Project Summary
Parsons Brinckerhoff has been involved in a number of large scale, high
profile projects involving the design of roads, drainage, sewer, water and other
associated infrastructure, as well as bulk earthwork modelling. Their project
teams used 12d Model software to overcome a number of complex and ‘non-standard’
challenges, often requiring innovative solutions. Due to the size and nature of
these projects, they were required to work closely with a number of other
consulting engineering companies, with the need for their software of choice to
interact seamlessly with the design software used by other companies working on
the projects.
The Challenge
It was imperative for the team to be able to check for clearance and possible
clashes between services designed in 12d Model, and those designed in other
packages. With limitations on compatibility of import/export mechanisms between
various software packages, innovative methods were required to allow design data
to be transferred from 12d Model to other packages, and vice-versa. This was
required predominantly for transfer of three dimensional pipeline data elements
between packages, for drainage, sewer, water and other services. Another
innovation was the use of 12d to successfully model complex electrical and
chemical box culvert systems, which the team had never previously considered
attempting.
The Solution
Creation of detailed procedures was important, in some cases with step-by-step
user guides to allow any project team members to facilitate the transfer of
data. The procedures enabled 12d Model to produce .csv (comma separated values)
data in a format which other software can use, as well as to read in .csv data
in its original output format from the other package. A macro was developed to
output three dimensional pipe data designed in 12d Model, into a .csv file which
other packages can read. Electrical and chemical box culverts were created with
an improvised approach using drainage strings, with the Drainage Network Editor
used to specify the height and width of the culverts. The Drainage Plan Plot
function (with a modified plot parameter file) was used to give the culverts the
correct geometric representation showing actual internal dimensions of the
culvert, allowing service clash checking to be undertaken in 12d Model.
The
Result
Using 12d Model software, this innovative team was able to overcome a number of
complex and ‘non-standard’ challenges, particularly on very large projects. They
were able to work closely with a number of other consulting engineering
companies, with 12d Model interacting seamlessly with the design software used
by the other companies.
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