Adding retaining walls to site model

[J. Wallace]

Hello

I have made a site model, placed a large pad to accommodate a building and parking area. Everything looks great... now I have to add the retaining walls which will make all of this possible. They vary from 2-5m high.

If I place a wall (12"poured in place) and create a retaining wall site modifier from this it places the modifier on top of the pad which borders the site.

Question is how I get the proposed contour lines and model to run into the back of the retaining wall rather than terminate on the pad below?

I started moving the pad inside the retaining wall modifer but this does not seem to yield the correct results. If I knew how to attach an image here I would.

[CipesDesign]

The way I've done it is the create the Pad first, and to make it nearly vertical (you can't make it truly vertical as that violates the rules in VW's). Then I use the Wall Tool (regular old walls) set to the thickness and style I want. I can then place the walls exactly where I want them both in plan and their elevation. The trick here is to make the Walls sort of cover the edge of the Pad where all the contour lines pile up on tope of each other...

FWIW, I have not messed around with Site Retaining Walls enough to know whether to recommend them or not....

[J. Wallace]

Thanks for that...

Just to clarify, you make a pad for the wall first, and in doing so make this nearly vertical. Not sure how I would make this nearly vertical?

I already have a pad for the parking and structure already, can I leave this and place the wall pad next to it? If I do the model contours are already heading down to the base of this. Does that make sense?

[mike m oz]

Jamie, there are several movies on Retaining Walls in the Video Library:

- New Retaining Wall Site Modifier: http://www.vectorworks.net/library/index.php?movie=2011movies'>http://www.vectorworks.net/library/index.php?movie=2011movies

- Retaining Wall Site Modifier Improvement: http://www.vectorworks.net/library/index.php

[Benson Shaw]

Some comment about pads and grade limits and "vertical" side walls:

The pad in this case is a depression in the site model, an excavation. The side walls of this depression rise from the pad edges at the bottom of the excavation up to a boundary object on the site model surface. The boundary object was called a fence in early versions, a boundary (in v2011?), and now it is called a Grade Limit.

The site model feature does not allow the plan projection of the Grade Limit to anywhere touch a pad. The pad must be completely enclosed. A single grade limit can "contain" several pads. Many site modifiers generate a default grade limit which can be modified with settings or replaced.

If the Grade Limit is offset only slightly from the pad (eg .01mm), the side walls will be nearly vertical. But since the plan projections cannot be coincident, the side wall cannot be perfectly vertical. The Grade LImit can be any shape or size, although it is often an offset of the pad. So the slope/batter of any portion of a side wall can be anything between gentle or almost vertical.

-B

[Tamsin Slatter]

The retaining wall site modifier creates pads all around the wall, and you can control the elevation of these pads so that the soil is retained just as you want it. Under the wall, the modifier creates a flat pad, which is slightly offset from the edge of the wall, so that you don't get modifiers touching at different elevations and consequently get some of them ignored. The pad for the parking area should be inside the retaining wall, but not touching the modifier. If it DOES touch at the same elevation,you will receive an error message, but in fact, it won't make any difference to the result, because it is touching at the same elevation. Where you have two points touching (in plan), but at different elevations, one set of points will be ignored.

Hope that helps

[J. Wallace]

Great information thank you everyone. I ended up installing the wall w/retaining wall site modifier and it worked well. The trick, as mentioned, seems to be separating this modifier from any other pad.

Now I have to edit the wall location which is easy, the hard part seems to be moving the site modifier. Any ideas on how one moves the footprint of this as the wall moves independent to the modifier.

[Tamsin Slatter]

Yes the modifier is a separate object to the wall although it is formed around the wall or network of walls. I usually send the modifier backward to hide it behind the wall on the plan, select both and use Move by Points to move them with precision.