General Recommendations for Processing
Scenario Constraints
The best way to constrain a scenario in Quantm is:
1. Start with constraining the templates needed in a scenario.
2. Enter the costing information for the scenario.
3. Enter the geometric parameters for the scenario.
4. Constrain feature data within the scenario.
Options
Corridor Identification - Create a Corridor Identification submission to identify the corridors within the DTM. Free to Roam investigation should be done to get an idea of the corridors within the scenario.
Review Results - Once a submission has been processed, the results should be analyzed and changes should be made to the scenario to improve them or introduce any new constraints.
Modify the scenario and resubmit - It is especially important to look at the Geometric Parameters in a scenario and modify them to help improve results to get the desired result.
High-priority avoid zones should be placed to block out undesirable corridors and areas where alignments are running to shift alignments into a more desirable location in the next submission.
Select desired seed and modify geometrically - The above process should repeat until a desired corridor is identified in an alignment. Once processed alignments should be modified into a desired location manually to ensure that the seeded submission process has the best starting point for what you are looking for.
Tip: As the alignments are geometric, they can be easily converted to editable allowing for tweaks along the way with the shift from the seed seen in previous versions. Also, as the results are geometric, they will not lose the IP locations.
When moving to seeded submissions use the editable function regularly, especially between each processing step, to put seeds into a more desirable location to help the results coming out of the system to be positioned in a desired location.
Seeded Submission - Exploration (Total) - Once the desired seed has been created in Quantm or imported from an external source, the next step is to use that alignment as a seed in an exploration submission. This is where you investigate the optimal number of IP to use along the corridor.
Tip: Unless otherwise desired, all seeded submissions should have the spread set to Loose to give IP more room to move.
Note: It is important to remember that changing the number of IP will change the costs, just because an alignment is the cheapest does not necessarily mean it is the best or has the desired number of IP.
Seeded Submission - Refinement (Total) - Once an exploration has been done and the desired number of IP has been identified, a Refinement submission should be done to get the most out of the location of the IP.
Tip: In cases where there is an imported geometric seed that is close to final, it may be desirable to bypass the exploration step and go straight to the refinement.
Once this step is done, the alignment should be edited to make sure the horizontal location is desired before moving on. It is important here to address any major horizontal issues to help reduce their impact moving forward.
Seeded Submission - Exploration (Vertical) - With the horizontal location fixed, the next step would be to position the alignment vertically.
First off, an exploration submission should be done with vertical only selected. This should be done to get the IP into the best location and to identify the optimal number of IPs when looking at the horizontal alignment.
Seeded Submission - Refinement (Vertical) - Finally a Refinement should be done on the desired seed with vertically only selected to produce the final processed result from Quantm.
Geometrically edit the result - It is recommended to geometrically edit the results so that the system is looking for results in the desired location. Once the final result is achieved through processing it is recommended to use the system to geometrically edit the results to ensure that the optimal result is handed over to cad.