INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC ROADWAY DESIGN SYSTEM
ALTHOUGH HIGHWAY ENGINEERS HAVE AT THEIR DISPOSAL AN INCREASINGLY SOPHISTICATED ARRAY OF COMPUTER TECHNIQUES, THEY HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO TAP THE FULL POTENTIAL OF THE MACHINE BECAUSE OF RESTRICTIONS ON INTERACTIVE PROCESSES. COMPUTER GRAPHICS TECHNOLOGY HAS NOT YET INCORPORATED REVISIONS BASED ON DESIGNER JUDGMENT THROUGHOUT THE DESIGN PROCESS. CONTROL DATA CORPORATION HAS BEEN CONDUCTING RESEARCH TO DEVELOP AN ECONOMICALLY FEASIBLE INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC ROAD DESIGN SYSTEM THAT WOULD, TO THE EXTENT POSSIBLE WITHIN THE CONSTRAINTS OF THE CONTRACT, HAVE WIDE APPLICATION AND BE ORIENTED TOWARD ENGINEERING PROCEDURES RATHER THAN HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE. THE WORK HAS BEEN AIMED AT PROVIDING ADMINISTRATORS INSIGHT INTO THE CAPABILITIES, COST, AND TIME TO OPERATIONAL STATUS OF SUCH A SYSTEM; SINCE EMPHASIS IS ON FEASIBILITY, THE FINDINGS ARE OF LIMITED INTEREST TO PRACTICING ENGINEERS. THE MAJOR FINDING IS THAT AN INTERACTIVE DESIGN SYSTEM IS FEASIBLE AND CAN PROVIDE COMPUTATIONS FOR HORIZONTAL ALIGNMENT GEOMETRY, VERTICAL ALIGNMENT, TERRAIN DATA MANAGEMENT, DETAIL ROADWAY CROSS-SECTION MODIFICATIONS, GENERAL GEOMETRICS, AND DISPLAYS OF PLAN VIEWS, PROFILE VIEWS, CROSS SECTIONS, PERSPECTIVES, AND EARTHWORK DIAGRAMS. SUCH A SYSTEM IS FEASIBLE EVEN FOR DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES AND PRACTICES. IT IS INTENDED THAT ONE COMPONENT OF THE IGRDS SOFTWARE RESIDE IN A CENTRAL COMPUTER WITH THE ROAD DEISGN SYSTEM AND ANOTHER RESIDE IN A SMALLER TERMINAL COMPUTER; THE TWO WOULD BE TIED BY TELECOMMUNICATIONS. IT IS ESTIMATED THAT BY THE TIME IGRDS IS READY FOR GENERAL USE, HALF OF THE STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTS WILL HAVE A COMPUTER ADEQUATE TO HANDLE ITS MAIN PROCESSOR. THE MINIMUM HOST COMPUTER THAT CAN SUPPORT BOTH STANDARD BATCH PROCESSING AND IGRDS IS A 360/50 WITH 524K BYTES OF CORE MEMORY PLUS 117M BYTES OF PERIPHERAL STORAGE. A PROTOTYPE SYSTEM SHOULD BE READY IN 2 1/2--3 YEARS, AND INSTALLATION OF A SINGLE-DEVICE SYSTEM IN 10 STATE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTS WOULD BE FEASIBLE WITHIN THE FOLLOWING TWO YEARS. DEVELOPMENT APPEARS TO BE COST-EFFECTIVE.
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Supplemental Notes:
- Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
- Publication Date: 1972-3
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Pagination: 5 p.
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Serial:
- NCHRP Research Results Digest
- Issue Number: 37
- Publisher: Transportation Research Board
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Computer aided design; Computer graphics; Computer programs; Highway design; Human machine systems; Information processing
- Old TRIS Terms: Man machine interaction
- Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00203626
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS, TRB
- Created Date: May 16 2000 12:00AM