Water Treatment Plant Visuals

I've been working on a small visualisation project recently using Infraworks. There are a series of existing water treatment plants where the client wishes to power the plant using renewable energy. The project requires the installation of a wind turbine and PV panels on site. Our end has been to create a visualisation to examine the visual impact of the turbine and PV panels, particularly in relation to the nearest dwellings. Some screen shots below. Not photorealistic but getting a good balance between time spent doing the modelling and quality achieved from Infraworks. The majority of videos, demonstrations and marketing material from Autodesk is aimed at larger scale projects but IW is well suited to smaller scale projects also.

 

Here's two additional images for anyone that recognises the area...!!

Wind Turbine Hardstand Videos

The following 4 videos show how to model the hardstand areas for a wind turbine access road into your C3D corridor.

I have written about this before (http://civilintentions.blogspot.ie/2012/05/wind-farm-access-roads-hardstand-area.html). The videos should fill in any gaps when following the workflow:

Step 1 - Create Hardstand Edge Alignments:
http://youtu.be/cZIiAWJZcLc

Step 2 - Create Profiles for Hardstand Edges:
http://youtu.be/NnSlQctVx58


Step 3 - Modelling Hardstand Corridor:
http://youtu.be/ML8j9sXhwIw

Step 4 - Finalising Hardstand Corridor:
http://youtu.be/A1zLV-Hijs4

Civil 3D to AIM part 2 - It's all in the (Code Set) Style

In the last post we looked at taking the topo survey and areas of interest from C3D into Autodesk Infratsructure Modeller (AIM). In this post we will look at taking the proposed design (C3D corridors) out to AIM.

While you can export surfaces to LandXML from C3D and import into AIM this does not work well for corridor (proposed) surfaces. The reason is that AIM treats LandXML surfaces as Terrain and will drape your aerial imagery onto them - in effect you will end up with a surface that takes on the shape of your proposed design but has the existing aerial imagery draped onto it as below:

The most efficient method of exporting your proposed design from C3D to AIM is to use the IMX file format. As usual there is a couple of things to look out for. The main thing I have learned is that setting a render material to elements of the corridor in C3D first through the corridor code set style will make life a lot easier when you import in AIM.

First we need to identify what elements of the corridor to attach materials to. Hover over the links in your corridor (these are the corridor lines running perpendicular to the baseline) and you will see in the tooltip what the link code is:

Do this for each of the links in your corridor and note the link code being used by each. There will be a different link between each of the corridor featurelines, see below:

Next select your corridor, go to Corridor Properties on the ribbon and on the Codes tab edit the code set style being used (or create a new one).

We need to make sure that the codes set style contains all of the codes being used in the corridor. In the code set style dialog box click on Import Codes...

...navigate to your assembly in the drawing and drag a selection box around it. This will bring in all the codes used in the assembly to your code set style for editing.

Back in the code set style dialog under the links section assign a render material to each of the link codes used in your corridor. Be careful here as the top code will be used by all links so assigning a material to that will be used for all links. It is better to assign separate materials to the codes such as Daylight_Cut, Daylight_Fill, Ditch etc.

Once you have done this select the corridor in your drawing and choose object viewer on the ribbon, set the view style to Realistic. How the corridor looks in realistic view will give a good indication of how it will look in AIM. If there appears to be any part of the corridor that does not have a material assigned then check your link codes and assigned materials before exporting to AIM.

Now in C3D you are ready to export. On the Output tab of the Ribbon click Export IMX:

You can connect direct to this file in AIM. It will bring in Roads and Surface as two separate connections under data sources. As in the previous post right click on each connection separately and select configure and make sure that the coordinates are set correct. Do not drape these connections as we want to use the design level information. The corridor should now appear in AIM using the materials assigned in C3D:

Looking South from T1

 T2 and Compound with T1 in background

T8

Civil 3D to AIM

The following couple of workflows demonstrate taking your design from Civil 3D to Autodesk Infrastructure Modeller (AIM) for visualisation. Next post will cover taking proposed design (corridors) from C3D out to Autodesk Infrastructure Modeller (AIM) for visualisation.

The first thing to be aware of is what format you export your data out of Civil 3D for use in AIM.

Existing Topo:

The best way to get your existing ground surface out of Civil 3D is to export it as a LandXML file and then connect to this in AIM. You can do this a number of ways - right click on your surface in the Toolspace and select Export to LandXML or access the command from thee Output tab of the ribbon - see below:

When you connect to this in AIM it will automatically treat it as terrain. Once connected to in AIM right click on the connection and select Configure to make sure the coordinates are set or you may not see anything in your model. Any aerial imagery will automatically be draped onto this surface.

Areas of Interest:

For any areas of interest on your site that you want to highlight in the AIM model the best format to export them out of Civil 3D is the SDF format. For example in the project (Windfarm site) I am working on there is a CAD drawing which contains all of the site constraints in AutoCAD format. you can isolate CAD objects for each type of constraint and export them as separate SDF files. You can then connect to and control the display of each of these constraints separately in your AIM model. This allows you greater flexibility in controlling the display of the constraints in your AIM model rather than importing them as a CAD drawing underlay or all at once.

One of the constraints in my CAD drawing highlights areas along the proposed internal roads where there is a high risk of peat instability. I want to be able to highlight these in my visualisation.

These are represented by closed polylines in the drawing. In Civil 3D select one of closed polylines, right click and select similar then right click again and Isolate Objects. Once isolated type MAPEXPORT, choose SDF as files of type and give the file a name. In the dialog box that appears choose 'Select Manually' and select the isolated objects from the drawing.

In AIM connect to this file as below:

After connecting to the file, right click on the connection in AIM and select configure. On the Common tab set the 'Type' as Coverage Areas, Set the style.

On the Geo Location tab set the coordinate zone. On the Source tab set the draping options to Drape (since they were just 2D polylines originally they have no level information) tick the box to convert to closed polygons also. Click close and refresh and you should see your areas draped on the 3D model as below:

In my model the red highlights areas along proposed routes where there is high risk of peat instability, blue represents areas of peat greater than 3m in depth and magenta are areas of blanket bog.

Windfarm Visuals from AIM

Have been busy using Infrastructure Modeller for visualisation... this one is for a windfarm in Northern Ireland...

Here's the rendered image...

Here are some snapshots of the model in AIM without rendering...

Prelim Visuals for Windfarm

Just starting to use Infrastructure Modeller(AIM) for creating some preliminary visuals for a windfarm project... Will be creating a more detailed model once I get CAD drawings, GIS and aerial photography...

Exported the topo surface from Civil 3D to LandXML format and brought this into AIM. Also exported internal road layout (polylines) and watercourse information (also polylines) to SDF format using the MAPEXPORT command. The SDF's and XML files are then easily imported and styled in AIM. It took more time tidying the linework in C3D than it did to import and style in AIM. It will be a good project to test the usefulness of conceptual design/visualisation software like AIM.

AutoTrack - Wind Turbine Transport Vehicles

There are a couple of wind farm vehicles in the AutoTrack library. These are under Specialist Vehicles (Worldwide) category, see below:

There are two types of vehicle - both have the same tractor component but have different trailers and loads. The first vehicle is a 24m long blade transporter and the second is a 50m long tower transporter with clamped trailer, see image above.

The vehicles are locked from editing by default. In order to modify these to suit your own requirements you will need to right click on the vehicle name and select edit a copy.

One of the features common to large vehicles such as these is secondary steering. This is where the axles on the trailers have their own steering. This secondary steering can be linked to the main steering (limits can be set on the amount of secondary steering) or it can be independent and controlled by the driver as he is turning. It may also be a combination of both of these and in that case you will want the option to have rear steering but be able to independently override this at time of turning.

To do this you will need to make a copy of the vehicle as mentioned above, then right click on it and select 'edit using advanced editor'. Highlight the trailer unit and click on 'edit'

In the edit dialog box click on the 'Rear Axles' tab and then click on the 'Steering' button, then tick the box shown below and enter your max secondary steering angle and lock to lock time as shown below (these will be vehicle specific):

Now when you are 'driving' this vehicle in AutoTrack you can override the rear steering and independently control it as you are navigating your vehicle. To override you can click on the option below or use the wheel on your mouse.

Volume Calcs. from Sections

I was creating an as built Civil 3D model of a windfarm job and was asked to calculate a number of quantities. One was the volume of rock fill. This seemed straight forward - compare finished road surface against top of rock and you have your answer. The problem was that my finished road surface slopes down from road edge to top of rock and then batters back from there to meet existing ground. A straight comparison between the two would give incorrect volume, see below:

This includes the portion on the outermost batter. The volume we actually require is this:

To get this we need to create a new surface comprising the road edge featurelines and the featureline where the initial embankment intersects the top of rock. First lets look at my assembly… I am using a combination of generic subassembly (linkwidthandslope) and a conditional subassembly to model different conditions in cut/fill.

If you look at creating a surface from the featurelines generated by the corridor you see that all the individual linkwidthandslope subassemblies have a point code P2 and thus only one featureline I can choose (this would effectively give me the same result as choosing top links to create my surface).

You need to create unique point codes for each subassembly and thus unique featurelines to choose from for corridor surface.
Select the subassembly and change the Point Code  in Properties. Road edge here:

Then slope to rock:

Rebuild the corridor and in now corridor surfaces you should see some extra featurelines:

Now on cross sections you should be able to calculate the correct volume for rock fill by comparing this new surface with top of rock:

Wind Farm Access Roads - Hardstand Area Design

The following post forms part of an article written for this month's edition of AUGI World magazine on using Civil 3D for designing wind farm infrastructure, pg 54.

http://issuu.com/augi/docs/aw201205hr?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage


It follows on from a previous post on designing the access roads:
http://civilintentions.blogspot.com/2012/03/windfarm-access-roads-earthworks.html
Hardstand Area Design:

Hardstand areas are constructed to provide sufficient space for the cranes to operate during erection of the wind turbines. The hardstand areas must be large enough for the cranes to operate in and also provide storage space for materials.

The hardstand areas are effectively a widened region on the corridor. Typically the hardstand areas are flat and widen at right angles to the corridor, see image below. This can cause problems when targeting the hardstand widen alignments using an assembly on the centreline alignment. Civil 3D targets perpendicularly from the baseline alignment and will not model the hardstands correctly at the widen region.

There are a number of methods for modelling this type of widening.

a)  You could add offsets to your assembly and use the offset alignment to provide the offset value. This method gives mixed results when the widening is perpendicular to the main alignment.

b)  You could also create a featureline defining the edge of the hardstand and then use the grading tools to model the earthworks – this has the advantage of correctly modelling the grading in tight corners where the corridor would otherwise overlap. The disadvantage is that you have a number of ‘parts’ to your model and increased margin for error.

c)  The third method involves adding the hardstand alignments as new baselines to the corridor and applying earthworks assemblies along these baselines. This results in one object (the corridor) controlling the earthworks thus reducing the amount of ‘parts’ in your model. This is the method that has given the best results and the one we are going to look at here.

Step1: Create Hardstand Alignments and Profiles:

Create alignments defining the left and right edge of the hardstand and then create profiles along these alignments. As mentioned above, the hardstand areas need to be flat - the profiles along the edge of the hardstands need to be at the same level as the centreline profile. To achieve this we will use a dummy corridor to provide levels along the hardstand alignments.

To create the dummy corridor first create an assembly that has 0% grade and wide enough to extend beyond the extents of the hardstand. The LinkOffsetandSlope generic subassembly works well, see below.

Next build a dummy corridor along the centreline using the assembly. See below.

Create a surface from the corridor and finally a surface profile along each of the hardstand alignments sampling the dummy corridor surface. This gives our levels along the edge of the hardstands.

Step 2: Create Hardstand Assemblies:

The hardstand assemblies will be applied along the left and right hardstand alignments. The left and right assemblies will consist of the left and right earthworks subassemblies used in the main access road assembly.

Create your new assembly. Select the earthworks subassemblies from the main access road assembly. In the case below I am selecting the ditch, conditional cut/fill and generic subassemblies used to model the earthworks for the left side of the road.

Copy these to your hardstand assembly and repeat for the right hand side. Your finished assemblies will look something like the following:

Step 3: Add Baselines and Set Corridor Properties:

Next add the hardstand alignments to the main corridor as new base lines. In the corridor properties add a region to each of the new baselines for the chainages of the hardstand.

Anyone who has used corridors to model earthworks in tight corners will know that the downside is that the corridors do not resolve the overlap on the insides of bends similar to the grading tools– see screen grab below.

To resolve this issue we can use a workaround. In the corridor frequency for the hardstand regions set the sampling frequency to a value greater than the total length of the alignment and set the additional sampling frequencies to ’No’.

This will result in no automatic corridor sampling frequencies being applied to the region. We will then add in sampling stations manually at points along the region ensuring there is no corridor overlap in the earthworks.

This will not result in a perfectly modelled corridor but the differences in terms of volumes calculations are tiny in the grand scheme of things. The benefits achieved by having one corridor where you can easily make edits and create surfaces for volume calculations far outweighs those of having a 100% perfect model.