Advanced Road Design

Brian Oberdorf · May 2013

I came across a civil engineering program for Bricscad that doesnt appear in the website called Advanced Road Design (http://www.advancedroaddesign.com.au/).

I would be interested to hear what other add-ins any Civil Engineers may find useful or any feedback on this program.

Thanks

Malinda Sellars · May 2013

Hi Brian,

Advanced Road Design is an add-in package focused on road and drainage design. I have been using this add-in for quite a number of years and find it extremely easy and user friendly.

There are 2 main designing menus as a part of this add-in, Road and Pipes.

Once alignments are created using Bricscad, you can then use ARD to create 'Road' entities to carry out the design work. The software works so that if there are multiple roads within a project, you can create interesections/roundabouts which in turn read information for all connecting roads. All of the information is also read simultainiously, e.g. if you change something in the vertical design view, it will automatically change in the cross section view which you can have open at the same time.

To me, this package is worth investing in if you carry out alot of road design. I have used the drainage part a bit, but not as much as the roads section.

Richard Smith · May 2013

Hi Brian,

I have been using ARD for about 12 years on the Civil 3D platform, recently i switched to the BricsCad platform with ARD for my roads, drainage and sewer designs, with very pleasing results, in my optinion Bricscad seems alot faster. Anybody who has used ARD, the look and feel is the same with some addition tabs for the surface modelling.

ARD does have a good drainage and sewer component, it allows for the set up of catchment areas and pipe networking, it can be taylored to suit Water Authories and council standard with ease. We mainly work on subdivisions so ARD as a combined package with Bricscad allows us to complete the total design on one platform.

I would highly recommmendation ARD and Bricscad combination

Steven Cobden · May 2013

Hi Brian,

I've been using BricsCAD with ARD since February this year. I found it very easy to pick up as the design work is based on strings and templates. I prefer ARD on BricsCAD over Civil3D as Civil3D is very slow in comparison. The new release of ARD makes design work much quicker because of the instant feedback. You can have a cross-section, long-section and plan view open all at the same time. If you make a change in the long-section, the cross-section and plan views instantly update. This means I can evaluate the changes that I've made much more quickly and can spend less time steering a computer and more time being an engineer.

I also find plotting very easy with the template approach. Road re-sheets used to be quite time consuming simply because of the number of drawings that had to be put together into a package. This doesn't take long at all anymore with ARD.

ARD also automates a lot of the design as well. Some other programs still make the user manually compute kerb returns between intersections, but ARD automates this. It also automates the creation of roundabouts and courtbowls.

One of the very strong points for ARD is that there is very good customer service after sale. This is always a big plus for us as invariably, when a deadline needs to be met, software will throw a curve bowl. The team are very friendly and are happy to help out, especially when timelines are tight.

I haven't used the drainage components alot, but have found it to be pretty quick for designing underground pipes and services. ARD won't model retardation basins/pumps/overland flow, but most civil packages wont do that either. I think BricsCAD will integrate with HEC-RAS, not sure if it integrates with DRAINS.

Anyway, I think ARD on BricsCAD is a pretty good total package.

Daniel Eiszele · May 2013

Looks interesting. Does anyone have a ballpark cost for the road and drain package?

Andrew English · May 2013

Hi Daniel

Advanced Road Design is available in standalone and network licensing.

Advanced Road Design (Standalone) - $2,495 ex gst (A)

Advanced Road Design (Network) - $2,995 ex gst (A)

Advanced Road Design 12 months technical support and software subscription - $450 ex gst (A)

Advanced Road Design requires BricsCAD PRO (Windows) to operate on.

Regards

Andrew English

Civil Survey Solutions

Advanced Road Design Technical Brochure - BricsCAD.pdf

Florin Balcu · May 2013

We are using ARD for almost 12 years now. We represent the application in Europe, being the Distributor of the application in Europe. We are also local partners of Bricscad in Romania

From simple streework design to complex rehabilitation, siteworks design and complex highways and freeways, ARD on Bricscad is a very fast and dynamic roadway design package. Fully customisable and very easy to use. If anyone is interested to see new features and practical case studies please visit us on www.australiandc.ro an drop an email to office@australiandc.ro

Bricscad represents for us the complete CAD platform for our roadway and drainage design projects

Regards

BE (Civ) Florin Balcu

Australian Design Company

Bucharest, Romania

Tramp Christian · November 2013

Hi,

I saw a few reviews about this combination of programs Bricscad&Ard, and it seems pretty good. Please tell me how are internationally known compared to other programs dedicated.
Thank you!

Andrew English · November 2013

Hi Tramp - in which Country are you based?

Regards

Andrew

F. T. · July 2014

Well, in my opinion as a pure Autocad software for users without any special needs it can work very fine.

For me, as an advanced Autodesk user, I simply can't handle the lack of Object isolation and object viewer commands. It is simply frustrating. In Autocad YOU are using isolation at least once a minute. If you're copying Autocad, at least you can do it right. There's no day at work without swearing the lack of those 2 commands.

Damian Harkin · July 2014

Hi F.T. It's true BricsCAD doesn't have the ISOLATEOBJECTS command. But this subject has nothing to do with Advanced Road Design. Perhaps you could start another thread or log a support request for ISOLATEOBJECTS ?

Donald Broussard · July 2014

Interesting, this is the first I've heard of Advanced Road Design. What are their customers using for site grading, and survey points?

Andrew English · July 2014

Hi Donald

Advanced Road Design is a road design software program that works on the Autodesk family (2011 - 2015) Civil 3d, MAP 3D and AutoCAD and BricsCAD, the low cost AutoCAD clone.

Advanced Road Design was originally developed to overcome the limitations of corridor design in Civil 3D - lack of automation of intersection, cul-de-sac, knuckle and roundabout design and the slowness in speed and scalability of subdivision road networks and highway road/rural road design.

Advanced Road Design uses the Civil 3D alignments and surfaces. Advanced Road Design was ported to other AutoCAD platforms and BricsCAD following customer request to provide lower cost engines and so, alignments, surfaces and site grading was introduced to the software. Surfaces can be built from 3D triangles, landxml and points.

Advanced Road Design is used extensively in Australia and in Europe.

Advanced Road Design Imperial, a version which only has imperial units and US drafting standards is being released for the USA market shortly.

For a period of time, Advanced Road Design Imperial, will be made available at no charge. This will be a full commercial and permanently authorised license of the software. Included with the free license is one year of software updates, technical support and E-Learning.

At the end of the twelve month period, Advanced Road Design Imperial users can chose to maintain provision of software updates, technical support and E-Learning for an annual subscription/maintenance fee of $195 per license.

A company can download as many licenses of Advanced Road Design Imperial as they like.

If you would like a web based technical presentation of Advanced Road Design Imperial, then please let me know and I will organise one of our technical team to provide you with a presentation.

More information on Advanced Road Design Imperial can be found at www.advancedroaddesign.com

I can be contacted at andrew.english@advancedroaddesign.com or andrew.english@civilsurveysolutions.com.au

Regards

Andrew English
Account Manager

Advanced Road Design Technical Brochure - BricsCAD.pdf Advanced Road Design - BricsCAD Customer Referrals.pdf

Liam Callaghan · July 2014

I'm a highway designer (geometrics for 20 years) and I've come across ARD along with Civil3D and previously LDT. My old company was involved in some beta testing for ARD and it came across as a very good piece of software. Not in the same league as MX Road but a lot cheaper and very easy to use. I just rolled from MX to 12d and it's a great product too, a bit simpler to grasp than MX as there is no coding required.

I don't think I'd recommend ARD or Civil3D for large highway projects, although they seem to be advertising it, it's certainly not an industry standard for large jobs. 12d and MX in comparison will run on the fumes of an oily rag and when the proverbial hits the fan the project can be rebuilt from scratch in a couple of minutes, even huge projects. They both work well with multiple designers and both have really good stormwater interfaces and subdiv packages (including parcel layout).

ARD looks to be good value for money though and I reckon would cover most roading needs for small to medium companies and be relatively quick to pick up. I'm not sure what analysis support it has for checking stopping sight distance, aquaplaning etc. or what you can report out of it for safety audits.

Most packages now automate intersections, kerb returns and cul de sac with design wizards but take them with a pinch of salt, they still need to be checked manually and adjusted via grades or vertical alignment to make sure they meet the design standards or to safely discharge stormwater. Just because they look nice in plan doesn't mean it works or wont bite you on the bum when the contractor starts to build it. A lot of bling out there haha.

I wouldn't recommend an automated roundabout wizard unless you want some preliminary outline for consenting purpose to determine your designations. Most of the software packages out there can produce a 2d roundabout 'diagram' for want of a better word but from experience you're better off designing these from scratch. Much quicker in the long run.

Andrew English · July 2014

Hi Liam,

Thank you for your comments and feedback regarding your experiences with Advanced Road Design, 12d and MX. It is great to have your input and contribution to this discussion.

Advanced Road Design has been used for highway and large scale design projects as a total replacement to MX in Europe, and our European distributor has engaged with many organisations who are now using Advanced Road Design regularly on highway projects. The product is quite scalable, and there are (albeit rudimentary) tools for sharing data between users which enables strong collaboration. There is always more to do – we are constantly adding to the toolkit to make all design, including highway type design projects, easier to manage. Depending on when you trialled Advanced Road Design, you may not be aware of the Multi Section Batters command, which delivers on many of the batter/daylighting requirements on a highway job (gabion walls, benching, trenches, etc, based on depths). Attached are some images of a 6km section of highway, focusing on an interchange.

We have links to some images of a design delivered using Advanced Road Design on BricsCAD:

I agree that Civil 3D can become challenged when the data set is large – this is a result of the fact that Civil 3D is always updating to ensure that everything is dynamic, and the drawing speed to redraw informaiton. Advanced Road Design sitting on the AutoCAD/BricsCAD platform runs significantly faster than on Civil 3D, and the data is stored in a database adjunct to the drawing so you can rebuild in minutes if things go bump in the night. In the CAD platform versions we have our own terrain and alignment engines – simple and straightforward to use.

Sight distance is something we are still working on – we do have a sight distance checking tool to document the sight distances achieved along a string, using the terrain to check sight lines. Future improvements are intended to do the reporting against various stopping sight distances (eg: headlight, etc) and to have a graphical representation on screen.

With our intersection tools, we don’t just do a first pass automation – we hold the relative elevations/positions of the intersections as edits are made. Yes, there are definitely numerous design conditions that mean the automated tools don’t deliver a total design outcome, however the tools are used extensively and consistently in road subdivision projects. We educate customers on using Model Builder to construct models using any collection of strings and cross sections – again this is a tool you may not have seen or used if you evaluated Advanced Road Design a while ago.

The roundabout tool does have caveats – it doesn’t draw the 2D stuff, it works in conjunction with the intersection tools (so either tee or crossing intersections are handled where there are defined Road and Kerb Return strings), and it starts by draping the central island and circulating carriageway onto the intersection surface. It is a great tool for a small subdivision type roundabout where the design process is from the ‘outside in’ – that is, design without the roundabout and then add it into the intersection for remodel. Model Builder and the string design tools otherwise come into play for larger roundabouts with multi (5+) roads, central/splitter islands, etc.

Regards

Shane O'Rorke BE (Civ) Hons
Manager - Technical Division

Florin Balcu · July 2014

Hi Liam,

I would like to complete just few words about ARD software especially for highway design. Words are not enough to explain how much we appreciate this software. Is an amazing roadway design tool. Our company distributes the ARD software in Europe and has been involved in the last years in couple of complex infrastructure projects in Romania.

Last project we worked on was a 60Km motorway design, for a tender we participated together with a construction company. We managed to handle in real time all the data (in ARD for Bricscad) and be able to work with the constructor to extract most of the roadworks quantities to calculate the execution costs - pavement, earthworks, drainage works, surface slopes protection, retaining walls, geogrids and so on..

We also worked with a constructor for on-site technical assistance following up the quantities and also producing As-Built drawings. All our projects are 100% in ARD, having the complete database then ensure us to extract all the necessary information (drawings and reports) in real time. ARD includes a special menu (ARDExpress) which has a lot of features required by the constructors mainly (and not only) - calculation of expropriation limits, automatic placement of ditches for cut/fill situations, steps for sections (stability of steep ground with special steps), various methods to vary subgrade layers with slopes/depths, complex volumes reports with surface slopes areas for protection, automatic vary of shoulder for guardrail positioning and many others.

I did use in the past MX and Civil 3D but since 2001 I am using only ARD. It has been developed a lot especially that the team of programmers from Australia is very helpful and knowledgeable. This is basically the most important thing - having the developers listen to user's wishes.

Please feel free to contact me at your convenience,

Best regards from Romania,

Florin Balcu

Australian Design Company

www.australiandc.ro

email: florin.balcu@australiandc.ro

Liam Callaghan · August 2014

Looks like you guys have it in the bag, a 60km project is not small. If it can handle that then your on the board.

All the best with everything

L.

Donald Broussard · August 2014

I've downloaded Advanced Road Design and Stringer Survey for evaluation. After a couple of days of tinkering, Civil Survey Solutions provided a short demonstration of Advanced Road Design. All I can say is I am blown away and excited to start seriously trying to implement today. If it works half as good as it appeared in the presentation, it's 10 times better than what I've been attempting with Civil 3D.

Steven Cobden · August 2014

Hi Liam,

Our largest job is 22km long and I am easily running it on a 2.5 year old, $700 consumer laptop plugged into a 24" screen.

The program is very light on hardware.

Cheers

Roger Green · July 2016

Thanks for the info. I am using ROAD CEM from Transoft Solutions. It is easy to use and supports Bricsys® BricsCAD® (Pro and Platinum) V15 – V16.

Donald Broussard · July 2017

We've been a customer for over a year now ... 35 licenses and growing!

Advanced Road Design

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