TECHNICAL WHITEPAPER

Civil 3D: Rail Module Part 1

In this two-part series, we will explore the Rail Module available within Autodesk®
Civil 3D® 2019 to facilitate the layout and design of railways, turnouts, crossovers, Table of Contents
etc. Using an alignment type of ‘Rail’, we can attribute certain controls to our layout
■■ Alignments
that is typical of rail design. To that note, and like generating road alignments, we
can apply design criteria to a rail layout. ■■ Platform Edges
■■ Cant
To get started, the Rail Module is accessed by a ribbon, with the basics residing on
the left end.

Alignments
By clicking on either tool under the Alignment panel (Creation Tools or From Objects), you can develop your alignment upon
which the rail layout will be based.

1. Creation Tools: Same as Alignment Creation Tools, which allows you to use
the creation toolbar to layout the alignment geometry.

2. From Objects: Same as Create Alignment from Objects, which prompts you
to pick the basic geometry (lines, arcs, polylines) to convert to an alignment.

The overall organization of the dialog box is the same as creating an alignment
outside of the Rail tools, with notable differences in the Design Criteria tab.

On the General tab, you can set the Site, Alignment Style, Alignment Layer, and
Alignment Label Set to be used.

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 Civil 3D: Rail Module Part 1 2

On the Design Criteria tab, you set the Starting design speed and opt whether or not to use a criteria-based design. When enabled,
you can choose certain properties found in the preinstalled Rail Cant Design Standards XML file, such as the minimum radius table,
transition length table and attainment method to use in design.

The Minimum Radius Table property gives you the following choices:

1. Passenger train applied cant table

2. Freight train applied can table

The Attainment Method options are:

1. By spiral lengths; and % on tangents if no spiral

2. By lengths from the table; and % on tangents if no spiral

3. By spiral lengths; and max cant on tangents if no spiral

4. By lengths from table; and max cant on tangents if no spiral

The differences in these options are dependent on the values from the table, coupled with the presence (or absence) of spirals in
the alignment geometry.

Note: If you entered a starting design speed that is higher than the maximum allowed speed for the design criteria chosen, you are
presented with a dialog box allowing you to either use the maximum speed allowed or to manually enter a lower design speed.

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 Civil 3D: Rail Module Part 1 3

Once you choose from the options presented, you are taken to the Layout Tools (if Creation Tools was chosen) or the command
line with converted alignment (if From Objects was chosen). At this point, you will have an alignment that, unless you are using a
style to differentiate between road and rail alignments, looks and generally behaves like a typical alignment.

However, in the Alignment Properties dialog box for rail alignments you now have a new tab at the far righ, named Rail Parameters.
Here you can manually enter a value for the track width of your rail alignment.

Also, once an alignment is designated as a rail type, the right-click menu adds an entry of Edit Cant. More on that function in the
Cant section.

The default value for this setting can be set in the Settings → Alignment (right-click) → Edit Feature Settings dialog box.

Platform Edges
To get platform edges into your design, the Create tool prompts you to select the alignment of your
rail system, after which the Create Platform Edge dialog box appears. Here you can set the associated
profile to the alignment you previously picked, from which the routine will pull the needed vertical data.
Additional settings such as the Track Gauge, Calculation Interval, start and end stations can be set. Also,
if you know the station which the platform should begin and length of the desired run, you can type
that value in the Length entry and the appropriate ending station will automatically be entered. You can
choose one side at a time in which to have the platform placed which is determined (left or right) in the
direction of the alignment.

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 Civil 3D: Rail Module Part 1 4

For Heavy Rail:

A design criteria file is where values are pulled when using a heavy rail type, along with the choice of platform type to use.

Using Simple Geometry:

Using this option, values are entered manually, such as carriage length and width, carriage width, etc. when you choose Simple Geometry.

Generally:

1. Carriage length: the overall length of the carriage or car

2. Carriage width: the overall width of the carriage or car

3. Bogie offset: the suspension component (necessary for the handling, suspension, and sometimes motorizing of the
wheelset), measured from the end of the bogie inwards

4. Axle spacing: Distance between axles [enter 0 if a single axle is present]

5. Offset from carriage: Distance measured from the edge of platform to the outermost edge of the carriage

6. Safety tolerance: additional factor, or allowance, given to accommodate lateral carriage movement or displacement

7. Platform height: nominal height of the platform, measured from the track

After pressing OK, the platform edge is displayed as a feature line.

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 Civil 3D: Rail Module Part 1 5

Note: If you did not specify a profile previously, the Elevation value for the platform edge will equal the Platform Height entered in
the corresponding line in the dialog box, and the values in each calculation interval will be uniform.

Note: From the image, the distance of the platform edge to the alignment increases as it goes around the curve. This is to
accommodate the length of the carriage in relation to the bogies and wheelset from the platform edge, keeping the required
Offset from carriage value.

Editing: The Edit function brings up the same dialog box found when creating the platform to manage values previously listed.
Upon editing these values, click OK to return to drawing space, showing the updated geometry.

Export: The Export button prompts you to select a platform edge feature line, then saves the data to a CSV-format file (the default
is the feature line name but can be named in the export). The data included mimics the data input to develop the platform edge.

Cant:

The rail module allows for the calculation of cant along the railway design layout. When calculating cant, picking an alignment that
does not have cant data associated with it, you are prompted to calculate it via the wizard or to open the cant curve manager,
providing details on cant curves.

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 Civil 3D: Rail Module Part 1 6

Cant Curve Manager: This is a palette that appears which allows you to
modify certain parameters of each curve, such as naming and design
speeds.

While in the manager, the curve being edited or modified is highlighted in

the drawing window for ease of identification.

When editing the design speed, the Alignment Properties – Design

Speed window opens, allowing you to edit a single entry or add more
design speeds by station.

Once you have made your desired changes, you can further specify
parameters manually through the Tabular editor or the Cant Wizard, as
calculations still have not been made at this point.

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 Civil 3D: Rail Module Part 1 7

Cant Wizard:

When selected, the Calculate window opens to allow you to choose how much gets
calculated:

1. This (current) curve only

2. Entire alignment

3. Selected curves

Note that a warning may come up that informs you that ‘existing criteria for the selected
curves will be overwritten’.

Railway Type:

Pressing OK starts the wizard on the ‘Railway Type’ screen. The Pivot Method gives you
3 options:

1. Low-side Rail: Rotating the design assembly about the side calculated to be
lower, raising the opposite side.

2. High-side Rail: Rotating the design assembly about the side calculated to be higher, lowering the opposite side.

3. Center Baseline: Rotating the design assembly about the centerline.

Track Width: This is for verification and cannot be edited on this screen.

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 Civil 3D: Rail Module Part 1 8

Attainment:

Equilibrium Cant: This is a formula used to calculate the relative elevation difference between rails from the effects of lateral forces
encountered. Use the expression/formula button on the right to modify the formula.

Maximum Allowable Cant Deficiency: There difference that occurs between the equilibrium that is calculated, and the cant applied.
This entry allows you to set the maximum value allowed.

The Design Criteria section houses the same settings found in the alignment properties dialog, including changing the design
criteria file from which lookup tables are found.

The attainment transition variables that can be set are:

■■ Percentage on tangent for tangent-curve: This value is how much of the transition (in percentage) resides on the tangent
segment when the tangent precedes or follows the curve.

■■ Percentage on spiral for spiral-curves: This value is the percentage of the transition that will be on the spiral segment
when the spiral precedes or follows the curve segment.

■■ Maximum Applied Cant on Tangent for Tangent-Curve: This value is the highest value of cant that is applied on the tangent
segment when connected to a curve.

Note: These defaults are set in the Settings portion of the ToolSpace. If the attainment method set does not call for a particular
variable, it is disabled or greyed out.

Automatically Resolve Overlap: If there is any overlap detected, the stations are set to be equal to prevent it from occurring.

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 Civil 3D: Rail Module Part 1 9

Clicking on Finish opens the resulting data in tabular format in the Panorama.

When an alert indicator shows in the Overlap column, it may be corrected by clicking on it and selecting the option to automatically
resolve the overlap. Otherwise, you may choose to ignore the error. These overlaps will show in any corresponding Cant Views if they
are not resolved.

Cant View:

To create a view showing the level of calculated cant in the design, click on Create Cant View on the Cant panel. From there, you
can click on the alignment at the prompt or press enter to choose from a list of the alignments found in the drawing.

Once selected, the Create Cant View window shows with the chosen alignment listed and a default view name filled in. You can
choose the cant view style desired and override the station range by enabling (with a check mark) for the User specified range.
Then, enter the desired values for the station range which you want the view to show. Otherwise, simply click OK and place the
view origin anywhere in model space.

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 Civil 3D: Rail Module Part 1 10

To correct any design errors that may be shown, such as cross-slope violations, use ‘CalcEditCant’ or right-click on the alignment
and select Edit Cant and the Cant Curve Manager opens. This allows you to make changes and recalculate the values based on
any changes made [Recalculate button is in the lower left of the window]. The model and cant view update as applicable.

This concludes part one of this series. For more information on the Rail Module within Autodesk Civil 3D, please see part two.

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