This command creates a template definition file (.TPL file). The template file can then be applied in the Process Road Design, Draw Typical Template, Locate Template Points or Design Pad Template commands. The template is designed using the dialog shown below. The top portion shows the template as you create it. In the middle is a row of icons which are the building blocks of the template. They can be chosen in any order by picking on the icon. In the bottom of the dialog are four list boxes that list the elements of the template. The surface elements are listed in order starting from the center. The subgrades are listed from top to bottom order. To add a template element, highlight the position in the list above where to insert the element. Then pick one of the element icons. To change the order of an element, highlight the element and pick the Move Up or Move Down buttons. The Edit button edits the dimensions of the highlighted element. The Remove button erases the highlighted element from the list. There is no limit to the number of surface or subgrade elements. Note that there is a Right Side Same as Left option. When active this option only requires template design for the left side and will automatically mirror the design for the right side.
The template surface can be composed of three types of elements:
medians, grades and curbs. The median is a flexible closed figure
defined in a clockwise direction. Each median point consists of an X
and Y offset. The median
must be closed and the program will automatically create the closing
segment. In the Median Design dialog, the median is shown in the top
display and bottom has a list of median points. The display shows the
median in magenta and
the grade lines in and out in green. For the display the grade in comes
from
the left and the grade out goes to the right. The median must define
the
Grade In point which is the point that ties into the incoming surface
grade.
Also the Grade Out point must be specified for where the surface grade
continues out from the medianThese Grade In and Grade Out
points emanate from the starting or "from" position in the coordinate
dialog where they are
specifiedSince a single median must be placed on the left or
right
side (and is typically not used symmetrically with right side same as
left),
you will need to offset the template centerline one-half the median
width
within the command Process Road Design in order to center the medianYou
will also have to move the "C/L" designation, to obtain centering, when
using Draw Typical Template.
You can design a median for "mirroring" to create a centered effect,
as shown below. The only negative to this method is the appearance of a
vertical line in the median plot. Medians can be saved and loaded for
re-use in other templates.
Surface grades can be entered by selecting the Grades icon which brings up the dialog shown. Downhill slopes are negative and the Distance is the horizontal distance. The text ID serves 4 purposes: (1) The ID will be applied as a description to all final template points generated in the form of a coordinate (.CRD) file, (2) The ID can be used as a design point, as in EP+5 indicating 5 feet or meters right of edge of pavement, (3) Points of common ID may be connected by 3D polylines as an output option of Process Road Design and (4) Quantities can be generated with reference to the ID and material (gravel, concrete, etc.) entered elsewhere within this command.
To add a curb, select the Curb icon. The dialog box below appears where you can fill in the curb dimensions. There are three curb types to choose from. The curb dimensions can be specified in feet, inches or meters in metric mode. The Rounding option will smooth the surface of the curb which only shows when the template is applied in commands such as Process Road Design. The Integral/Separate option determines whether to draw the front line of the curb to separate the curb from the subgrade. For example, fully concrete pavements that contain a curb would be drawn with the "integral" curb optionThe slope of the curb can either be flat, set to the slope of the incoming grade or set to a user-specified slope. The material name is used in the Process Road Design report
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| Straight & rounded curbs |
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| Integral and separate curbs |
To specify cut treatment, pick the Cut icon. There is room to specify up to five cut slopes which can be slopes in series or slopes to use at different depths. In a simple case of one cut slope, you can just enter the one slope value and leave the depth and other slope boxes blank. For Slopes in Series, each slope is used up to the specified depth until an intersection with the ground. If the intersection is not reached by the first slope, then the next slope continues from where the first ended. If you have more than five slopes, pick the Repeat Slopes option which will repeat the sequence of entered slopes until the ground is reached. The Bench Between Cuts option allows you to enter a bench width and percent slope to be inserted between each cut slope. Besides running the cut slopes to specific depths, the Cut To Section option can be used to have each cut slope intersect a surface from a section (.sct) file. With Cut To Section on, the Process Road Design command will prompt for these cut slope section files. For example, this Cut To Section option could be used when you have a cut bench that occurs at a set elevation but different cut depths as the road profile changes. In this case, you could create a section (.sct) file at this set bench elevation.
With Slopes in Series off, just one of the slopes is used depending
on the depth. For example, set the dialog as shown to use 4 to 1 slopes
at depths up to 4 feet, 3:1 up to 10 and 2:1 if deeper. The effect is
4:1 if shallow and, by contrast, 2:1 if the fill is deep. The Smooth
Transitions option
will gradually transition the slopes from one range to the next. In
this
example, if the depth is 5 feet the slope will be between 4:1 and 3:1.
The
graphic in the Design Template dialog will explicitly show slopes in
series
versus individual slope depending on setting (shown below are
individual slopes, with slopes in series off):
The Pivot at Subgrade option will position the cut pivot point where
the bottom subgrade intersects the template grade. The ditch or upslope
conditions will then occur from this special subgrade "daylight" pivot
point, instead of from the outer shoulder surface pivot point. The Tie
to Existing Point will draw the cut slope from the cut
pivot point to either the outside offset-elevation or an
offset-elevation point with a specified description from the existing
section file. This method is used when survey crews take sections and
designate the specific slope tie points.
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| Three cut slopes in series |
The Slope to Rock applies in Process Road Design when using a Rock
Section File. There are two slope order modes for rock slopes: Slope TO
Rock and Slope FROM Rock. For the Slope TO Rock mode, the cut slope
will be the Slope To Rock up to the rock surface. After reaching the
rock surface, the regular cut slopes apply. For the Slope FROM Rock
mode, the regular cut slopes apply up to the rock surface. Then from
the Slope From Rock applies from the rock surface to the ground
surface.
Ditch Grades can be inserted prior to the application of the cut upslope. For curb and gutter roads, there is typically no ditch. But for roads with drainage downhill to the outside and no curbs, ditches are typically used in cut conditions. The Ditch Grades list contains each ditch grade in order from the regular template. Any number of ditch grades can be added by picking the Add Ditch button. To create a V ditch, add just one ditch grade such as slope ratio -1, distance 1. This makes one side of the V. The pivot point for the cut slopes will be the bottom of the V and the other side of the V will be made by the cut upslopes. For a ditch with a flat bottom, you could have two ditch grades such as slope ratio -2, distance 4 and then slope percent 0, distance 2. If a minimum depth for ditch is entered, no ditch will be applied unless the cut exceeds that depth. The Force Berm will apply the Berm (defined using the Fill icon) in cut instead of a ditch up to a certain depth of cut.
Fill treatment is similar to cut. Up to five slopes for different depths can be specified. Slopes in Series and Smooth Transitions work the same way as cut. Berm Grades are the fill equivalent to Ditch Grades. Fill treatment does have some extra options. Guardrail Expansion will extend the last template surface grade the specified Shoulder Distance when the fill is greater than the Min Depth. The Force Ditch option has two different methods to apply the Ditch Grades from the cut definition. With "At Base Of Fill" on, Force Ditch creates the ditch where the fill slope hits existing ground. With "At Base of Fill" off, the Force Ditch method applies the ditch grades from the template pivot point. The Minimum Depth for Berm Grades will only draw the Berm Grades when the fill depth is greater than the specified value.
The Right of Way icon brings up the dialog shown which allows you to
specify whether to use a retaining wall to keep the cut/fill slopes
from crossing the right of way. The right of way data is stored in a
centerline file (.cl file) as stations and offsets for the left and
right sides of a centerline. When the retaining wall option is active,
the cut or fill slope will go at the design slope up to the right of
way and then the slope will tie into the ground by going straight up or
down. Without the retaining wall option, the cut or fill slope will
become steeper in order to tie into the ground at the right of way. For
example, if the cut slope is 50% but this slope ties
into the ground past the right of way, then the slope will be modified
to
something steeper such as 65%. The Offset ROW options will force the
tie in
the offset distance before the right of way.
The Shoulder Super Elevation icon specifies where on the template the slopes will transition between super elevation slopes and normal slopes. The transition point is identified under Pivot Point by the template id for the grade, curb or median. Note that the pivot point can be specified as an ID plus a distance as in "EP+2". Starting from the center, the template grades will be in super up through this template segment. For example, based on the template shown in the first dialog of this command, the EOP Pivot Point the Super Elevation Settings dialog will create the first EOP grade in super while the curb and grade S will be at normal grade. The High and Low Pivot Point options allow for different transition points depending on which side is raised by the super elevation. The Max Percent Slope Difference is the maximum difference between the super elevation grade and the normal grade at the pivot point. For example with a Max Percent Slope Difference of 7%, if the super elevation grade is 6%, then the slope after the pivot on the high side will be -1% even if the normal design slope is steeper than -1%. If the grades do not start from the center in super, then the Divided Roads option can be used. With this option, the grades start from the center as normal and then transition to super at the Normal to Super Pivot Point.
Example of super
elevation of 4% to the right for a divided road with a Max Difference
of 7%. The normal template is shown above. The Normal to Super Pivot
Point is MED and the Super
to Normal Pivot Point is EP. The result is that the EP segment is in
super
and the SH and MED segments are at normal slope. On the left, the SH
segment
is at the normal -10%, the EP segment is at the super elevation slope
of
-4% and the MED segment wants to be at 4% but ends up at 3% because
this
meets the Max Difference requirement. On the right side, the MED
segment starts
at the normal -4%, then the EP segment transitions into the super -4%
and
then the SH transitions back to normal which results in a 3% slope
because
of the Max Difference requirement.
To add subgrades click the SubGrades icon which brings up the dialog shown. The subgrades are areas below the template surface. There can be any number of subgrades stacked one below another or side by side.
The subgrade starts from the surface at the distance from the center
set under Horizontal Offset. To start from the centerline, enter 0 in
Horizontal Offset. First the subgrade moves straight down from this
Horizontal Offset. The depth down is specified in Vertical Offset in
feet units or meters in metric mode. The Vertical Offset normally
should be set as a negative number. The bottom of the subgrade then
either moves away from or towards the center depending in the Direction
In or Out setting. The distance to move is specified under Distance.
The Slope Type for the subgrade bottom can be either set to a specified
slope or set to match the grades of the surface. After moving the
specified distance, the subgrade will tie back into the template
surface either by going straight up, by continuing at the subgrade
slope until intersecting the surface or by wrapping around. The
commonly used "continue slope"
approach will extend the slope until it hits something (like a curb or
another
surface segment). It will not trim. So if the pavement
segment
is 12 feet to a curb, it is better to enter 10 and "continue slope"
than
to enter 12 exactly, as a "tilted" curb may place the curb edge at
11.98'
from the start of the subgrade, causing the subgrade to go past face of
curb
and intersect back of curb. Also, for angled tie-ins of subgrade
from
base of curb to the surface, such as the example shown below, be sure
the
distance entered is less than what would intersect the surface, so that
the
"extend" effect will create the intersect. In this example, the
first
subgrade (asphalt) is "continue slope", the second (gravel) is
"straight
up" and the third (gravel tie in behind curb) is "continue slope".
The Material field is an optional description that is used in the Process
Road Design report. Special super elevation pivot points may
optionally be specified. The values for Horizontal Offset, Distance and
Pivot Offset can be specified by template ID. For example, EP could be
used in Distance to have the subgrade have a width of the EP grade.
Also expressions can be used such as EP+5 to go the distance of the EP
segment plus 5. This is especially useful for template transitions so
that if the EP grade varies the subgrade width will automatically
adjust.
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| Example of Wrap Around Subgrade |
Pulldown Menu Location: Roads
Keyboard Command: template
Prerequisite: None
File Name: \lsp\tplmake.arx
