Locking PVIs to plan coordinate

[WScottAllenPE]

Is there a way to lock a PVI to a specific location in plan?

That is, I have a profile for a sidewalk that crosses several streets. At each street, I will have a six foot long ramp at 12:1. Let's say that the first crossing is at Station 99+94 at 100.50 and 100+00 at 100.00. If I change the alignment to lengthen or shorten it, then the profile will keep the PVIs at 99+94 and 100+00.

But, the street intersection has actually moved stationwise, so the ramp is now drawn in the wrong place. I would like to get the PVI to fix itself to the physical X,Y coordinate at the edge of the street (or PI of the alignment).

Is there a way to lock it in this manner?

Scott

[mjfarrell]

not without use of some programming

[WScottAllenPE]

Thanks anyway MJ.

That answer seems to be a common theme to my questions. Unfortunately, this seems to be another example of where updating or changing something means a lot of rework to update other things that are not dynamic.

I've been trying to figure out how to do it with intersection design, but I keep running into problems there as well.

Scott

[WScottAllenPE]

For all of you interested, I have developed a work flow that mostly lies to Civil to do this. Here goes. I have kept it very generic.

1.) Create an alignment that you plan to use.
2.) Create a generic profile of the alignment. The profile won't matter, so all at the existing surface works for me.
3.) Create a "profile" feature line from the alignment. Adjust the vertices of the "profile" feature line as necessary for Z elevation. These Z-coordinates will eventually be your usable profile.
4.) Create a corridor. I used a generic subassembly that allows me to target the offset and profile of the "profile" feature line. Then, I had two more subassemblies that were an offset of that one by 5 feet each way. That is, three assemblies that would all be at the same profile as the targeted "profile" feature line.
5.) Create dynamic feature lines from corridor for the three subassembly pieces. One will be at the "Profile" feature line and the other two will be offsets.
6.) Create a surface. Add the three dynamic corridor feature lines as breaklines.
7.) Create a surface profile of the surface using the alignment.
8.) Create a profile view containing the existing surface profile at the alignment, and the surface profile of the corridor feature line surface.
9.) Project the "Profile" feature line to the profile view.

Voila, you have a profile that is linked to fixed spots from the feature line which is fixed in the X,Y location on plan.

To adjust the horizontal alignment, you need to adjust both the alignment and the profile feature line. (If a feature line could be made dynamic to the alignment, you wouldn't have to do this.)

To adjust the vertical alignment, just use the grips for the "Profile" feature line in the profile view.

After making a change, rebuild the corridor, then rebuild the surface. You should be left with an alignment that follows the "profile" feature line in plan and a profile that follows the "profile" feature line in profile.

Yes, it is a lot of steps, but it is a lot easier for me to do this. That way, if I go back and change the alignment at the beginning, it will hold the PVI's for the rest of the project at the edges of the street and the tops of the ramps 6 feet away, instead of moving them all (all 64) over the next two miles. The intermediate PVI's also are fixed. All you need to review after a change are the PIs and the PVIs in the area that you adjusted.

A lot less work for me.

If anybody has any ideas to improve this work flow, I'd love to hear.

Scott

[WScottAllenPE]

An update:

This process won't work as easily for profiles that require parabolic vertical curves. Feature lines don't allow you to add a vertical curve. You can approximate by inserting a number of vertical vertices along the feature line to approximate a parabolic curve. Even more work.

We need that super entity that combines alignment and profile from something as simple as a feature line.