Modelling complex road networks

[Paul King]

Hi, I want to find a way to put a camber in a complex roading network, with radiused road intersections, variations in road width etc as you move along (i.e. a strictly linear/extruded solution wont work)

Basically I need to start with a slab, that follows the road edge boundaries, and bulge it upwards between the edges

Essentially, imagine a piece of Swiss cheese, with a slab defining the outside edges and holes in the middle, and now attempt to smoothly bulge upwards between the slab edges and holes.

Attempting to do this via contours on a mesh is prohibitively time consuming (and it crashes my machine after a while).

What do others do to emulate lofting or bulging in non linear perforated elements ?

[Anonymous]

Paul,

Your original query asked how to do something that ArchiCAD is not really suitable for (ie road design and intersections for large area) hence my response that it's not the right tool for that task and you would probably be better served finding another solution (other software or engage a consultant that specialises in this).

If it's only for visualisation why don't you use a bump map in the texture you are going to use for the road.

Use the top view to create pdf if whole road network, import to photoshop and paint road curvature using soft brush etc you could also create textures for line marking etc then all you need to do is to import the texture(s) into the road material set bump strength to give effect you desire, set size and origin then render

Regards
Scott

[Paul King]

gpowless wrote:
I have done some complex terrain modelling on a smaller scale.

If you are looking for visual accuracy then I suggest that you start out with a topigraphical survey of the area and then import it as a mesh into Archicad.

Roads and other topigraphic features to be added can be roughed out by inserting and manipulating elevation points along set polygon lines that indicate where the features will occur. Once the terrain shapes are modelled I cut out the roads, sidewalks and other features. To do this I follow the polygons and create a 1' wide hole around the feature (making it like an island). Once that feature is cut out I can stretch the mesh lines to close the 1' gap, change the material and lower or raise the mesh segment accordingly.

All you are asking for can be achieved using this method but be prepared to spend a lot of time meticulously adjusting points. You'll also need lots of memory and computing capacity, since this will create thousands of mesh polygons.

Good luck.

Hi thanks Gpowless
I am familiar with this technique, and use it on sloping terrain, where smoothly cambered roads are not my priority. unfortunately, that is not the situation I am asking about - in this case I have dead flat terrain. I just want roads to be cambered (rounded, not flat like cardboard) as described above, in situations where the sides of the road are not parallel, and they curve away from each other in different directions at times - i.e where complex profiles or parallel sided morphs can not work

[sinceV6]

Hi.

My suggestion for this scenario: use sketchup and then import. There are a few useful road creation scripts around.

Best regards.

[Paul King]

Thanks SinceV6 - will give that a try!

[alemanda]

Have you ever tried Architerra by Cigraph?
It is a plugin inside a suite of pulgins called Archisuite.
It helps with terrains and roads ... I don't know if it is so sophisticated to help you to model what you need ...

[gpowless]

Paul wrote:
Hi thanks Gpowless
I am familiar with this technique, and use it on sloping terrain, where smoothly cambered roads are not my priority. unfortunately, that is not the situation I am asking about - in this case I have dead flat terrain. I just want roads to be cambered (rounded, not flat like cardboard) as described above, in situations where the sides of the road are not parallel, and they curve away from each other in different directions at times - i.e where complex profiles or parallel sided morphs can not work

It is still possible using this technique. After you have followed the technique I mentioned, simply convert the road mesh into a morph and make the necessary adjustments in that tool.

[Paul King]

Hi - thanks for the suggestion. I looked at it a while ago - it seems useful at a more conceptual level, especially across sloping terrain, but I don't think it could handle what I am after (intersections, non parallel sidewalks , cambers etc)

Cheers

[Paul King]

gpowless wrote:
It is still possible using this technique. After you have followed the technique I mentioned, simply convert the road mesh into a morph and make the necessary adjustments in that tool.

Hi thanks Gpowless, my problem is that I have not found a way to edit morphs to achieve cambers for roads where the sides are not parallel, and where they intersect with other roads, also with cambers. If there is a way, that would solve my problem!

[Nuge]

if you are using octane render why dont you create a displacement map and apply it to the meshes (use a gradient to get the curve looking right)

[Nuge]

if you are using octane render why dont you create a displacement map and apply it to the meshes (use a gradient to get the curve looking right)

Nuge