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Templates Hierarchy Properties Components

Updated August 22, 2024

This article applies to:
  • RoadEng Civil
  • RoadEng Forestry
This Knowledge Base article is an excerpt from one of our tutorial files. The files referenced in the article, as well as the full tutorial document, are available in our Tutorial Installer.  

Note: Refer to Getting Started section for file install folders (<RoadEngCivil> and <Defaults and Layouts>).

  1. In the Location module, open <RoadEngCivil>\Location2\bluff_road.dsnx.

  2. Home | Templates, to open the Template Table Editor shown below.

  3. Click on slope right (to the right of the graphic) to prepare for the following section.

Figure 1: Template Table Editor Dialogue Box

  1. Click on the + beside the template RUR-Rural to view its components as shown in the figure above.

  2. The template editor shows you the templates contained in a table and the components contained in each template. These are the items you commonly work with.

Template Properties

  1. Right click on the RUR-Rural template and choose Properties…

Figure 2: Template Properties Dialogue Box

There are relatively few controls in the Template Properties, most template flexibility is at the Component level. Aside from the template Name and Description, the most commonly used properties are the cross-fall slopes.

  1. Change the Crown/Super Slope to -5% on the left and +5% on the right. Press OK.

Notice how the Roadway component is altered by the new crown slopes – this is what happens when this template is applied inside a curve with 5% super-elevation (the template property Override with Curve Super must be enabled). Some components are designed to adjust themselves to the prevailing crown or super-elevation slope.

  1. Right click on the RUR-Rural template and choose Undo Modify to restore the initial settings.

Creating and Deleting Templates

Although there is an Add button (and context menu), you will find the most intuitive way to create a new template is to copy an existing template, paste it back into the table and then re-name and modify it.

  1. Right click on the RUR-Rural template and select Copy.

  2. Right click | Paste > | As New. The new template will appear at the bottom of the list.

  3. Select the new xx0-Rural template and use the Shift Up button to move it up the list.

You could also open the properties and rename the template to RUR2 or similar. You would also want to change at least one property or component to make the template different in a useful way.

Note: The fewer templates you have the easier it is to maintain them.

  1. Right click on the new xx0-Rural template and select Delete to remove it.

Template Components

There are four types of template components:

  • Custom

  • Roadway

  • Ditches

  • Slopes

Roadway, Ditches, and Slopes components are included for backward compatibility and their behavior is mostly self-explanatory (and there is always <F1>). Custom components have replaced and improved upon their features. You can tell when you are looking at an old-style component – the properties dialogue boxes are quite different from the Custom components properties (figures below).

In this document, we will work exclusively with Custom components.

Template Component Properties

Template components have parameters allowing you to configure the object for your specific design. Template parameters can be any one of the following:

User This is the most common type of parameter. It can be a numerical value (usually distance) or a slope percent.
Reference Feature X Offset Allows you to specify an optional horizontal alignment instead of a numerical offset from center-line. See Reference Features for more information.
Reference Feature X Offset Allows you to specify an optional horizontal alignment instead of a numerical offset from center-line. See Reference Features for more information.
Reference Feature Y Offset Allows you to specify an optional vertical alignment instead of a numerical offset from center-line. See Reference Features for more information.
Reference Surface Allows you to specify a surface (rarely used).

  1. Right click on the Rural Paved-left component of the RUR-Rural template | select Properties… to open the Template Component Properties dialogue box (Figure 12‑3).

Figure 3: Rural Paved Roadway Component Properties

This component allows you to change various parameters such as pavement thickness, lane width shoulder width, and various thicknesses and slopes.

  1. Change the lane width:

  1. Select ACP_WIDTH in the Parameters list; note the pavement highlight in the graphic.

  2. Change the Default value to 16.0; note that the graphic updates immediately.

Figure 4: Template Graphic Depicting the Effect of Changing the ACP_WIDTH Variable While the Component Properties Dialogue is Open

Note: When there is a Feature option for a given parameter, it means that you can use a reference feature centerline offset to define the parameter instead of the default value. Reference Features can be defined by pressing the button.

  1. Press OK to accept changes and close the properties dialogue box. Notice the road has widened on the left.

Similarly, open the Ditch-left properties dialogue box (Figure 12‑5 below left).

  1. Select each available parameter and note the highlighted dependent parts in the graphic. Also notice that the options and description change with each selection.

  2. Press Cancel to close the properties dialogue box.

Figure 5: Ditch and Slopes Component Properties

  1. Open the Slope Cut/Fill-left properties dialogue box (figure above right). In this component you can change the final closing slope. If Auto is chosen, as is shown in the figure above, the slope will be taken from the material types found in the ground (cut slope) or fill (fill slope). Choosing anything other than Auto will fix the slope and ignore the material types.

  2. Press Cancel to close the properties dialogue box.

The ground slope buttons (shown below) allow you to view typical cross sections.

Slope Right
Slope Left
Cut
Fill

  1. Select the slope left buttonNotice how the black ground line changes and how the template accommodates.

  2. Click and drag the cross in the template graphic area. Note that you can change the template position and see how it will behave in different situations.

  3. Softree added this ability to change the template position (up and down, for example), the difference between Cut and Fill cross sections has become irrelevant.

Note: The middle mouse pan and zoom work in the template graphic area. To turn off/on labels in the Template Editor: Options | Select all the layers | Select/de-select Display Labels

  1. Click on the Split screen view button in the upper right corner. The screen shown below will appear showing four ground situations at the same time. Each template position can be adjusted with a mouse click and drag.

Figure 6: Split Screen View Showing the 4 Typical Sections

  1. Click on the station button on the right-hand side of the screen, and enter the value 300. Press OK.

On the screen, you will see the template applied to station 300 of the design. This allows you to quickly see how the template will appear before it is assigned.

Working with Components

Template components are interchangeable building blocks. A template table can also contain optional folders containing re-usable components.

  1. Click on the slope right button to prepare for the following section.

  2. Scroll down the template tree list and open theSlopes Components folder (Figure 12‑7).

Figure 7: Copying a Component from a Folder

  1. Right click on the Bench by Cut Height-left (note to select by cut and not by fill) component and select Copy.

  2. Scroll up until you can see the RUR-Rural template again.

Figure 8: Pasting a Component Into a Template

  1. Right click on the Slope Cut/Fill-left component in the RUR-Rural template and choose menu Paste | Replace Existing (figure above).

You will be prompted with the dialogue box shown below. This allows you to copy parameters between similar components. In this case we just want to overwrite the component not the parameters.

Figure 9: Options Available when Replacing an Existing Template Component

  1. Leave the Overwrite parameters only option unchecked (as shown above) and press OK.

  2. Click and drag the template down until you can see the cut benches – figure below (you may also need to zoom out).

Figure 10: The New Slopes Component is only on the Leftside

  1. At this point you might want to change the new component’s properties. Is the bench wide enough? Are the steps high enough?

  2. Open the properties dialogue box for the new component and change BenchWidth to 15. Press OK to commit the change.

  3. Notice that the cut bench component is only on the left side. We will copy it (with its new bench width) to the right:

  1. Right click on Slope Cut/Fill-right and choose menu Delete.

  2. Right click on Bench by Cut Height-left and select Copy.

  3. Right click again Bench by Cut Height-left and select Paste | As New - Right. Notice the template now has cut benches on both sides.

Note: The order of components is important; components should be arranged from the center line out. The left/right order is unimportant.

  1. Use the Shift Up button to move your cut bench component to the top of the list. Notice what happens to the drawing.

  2. Restore the order.

Templates