A simple question.

[broc croll]

How do some of you draw roads? I used lines & arcs to draw the centerline, then the offset tool to either side of center. I then had to go back and finesse where my lines & arcs either did not join or where they intersected at their ends. Is it easier to draw first one side of the road, then the other? Are there other tools I should think of using. Thanks for any input at all.

[Thom]

I use polylines. I set a rough, continous alignment using one line for the full alignment. Then go back and using the edit polyline tool, change the vertices to arcs where needed. Arc radus's can also be dictated.

This method does not rely on trying to connect various lines - something I find frustrating and wished worked better.

Then offset to one's content.

[Guest]

If you choose to draw using arcs and lines, you have to make sure you get the correct smart cursor cues to connect the points.

Say you draw a line and then want to draw an arc that is 'connected' to that line.

When starting the arc, the cursor cue POINT needs to appear. Object or anything else probably won't connect the too.

If you want to draw a line off an arc that is drawn, the smart cursor cue ARC END needs to be where you click. Again, object or point will either snap to a point along the arc rather than the end of the arc or a point along the arc or a point on the snap grid (If you have snap to grid on).

My personal suggestion is to turn off all snaps except for Snap to Object in the Constraints palette to minimize the cursor cues you get.

It's a little tricky to get used to actually paying attention to the cursor cues you get on the screen, but once you learn the differences between the words, and there IS a difference, it makes life SO much easier.

Once you have drawn all of the lines and arcs so the objects were drawn using the correct cursor cues, you can use the Compose command under the Tool menu to compose a polyline from the objects.

Simply select all your lines and arcs, go to Tool>Compose.

The connect combine tool, Dual Object Connect mode essentially does the same thing the compose command does for the most part.

[broc croll]

Thanks for the replies. Whole new possibilities are open for me now. The polyline is a great intuitive solution. I wasn't even aware of this tool and I can see it is well worth learning. Katie, your suggestion about really understanding the cursor cues and the constraint pallette is a good one. On this go around I did in fact use "point" and "arc end" even though my settings on the constraint pallette gave me more cues than I needed. My main complication came by offsetting individual lines & arcs thus creating new sets of lines & arcs that no longer intersected correctly. The compose tool is the step that I missed. This process uses the polyline in a very precise way. Again, thanks.

[Kevin]

Katie:

Where can I find an explanation for all of the cursor cues. I understand "arc end", but what of all the other cue names?

As an example, when I try to dimension a floor plan I often end up dimensioning other dimension lines instead of the corner of the building.

As always, thanks for your help.

[Guest]

All of the Smart Cursor Cues are outlined in the VW User's GUide on pages 4-11 thru 4-13 (VW 10).

If you are using an earlier version of VW, you'll need to look up Smart Cursor Cues in the index to find the exact location.

[jan15]

For a smooth curve, use Arc by Tangent (3rd option in the Arc tool). Start the next arc at the end point of the last arc, then click-drag till you see the cue "Tangent", then release, and then click again to set the end point of the new arc. Then the two arcs will have the same tangent where they meet.

[P Retondo]

Jan15 is absolutely right. The problem using the polyline tool is that when you offset the centerline, you will get thousands of little facets as the road edges instead of a set of arcs and curves. One solution is to "decompose" the polyline into arcs and straight lines before you offset. If you have your straight lines and arcs meeting in a tangential relationship, by offsetting them their intersection will still be in a tangential relationship. This is the correct way to draw roads, even if they are laid out in the field less precisely than they are drawn.

[Kong]

i did often use the double Polygon tool create a primitive way. then use the 2D Reshape tool for edit corner iืnto Arc (or if had a more corner i use the Smooth command(Edit menu)in the Arc type then edit some corner by the 2D Reshape tool)

[broc croll]

I'm still listening and learning, thanks for your responses!

[Chris T]

I was using the double poly tool and reshape it.

Now I use the roadway tool and it works great.

-can change road width with no problems.

-intersections(tee) corners works very well.

- best of all it is in 3D and you can see the slopes.

I started using it on a commercial project and sasve a lot of time.