There are a lot of projects in the commercial and residential arena that just don’t meet a criteria for passing. We still need to evaluate various other factors, but passing is not an option. Essentially a selective criteria.
Besides, everyone knows us country folks down here just pave windy old game trails so we can go real slow and enjoy the scenery. We aint got no use for passin’ nobody anyhow. Waffle House is open 24/7, what’s the rush.
The problem I ran into is that while trying to meet some other criteria, was that the warnings for passing sight visibility just won’t let me be. Ignoring warnings is always a bad solution. Eventually you ignore something that was a valid concern.
The design criteria are tables stored in an XML file, with the following default VISTA path.
C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\C3D 2009\enu\Data\Corridor Design Standards\Imperial\_Autodesk Civil 3D Imperial Roadway Design Standards.xml
There is no way to instruct the software to ignore 1 warning, but allow the others. We could pad the table full of elevated values to stop the warnings, but then someone new would see the criteria included, and believe that it was met (and you know someone would get a hold of it on another project, and use it thinking it was per standard). We could of course, change the design (not enough), or we could reduce the speed.
In the example above, you should be able to see that I am already down to 35 MPH, an don’t really want to make the 1/2 mile trip any slower, especially in 1 small area, when the city may not want any passing in the first place.
One option (the one discussed today) is to create a new XML criteria file, containing all the criteria we do want, and simply remove the criteria we don’t. We can copy the file in at the previous path, and rename it to the standard name with “No PASS” in the name. No everyone will know the criteria has been modified, and roughly how.
It’s time to edit. We could modify the XML file with a text editor, but as you may recall, I hate reading XML. Autodesk has provided a wonderful editor just for this purpose, and that is what we will be using. Open the Design Criteria Editor dialog, available under the Alignments Menu. Using the Open File icon at the top of the dialog, we can navigate to the new copied ‘No Pass’ file. After expanding the Profile standard tables, you can see the Passing Sight Distance. We will remove the entire criteria by right clicking on the title, and selecting Remove.
Once completed, the application will no longer evaluate this criteria. Close the dialog, enter Yes through the questions saying you are about to kill a criteria, and you will be returned to see the error remaining on the profile view. Navigate through the Alignment properties and change the criteria file to the ‘No Pass’ XML recently edited. Hit apply and close the dialog. The error will be gone.
Keep in mind, the application can no longer evaluate this criteria. A notification in the file, and a note in the alignment description about the lack of criteria would be prudent. Also the following warning from the Autodesk Civil 3D help is worth mentioning:
“…If you use a custom a design criteria file, you must save it to a shared server to which all members of your design team have access. If you send a drawing that uses a custom design criteria file, you must send the design criteria file with the drawing….”
That’s it.
Talk Back