Exercise 4: Modifying a Design Criteria File

In this exercise, you will add a radius and speed table to the design criteria file.

If your local agency standards differ from the standards in the supplied design criteria file, you can use the Design Criteria Editor dialog box to customize the file to support your local standards.

In this exercise, you will add a minimum radius table to an existing design criteria file, and then save the file under a new name.

This exercise continues from Exercise 3: Working with Design Checks.

Add a minimum radius table

1. Open Align-7C.dwg, which is located in the tutorials drawings folder.
2. In the drawing, select the alignment.
3. Click Alignment tab Modify panel Design Criteria Editor Find.

   When the Design Criteria Editor dialog box opens, it displays the design criteria for the default design criteria file. The folders on the left side of the dialog box contain tables that specify the units of measure used in the design criteria file, and design criteria tables for alignments and profiles. You can use this dialog box to modify the criteria in the current file, open another file, or create a new file. In the following steps, you will add a criteria table to an existing file, and then save the changes as a new file.

4. On the left side of the dialog box, expand the AlignmentsMinimum Radius Tables collection.

   The collection contains several minimum radius tables.

5. Right-click Minimum Radius Tables. Click New Minimum Radius Table.

   An empty table appears at the end of the Minimum Radius Tables collection.

6. Double-click the new entry and replace the New Minimum Radius Table text with Local Standards eMax 7%. Press Enter.

Save the design criteria file

1. Click Save As.
2. In the Enter A File Name To Save dialog box, navigate to the My Civil 3D Tutorial Data folder. In the File Name field, enter Sample_Local_Criteria.xml. Click Save.

   If a design criteria file must be shared by multiple users, it must be saved in a location to which all applicable users have access. If you send a drawing that uses a custom design criteria file to a user that does not have access to the shared location, then you also must send the design criteria file.

   Tip:

   When the Use Design Criteria File option is selected during alignment creation, the first design criteria found in the Data\Corridor Design Standards\[units] folder is applied to an alignment by default. To ensure that a custom design criteria file is selected by default, make sure that its name places it first in the directory.

Add criteria to a table

1. In the Design Criteria File Editor dialog box, on the left-hand side, ensure that the Local Standards eMax 7% table is selected.
2. On the right-hand side of the dialog box, select the first row in the table. Click the Speed cell. Select 50 from the list.
3. Click the Radius cell. Enter 54. Press Enter.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to add the following values to the table:

   Speed	Radius
   70	125
   90	235
   110	387
   130	586

   Tip:

   To add a row between two existing rows, click . To remove a row, click .

5. In the Comments field, enter Minimum radii for 7% superelevation at various design speeds.

   Further exploration: Expand the other collections on the left-hand side of the dialog box. Right-click the various folders and tables and examine the options that are available.

6. Click Save And Close. When you are notified that the file has unsaved changes, click Save Changes And Exit.

   Further exploration: Use the Alignment Properties dialog box to apply the new Sample_Local_Criteria.xml design criteria file and Local Standards eMax 7% table to the alignment in Align-4b.dwg.

To continue to the next tutorial, go to Applying Superelevation to an Alignment.