CAiCE Visual Roads 10 Questions and Answers
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take advantage of the software’s graphics speed and rendering capabilities for visualization
and drive-through functionality. This combination offers the best of both worlds; the design
modeling capabilities of CAiCE Visual Roads and the drafting capabilities of a CAD system.
1.5 What are fragments?
A fragment is a user-definable macro that either inserts surfaces into the cross-section file
at a station or performs an intermediate part of the process of inserting surfaces. You can
use fragments to analyze the surfaces in a cross-section file to produce reports, such as a
milling and pavement overlay report for a contractor. Each fragment can have user-defined
input parameters that determine their dimensions and behavior in particular situations.
Fragments respond flexibly, based on existing conditions and design parameters. They can
be customized to match your organization’s specific components. Setting the slope criteria
enables fragments to respond to specific conditions and automatically blend into your
design.
1.6 What is the IHSDM ToolBox
CAiCE Visual Roads includes the IHSDM ToolBox, which gives you the ability to analyze
horizontal and vertical alignment data against various safety models defined by the Federal
Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM).
1.7 How does CAiCE Visual Roads manage and maintain project files?
The CAiCE Visual Roads project management system enables project creation and archiving
capabilities as well as many other project-level items, including project unit conversions on
the fly. In addition, you can use CAiCE Visual Roads to create and archive project segments.
CAiCE Visual Roads software can create several types of compression files. The default
format is ZIP using WinZip
®
software. Two other commonly used formats are ARC and DSN,
where ARC is the complete database, and DSN is the complete database without the
segment file and folders within the project folder.
1.8 What are feature codes?
CAiCE Visual Roads uses feature codes to control elements such as color, symbology, line
style, line weight, or level/layer for all elements in the database.
A
feature code
is a user-defined classification of an object. It can consist of up to eight
alphanumeric characters. The feature code plays an important role in automatically
assigning graphical attributes to a geometry object. You can also use it to group objects for
operations such as drawing, describing, and plotting.
1.9 Do the DTMs handle curved breaklines?
Digital terrain model (DTM) technology was developed by CAiCE and restructured over
many years based on real-world experience with large transportation design projects. CAiCE
has excellent routines for generating breaklines and was the first to introduce curved
breaklines, providing the ability to model real-world curved features such as curbs, edges of
pavements, and so forth. CAiCE’s DTMs can handle an extremely large number of points.
1.10 What type of visualization tools does CAiCE Visual Roads have?
The high-speed graphics and rendering capabilities in CAiCE Visual Roads software offer 2D
and 3D visualization with realistic renderings of existing terrain and help you quickly identify
potential design problems. CAiCE’s powerful and easy-to-use visualization tools map images
to real-world coordinates for real-time visualization of proposed designs. You can drape
images onto surfaces and view background files for a realistic touch to flybys and drive-
throughs for presentations.