Intersections very buggy...rant

[acrain732]

Ok, first a little background.  I'm running Civil3d 2012 with a win7 64 bit pro sp1 machine with a intel i3 2120 processor, 16 GB of RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5670.  

I have been using civil3d for the past 5 years and overall have been very happy with the surfacing tools and associated tools.  So much so that I was able to convince my office to move away from another software to civil3d.   Although, I have been well pleased with the surfacing and dynamic abilities in civil3d I have been equally dissappointed in the corridor and especially the intersection functionality of civil3d.  

I have built 3d models of commercial sites, roads (including very large multi-lane) and subdivisions for the past 6 years using a variety of software from Autodesk, Carlson, Trimble, Microstation etc.  Needless to say I've seen the other side of the fence and am very familiar designing in 3d.  

The corridor function in my opinion sucks.  But I have gotten used to it and for the most part it at least works, so it is acceptible.

Intersections on the other hand have not worked since day 1 for me.  I've always had to find a "workaround" for every one I've done.  This is totally unacceptible.  If you are going to include a feature Autodesk, it better work before you give it to me.  Now I've been an evangelist for you and you're making me look bad by your poor quality and buggy performance.  Whether it being trying to grip edit the corridor links and not having the grips show up, getting crazy links that shoot across the opposite side of the road, getting warnings teling me there is no target at a station when I have a profile that shows it extends well past the station in question or getting errors from no sideslope intersect found when clearly there is a surface to tie to.  It never ends. 

I love the idea of intersections and wish it would work, but I just have not had success.  Please, Autodesk the next time you create a tool, make sure the thing works before my office and my clients have to spend countless hrs, money and effort trying to use duck tape, paperclips and a swiss army knife just to make it halfway work!

For now I'm stuck using surfaces for my intersections which completely defeats the benefits of a software like civil3d because you are now disconnected from your road and you lose the dynamic attributes civil3d offers.  Thanks again Autodesk, I wouldn't know what to do with all the time I would have if I didn't have to figure out how to make your software do what it is supposed to do! 

Sorry for the long rant folks.  It's been a long time in the making.  End rant. 

Andy 

[Anonymous]

Well I am sure you feel much better after all that. In a perfect world all would work Well. I think that we have all been frustrated at one time or another. But there are more benefits than frustrations. Still better that the old LDD days.

[Neilw_05]

Andy,

I don't take any exception to your complaints. I just want to ask if you've asked tech support to troubleshoot the problems you've had. The reason I ask is it appears from one of your comments that some of the issues you've had may be simple workflow issues. You mention links shooting across the road. That typically is because you have set a target that does not exist on the opposite side of the road (perhaps an alignment that does not extend far enough). Perhaps you understand that and it is not the problem. Still it would help to know if you've had support look at your problems.

[michael.robertson]

Details of the specific problems you are having would be nice for others to either watch for or possibly provide input to address your problems.

[acrain732]

Yes, I've worked with tech support on almost all the intersection issues I have had and they have been very good.  It just seems to me that we always have to use some sort of workaround for each fix.  i remember one where I had to move the limits of the corridor to go all the way up to the pc of the radius because the intersection had one spot that would not build properly near the pc.  

Not a big deal and it was an easy fix, but I don't understand how I can supply all the information needed and civil3d still fails to build the corridor/surface properly.  Typically anytime I've had issues with building a corridor or surface it is either due to not giving it enough information or not giving it the right information.  In this case civil3d is just not building properly.  Tech support has reviewed and verified that the information is there and is correct, but it just isn't building properly.  

In the issue where the target area does not exist, that is the exact error I get.  However, the surface data extends roughly 150 feet beyond the area in question.   Another example where it just isn't doing what it's supposed to.

I typically don't complain and I don't for a minute think writing the code for this monster would be anything close to easy.  There very well could be (and probably are) good reasons for why it is doing the things it is doing.  However, when they highlight certain features in their marketing material, I do expect those features to work properly.

Andy 

[evansr]

I agree, I have also had a lot of problems with the intersection features, very frustrating and not user friendly, it takes so long to figure out all the little glitches that may be going on in this convoluted process, I hate that I cant trust the software to perform the way that autodesk says it will work,