extended road through the area.

05:20

There are some other roadways in here as well that I will also get rid of.

05:29

And I'll hit "Delete" and clean that up.

05:34

Also, over here, there are some extra roadways.

05:36

There's a rest area that, while not really in our way, may interrupt with the clean connection to the roads over here.

05:44

So, we want to just clean that area up as well.

05:46

I'm not going to clean up everything, but just what might be in our way.