General information on creating bridge and civil engineering components

Creating a bridge or civil engineering component involves the following three steps:

You define the required data directly in the modeler or you import the data using external files. You can create these import files in Allplan or in other programs. In addition, you can use ASCII files created manually.

Path and station points

A path taken from Allplan, for example, must be continuous and may not include any breaks or branches. It may consist of the following elements:

2D elements (lines, circles (ellipses), segments of circles (segments of ellipses), splines, clothoids)
Composite element consisting of 2D elements
3D elements or 3D surfaces
3D road location line from a site plan

The path can be open or closed; it does not have to be planar. Allplan polygonally approximates curved elements (circles, ellipses, splines and clothoids) so that you can modify the station points.

If you have already created stations, you can use them in the bridge and civil engineering modeler.
It is no problem if 2D elements, composite elements consisting of 2D elements or 3D road location lines from a site plan (here, station points have height settings) have already been stationed in Allplan.

If you do not use a route from Allplan or any other program, you define the path in the bridge and civil engineering modeler by entering station points.
In addition to the x, y and z coordinates, you specify the angle of rise, the angle in plan and the station for each point. You can define a route profile by entering the height and height curvature in corner points. Based on this profile, Allplan automatically calculates the z coordinate and the angle of rise in all station points.

Note: You can define several, independent paths (routes).

You define the required cross-sections using the modeler or you take a symbol from the library. Then you assign the cross-sections to the station points. It is important that all cross-sections have the same number of points.

Entering cross-sections

You can use the Cross-Section Definition tool to enter a cross-section for the selected station point.
You can create cross-sections by entering coordinates of individual points or any outlines. In addition, Allplan provides various predefined cross-sections. You can define these cross-sections by specifying their dimensions.
You can also use cross-sections you have designed and saved as symbols in Allplan or cross-sections from any symbol catalog.
After you have confirmed your entries, the program calculates the coordinates of the points.

If you have not yet modified a corner after creating a predefined cross-section, you can change its dimensions using the Modify cross-section tool.

By defining several cross-sections you can cut out regions of existing cross-sections or combine several cross-sections. In addition, you can create cross-sections that consist of parts of other cross-sections.

You can select and edit existing points by clicking a cross-section point in the tree structure or by clicking a point in the graphics area.
When you insert additional cross-sections, the point clicked is used as the reference point.

Note: Based on the min-max box of the cross-section, the reference point for new cross-sections is always centered at the top and can be modified. The reference point and the x, y and z coordinates of the station point are the same.
The reference point is only of relevance when you want to enter additional cross-sections.

You can write the component data to an Excel file or transfer them to the 3D modeler of Allplan, which creates the component based on the path and the cross-sections defined. The resulting bridge or civil engineering components includes all the data you defined. The component is attached to the crosshairs and you can place it in the workspace.
You can re-import the component to the bridge and civil engineering modeler and modify it there without having to convert it.

If you want, you can use

Convert Elements to convert the component created by Allplan's 3D modeler so that you can edit it using all modification tools available. Without conversion, you cannot edit it freely.
Note, however, that by converting the component, you unlink it from the bridge and civil engineering modeler.