Technical information

84 | Chapter 5 Working with Alignments and Parcels
Introduction
You can draft horizontal alignments and parcels at any time during the
project process. You can begin by drawing objects, such as lines, curves,
spirals, or polylines, to represent the geometry of an alignment or parcel.
Then, you can define an alignment or parcel to a database. All data is stored
in an external database and all drawings in a project can access that data.
Because of the external database, you do not need to draft alignments or
parcels in a drawing to reference them. After you define objects, you can
delete them from the drawing. Then, if you must visually reference
alignments or parcels, you can import them into the drawing.
Working with Alignments
The plan view of roadway geometry is called a horizontal alignment. For align-
ments, you can define roadway centerlines and create offsets that represent
lanes, shoulders, and rights-of-way. You can create station labels along an
alignment, and generate stakeout reports for surveyors.
Because alignment definitions are stored in a database outside the drawing,
you have the following added flexibility when managing alignments:
■ If other projects contain alignments that you want to include in a current
project, then you can merge alignment databases and import alignments
into a drawing.
■ If someone on a network needs write access to the alignment you have set
as current, then you can close the alignment database or select a different
current alignment while you keep a drawing open.
■ It is not necessary to keep alignment objects in a drawing. You can delete
them and import the alignments only when needed.
You can edit the data in the alignment database by using the Alignment
Editor. Any changes that you make to an alignment in the Alignment Editor
are updated in the drawing. The Alignment Editor can also generate reports.
The civil engineering tools provide advanced roadway design capabilities,
such as profile and cross section design.
Multi-User Alignment Database
The alignment database can be accessed by multiple people working over a
network. Locking works on a per-alignment basis. To release the lock on an