Trimble Business Center

This question came in from a customer yesterday - I thought I would put it out here for all to see

The process is to create the Template in Project 1 and then to Save the Template as an XML file (from the Options Button in the Template Editor. You can then start a new project, create the reference surfaces and alignment, create the corridor and then create a Template. On creating the Template you select "From File Definition" and then browse for the Template that you saved out and it should just import. Having said that moving templates from one project to another is pretty limited and I dont typically do it too much because

1) If the Ref Surface for Existing in Project 1 was called Exiting and in Project 2 it was called Original Ground then as you import the Template into Project 2 it will create a new empty surface called Existing and try to tie to that but it is missing so you wont get any tie slopes. You can change the Reference Surface Original Ground name to match that of the Template and delete the empty surface and it will then of course work.

2) Width Tables and Slope Tables are lost - because we dont carry them because no two alignments will ever have the same Stationing and Width or Slope Table values (except if you are creating a copy of the first project which is a corner case - in that case you are better VCL out from Project 1 and VCL in to Project 2 and you will carry the Road and surface and alignments etc which will carry the Templates.

3) If your Template carries Tables that have connections to Reference Lines or 2D Lines or Shareable Slope Tables - those will also get lost in transfer.

So in reality the best you can put out into a Template are the physical surface elements (like Pave, Shoulder etc) and then after adding the base template to a new project start applying Tables and Slope Tables and Side slopes.

I have a planned set of improvements to Corridors that includes the ability to divide the Templates up into "Components" and then being able to define "Component Templates" that you can then import in Pieces to a new Project Template to build up a Template in parts. Template components would include eg Barriers, Curbs, Flow Channels, Median Islands, Edge Details etc. that you may need on different projects. I hope that we will get to start working on that after Dimensions.

It could be that your Template has some elements in it that "Cannot Be Carried" and that is what is stopping you moving it from One Project to another.

If you drop me a line with the Project and which Template you are trying to transfer  I can take a look at it for you tomorrow.

I personally don't use this Template Transfer stuff too much - it can save a little bit of time maybe if set up correctly, but because roads are rarely the same I typically start from scratch on each project.

Hope that this helps

Alan,

Would you happen to know what the specific conditions are that trigger the "corridor template definition is not correct" dialogue box? I am running into the same issue, I created a basic template for guys to modify on their projects. This template contains a good starting point for most projects and a good condition statement baseline. However I am unable to import into existing files. I have tried deleting surfaces, MSI Materials, material surfaces, and nodes. The template imports fine on a fresh project, but not an existing one.

Thanks,

Shane

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Really looking forward to more options for importing and exporting template shapes and a shape series in the near future. 

Shane

There have been some fixes to this process in development over the past weeks as I too found that certain situations caused this bahavior. I believe that the issues have now been addressed and will be updated in the next release. I will put this on the Agenda for PUG 2019 so that we cover that while you are in CO next month.

Alan

Hello . I am new to this forum. I am also new to TBC. I have the 5.0.6956.26460 version.

I use corridors for road construction staking out.

I tried conditional instructions but the templates became too complicate and difficult to maintain and use to another corridor.

So i created base templates and before adding cases i exported them.

Moving to another project i tried importing them and i got the message error above. Some were accepted and some not.

One step before getting crazy i did a comparison check to the xml files. Accepted vs not accepted.

I have found out that whenever i used an OffsetSlopeInstruction with the slope attached to a Shareable slope table the exported xml template was missing the slope attribute and its value. I added one manually with a dummy value and guess what...Possibly there might be similar issues.

What i did is not a solution.

It is obvious a severe software development bug concerning template export to xml.

From times to times i used the old software TGO RoadLink but it is too limited although it has some excellent advantages compared to TBC Corridors.

I use Civil 3D and Subassembly composer and do the exports using Trimble Link but i have many issues some extremely severe leading me to do RXL corrections either by hand or through Visual Basic net LINQ custom programming.

Well i have had enough so i tried the new TBC because of its some excellent new features but i see that at least the Corridor part of it is under construction. I also read that the template part might change its logic so all existing templates will have to rebuild from scratch. And those are scaring me.

I can not rely on it giving up Civil 3D ans Subassembly composer no matter how buggy and slow is autodesk's software and the issues i have with Trimble Link.

But i will try to keep in touch with TBC corridors. It is quite promising.

I also found another case that leads to a TBC error message.

Instruction type Offset/Slope.

Offset set to Table.

Table values all set to decimal values except from (my case the first) one that is set to a Linestring or an Xref line.

Error message. No file created. Template exporting fails.

If all table values are set to decimals export takes place but there still is no Slope attribute so template is not accepted for importing. It is obvious that there is an template export issue when targets are set to whatever tables and when table values are set to objects such as 2D lines.

Template Export is a little tricky and you really cannot reliably export any Template that has any of the following incorporated in the template - this is because the information is unique to a single corridor and is not applicable to a second corridor

1. Slope Tables (Unique stations from a single corridor)
2. Offset Tables (Unique stations from a single corridor)
3. 2D Linework for an Offset (Unique to a single corridor)
4. 2D Linework in an Offset Table (Unique to a single corridor)
5. Anything that references a 3D Reference Line
6. Anything that references a specific HAL or VAL Alignment
7. Anything that references a specific Surface e.g. Existing Ground
8. Anything that references a specific Material Layer or Material

When we export the XMLfile for any of the above many of these are dropped automatically, however I would recommend that you build custom templates only for basic standard instructions - i.e. Offset / Slope, Offset / Elevation, Sideslope etc. without Tables or 2D Lines for Offsets or Vertical Control.These should be considered Building Blocks that you can import and then edit to get the model to do what you need.

The commonest use of Conditions is for the modeling of Sideslopes and complex subgrades - the next release improves our Sideslope capabilities a lot and eliminates the need for conditions in many cases - you may still need conditions to manage ROW adjustments to sideslope details etc., but for Bench Slopes and Variable Depth controls, the improved sideslopes will take care of those in a much stronger way.

The first instruction in a Template that you want to save out should use "Previous" as it's Reference Node - this way it will connect to the HAL of the corridor to which it is being attached.

There is a n=known issue with Slope Elevation instructions - - that type of instruction was added late in the development cycle and adding it into the Template Exporter was overlooked - that and a few other corner case issues have been addressed in the next release - scheduled for ~May this year

In the next release we have been working on some improved methods that will get closer to or meet / exceed your requests as we have been doing a lot with corridors in the last few months - watch this space in early May for news on that subject, or attend PUG 2019 to get a hands on experience and training - Pre Release to learn more.

The changes coming are extended capability - all existing templates will continue to work as they do today - you have no fear on that score I can assure you.

Alan