Autodesk InfraWorks – Corridor Optimisation

By Trevor Clayton

We are all aware of the capabilities within InfraWorks for analysis, but how many of us use it? One of the more useful, in my opinion, is the corridor optimisation functionality.

Starting with sketching any avoidance areas, these could be SSSI or areas of Ancient Woodland for example. All of this data is often freely available or can be part of a commissioned survey. These areas need to be sketched onto your InfraWorks model as coverage areas then exported as an IMX file.

When you import the IMX file back in you only need to select the coverage areas. You will notice a Cost Tab, this is where you can select the avoidance type.

Figure 1 IMX Import options and Cost Tab    

Figure 2 Showing Styled Avoidance Areas

Corridor Optimisation can be selected from the Review and Modify Carriageway Design drop down. Once selected it opens up your options Asset Card. This is where you can select items such as design speed, style of the road, minmum radius, grading limits etc. Start by adding your path and identifying a start and end point.

You can then continue to enter your profile constraints and also some generic construction costs as required. Select Optimise and it will send the design model to the cloud to be optimised. You will receive a notification email with a report of your corridor and also a link to your IMX file containing your corridor. You can also use the Job Monitor in InfraWorks to check on the progress of the optimisation process.

Selecting the results from within the Job Monitor will give you the option to create a new proposal, it will then place the optimised corridor and the report will be available to download.

If required, final tweaks can be made in InfraWorks and then exported out to AutoCAD Civil 3D for the final documentation production.

Figure 3 new corridor created avoiding sensitive areas