Create a track corridor

00:00

In this video, we will use the alignment profile and assemblies to create the track corridor.

00:09

We'll go over a few ways that we can do this.

00:13

To create the corridor, we will go up to the corridor and choose Corridor.

00:18

In the corridor dialog, we will provide a name and choose the alignment and profile that we want to use.

00:27

Then we'll pick the assembly, and we can modify this later on.

00:31

We won't pick a template, because we don't have one of those set up at this time.

00:34

And then we will choose the target surface.

00:38

So, in the parameters box, we can make changes to any of these items like the assembly or the profile,

00:46

and we can refine the start and end station numbers.

00:50

We can do that with the station picker.

00:53

And we have marked a few breaks in our corridor that we'll pick for the end of our regions.

01:00

In the frequency dialog box, we can determine how the corridor will process, and which points will be targeted horizontally and vertically.

01:10

In the target dialog, we can identify which alignments will represent the left and right track, and the profile.

01:19

We can do that by picking from the list of alignments or by choosing those in plan view.

01:26

We can determine the target surface under the surface tab.

01:31

In this example, we will add regions after the first region and demonstrate this process.

01:38

So, we'll pick the assembly.

01:39

Let's choose a wall assembly this time.

01:42

The start station will automatically populate based on the previous region end.

01:47

And we will use the tracking tool to determine the end station in our plan view.

01:53

We'll likely need to update the frequencies from the default set values.

01:58

We need to identify the target alignments for this region again, and we will need to do this each time we create a new region.

02:06

We can set up the frequencies and targets after all the regions have been added.

02:11

But this process will take a bit longer for setting up the targets since there are so many different subassemblies to choose from.

02:19

And so, with only one surface, it's much easier to determine the end conditions and the target surface.

02:26

Once we're all set up, we can select OK and build the corridor.

02:30

As we inspect the results of the corridor, we can view some of those transition areas.

02:35

To get a better view of the corridor in section view, we will select the corridor and choose Section Editor.

02:43

In the section editor window, we can fix our view either on a set offset and elevation, or we can base it on our subassembly.

02:52

And in this view, it's somewhat difficult to see the layers with the grid pattern.

02:57

So, we can set our view options and change our style to all codes.

03:03

And this will let us see the shaded sections, and we'll pick the subassembly that we want to focus on, our double-track section.

03:11

Here, we can see different locations along the corridor, and we can inspect for any issues.

03:18

So now let's create a corridor using a slightly different setup.

03:21

We'll provide a name, the alignment, and the assembly.

03:26

We'll define the begin and end station limits.

03:32

We'll set the frequency and the target parameters, and we'll do those both in plan and profile view.

03:44

This time in our corridor, we will choose to split our region.

03:48

So, let's do that.

03:50

And we'll do that at all our defined transition locations.

03:55

Those values will appear in our parameters window.

03:59

Let's update each assembly for each region.

04:04

Now, the advantage of this method is that all of our targets inherit the first region and parameters that we set up.

04:11

So, if we know our typical section limits or the location of where our regions will begin and end,

04:18

this is a method that will save us a lot of time in our set up.

04:22

One other element we want to look at is a target for our platform area.

04:26

We previously created a subassembly in the last video, and we want to use the platform edge lines from our plan view.

04:34

So, we will pick our left side offset and elevation using our platform lines, both for inside and the outside.

04:44

And we'll pick the right side as well with the same workflow.

04:48

And now we run the corridor, and we'll take a look at our sections.

04:57

In some transition areas, we might see where our corridors or feature lines don't behave the way that we want them to.

05:04

In order to remedy this issue, we can adjust the station limits between the regions and create a very small gap.

05:11

And in this case, we'll just use a few millimeters and rerun the corridor.

05:16

Now when we review that, we can see those corridor lines are much cleaner near those transition regions.

05:22

So next, let's create another corridor using our ballast only and the skeleton track assemblies.

05:29

Now this is an easy way to model our corridor when the eastbound and westbound tracks have different cant values,

05:35

which is pretty common.

05:37

If needed, we can add cant to our center-aligned alignment and this will provide some super elevation for our ballast surface.

05:45

And once we set that, we will set up our corridor the same way.

05:48

This time, we will pick our ballast only for the assembly and we can split our region.

05:55

This time we'll split it for the platform area.

05:59

Now, we need to add baselines for our track.

06:01

So, let's add the eastbound track first.

06:04

We'll define our profile, and we'll use the skeleton track assembly.

06:10

So, it will just show the rails and the ties.

06:13

Then, we'll add the westbound with the same parameters.

06:18

Then, we can build the track corridor.

06:20

Now in section view, we can see the different cant values for eastbound and westbound.

06:26

We did this intentionally for this example.

06:29

But as we move along the corridor through the sections, we can see the cant transition along our curves.

06:37

One brief demonstration for corridors, when we set our targets on the rail alignment, the assembly will adjust to find that alignment.

06:46

So, if we adjust the location of our alignment and rebuild the corridor, we can see those updated changes both in plan view,

06:56

and we'll look at the same thing in our section view, and we can see how those transition together.

07:01

Now let's create a corridor transition.

07:04

We have an area with special track work where we want to create another area for the switch machine,

07:11

and we want to do that on each side for this crossover.

07:14

So, we will select the corridor and pick corridor transitions.

07:18

Here we'll define our baseline, in this case, the center line between our tracks.

07:22

Then in the transition window, we can pick create a new transition set.

07:27

Then we move the cursor in plan view.

07:29

We can actually see the different assemblies highlight.

07:33

So, let's pick the double-track assembly.

07:35

And once we do that, we'll see the parameters that we can transition.

07:39

And these could be horizontal or vertical elements.

07:43

And there's a number to choose from, but let's pick the right ballast shoulder here.

07:47

Next, that'll ask us to define our start station, and we can do that with the tracker.

07:52

We can input the beginning value, and it will tell us what that initial value is set at.

07:57

We’ll keep that at .5 meters.

07:59

Then, we can pick the transition station and value.

08:02

This time, and for the transition, we'll pick 2.5 meters, and this will be a linear transition.

08:08

Then, we can pick the next section with the offset values, and then the final section.

08:15

And we'll provide the end transition numbers here.

08:18

And if we need to adjust any of our station values, we can do that by inputting those values here.

08:23

We’ll make these numbers easy, and we'll round up to the nearest 10.

08:27

Then we'll choose apply.

08:29

Once we do that, we can see each section in our plan view, or we can view the entire set.

08:36

So now, let's copy this for the other area.

08:39

We'll give that a name first, and we'll lock it so that those transition spacings will stay the same.

08:46

We'll paste that and then we'll change the name for the left side.

08:51

And here, we need to transition for the left ballast shoulder.

08:56

Now, if we try and relocate the first position point on the tracker, we're limited to the end station of that first section.

09:04

So, let's pick the final value of our end transition and pick the station we want in plan view.

09:11

Now, because we had it locked, all those values will update respectively.

09:16

If we adjust that station at the end, we can update those again.

09:21

Then we'll pick apply, and we can see the switch machine transition locations.

09:28

And let's look at the final example for a multitrack layout.

09:31

We have a yard here, and we have it laid out with several different tracks, and they're all parallel.

09:38

We've identified a midpoint between the tracks that we want to use in our subassembly, and it's a feature line.

09:46

So, we'll go through the same process to set up a new corridor.

09:49

Now in the latter area, we want to use a two- track layout, and we'll pick the yard lead as the left track and the main line is the right track.

10:04

In the middle section, we want to use a single-track region for the main line, and we'll use that as our right track.

10:12

Then we can close the ladder the similar way that we started it, with a double-track region.

10:17

Let's build this right now.

10:19

In the ladder area, we'll use skeletonize track for our layout, based on the alignment and the profile.

10:25

We also want to add a baseline for each track, and then we'll define the station limits for each region.

10:34

And in this middle section for our interior tracks, we need to use those feature lines to define the edges of our ballast.

10:42

And we'll do this for each track in the yard.

10:46

And once we rebuild that corridor, we can view that in the section view.

10:51

We can see those ballast sections line up very nicely, and we can see how that ladder transitions

10:58

for each area as we pan through those sections.

11:03

The last thing we'll look at is adding pay items to our corridor.

11:07

So, under the Analyze tab, we can select the QTO Manager.

11:11

This tool allows us to add pay items to our content in our CAD file.

11:17

Now, we could use the default values, but we have a pay items CSV in our project directory, so we'll load that here.

11:26

Then, we'll add the categorization file from the same directory,

11:31

and this will show us all the pay items that we can assign to the different objects in our file.

11:38

To add this data to a corridor, we'll select the corridor and pick Corridor Properties.

11:43

And we need to define these pay items in our code sets.

11:47

So, we'll go to the Code tab, and when we view our codes, we'll see that there are no pay items defined in our list.

11:54

So, we need to edit those codes, and we'll select that here.

11:57

And under the links and the points, we can define the different elements of our corridor,

12:03

such as the ballast or the track that may need a required pay item number.

12:09

So now when we select take off quantities, we can calculate the values and see what is derived from our corridor.

12:19

So, these are just a few different ways that we can set up and create a corridor for rail and track projects.