Creating pedestrian pier/boardwalk views with corridor and custom subassemblies

[ray_mordo]

I am working with an old school engineer on the construction plans for a fixed pedestrian pier. I have a task to create profiles and section views and a few other components for viewing on the plans. My background is mainly site civil and utilities (aka working in C3D for upland site work) so I'm unfamiliar with creating a custom/2024 way to do this easily. Because my job is not structural design, my company would not be approve me to get an expensive license for an actual bridge modeler package or something like that.

My thought was to use a corridor and create custom subassemblies/.pkt files. If I do multiple plans like this in the future, creating these templates would speed it up, show the sections with the grades and piles, and automate the labeling process for the future,  I am very familiar with general roadway and sidewalk corridor design and customizing code set styles- that's really the main reason I'm asking if I can do this with a corridor. (Here's to crossing my fingers that the months I spent months designing pretty custom sidewalk corridors at my last firm helps now lol) However, I'm on the lower end of experience with custom subassemblies that I've made myself (aka I would need to watch some youtube tutorials as I go to refresh). 

Essentially I'm looking some input and discussion on:

1. Is this feasible and/or is C3D, sans any plugins/addins/extentions from a structural modeler program, capable of what I want to do?
2. If it feasible "per say", is it worth the time to set up all the customizations if I'll use the template for future projects?
3. Can I make styles/assemblies that are sophisticated enough to look good as views that are a focal point of the plans compared to hand drawing?
4. Being able to get material calculations for cost estimating would be a massive added bonus but that is probably a big stretch.

I would appreciate any input you guys may have! Even if it's telling me I'm crazy for thinking about it and/or it would take way more time than it's worth.

Thank you in advance!!

[idoQEYMP]

Theoretically you can model anything solid using corridors. Theoretically you also can build any piece of furniture with just sandpaper and enough determination. On things that can be easily described as boxes that are swept along a 3d path corridors will be efficient and for some of the other cases it might require a great deal of work to model an object using corridors.

In order to tell if it's worth it for you, I suggest you try to estimate the time required to complete the task either way. Try to get all the details in each method- the overall plan of action, the time it should take to create a pkt, the number of various pkts you'll have to make, the modelling process, the time spent on additional manual corrections to the finished section views depending on the level of detail you choose to implement. on the other hand the estimate of labor in modeling the pier using rough primitives and already available subassemblies and manually correcting and adding the details, times the amount of iterations you should expect to make during the process.

Get it on paper with real numbers. if there's a clear advantage to one method over the other it should be easy to identify and justify to you superiors. If not, choosing either way will probably by okay so just go with whatever you find more likely to be more beneficial in the long run.