AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

I'm looking at two programs for swept path analysis (primarily for wind turbine transportation applications ) i.e. AutoTRACK and AutoTURN.

Has anyone any experiences with either/both of these programs or indeed any others that they'd be willing to share?

Thanks

[#2]

We use AutoTURN, but almost exclusively for simple truck turning patterns (fire truck, 18-wheeler, garbage truck, etc) in small site plans where this type of data is important to the design. Not much to report other than it works for our needs.

[#3]

I have been using AutoTrack for a number of years now. Like Randy I am using this primarily to demonstrate emergency vehicle and large truck accessibility for our site plans. Love using it. Great support.

[#4]

As I'm on the contractor side of the fence I need to be able to justify reasons for buying.

In addition to wind transporter road design checks, I had thought of demonstrating suitability of traffic management proposals, temporary access roads/haul roads for trucks etc

Any more??

[#5]

I've been using this for a while.It does a nice job and hey it's free! It's not very user friendly but I would suggest giving it a shot. I've read that it uses appropriate swept path analysis calculations just like Autoturn.

http://hawsedc.com/gnu/turn.php

[#6]

I've used AutoTURN too.  Got a good library of vehicles and I believe it alows you to design your own, although I never tried it.  I'm in Canda so that's the library I've used, but it has a list of other countries too.

It allows you to drive along a polyline or drive by hand (with the mouse), set a speed, playback afterwards, draws the centre, front & rear wheel paths, swept path of overlapping corner etc.

Our primary uses have been for smaller sites, to show larger vehicles will be able to access the loading area.

[#7]

Thanks for the link - will check it out

[#8]

Another product you should look at is Autopath. It is a very user friendly product and does exactly what the users want in regards to horizontal and vertical analysis. Its is a very inexpensive but powerful product.  You can customize your own vehicles but it comes standard with an AASHTO Library.

http://usa.cgsplus.com/tabid/551/language/en/Default.aspx

Rob

[#9]

We use AutoTURN on a regular basis to check road / haul access for construction vehicles and verify parking lot layouts and restrictions for complex site designs. Sometimes for garbage removal or semi-trailer access, things like that. 

AutoTURN does have a design vehicle library, but they clearly enjoy sticking it to the customer by breaking out numerous design vehicles separately into packages. You end up needing to buy additional design vehicles that are packaged up strategically to ensure you buy more add-ons. So your actual cost will vary depending on what vehicles you "need".

[#10]

Yes it seems tricky trying to establish exactly what is supplied as standard