The benefit of the ARCADY-AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018 link is that, for the first time, the roundabout designer can see both geometric and performance data at the same time.
This encourages a much faster design cycle than using traditional methods. As the roundabout is created, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018 calculates and sends the main roundabout geometries to ARCADY. ARCADY receives and displays the data read-only to indicate that the data is being provided by AutoCAD Civil 3D. ARCADY then performs a full model run and passes back the main results (Queue, Delay, RFC & LOS) which are displayed in AutoCAD Civil 3D. Note that AutoCAD Civil 3D does not manipulate the data received from ARCADY in any way.
Users may enter traffic and other non-geometric data in ARCADY the usual way and these will obviously affect the results passed back to AutoCAD Civil 3D.
The link is automatically started by AutoCAD Civil 3D if necessary and creates and opens data files as required. The ARCADY data file is created in the same directory as the AutoCAD Civil 3D file and has the same root name, e.g. if you invoke the link from AutoCAD Civil 3D using a data file called EXAMPLE.DWG, it opens or creates (if necessary) a file called EXAMPLE.ARC8.
When the AutoCAD Civil 3D file is saved, AutoCAD Civil 3D tells ARCADY to save the corresponding ARCADY file so that they remain synchronised.