New Features in Previous Releases of Autodesk InfraWorks

2018 Updates

Enhancements and Changes

Roadway design	In the new component road sketching workflow, select a PI or Element-based sketch method. In-canvas guides provide more precise layout capabilities. New functionality is provided for grip editing the radius of a Curve or Spiral-Curve-Spiral in canvas. Right-click on a selected road tangent in plan view and choose Add Curve to add a horizontal curve to the road. Right-click on a selected road tangent in profile view and choose Add PVI to add a PVI and a vertical curve to the road. Prefixes for labels on component roads make it easier to distinguish between fixed stations and horizontal geometry. Spiral layout editing is improved in canvas and in the Stack. Create road and bridge decorations from parametric content created in Autodesk Inventor. Automatically convert a selected style-based road to a component road with a single click. In-context messages provide instant feedback on your roadway curve and spiral layout. Fixed increment station labels display for the selected component road. Updated Tutorials for Roadway Design.
Parametric bridges	Improvements to the parametric bridge content authoring workflow include the ability to view required parameters in the Parts Editing dialog, as well as enhancements to the size editing table that allow you to import and/or export part size tables in .JSON file format. Preview a bridge component immediately when adding it through the Style Palette. Review labeled dimensions of bridge components such as piers, girders, and girder groups in-canvas. Manage parametric bridge content in the Style Palette. Share bridge components across models. View a 3D preview of bridge components when you select part sizes.
Point clouds	Use photographic images along with point cloud data to provide realistic information during vertical feature modeling and linear feature extraction. When joining two linear features, you can choose to just snap (connect) or merge the lines. Improvements in the Cross Section View make it easier to add and group vertices for linear features. While extracting vertical features from point cloud data, you now have the choice to delete the selected feature or all filtered features (by category or height). A new Auto vertex cleanup option improves the editing workflow of linear features extracted with the Automatic method. Extract linear features from point clouds for road design. Use the cross section view to edit linear features. Generate transverse lines for linear features for richer terrain information. Export point cloud extraction (ground grid, linear features, and vertical features).
Quantities/Analysis	Utilities quantities (drainage components, generic pipe, etc.) are calculated by depth range. When you specify a station range for calculations, the range is highlighted in canvas. View road, bridge, and drainage material quantities within a specified station range, for multiple, selected roads, and within a selected area of interest (AOI). Calculate earthwork quantities on multiple, selected roads. Calculate quantities of materials associated with a selected component road. Customize the quantities panel for viewing and export. Export material quantities for reporting and analysis.
Visualization	Control the display of in-canvas labels for the view from the Interaction View Settings dialog. The default view is now the Engineering View. For a clean engineering view, toggle off the Realistic Trees option to display trees with a simplified model scaled to the correct height of the object. Two new adaptive tree styles, Spruce Tree and Spruce Tree with Snow, join the Beech Tree for more realistic views. The display of in-canvas annotations transitions smoothly when you change the view. When using the measurement tools, such as Point-to-Point Distance, you'll see improved labeling for the length and area information.
Infrastructure Content Authoring	Check out the new videos and topics on using the Infrastructure Parts Editor to customize part family sizes, build assemblies, and publish parts catalogs to InfraWorks and AutoCAD Civil 3D. Check out the new videos and topics on using Autodesk Inventor to model custom infrastructure content for use in InfraWorks and AutoCAD Civil 3D. Create custom drainage or piping part shape templates using the Infrastructure Part Shape Utilities plugin for Autodesk Inventor, then bring those custom parts into the Parts Editor. Customize drainage structure or piping part assemblies. Publish parts assemblies to catalogs for use in Autodesk InfraWorks or AutoCAD Civil 3D.
Right of Ways and Easements	When sketching Right of Ways or Parcels/Easements, in-canvas guides display length and areas values. You can directly modify a length value by clicking the blue label and inputting a value. A new keyboard shortcut also allows for locking length values when sketching.
Roadside grading	When modifying a roadside grading section, an improved gizmo makes it easier to drag the start or end station and change the location.
Interoperability	A new tab in the Civil 3D user interface provides quick access to Autodesk InfraWorks tools to improve your workflows.

2017 Updates

Videos and Tutorials

Enhancements and Changes

Component roads	View station and component annotations. Configure road component assemblies. Apply and inspect superelevation. Create linear road transitions. Quickly turn pavement markings on/off.

Parametric bridges with superelevation	Speed up your workflow by applying your girder, pier, or foundation modifications to the next component you select. Save your custom bridge assemblies and re-use them as templates from the Style Palette. Send your bridge to Revit: bridge components can be converted to Direct Shape or Revit families. New parametric component bridge decks. Inspect and modify girder and bridge deck cross-sections. Modify cross-sections in superelevated areas.

Roadside grading	Split roadside grading and modify the material and slope. Modify start/end stations for grading areas and add a grading transition. Specify different fixed slopes for each grading zone. Choose different grading materials for each side of the road.

Earthwork quantities	View cut and fill volumes for intersections, roundabouts, and bridges. Specify a station range to show earthwork quantities for part of a road. View cut and fill volumes. Export cut and fill data for reporting and analysis.

Drainage design	Perform flood simulations on rivers and water areas for multiple inflow locations. Specify Elevation vs. Time inflows for coastal storm surge simulations. Inlet placement and analysis accounts for road transitions on component roads.

Point cloud data	Enhanced engineering-grade terrain generation for large point cloud projects. Enhanced feature modeling for Assigning vertical features as city furniture. Apply point cloud themes to compare point cloud distributions by elevation, classification, intensity, and so on.

Edit mode	Edit mode/Select mode is now set by view in the Interaction View Settings. By default, Edit mode is enabled in the Conceptual and Engineering views. When you open a model and select one of these views, you are in Edit mode by default.

Area of Interest feature types: Parcels, Easements, Right of Ways	Right of way enhancements: The distance between the road centerline and the right of way is displayed in-canvas when a right of way is selected or edited. View the right of way limits in the Cut/Fill view of the Cross Section Viewer. For area of interest features, convert a line segment or boundary vertex to an arc. Import SHP or SDF files containing data for these new data source types; or draw new ones.

Flood Simulation	Use Flood Simulation to simulate, visualize, and analyze 2D flood simulations in your model, as well as create flood snapshots. Flood simulation can be used for inland and coastal flooding projects depending on the parameters you define. Start by defining a boundary for your flood simulation study area, then InfraWorks will re-mesh the terrain surface for the specified area, assign the inflow and outflow boundaries, and pass this information to Hydronia RiverFlow2D for computation. The shallow water equation model can accurately predict and simulate inland or coastal flooding, combined with hydraulic routing of the flooding, given rainfall and/or tidal shift parameters that you define. Note: InfraWorks only supports flood simulation capabilities for users who have purchased a license to the third-party RiverFlow2D plugin offered by Hydronia, LLC. New for flood simulation: Define inflow boundary condition with water surface elevation versus time. Define multiple inflow boundary conditions.

2D Distance & Slope tool	Use this tool to easily measure the distance (horizontal and vertical) and slope between two points in a model.

Oculus Rift support	A new Oculus Rift mode tool allows you to use Oculus (CV1) with InfraWorks.

Adaptive trees	The new Beech tree style in the 3D ModelsVegetationAdaptive Trees category of the Style Palette, provides 5 levels of detail (LOD). With the increased LOD, the geometry automatically adapts to the camera distance, improving model visualization and performance. Give the Beech tree a try - it's beautiful! See To add or modify trees or vegetation.

Stand of trees	The visualization for large stands of trees is improved. Trees are rendered consistently across a large area and distributed more equally until the maximum number of trees is visible for the density and display detail of the view.

Visual Effects	Options to control visualization of and interaction with your model can be set in a single View Settings panel. From the new Views menu, click to configure view settings for the active view. See About visualization view settings and To set interaction view settings. Specific changes include: The Visual Effects, Surface Opacity, and Wireframe intelligent tools are removed and all options are now available on the Visualization tab of the View Settings panel. The Application OptionsView tab settings (Status Bar, Tooltips, Links, View Cube, Proximity, Automatic Zoom to Selection) are now available on the Interaction tab of the View Settings panel. The View tab is removed from Application Options. Several of the Application OptionsNavigation tab settings (Lock Mouse Above Ground, Show Statistics, Highlight Sketched Features) have been moved to the Interaction tab of the View Settings panel.

Unit Configuration	You can now specify model units by category (Basic, Transportation, and Structure). Set default units for a category, such as Basic, and override that setting for a specific value, such as Length/Distance. To support precision in units display, specify the number of decimal places for each unit. See To set unit configuration options.

Snapshot	You can use the Snapshot tool to produce a high-quality image of a view of the model. The Render tool is no longer needed and has been removed.

Pure white buildings	Display all buildings, whether imported or sketched, in a single color and uniform appearance. See To display buildings in a single color.

April 14, 2016

Improved Upgrade and Collaboration Experience

Previously, only an Admin or Publisher could upgrade a cloud model to match the new version of InfraWorks, while Authors and Readers had to wait until the cloud model was upgraded before they could open the model. Now everyone in the group (Admin, Publisher, Author, and Reader), can open a model locally and it will be upgraded to match their latest installed version of InfraWorks. Note, however, that the group will not be able to sync their editing changes back to the cloud until an Admin or Publisher also upgrades the shared cloud model.

See To open a model.

Improved Access to Feature Attributes

A new user interface element, called the Stack, provides quick access to the currently-selected feature's attributes and settings. The Stack consists of panels that display closely-associated attributes and their current values. See The Stack.

An addition to the Video Library for this release includes an overview of the Stack. Learn how to customize the Stack to suit your workflow needs.

See Working with the Stack (Video).

Dynamic Presentation Enhancements

When you create a camera path from a design road, you can now arrange the camera for the best viewing perspective by defining explicit camera settings. See To create a camera path from a design road.

Camera position offset
Target position offset
Camera speed
Key frame density
Set targe relative to road or to the camera
Preview the starting view
Follow the path in reverse

2D Vector Overlay Support

You can now import 2D DWG vector data as an overlay that is draped over terrain. See To import 2D vector terrain overlays.

Model Builder Enhancements

The terrain has been updated to greatly improve the granularity. Processing the terrain directly from source OSRM from LP DAAC (NASA) data results in 9 times better granularity.
Vector data has been updated with the latest from OpenStreetMap.

See To create a model with Model Builder.

Roadway Design: Enhancements to Roundabouts

Enhancements to roundabouts support precise editing and interoperability with AutoCAD Civil 3D:

Edit roundabout dimensions directly in the canvas. See To modify roundabout geometry.
Transfer a roundabout created in InfraWorks directly into Civil 3D 2017 as a Vehicle Tracking format roundabout.
In Civil 3D, the roundabout can optionally dynamically control a Roundabout Corridor.

Traffic Simulation Improvements

Traffic simulation in on/off ramps and center turn lanes is enhanced with correct geometry modeling, streams, and signalization.

New: Mobility Simulation

Determine the best way to provide the infrastructure to move people around the city by taking advantage of the functionality in the simulation engine previously known as "Commuter." Multi-modal simulation tracks each person from start to finish, providing animations and reports of key performance indicators. Mobility services tracked include:

Transit modeling
Parking
Taxi mode
Personal mode

See About Mobility Simulation.

Drainage Design Enhancements

The Stack now provides easy visibility of and access to attributes for drainage assets:

Inlets and Manholes
Culverts
Watersheds
Outfalls

See About Drainage Design.

Bridge Design Enhancements

Enhancements to bridges provide opportunities for customization:

Use the new "Send to Revit" command to automatically create a full Revit model of your bridge. See To send a bridge to Autodesk Revit.
Create customized concrete girders from standard sections.

Improvements to Viewing Models on the Web

Improvements to web viewing make it easy for others to view your models:

Public access to models means that viewers do not need to log in to A360 and publishers do not have to add viewers to an InfraWorks group.
Models can be embedded into web pages using iframe.
The InfraWorks web viewer is optimized for mobile phones.

See Improvements to Web Experience.

February 8, 2016

Improved Collaboration Experience

We've made improvements to cloud model collaboration.

When you upgrade your shared models, your team can continue to work on those models without losing changes.
Local changes are synced to the cloud, so other team members stay current with the changes.
Admins and Publishers can create local copies of models to explore new features before migrating their teams to the latest version.
To optimize performance we cache cloud models locally. You can now configure the cache location.

See A Quick Intro to Sharing Models with Others.

New Learning Videos

We continue to create videos to support learning and optimize your experience with InfraWorks.

Additions to the Video Library for this release include a playlist for railway design and individual videos on intersections, roundabouts, the Web Administrator, raster image overlays, and animating a design road.

See InfraWorks 360 Video Library.

Detailed Engineering for Transportation

We have improved the performance of roadway gizmo editing and profile editing. You can now choose when to update your model while editing the profile view of a road.

Right-click a design road to convert it to a component road for precise editing.

Animate a camera path along a design road. See Animating a Design Road.

We've made a number significant improvements to roundabout and intersection editing.

Use grips to adjust roundel size, position, elevation, bearing, and slope. The rest of the roundabout adjusts to your edits. Lane widths remain constant. You can also adjust elements of the roundel on its asset card. See Grip-editing Roundabouts.
Right-click a turn in an intersection to add a center turn lane. Use grips to adjust the transition start and end points of the turn lane.
Use grips to adjust the position of ramp intersections. Design standards determine the length and taper of the acceleration lane but you can adjust these using grips as needed for local conditions. See Creating Ramps and Interchanges.

Traffic Analysis and Simulation Improvements

The Animation Player is no longer specific to traffic animations and can be used to play other animations.
Simulation results appear in the Traffic Study Area asset card.
The new Reports button in the Results area of the Traffic Study Area asset card enables you to send analysis and simulation data (displayed in the red and blue boxes in the simulation) to Microsoft Excel.

Railway Design Enhancements

We've made improvements to railway design so that tracks in close proximity share bridges and tunnels. See Railway Design.

Drainage Design Enhancements

Rainfall

The new Rainfall Content manager enables you to assign model-specific rainfall for more accurate drainage design. Three samples are provided in the Rainfall Content manager: FHWA BDE Equation, ANZ 6-degree polynomial, and a tabular sample. You can modify and rename these as needed. You can also import rainfall data.
Use the sample or imported data to create a rainfall IDF curve. This becomes the design default for the Add Drainage Network, Size Drainage Network, and Inspect Performance commands.
Inlet Asset cards show the computed rainfall intensity according to the default rainfall.
Import rainfall data in the following formats: Australian Rainfall & Runoff 6-degree polynomial data (.csv), NOAA PFDC (.csv), or the Hydraflow (.idf) or (.stm).
Export rainfall to Microsoft Excel for editing or to transfer to a new model.
Rainfall IDF dialog box provides graphical representation of IDF rainfall, the frequency, and durations in graph form, together with a fully editable tabular view.

Size Drainage Network

Size Drainage Network enables you to size a connected network of pipes, inlets, manholes, and outlets according to the standard step method, aiming for a nearly full design size. This network is no longer limited to a network along a road.
You can now specify the Annual Exceedance Probability for the default rainfall.

Inspect Performance

Allows you to select rainfall and AEP so you can review different performance scenarios.

Inlets

You can now edit the tributary area, time of concentration, and runoff coefficient of inlets outside of the road. We assume these inlets gather 100% of tributary flow.

Point Cloud Enhancements

Generate 3D terrain models from point clouds. (Preview)

Directly consume Autodesk ReCap point cloud file formats (.rcs and .rcp).
Process point cloud data to identify ground and other features, especially from high-density point clouds.
Produce grid-based raster terrain.
Adjust settings to control terrain quality for different types of point clouds.
Remove redundant points to generate light-weight results.

See

2D Terrain Overlay

This release features import and terrain overlay of 2D content. See To import 2D overlay content and Terrain Overlays.

View Features on OpenStreetMap

You can now connect to OpenStreetMap to view source data from features created by Model Builder. See To create a model with Model Builder.

Improvements to Rendering and Viewing Models on the Web

You can now zoom in and out and view panoramas at full screen.
Create panoramas by adding bookmarks to the model. You can now disable panorama creation when you add a bookmark if you don't need a panorama view. See Managing Bookmarks.
Model rendering is now consistent with layer visibility settings.
We've improved the sorting of models on the web home.
When searching models, you can now include more than one search item.

Web Administrator

Use the new Web Administrator to render and manage models, panoramas, and proposals for viewing in a browser. This tool enables you to share models with colleagues and stakeholders on the web and on tablets. If you have Admin or Publisher privilege, open the Web Administrator from InfraWorks 360 Home, the Utility Bar within a model, and when viewing a model in a browser.
You can now select which proposals to render using the Web Administrator.
Render high-quality panoramas at 3000 pixels wide as opposed to 1000 pixels.

See Improvements to Web Experience.