Migrating From MX To OpenRoads Designer

Migrating from MX to OpenRoads Designer and
OpenRail Designer
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Why Migrate? Why Not?
Before We Begin
This document was created to summarize reasons to migrate and to allay concerns about the process of migrating from MX to OpenRoads
Designer. This document is designed for MX Users and Project Managers. Our goal here is to provide you with relevant information to help
you move forward from MX into OpenRoads Designer.
This document is not intended to be a hands-on training course. For hands-on training, please click on OpenRoads Designer - Core Skills
Learning Path. In a couple of hours, you will have a very good idea of how OpenRoads Designer works and you’ll have real skills: you’ll be
able to evaluate and describe OpenRoads Engineering Models in common Civil Engineering terms. Continue further and you’ll be building
things. For a role-based list of where to start click here.
What is OpenRoads/OpenRail Designer?

OpenRoads Designer is a comprehensive, multi-discipline 3D modeling application to advance the delivery of roadway projects from
conceptual design through construction. OpenRoads Designer blends traditional engineering workflows for plan, profile, and cross-sections
with 3D parametric modeling to enable the model-centric creation of all design deliverables.
OpenRoads Designer supports all aspects of a detailed roadway design including survey, geotechnical, drainage, subsurface utilities,
terrain, road, roadway furniture, and more. The incorporation of reality meshes, imagery, point cloud, and other geo-coordinated data
sources can provide the continuous context of real-world conditions throughout the design and construction lifecycle.
OpenRoads Designer completes the convergence of InRoads, GEOPAK, MX, and PowerCivil, but adds many powerful new innovations,
including:
• Progressive Conceptual Design. Users can directly progress conceptual designs created with OpenRoads ConceptStation,
preserving all work and data. OpenRoads ConceptStation enables rapid conceptual and preliminary design, leveraging existing
context captured through reality meshes, point clouds, GIS, and other sources, and creating compelling presentations with
engineering precision.
• Contextual Design. All detailed design in OpenRoads Designer is driven by functional components, which inherently respond
contextually to express appropriate design, annotation, and plan set display behaviors. Design models are expressed in multiple live
views including plan, profile, cross section, and 3D; changes in one view are live and dynamically update all views.
• Multi-discipline Support. OpenRoads Designer integrates support for each discipline with specific user profiles dedicated to each
discipline. Users can switch discipline perspectives, for instance from Road Design profile to Subsurface Utility profile.
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• Reality Modeling Tools. OpenRoads Designer includes a fully-functioned toolset to incorporate and edit all reality modeling data
types, including the capability to extract ground-level features from reality meshes and LiDAR, as well as to reference point clouds
and imagery.
• Geotechnical Tools. Users can connect directly to gINT geotechnical databases to incorporate subsurface terrain details into their
models for improving grading and piling. Subsurface terrains can be generated or modeled based on the bore hole materials and
projected in road and drainage profiles, sections, and plans.
• Subsurface Utilities. Users can select from a large catalog of functional components for utility and drainage to model underground
drainage and utility networks. Drainage models, moreover, can be optimized for water flow using integrated water analysis tools,
with results available in data tables or visually in a profile view.
• Rich Deliverables. An expanded set of deliverables range from traditional plan sets and animations to digital construction models—
for automated machine control and field positioning systems including for excavation, grading, piling, and paving.
• Live Plan Generation. Plan generation no longer needs to be a separate process limited to a point in time, as settings and
annotations are dynamically updated and live in the model. Views are saved with specific display rules and sheet index embedded,
making it easy to navigate between model and drawings. Up-to-date drawings can be generated automatically at any time, creating
a natural and fluid design environment for both modeling and detailing.
• Enlivened Visualization. OpenRoads Designer provides direct integration to Bentley LumenRT for producing cinematic
visualization, adding vegetation, reflecting nature and climate, and for traffic simulation with VISSIM.
What’s in this document?

This document is divided into 7 parts:
• Part 1 – describes some of the Big Reasons to Move Forward.
• Part 2 – discusses what Bentley has available to you to help your experience in moving forward.
• Part 3 – addresses the Big Picture Fears about Migrating – systemic concerns.
• Part 4 – responds to specific concerns: “where did my favorite button go?”, “how do I this particular thing in OpenRoads?”, etc.
• Part 5 – provides resources about Meeting Standards and software overhead.
• Part 6 – provides role-based links to training.
Part 1: The Big Benefits to Migrating to OpenRoads/OpenRoads Designer
Description
This section discusses some of the BIG reasons for MX project managers, designers and producers to move forward to
OpenRoads/OpenRail Designer CONNECT Edition.
Additional product information for OpenRoads Designer can be found at www.bentley.com/OpenRoads and at www.bentley.com/OpenRail
for OpenRail Designer.
Reasons to Migrate
Commitment: OpenRoads/OpenRail Designer is Bentley’s Civil Engineering Platform for the Present and the Future
 Resources are no longer split by three “equivalent” products.
Increasingly leveraged by Clients and Agencies.
“Universal Shareability”: Everything is in the dgn. Shareable “upstream” and “downstream.”
 ONE data format: the dgn. Easier to learn. Easier to design. Easier to troubleshoot.
 Seamlessly collaborate and enhance your workflows with Bentley’s full suite of infrastructure-advancing products.
 Expand your Offerings because you fully integrate with the full breadth of Bentley’s product suite.
Building Information Modeling - The dgn is a native BIM platform.
Automatic Updates based on your Design Intent (rather than some “most-likely” algorithm).
Heads Up Display: Truly Transformative, not just fast and intuitive.
Immersive 3D Design Environment – fully leveraged.
Expiring legacy product support. Support for older product versions will be expiring and discontinued on a phased plan through 2020.
Why OpenRoads?
Prior to OpenRoads Technology:

Resources split 3 ways: Bentley Systems supported three parallel platforms to perform Civil Design. This minimized discomfort to the three
discrete user bases, but the burden was three discrete product development teams. Enhancements had to be implemented three times.
The support teams only could support one third of the users for the same end result. Clearly, having a single solution the whole company
could support made obvious sense. For a company committed to the efficient productivity of the users, the systemic inefficiency of three
parallel products was not sustainable.
Multiple non-graphic file formats: We had a format for representing spatial objects – engineering features – and multiple dependent or
superseding files required to complete the description of the object. Multiple files, multiple formats multiplied by three platforms. At the time,
it was necessary, but it added a level of abstraction that made managing, troubleshooting, teaching and learning much more difficult than
necessary.
No memory. No universal automatic updates: Civil Engineering features, in most cases, have a relationship to another engineering feature.
Consider a side road needing to be perpendicular to a main road. Consider the relationship between a pavement edge and a centerline.
The core of the platform did not, could not, remember the relationship. It made what should be automatic manual. Not acceptable!
Limited Shareability: Even among “close” products -Bentley’s 3 Civil Products – sharing between products was limited. Too much time and
information (work) lost.
Bentley understands that many of you, for the most part, were happy with MX. Your workflows are familiar to you, you know what to expect,
you’ve streamlined the inefficiencies.
OpenRoads Technology - What It Provides:

• DGN: All In
Bentley has committed to the DGN as the universal data format for Bentley software.
This sounds like a welcome but “typical” improvement, but the benefits will continually surprise and delight you (that
sounds like an exaggeration, but it’s pretty accurate). You will continually see new increases to your capabilities as
the full breadth of Bentley solutions dovetail into your design platform: the dgn.
This removal of boundaries between Bentley solutions catalyzes integration and broadens your design capabilities
and the market of who can consume your data. With DWG compatibility, your collaborative possibilities are endless.
You can bid on work that you could not bid on before.
Eliminating reliance on “behind the scenes” specialized data files eliminates pervasive opportunities for confusion and
preserves collaboration capability. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), truly.
• A Clean, Direct, Intuitive Modern Implementation: It’s Simple
The simplicity of the OpenRoads/OpenRail Designer data model (it’s all in the dgn) makes it easier to learn, easier to
understand, easier to evaluate, and easier to troubleshoot.
The engineering workflows are similar to older software and, in most cases, more directly and intuitively tied to “real
world” engineering practice. For example, an edge of pavement “in the real world” is constrained to a centerline
horizontally by a constant or tapering offset. Vertically it is defined as being 2% below the centerline. OpenRoads
tools directly implement these relationships:
Real World Relationship OpenRoads Relationship/Tool
Constant 12-ft Horizontal Offset Horizontal "Single Offset"

from the CL
A Taper defined by Offset values at "Variable Offset Taper"

Start and End
A Taper defined by Ratio "Ratio Offset Taper"
2% below the CL ”Profile by Slope from Element”
As you pick a tool to engineer the model, your “Design Intent” is automatically stored – and remembered for future
updates.
Like the engineering is direct and intuitive, the data model is as well: it’s all in the dgn. What you see is what you get.
What you see is where it’s at. The graphics contain the data. No hidden binary files containing the “real data”.
The new interface is direct and intuitive, fully leveraging the all-in-the-dgn for speed and clarity.
A click on an OpenRoads Element shows you the relationships in a quick and intuitive Heads Up Display. What you
see is what you get as well as what you will get if something changes. Video: Using the HUD to See the Design Intent
• BIM: It’s Part of the Design
The dgn is a robust BIM platform. OpenRoads Designer and OpenRail Designer start with Feature Definitions – the
first step in BIM. Watch OpenRoads Designer - Meeting BIM Requirements for an overview.
A major challenge with MX string theory is strings are not scalable to the 3D objects/volumes required for BIM. MX
will not be a good platform for 4D (Sequencing) and 5D (Cost) BIM.
• Automatic Updates – Your Way

OpenRoads Remembers. We call it Design Intent. OpenRoads remembers how you engineered your model.
Prior to OpenRoads, something as simple and fundamentally important as a Perpendicular Snap was immediately
forgotten. OpenRoads Designer is built from the ground up – to remember what you did.
When the engineering changes, your model updates per your Design Intent. Simply, pick the tool that serves your
needs as you design, OpenRoads Designer takes care of the rest.
That glyph tells you the line was drawn

perpendicular. OpenRoads remembers.
•
Heads-Up Display – WYSIWYG^n
The Heads-Up Display is easy, intuitive and an amazing diagnostic tool – all with a click.
The Heads-Up Display (HUD) is another development that seems like a nice – maybe even gimmicky – enhancement to software.
You’ll use it for just a little while before you find it indispensable. If the dgn is WYSIWYG, the Heads Up Display supercharges that
concept: you can see what will happen in the future. Video: Using the HUD to See the Design Intent
Simple * Powerful * Universal = Indispensable. From “Let’s find out how this was built” to “Let’s make a change” to “Let’s see what
will happen if we make a change”, the HUD is literally a single click away.
• Immersive 3D Design Environment

The Immersive 3D dgn platform is fully leveraged – engineering issues become obvious. Bentley delivers a robust
comprehensive workspace out-of-the box. You can design right away. If your client has a workspace, you can
conform to their Standards right away.
• Long Term: OpenRoads/OpenRail is increasingly being leveraged by Clients and Agencies.
BIM is a thing and it’s here to stay. Owning and Maintaining the “design” requires Lifecycle Management.
OpenRoads Designer is built for it.
Part 2: Making Migrating Easier
Description
This section describes how Bentley has simplified migrating from MX to OpenRoads/OpenRail Designer CONNECT Edition.
Migration Aids
Available Bentley LEARN Introductory Training:
• Our introduction to OpenRoads Designer is more focused and simple. You’ll know before each class what skills you come away
with after taking the training.
 New to OpenRoads Designer or experienced with previous Bentley Civil Design Products? OpenRoads Designer training
starts with an Introduction to the Interface – how to get around. It does NOT assume that you are an experienced guru
designer, though it serves that audience effectively as well.
 How do I use a Terrain? How do I evaluate geometry? How do I make sense of the data? Most everyone who collaborates
with a design team might need to know this, whether they design or not. We make it easy for all to learn.
 From this universal core, training branches out, tailored for specific roles and covering various engineering workflows – like
this document for MX users looking to upgrade to OpenRoads Designer. If you’re looking to design roads in OpenRoads
Designer, we have a direct path for you. Non-roadway users do not have to learn how to design roads to if that’s not what
they need to learn.
o See for yourself: OpenRoads Designer Learning Path
Videos and Live Events
• Almost all OpenRoads Designer training includes videos explaining the concepts and working through exercises.
• Videos are short and to the point. Most are under five minutes long. Only watch what you need to learn.
• YouTube: Bentley OpenRoads
• Live Events, Webinars, Learning.
CONNECT Advisor
CONNECT Advisor is an exciting new tool that should transform how you learn. It
consolidates relevant material from many sources, including Help, Training, Bentley
Communities, and YouTube. It is Context Sensitive, Adaptive and Proactive, putting
appropriate, focused training for the tools and tasks you’re working on - at your
fingertips.
• CONNECT Advisor will transform how you learn.
• Bentley CONNECT Advisor (web overview)
• CONNECT Advisor - an Introduction (90 second introduction) (from the
QuickStart – Navigating the Interface class)
New functionality and improvements are being added regularly. The surest way to
have up-to-date training for CONNECT Advisor is to click on its Help button. From
its Help you can get version-appropriate help.
Part 3: Design and Production - Making the Leap
Description
This section addresses and provides guidance on some of the design and production concerns about moving to OpenRoads Designer.
Concern #1 “I’m an MX expert now, will I be an expert in OpenRoads Designer?”
Yes.
This question is a very common concern. If your current skillset is “expert to other colleagues and to management”, you want to retain that
value.
You will remain the expert. You have broad experience getting software to engineer the way you want. Concepts transfer. Your
troubleshooting skills were honed in a more complex system. Some parts of the software are identical. Some parts are improvements to
current processes. Few parts are “brand new”.
In many ways the design process in MX is the same in OpenRoads Designer. The way the design is created using the Corridor Modeling
tools is much the same as using input files, but it is much more user friendly. Some of the more basic functions, like geometry, have new
underlying premises and a different approach, but the implementation is much the same as MX. In fact, many of the tools are an
improvement on those of MX. Since Bentley is focused on a single Civil Engineering platform now, far more development resources are
available to further streamline and enhance the design experience.
Concern #2: “I am not excited about the effort to learn an ‘all new product”
While OpenRoads Designer is a brand new single software solution for Civil Engineering modeling and data modeling, it is not a departure
from either Civil Engineering practice or from many Civil Engineering software practices.
The Common Data Environment of the DGN and a really well thought out implementation of the tools allows users to easily scale up their
skillset. The tools that had been added ad-hoc over many years to MX have been restructured coherently from lessons learned from
developing three platforms for decades. For example, the tools for roadway geometry and corridor modeling are the same tools used for
non-corridor, site, and detail work – rather than separate scopes that don’t always integrate well.
The Biggest “All New” aspect to OpenRoads is that MX has been historically reliant on text input. Outside of the shift from Text, learning
OpenRoads Designer is a small leap from MX.
Survey Input is slightly different in that the user can no longer input from GENIO files. However, the process of inputting Survey data can
now be achieved much more easily as the data can be imported from CAD files.
Survey Input now creates a Digital Terrain Model which contains both the source data (surveyed features) and calculated features such as
Contours, Triangles, High and Low Point data, the Core Concepts remain the same. Workflows are similar.
Terrains include new OpenRoads Designer functionality: an inherent capacity to maintain relationships and “updateability”. These new
capabilities are similar across all OpenRoads Designer functionalities.
Geometry is very similar to MX in that the user can generate both Horizontal and Vertical Alignments using tools similar to those in MX. For
example, the Element Methods of Fix, Floating and Freeing of elements port to direct equivalents in OpenRoads Designer.
OpenRoads Designer’s method for Corridor Design differs from MX in that it is based on Cross Sectional Templates rather than Linear. A
template is a typical cross section of the design and is “extruded” along a Horizontal and Vertical alignment to produce the linear features. In
addition to the linear work, shapes in the template are automatically “extruded” as prismatic shapes. They provide a full 3D Volumetric
Model that integrates and interacts with all 3D CAD shapes. Designed for working in the DGN, cross-discipline 3D workflows – such as
Volumes and Conflict Detection – occur natively in the OpenRoads/OpenRail environment. No translations are needed.
In summary:
• Your experience transfers nicely to the new product
• The “new product” improves the wheel rather than creates a new one.
• The Learning Process is substantially better.
• The Product is simpler, cleaner, more powerful, and a “more pure” digitization of Civil Engineering Practices.
You’ll like learning to engineer in OpenRoads and you’ll find the benefits very rewarding.
Concern #3: “How do I replace the Command Line / Input File”
“I really relied on the Command Line Interface / Input File for input, for review, for edits and as an audit trail. How do I replace this
functionality?”
The short answer is that most capabilities of the Input File have an equivalent in the OpenRoads Platform; many have a portion of a flow that
is measurable better with some lesser inconveniences.
In the next Part of this document, we try to address some Task Level migration concerns. In this Part, we’ll try to address the “bigger
picture” on the loss of the Command Line/File interface.
MX has some nice functionality in its Input File. A great deal of its functionality is met or exceeded in OpenRoads Designer, whose new
foundation is designed to support capability we haven’t even thought of yet.
Character User Interfaces (CHUIs) tend to be relics from older times. There is a shrinking core of people to use them. Once mastered, they
can be very efficient. New learners, however, traditionally prefer more sophisticated and -intuitive interfaces. Few environments are less
intuitive than character-based environments.
The shift away from text input and management is consistent with not only the Civil Industry’s trends, but is pretty much universal. New
computer users, when presented with a Character User Interface and a Graphic User Interface almost universally prefer the graphic. As 3D
Immersive Design capabilities continue to grow, the perceived disadvantages of the OpenRoads platform will diminish and the audience for
a Character Interface will continue to shrink.
One value of the MX Input File is the “audit trail” capability. In OpenRoads, clicking on an element shows you the Designer’s Intent – the
rules and relationships of the element. While it’s not a “chronological sequence” the Heads-Up Display does show the resultant Engineering
RulesWhat you see is what you get as well as what you will get if something changes. Video: Using the HUD to See the Design Intent.
Values of can be seen and Changes to a Feature can occur at the Feature. Working spatially at a feature, rather than editing in a text file,
provides full direct context.
Please see the next Part of this document for discussions of MX Macros and other functionality that changes from MX.
Concern #4: “How do I ensure the quality of other peoples’ work?”
This is a universal question. It comes up in particular with regard to the loss of “command line design input” in OpenRoads Designer.
OpenRoads Designer and MX both have the evaluation tools required by the Civil Engineering Industry: Sheet Quality tools - Annotations,
Profiles, Cross sections, Reports, Ad- Labels, etc. Both have Model Quality tools – ways to ensure that the model is correct. Since the
models vary between MX and OpenRoads, the tools appropriate for each model vary correspondingly.
Since OpenRoads input is not based on a text file (although there are a number of ways to import text-based input), design review occurs
directly on the model rather than a text source. There are a number of ways to query and evaluate the model, including all the Civil Engineer
industry standard requirements.
The initial OpenRoads Designer training starts by showing you how to thoroughly review terrain, geometry and corridor models. In a couple
of hours will understand how to ensure the quality of OpenRoads Designs: OpenRoads Designer - Core Skills Learning Path
History and Intent:
While it’s not a chronological audit trail, the OpenRoads/OpenRoads data model is to a very large degree self-documenting. click on an
OpenRoads Element shows you the engineering relationships in a quick and intuitive Heads-Up Display.
What you see is what you get. Video: Using the HUD to See the Design Intent. You’ll also see what you will get if something changes,
because updates are based on the rules captured during the design process.
One format means that all the design data is stored in the model. No “secret” separate files.
Click on a Corridor to see how it is built. Corridor templates, as used by the corridor, are stored in the corridor graphic. It’s all there,
available at a click.
Part 4: Design and Production – Task-Level Differences
Description
This section provides guidance on “task level” design
and production differences.
Note that the Bentley Communities for GEOPAK |
InRoads | MX | OpenRoads is perhaps the best source
for product, workflow and task-level queries. If you’re
looking for advice for a specific topic, this is great
resource: Bookmark it!
It is continually updated.
How do I? Where is…?

Command Macros
Where is MX tool "XX" in OpenRoads Designer
Roundabouts - Automatic Placement
Forward Overtaking and Junction Visibility
Dynamic Regression
Reports: MX vs. OpenRoads Designer
Drawing Production: OpenRoads Designer
Command Macros
There are two primary benefits to Command Macros: Drawing Production and Reusable Components.
Command Macros for drawing production are used to automate processes that the software itself does not fully automate.
For dozens or hundreds of, say, Cross Section, sheets, macros can save a lot of time. Obviously, if you have a library of Command Macros
that you currently use to streamline your production, you’d like that capability in OpenRoads. OpenRoads Sheet Production is still fairly new;
while it’s very customizable, its full palette of automation is still in its infancy. The Data Model is “All-DGN”; current scripting tools and the
Software Development Kit provide a level of access to automating sheet production tasks.
One aspect of Command Macros that OpenRoads Designer does better than MX is multiple 3D features macros – such as spatial offset for
a kerb (road edge, top of kerb, back of kerb, etc.). This Cross Sectional Modeling is better modeled by OpenRoads Templates – the
technology is wide open, extremely powerful and it’s visual. It also produced 3D features required for full 3D modeling, simulations,
quantities, accurate conflictability, and native industry-wide interoperability. Any OpenRoads Template can be “extruded” along any 3D
element via the Apply Linear Template tool. The Template technology has been core technology and heavily used and enhanced for well
over a decade. There is a tremendous amount of expertise available in the community (and the Bentley Community) for sharing.
Reusability of Design Components is a primary enabler of efficiency. Bentley is fully committed to streamlining through reusing components.
Bentley’s approach to a library of pre-fabricated designs is not via text or coding: we use the fundamental principles of OpenRoads: Rule-
based design; and Remembering the Design Intent. OpenRoads is Relationship-based and OpenRoads remembers the relationships. If
you design something, you can repeat the design by Creating a Civil Cell and then reusing it as often as desired - without any text coding.
We deliver a set of Civil Cell libraries with the software.
Training is available: see Using Civil Cells in OpenRoads Designer in the OpenRoads Designer Learning Path. This 4-minute video from that
class shows how quickly a full 3D BIM-ready T-Intersection can be modeled. Video: Place the T-Intersection Civil Cell in a Design Scenario.
Note that 3:30 is explanation. Placing an editable fully-capable intersection in OpenRoads takes around 30 seconds.
In summary, a good portion of the Reusable Command Macros for Design functionality in MX is covered by OpenRoads Templates and
OpenRoads Civil Cells. One is text-based, the other is graphics-based. Macros for labeling and sheet production are potentially portable to
MicroStation scripting; many shortcuts may be addressed as the new Sheeting methodologies mature.
Where is MX tool "XX" in OpenRoads Designer?
OpenRoads has a Ribbon toolbar. Major Headings are
broken down by function (Terrain, Geometry, Corridors,
Drawing Production, etc.).
Default Ribbons prioritize the most common tools, with
large or small sizes depending on importance. There is
also a Tool Search to find tools you know.
The interface, the Tool Search, and the similarity in
Tools between MX and OpenRoads make finding the
tool you need straightforward.
Since the training is clearly encapsulated by topic, you
will achieve incremental mastery quickly and progressively, and consistently.
The QuickStart – Navigating the Interface class is a quick introduction to getting around OpenRoads, the Ribbon, and Searching for Tools.
Here’s a 3-minute video on getting to the OpenRoads tools: Video: Ribbons, Searching the Ribbons, and Quick Access
Roundabouts – Automatic Placement

Roundabout placement functionality in OpenRoads is based on
Civil Cells, which is a broad functionality that leverages OpenRoads
“memory”.
As you build models, OpenRoads memorizes the rules you use.
Updates to features automatically update dependent features. The
behavior enables “smart cells” of pre-built engineering. The
possibilities are limitless, including creating libraries of pre-defined
and editable Roundabout Civil Cells.
A Roundabout Civil Cell Library is included with the software.
“Roundabout Technology” is not any different than the rest of
OpenRoads Technology.
If you have experience designing Roundabouts and are comfortable
in OpenRoads, roundabout modeling is easily mastered in
OpenRoads. See Using Civil Cells in OpenRoads Designer in the
OpenRoads Designer Learning Path
Forward, Overtaking and Junction Visibility.
The OpenRoads Designer Sight Visibility tools are similar to MX. OpenRoads
Designer Sight Visibility is built on the 3D Model. Anything in the model can
obstruct visibility. There is no need to create from a limited list of “temporary”
objects for Site Analysis.
Additionally, the ‘Drive through’ functionality of OpenRoads Designer gives a
better feel for any potential problems.
OpenRoads Designer Reporting
OpenRoads Designer uses industry standards XML and XSL/T for reporting: XML is the raw data and XSL/T transforms it into something
legible, pretty or otherwise consumable.
The various report tools – Horizontal, Profile, Station-Offset, Station-Base (equivalent to MX Perpendicular reports), and Superelevation –
produce a broad XML report and user-selected Stylesheet formats all or a subset of the XML data. OpenRoads provides a Civil Report
browser to select formats and formatting.
In QuickStart - Evaluating Horizontal Geometry class in the OpenRoads Designer Learning Path see
• Video: How Reports Work: XML + Stylesheet (1 min.)
• Video: Changing the Report Precision and Settings in a Report (46 sec.)
• Video: Full Reports: additional options, more control (3 min.)
The off-the-shelf tools provide broad control over the reports. Stylesheets can be easily edited to customize data row position, to change
titles or to include a company or agency logo. While civil designers are generally not fully conversant in the XSL/T standard for more
sophisticated reformatting, XML and XSL/T are absolute fundamentals for programmers or web designers.
Dynamic Regression
OpenRoads Designer has Best Fit Capability with “live editability”. OpenRail Designer has Multiple Regression capability, Slew Diagrams,
etc. MX’s method of Dynamic regression both horizontally and vertically works slightly differently but satisfactory results are achieved in
either platform.
Drawing Production
OpenRoads Designer has comprehensive Plan/Profile/Cross Section Sheeting tools as well as “smart” annotation – annotation that updates
as the engineering changes. The workflow will differ a bit, but the overall level of effort to produce deliverable sheets should be equivalent.
Part 5: Standards and Setup - Making the Leap
Description
This section addresses and provides guidance on OpenRoads Designer standards administration and overhead: setup and maintenance.
Learning and performing engineering in OpenRoads is pretty easy.

Designers generally only need to be concerned with a little bit of overhead:
• Selecting the correct Feature Definition in some commands
 The Feature Definition Toolbar streamlines this process
• Using proper Design Standards if they want OpenRoads/OpenRail to facilitate the Design
Sheet production – the Civil Industry’s outdated time and effort sink – has a number of benefits in OpenRoads – primarily the fact that
engineering changes tend to automatically update dependent features which propagate automatically to the sheets.
OpenRoads/OpenRail Designer is “ready-to-engineer” and “ready-to-sheet” right out of the box. We deliver several complete, robust, richly-
rendered workspaces, including regional localizations. An increasing number of regulatory agencies are providing workspaces for
consultant use.
If you have standards from v8i SELECTseries 4 or earlier, there are tools to move your standards forward. Because OpenRoads has
capabilities beyond those of MX, the required settings are a superset of your current settings. In most cases, a default status can be
assigned and only the small subset of features using the enhancements need to be “touched”.
OpenRoads has the potential to produce photorealistic models. One challenge some entities have had is controlling the impulse to model
their entire catalog of road equipment and, say, drainage structures to extreme accuracy. This is possible, and someday, might provide a
positive Return on Investment, but the tendency to want to have all 8000 permutations of drainage inlets and manholes photo-realistically
modeled should be resisted. Properties for quantity and cost tracking can easily be set up for an extensive library. Physical modeling of
structures – particularly underground utilities – can be modeled to rough classes so that conflict detection is reliable. While structures can
accurately reflect their drawing standards/specification, it is hardly necessary.
Part 6: Getting Going
Description
This section points you forward to becoming productive in OpenRoads/OpenRail Designer.
Where do I Start?
I’m new to Civil Design. Where do I Start?
Start with OpenRoads Designer Learning Path
I’m an experienced designer. Where do I start?

Start with OpenRoads Designer Learning Path
I’m a Drainage Designer. What’s my Path?

Start with OpenRoads Designer - Subsurface Utilities Learning Path
I’m a Manager/Reviewer. What do I need to know to manage my team and review their work?
This will get you there: OpenRoads Designer - Core Skills Learning Path

Migrating From MX To OpenRoads Designer

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Migrating From MX To OpenRoads Designer

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Migrating from MX to OpenRoads Designer and

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What is OpenRoads/OpenRail Designer?

What’s in this document?

Prior to OpenRoads Technology:

OpenRoads Technology - What It Provides:

Real World Relationship OpenRoads Relationship/Tool

Constant 12-ft Horizontal Offset Horizontal "Single Offset"

A Taper defined by Offset values at "Variable Offset Taper"

A Taper defined by Ratio "Ratio Offset Taper"

2% below the CL ”Profile by Slope from Element”

• Automatic Updates – Your Way

That glyph tells you the line was drawn

• Immersive 3D Design Environment

Concern #1 “I’m an MX expert now, will I be an expert in OpenRoads Designer?”

How do I? Where is…?

Roundabouts – Automatic Placement

Learning and performing engineering in OpenRoads is pretty easy.

I’m an experienced designer. Where do I start?

I’m a Drainage Designer. What’s my Path?

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