Best site modifier to grade a sloping curved path?

[JonKoch]

Hello! I am attaching a screenshot of what I was trying to do and I was successful but I'm wondering if there's a better way or if I'm not using the tool correctly. In the screenshot you'll see I have two paths on either side of the building that lead to semi-circular area outside the covered porch. I ended up using an aligned pad and basically measuring the distance from known points and then calculating slope between them. I then edited the surface modifiers of that large aligned pad to create a different slope profile for each edge of it to meet all the points I needed to. 

 

At the end of the day, this worked, and I'm happy with how it modeled (see second screenshot) but I won't end up using it for my grading plan since it's not 100% accurate. I'm wondering if there is a better workflow for creating something like this? I have used the path site modifier on this model and it seemed to work OK but I'm not sure how to use it on this organic type shape. 

 

I also feel like if I had to change any aspect of the grading on this it would be a huge pain, so I would be interested to hear about a method that allows for easier changes that are practical. 

 

Thanks!

[kwik]

You could try to divide the shape into 5 different site-modifier-shapes. Two paths on each side, the semicircle as a sloping pad and aligned pads in between that will automatically «glue» themselves to the connecting path and pad. That way it would be much easier to do changes to sloping or layout.

 

Edited June 27, 2023 by kwik

[JonKoch]

18 hours ago, kwik said:

You could try to divide the shape into 5 different site-modifier-shapes. Two paths on each side, the semicircle as a sloping pad and aligned pads in between that will automatically «glue» themselves to the connecting path and pad. That way it would be much easier to do changes to sloping or layout.

 

Interesting, yeah I had thought of that. I guess I don't really understand the aligned pad function fully. I like that I can pitch the surface in multiple directions but it doesn't seem to "align" with other aligned pads even when I choose it to align to a custom set of layers that all my modifiers are on. It still requires me to edit surface modifiers, even on edges where two aligned pads meet. 

[Benson Shaw]

Another idea is to place stakes or 3d loci with proper z values at ea grade point. Add the to the proposed source (or is this existing?) geometry.  Update the  DTM. Add some interior loci, stakes or even a grade network for crowning, etc. 
 

OR

 

Dont put the loci /stakes in the source data. Instead . . . Draw NURBS curve (interpolation mode so the curve passes through the points) through all those perimeter loci. Edit the corner points with reshape tool to convert them to corners. Place this NURBS curve into the Site>DTM> Modifier class and update the DTM. May need some adjustments with loci, stakes or the Grade tool for cross grades. If needed add a grade limits around the new shape.   Place a landscape area on it for texture and subgrade components. 

 

-B