Introduction
Novapoint Railway brings user all the way to the final presentation of the design, from the initialization of a project, through all the design steps. Combining the powerful geometry and modelling tools with the knowledge of the railway designers makes Novapoint Railway a highly efficient and user-friendly design concept.
Novapoint Railway is a professional design tool with the main focus on high speed and normal speed railway line design. The module is also used for light rail and metro design. To a certain level tramway design can also be handled using Novapoint Railway.
The module is a versatile toolkit for high-end designers, but with a user-friendly and easy-to-learn user interface. The close connection and the similarities between the road design tools and Novapoint Railway makes this module easy to learn by Novapoint Road users. User specification of design parameters have been created in a flexible way, and the module is not fixed to any national standards in this version.
Novapoint Railway is suitable for all project phases:
Feasibility studies
Preliminary design
Detail design
Rehabilitation
Track optimization
See the topic 'Methods of Working' for suggested steps for the above phases of the project.
Uses
Novapoint Railway is focused on the civil part of railway projects, e.g. track and substructure design. The designed results makes the basis for other railway special fields like Catenary Design/Contact Line (a new Novapoint module to be released soon), Signals, Tele-communication, Signs, Bridge and construction design (refer Novapoint Bridge), Noise calculation (refer Novapoint Noise Railway).
When designing railways in Novapoint you have a number of advantages:
Combine and share data between a number of civil engineering fields
Design the crossing roads, railway station areas, parking lots, in the same model
Present bridges for railway and roads using Novapoint Bridge
Calculate noise from the railway using Novapoint Noise Railway
Present and visualize the complete project in 3D
Here are some of the major tools in Novapoint Railway:
Geometric tools
Horizontal and vertical alignment design, using cant (superstructure), element speed, element length as important input parameters.
Switch design, for horizontal alignment design of selected switches.
Platform edge design, for detailed calculation and presentation of the edge of platforms.
Alignment design from surveyed data, for optimization and rehabilitation of existing tracks.
Modelling tools
Track data, to identify reference track settings in the cross-section, including cant and design speed description.
Standard Cross-section Wizard, for specification of rail, sleepers, ballast and substructure details, and building the complete railway model.
Railway Design, for detailed cross-section modelling of the substructure, drainage, side-areas, terrain adjustments. Quantity calculations. Cross-section and 3D viewer.
Analysis tools
Vertical information along alignment, for information of connecting tracks.
Distance between two Alignments, for detailed control of track distance.
Presentation tools
Plan-drawing details, as alignments, railway model, heights, symbols, frames.
Vertical alignment drawings
Cross-section drawings
Detailed drawing, as quantity diagrams (Mass/Haul), standard cross-sections
3D presentation
Quantity reports, as Ballast quantities
Stake-out (setting out) reports for export of a number of formats, as alignment reports, switch data, cross-section data from the railway model.
Drawing style setup, for selection of different vertical alignment and cross-section styles.
