Superelevation Changes in 2011

By Russ Nicloy, Civil Application Engineer

One of the changes you will notice in the 2011 release of Civil 3D is how superelevations are handled.  There is a lot more control over the type and assignment of slopes.  Like many tools that have been added or upgraded over the years, the superelevation tools make use of a wizard entry system to walk you through the necassary options.  These wizards are further explained through the use of schematic graphics so the user will understand what setting they are atually affecting, even if the terminology is different than you might use in your particular area.

At the same time, you are still assigning this superelevation data to the alignment, but it doesn’t feel like you are tied to the alignment at the time.  The data about the curves and lane slopes are in the Panorama window, and that allows for the columns of data to be broken up in a way that makes them easier to manuver through.  The old charts got you the information, but it was in a tidal wave of data.

Another trend appears in the table area and that is the highlighting of objects inside the drawing area.  If you click on a field for, let’s say, the Begin Full Super for curve number two (I happen to be looking at that data right now), you can look back at the alignment and Curve 2 will be highlighted in red, and the station for the End Full Super will have a blue hash mark identifying its location.

By the way, you can still manually add (or delete) stations with this method.  In fact, you could still build a superelevation from scratch, with just the stations and slopes you need to target.  I know that has helped many in some sticky situations utilize superelevations for not necassarily superelevation work.