Road Tool in Max

[chroma123]

I'd really really like a road tool implemented in 3d studio max. We're dealing with sloped roads with fills/cuts, intersections, curbs, etc in landscapes all the time. The whole archviz community is screaming for a road function, and currently we have to fall back to bad 3rd party plugins that doesn't really do the job dynamic enough.

Why is it so easy making roads in Cities:Skyline and not in 3d studio max? Autodesk, please remember that civil view is not enough. We're not working with Civil 3d. We're combining realism and engineering with creativity, so we need flexibility with the tool. A road tool where you can change parameters for just about everything, just like the stair tool. The road needs to conform/blend with the terrain with any given cut/fill angle/distance parameter, with a 0-100% priority between terrain conforming to road or road conforming to terrain.

Take a look here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxaozEap4-A

And you'd bet that when you finally have made that road somewhat realistic, your landscaper, client or engineer tells you that the road has to be moved a bit, or the slope has to be in another angle, or the road is coming in from the other direction because of some regulation or clients wish. Legitimate hours to invoice for, maybe, but we have got customers in the waiting line for the next projects coming up. Road is a massive black money hole. Projects with roads are always hard, and the same problem keeps showing up: A lack of a good road tool in 3d studio max.

If it's impossible to make, I'd like to hear the argument. Autodesk will go a huge step ahead of competitors with a tool like this.

I made this suggestion a year ago too. It got some kudos, but it's gone from this site now, don't know why it has been removed.

[mark_kauffman]

This is great stuff. Some considerations of future versions of your script.

1. Lane Configurations - Give the user the ability to specify the number of lanes on each roadway segment

2. Cross slope - Most roads have a slight slope of 1 to 3 percent from the edge of the pavement to the centerline. I suppose this might be a function of the road cross section, but I am unsure how this might affect the creation of the roads. 

3. Turn Lanes 

4. Superelevation - This is the banking of the entire road to address speed and traction. Notice a raceway is flat in the straightway but banked steeply at the turns. 

[Lucas_3D]

Thanks very much for your points mark.kauffman, I have a list of my own features to tweak and create and I have added your considerations to that list now.

[Intuos5]

Given that Revit won’t receive any updates regarding site modeling as stated by an Autodesk product manager, it is vital to have this in Max. Although I suppose addressing the boolean capabilities of Max would also further improve road creation scripts and their resulting geometry.

[Kranos_Orphydian]

its on the Road...map ?

[chroma123]

Just a pun or is it mentioned somewhere? 

[chroma123]

Hi! I see this idea has got quite a few likes since I wrote it. I am still using the same tool as before; a simple terrain conformer script on a single sided editable poly. We are still using infraworks in other parts of the business here, but its detail level is not at all suitable for our hi end visualization work part.

I am still very much missing the opportunity to make a spline (open or closed) and then shape the terrain with fills/cuts around that spline. It could for an example be a road-modifier that you apply on a spline and then you pick the terrain, and then the modifier also has parameters for cuts/fills, road thickness, markings, curbs, and so on. Or maybe a MCG. Or just a separate tool with its own toolbox.

It's almost that I start investigating into RailClone for this functionality, but then again I truly believe that the cut/fills and other things will work much better on an editable poly with built-in max functionality. I don't even think RailClone can modify an editable poly like this. Maybe also trying to make my own MCG for it, as suggested before, but it's pretty much a "basic" modeling feature that I think I already should be paying for in a huge software package.

What is worth an extra mention, is that all paths, roads and pavements in the real world have ditch edges, or they (specifically paths) are sunken a bit down in the terrain, sometimes and sometimes not with curbstones as edges. All these things could be "easily" done with a built-in function rather than spending lots of time detail modeling this for every part of the road or path, or turning to a third party plugin. Remember that this product already has a pretty huge price tag.

Any updates on thoughts from you Autodesk officials? @Kelly_Michels?