About Corridor Targets

On a corridor, you can specify and edit the values of subassembly target objects, such as surfaces, alignments, and profiles.

Targets are required when the geometry of one or more of an assembly’s subassemblies requires corresponding surface, offset, or elevation targets for defining that geometry.

A few subassemblies even use pipe networks as target objects. When a corridor contains subassemblies that use targets, the object names of the intended target objects must be mapped from the subassembly definition to the corresponding drawing objects. This task is referred to as setting targets or mapping targets.

Note: If targets required for the corridor are not set, messages are displayed in the Event Viewer, indicating that target objects are not found. To display the Event Viewer, click View tab Palettes panel Event Viewer Find .

For example, a subassembly ‘SideSlope’ parameter is used to define roadside grading, starting from the edge of shoulder, and sloping at a specified grade, until it intercepts with an existing ground surface. In the subassembly, references to the target surface are made by calling a surface object named ‘TargetDTM.’ However, when you create the corridor, and apply the subassembly to a corridor definition, there may not be a surface named ‘TargetDTM’, and there may be multiple ground surfaces. Therefore, after the assembly is applied to the corridor, you need to map the target name (TargetDTM) to an actual surface object name.

Typically, subassembly parameters that can use a target object to define a width or an offset can use the following types of objects to define that width or offset: alignments, polylines, feature lines, or survey figures.

Similarly, subassembly parameters that can use a target object to define an elevation can use the following types of objects to define that elevation: profiles, 3D polylines, feature lines, or survey figures.

Subassemblies that can use a target object to define a surface can only use a surface object to define that surface.

As previously mentioned, a few subassemblies allow you to use pipe network objects as targets, such as the TrenchPipe subassemblies.

The following table summarizes these capabilities:

Target Type Object types that can be used as targets
widths or offsets alignments, polylines, feature lines, or survey figures
Note: Polylines, feature lines, and survey figures can be selected from xrefs.
elevations profiles, 3D polylines, feature lines, or survey figures
Note: 3D polylines, feature lines, and survey figures can be selected from xrefs.
surfaces surfaces
pipe networks pipe networks

The Help topic for each subassembly lists the parameters in the subassembly that can be associated with a target object.

BestPractice: It is generally considered a best practice to set region targets after creating the regions. For example, while creating regions, leave the targets set to “None”, and proceed with creating the regions. After the regions are created, set the targets on the regions. This reduces the processing load because processing the assembly insertion points (during region creation), and processing the setting of the assembly targets, are two separate operations instead of one.

Corridor Targets in Xrefs

Objects in xrefs can be selected as corridor targets. Supported objects that can be selected are 2D and 3D polylines, feature lines, and survey figures. To select an object in an xref, attach the xref to the drawing that contains the corridor. Then when you are selecting the corridor targets, you can select the objects in the xref either graphically or by layer.

Important: Corridor targets in xrefs might be lost if the xref is unloaded and the drawing is saved and closed (or saved as a another file). However, if the xref is unloaded and then reloaded within a single drawing session, the specified corridor targets are preserved. If you unload an xref that is used by at least one corridor target, then the corridor is marked Out Of Date after the xref is unloaded, and a message is displayed in the Event Viewer to alert you to reload the xref before rebuilding the corridor. If you save and close the drawing without reloading the xref, the corridor will be marked Out Of Date when you reopen the drawing, and we recommend that you reload the xref and check the corridor target data in the drawing before rebuilding the corridor. The best practice is that you reload the xref drawing that has targets used by corridors in the current drawing before saving the current drawing.

Tutorial: Creating a Corridor with a Transition Lane