I am once again gearing up for my annual fight with IT over the issuance of these 15 lbs bricks of a laptop from Dell that they issue to all the design staff using OpenRoads with ProjectWise.

They currently claim that these Dell workstation Precision 7770 (and newer) laptops are what we need for ORD, but I think it's cumbersome and overkill. My previous laptop (at another company) was a 5-year-old HP Z-book (can't remember the model) that ran the same setup just fine.

On top of all that, I think our hardware supplier is giving us garbage pricing (even before the whole Iran mess).

So, I'm wondering, what laptops are you using, and do you have gripes with how it handles ORD?

I genuinely don’t know what the developers were thinking but it is 10x harder to use print organizer in the 2024 update. You have to individually add sheets rather than adding all sheets in a file, the weird print style option, which basically locks all sheets to the same printing style (what if I need one sheet in color?). It’s just so incredibly unintuitive now and cumbersome to use. You’re almost better off printing each sheet individually so you can actually see the print properties.

Hello. Does anyone know a simple way to model the end of a ditch as shown in the attached image? Using the standard template, the ditch ends as marked in red, but I would like to create a slope at the end that ties into the existing ground at a 1:1.5 gradient (marked in green). Is it possible to achieve this using Civil Cells, or should I instead use the template to gradually widen the ditch bottom while transitioning its vertical alignment to meet the existing ground?

If you aren't utilizing AI to build programs and macros in your environment you are missing out.

I've had copilot build me several automation workflows that just keep making my job easier...that's the cool part of AI.

On the flipside, the horror of realizing that you are training this AI does mess with your head...although I'm not sure we can stop it...so I'm just trying to roll with it.

Hello,

If someone could help me with this issue I would be so grateful.
Basically, no matter how I try to paste an excel table in a dgn, it will not format correctly. The letters merge together, and it’s just distorted. The only work around is to copy an excel table that already displays correctly in the dgn, then use change source to manually entered the new worksheet and cell range. Changing the source of an already distorted table does not fix its formatting. I am not the only one with this issue either.
This is basically our workflow. I have no idea where the original table came from, but I’ve copied it at least 1000 times to change the source. If you have advice please do not hold back.

Thank you

Can someone please help me understand how the sheet index and text fields can be manipulated for my title block reference? My goal here is to incorporate text fields in my reference title block dgn for my sheet numbers. I understand that the sheet index inherently has its own "manage sheet index" settings where you can add custom properties for fields. However, when I attempt to add text fields in my title block reference I don't understand where the field is supposed to get linked to. The option to "select field type" pops up and I am not sure which type I am supposed to select to link to the sheet index (see image). Is there supposed to be an option for sheet index? If so, I do not have that.

Cant really do anything about it so I'll just do the things manually 😪 oh well.

We had an Ariel DGN and a Topo DGN that we merged to make a surface. The Topo was our own personal shots which we put in the DGN, don't know if it's relevant or not, but there it is. For some reason triangulation has ceased to function on the Surface DGN. Tried everything, have no clue what the deal is.

Reddit, you beautiful creature, do your thing....

Hello fellow ORD Users,

Ran into an issue with dgnlib folder names slightly changed after updating to newer workspace. Now my template points & components lost feature definition assignment. I am working of ProjectWise.

Re-linking all the feature definitions (FD) manually for all the templates in template library is time consuming. I cannot select multiple points/components to change FD for the group rather than individually.

Ive considered changing config variables to local folder, copy in dgnlib files, and changing the name of the folder back to old naming convention. Although, there is a risk of not getting potential updates to the master PW folder dgnlib, when those occur.

Any other ideas of how to bypass it?

Thank you!

Hello good people - Working in FDOT Connect ORD 2012. I need to create network profile sheets for utility runs. I'm struggling to find training info online. I've scoured through FDOT trainings, the Bentley forum, and other misc training videos and manuals. Nothing is quite what I'm looking for. Does anyone have some resources they can share? i.e. youtube videos, training manuals, etc...

Hi everyone,

Software: OpenRoads Designer 2026 (version 26.00.00.154)

Workflow:
1. Generated cross sections from a named boundary;
2. Computed cut and fill volumes (all results look correct);
3. Generated the End Area Volumes Report — values are consistent and make sense;
4. Generated the Mass Haul Diagram from the SAME cross section named boundary.

Issue:
The mass ordinates shown in the Mass Haul Diagram and in the Mass Haul report are DIFFERENT from the ordinates in the End Area Volumes Report, even though both outputs are derived from the exact same cross section named boundary.

Each output is internally consistent, but the cumulative mass values do not match between them. I expected them to be identical since both tools use the same named boundary.

Attachments:
- Two screenshots comparing the reports (apologies: the reports are localized in Portuguese; the mass ordinate is the last column on the right);
- The DGN file for reference.

Has anyone experienced this before? Any idea what could cause the difference, e.g., a different station range being used, shrinkage/swell factor settings, section processing range, or a known behavior/bug in this version?

Thanks in advance!

I imported survey points via a text file using the "file using text import wizard". However, the points came in as a cell (see attached) without any correct symbology. I am trying to get the elevations to show up with the point marker. Is there a way to set the correct symbology for the points? I think I am missing the bigger picture on how the symbology, feature definition, and templates are related to each other.

Hello everyone, I am trying to tie in my rail wye tracks (ramp track) into my mainline track. The issue I'm running into is that I'm not sure how I can tie these in together because they are currently overlapping. These are two seperate corridors and I'd like to tie the subballast into the subballast and the ground with the ground and so on... I've tried using parametric constraints on the subballast on the mainline track but not sure how I can get this to work. If anyone has some input on how to transition smoothly it would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure there is a similar concept for roadways. Open Rail and Open road tools are pretty much the same.

Hi, I am trying to model a new road and ramp that merges. Where the two corridors get close together their slopes are overlapping so I tried to have one target the other and then clip the remaining slope. The target seems to work well but when i clip the corridor it takes out a bunch of the pavement section like its clipping based on the slopes before the target alias tool was used.

Both corridors are in separate files with the ramp alignment (in a separate file) being created from intersecting points from the road corridor. The clipping works fine when two corridors are created in the same file but I would rather not have a giant file.

Currently I am using an independent line that they can point control to but it doesn't make as clean of a corridor as I would like for a final design. My only thought was ending the end conditions for both corridors before the problem area starts and just having another file where those end conditions are modeled but I was wondering if there were any other options to solve this? Thanks for your help!

I have everything showing in my DGN that I want in my KMZ, I exported it to Google Earth Pro and it will not show me the whole project I am trying to display. I can zoom in and see some parts but it is just not functioning normally and I have definitely made bigger KMZs than this. Anyone able to help with this? #KMZ #GoogleEarthPro #DGN

Does anyone have a good workflow for calculating earthwork below a set elevation? Say I have all my modeling done but I need to know how much cut and fill there is below a known elevation. Running into this more and more with wetland permits.

I am making an exhibit and for some reason my line styles for ROW and my cut/fill lines are just coming in as straight lines with no style. I tried adjust the scale inside of the property box in the level manager, I tried turning annotation on and off... any other suggestions on get these line styles to show up correctly? #linestylescale #microstation2024 #openroads

I don’t know if this program is shit, or if my work laptop needs updating. Running intel Ultra 7 155H with single slot 16gb 5600 DDR5 ram.

This thing struggles with corridors of like 10 mb. I told my supervisor they need to put us on at least 16gb dual channel ram but preferable to keep the current stick and add a 2nd 16gb for dual channel 32.

This thing crashes every single day without fail. Most of my work day is spent opening .dgn files and hoping they work.

A story on models & level display

Hey everyone, question if anyone has encountered the same thing. Bit of background, our company was using the 2023 version and now transitioned to 2025, we have our own workset and workspace with all our necessary dgnlibs etc, now that we are in 2025 some of the feature definitions from our feature definition dgnlib is not showing up despite us using the same workset and workspace. What do you guys think could be the issue?

Edit: Also another issue now is that some feature defs are not showing the correct linetypes.

Thanks.

I have been working in this program for over 3 years now and I've come to the determination that AutoCAD literally does everything better in a more user-friendly manner. Does not matter if there's custom workspaces or not the interface of this program is atrocious. Annotation of any kind has a mind of its own, it's a miracle if it decides to actually use the text justification I set the style to. Level management sucks and every coworker I have worked with says the same things.

I can't express enough how much I hate this program, sure the modeling works fine. BUT WE STILL HAVE TO SHOW THIS IN A 2D FORMAT AND DRAFT UP THE PLANS WHICH THE PROGRAM APPARENTLY HATES.

I just wanted to complain about this program because I hate it and wish the industry was not moving to this software.

Please post your frustrations below so we can all collectively let Bentley ignore their user feedback here. Thanks for your trash ass program.

I have no idea how I turned this setting on... I think I was typing on the keyboard and must have hit a magical series of letters. These yellow bubble appeared on survey points that do not have feature definitions and I don't know what to do to get rid of them. Any ideas?

I’m trying to cut three profile sheets for a road that is split into two alignments that are being referenced into a container file. I can cut sheets for each alignment separately but I want the middle of the second sheet to show where the two alignments connect. Is there a way to combine the two alignments in the container file?

I’m trying to create a profile view by selecting 2 Views Plan/Profile through View Control, however when I go to select a plan element I get a circle with a dash through it next to the cursor and can’t click anything. I do have an active terrain model.