Design Template

This command creates a template definition file (.TPL file). The template file can then be applied in the Process Road Design, Road Network, Draw Typical Template, Locate Template Points or Design Pad Template commands. The template is designed using the dialog shown below. The top portion shows a graphic preview of the template as you create it. You can choose whether to show cut or fill slopes on the left and right sides. Also, you can choose whether to show the template in superelevation. 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. The Report button has two different report formats that include just the ID's of the template elements or all the dimensions of the template elements. The Change Units button allows you to apply a scale factor to the distances in the template which can be used to convert between English and Metric. The Import Polyline button adds grades to the template from a selected polyline. The Profile Delta Z applies a vertical offset to the profile when the template is processed. This vertical offset applies to a template that has an element at the profile position that makes the template different than the profile grade. For example, when the profile grade is along the centerline at the pavement level and the template has a curb or median that is 0.5 above the pavement, then set the Profile Delta Z to 0.5 so that the template matches the pavement grade after coming down from the 0.5 curb or median.

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 median. These Grade In and Grade Out points emanate from the starting or "from" position in the coordinate dialog where they are specified. Since 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 median. You will also have to move the "C/L" designation, to obtain centering, when using Draw Typical Template.

Using the Load and Save buttons, medians can be saved and loaded with .MDN files for sharing and re-use in other templates. The Up and Down buttons change the order of the highlighted X/Y Offset record in the list. The Pick button prompts to pick a closed polyline from the drawing to define the median geometry. The Set button shows a list of grade ID's from the current Template ID Library. The Skip Median option creates the median only in the station range of Template Point Profile or Template Point Centerline transitions.

To enter the dimensions of the median, use the Add or Edit button. The adjustment factors control how to apply Template Point Profile and Template Point Centerline adjustments. For Template Point Profiles, the program figures the amount of vertical adjustment between the transition profile and the normal profile. The amount of this vertical adjustment is multiplied by the adjustment factor and then added to the X/Y Offsets of the median point. Likewise, the program figures the horizontal adjustment between the transition centerline and normal centerline for Template Point Centerlines and applies this adjustment by the factors to the offsets. These adjustment factors allow for dynamic medians. For example, the height of a retaining wall could be controlled using a Template Point Profile and the median points for the vertical sides would have a Y Factor set to 1 to pick up the full vertical adjustment and the median points for the top and bottom edges would have a Y Factor of 0 keep those edges the same.

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.

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 slope can be specified in either Percent, Ratio or Vertical format. The Vertical format is the actual elevation difference. The slope type can be either Liner or Parabolic. The Linear is a constant slope and the Parabolic gets steeper across the grade until it reaches the full specified slope at the end of the grade. 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. The Pick button prompts to select a linework segment or two points from the drawing to define the grade slope and distance. The Set button shows a list of grade ID's from the current Template ID Library.

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 Smooth option will smooth the surface of the curb which only shows when the template is applied in commands such as Process Road Design. The Round option will fillet a curve at the bottom and top of the taper using the specified Bottom and Top Radius. 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 option. The Base Slope Type of the curb can either be flat, set to the slope of the incoming grade or set to a user-specified slope. For the Match Crown method, you can use the Table option to define a lookup table of different curb slopes for different crown grades. For cases with part of the curb at a slope and part flat, you can use the Base Break Offset to set the transition position between sloped and flat. The Target setting for the slope controls which parts of the curb are sloped. The Material name is used in the Process Road Design report. The ID is a unique identifier for this element of the template and is used for referencing the curb in other routines. The Direction controls which way the curb faces. This Direction option is needed for divided roads that have curbs facing both ways on either side of the road.

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.

The Pick buttons prompts to select a linework segment or two points from the drawing to define the cut slope.

The Tie to Set Offset forces the cut slope catch point to a specified fixed offset. This offset can be relative to the centerline or the template pivot point. This tie method can be used when you want the cut slope to always tie into existing at a fixed ROW offset.

The Force Fill option will make the template attempt to find a catch point with a fill slope even when the pivot point is in cut. You can specify the fill slope to use and the maximum depth for the fill slope.

The Tie ID sets the description to use in the design section file for the tie point. This is the same setting as under the Fill Grades dialog.

The Load Ditch and Save Ditch functions allow you to save and recall ditch grades to a .DIT file. This way to can make your own library of ditch definitions.

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):

Template Cut 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.

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 Force Cut option will make the template attempt to find a catch point with a cut slope even when the pivot point is in fill. You can specify the cut slope to use and the maximum depth for the cut slope.

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.

Here is an 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.

The Low Side Grades To Match Greater Super Slope option applies to the template grades that are outside the super pivot. When the super slope becomes steeper than these outside grades, then these grades are adjusted to match the same super slope. You can set up to two grades past the super pivot to adjust. For example, consider a template where the super pivot is the EP grade and the next grade is a SHD for the shoulder. If the SHD normal slope is -4%, then the SHD will stay at -4% through the super transition until the super becomes greater that -4%. So when the super is at -6%, the SHD will also be at -6%.

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".

Special super elevation pivot points may optionally be specified. The Pivot Offset allows the subgrade slope to break in super elevation independently of where the surface grade breaks. The subgrade will follow the super elevation slope from the centerline to the Pivot Offset. Then after the Pivot Offset, there are options to set the slope. The Min and Max Slope settings restrict the subgrade slope. The Normal option sets the slope the same as the non-super elevation state. The Special option can be used to set the slope to a specific value.

The Subgrade 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.

Pulldown Menu Location: Roads
Keyboard Command: template
Prerequisite: None