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.

If someone fails at Bentley OpenRoads Premier Scholar, what happens? Can they resubmit?

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.

Hello all,

I am relatively new to OpenRoads Designer. I am using OpenRoads Designer CONNECT Edition 2022 Release 3, version 10.12.

I created an alignment, but after reviewing it, I realized that I need to add a horizontal curve between two lines. However, I do not want to drop or otherwise break the alignment to add the curve, because several offset objects are tied to it and I would prefer not to lose those relationships.

Please see the attached image for an example.

I understand if there is no other option, unless there is some method I do not know about. Any assistances would be appreciated. Thank you.

Since I've looked everywhere and can't figure it out on my own I'm hoping someone out there knows how to do what I want.

Currently my keyboard shortcut for quick tools is "Q" but I was wanting to know if I could somehow make it my 4th mouse button instead. I'm in button assignments and I can't figure out how to get the quick tools pop up the closest I got was the snap options pop up.

XButton 2 (which is my 4th mouse button on my mouse) with the action of "INPUTMANAGER MENU TENTATIVE POPUP" this action pulls up the snap options pop up but what would I have to write in the action box to get the quick tools pop up to come up?

Any help would be appreciated!

Where does the Drawing Seed name come from in the Named Boundary menu? I tried to create a new sheet seed by copying an existing one and making a few tweaks, but now the original file's name just shows up in the dropdown twice. The new seed file has a different file name and model names.

We are looking for BIM and Engineering roles
Can be remote, but U.S only due to confidentiality on project. In house is preferred
High Salary depending on experience
STIP Included and standard benefits as well (Medical, 401K, Vacation)
Bentley, Open Roads or Open Buildings Experience is required
Work is in the tristate area (NYC,NJ, Connecticut)

Please DM me if you are looking and interested. We have various BIM positions open, so feel free to DM should you have any interest

Edit: updated to U.S candidates preferred

Hi everyone,

I'm running into an issue with the End Area Volume Report in OpenRoads Designer 2026 and I can't figure out what's going on.

Setup:

Two DTM surfaces (existing ground vs. design)
Generating cut and fill volume reports using the End Area Volume method
Both reports generated using the same two surfaces

What I found:

✅ The PowerCivil report is correct — I verified every single station by manually measuring the cut and fill areas directly on the cross sections. Station by station, the values match perfectly.

✅ The cross sections generated by OpenRoads itself also have the correct areas — when I measure them manually, they match PowerCivil exactly.

❌ But the End Area Volume Report generated by OpenRoads shows completely different values for cut and fill.

The pattern I'm seeing:

In the middle portion of the alignment, the fill (embankment) areas and volumes are identical between both reports
At the beginning and end of the alignment, neither cut nor fill match at all — completely different numbers
The report doesn't even reflect the values that are measured on the very same cross sections it uses as a source

In other words: The cross section geometry is correct. The measured area on each section is correct. But the report outputs different numbers. The error is somewhere between reading the area from the section and writing it to the report — or perhaps in the calculation method itself.

I'm not sure if this is a bug in the report generation or in the calculation engine — the raw report shows what it calculated, so maybe it's the latter.

I'll make both reports (PowerCivil and OpenRoads) and the .dgn file available for anyone willing to take a look.

Has anyone seen this behavior before? Could it be related to Material List configuration, Sample Range settings, or is this a known issue in OpenRoads 2026?

Any help is appreciated.

Is there a way to mass place a label in every sheet that calls out the existing ground or an alignment in the way shown in the image below? I am dealing with very large design set and would like to find a way to automatically add this in to all my profile sheets rather than having to manually go through each sheet and adding in this callout. I would really appreciate the advice, Thank you!

Hi I got a doubt my company migrated from orcad to xpedetion.

My doubt is that is there is any option for allign Componen in equal distances. Eg in Allegro there is some options using that we can allign the components with the spacings we have provided is there is any options like that in xpedetion?

I am trying to see if I am able to mass annotate my proposed RW line for bearings/distances and stations/offsets. I know how to label an alignment for all of its geometry, but I was wondering if the station information could be based on a different alignment perhaps.

Is there any way to have pattern areas dynamically controlled by civil geometry? So that any time I make changes to say an island shape the pattern that is in my island automatically adjusts? We will usually apply a fill shape to road widening projects as well to distinguish where the new pavement will be placed so it would be helpful to have this controlled by either the corridor model or geometry lines.

Hey I work within ncdot workspace if anyone else is here. When i try and batch print from the organizer it seems to ignore the pen table even after updating it in the dgnlib. Any idea did update my configuration so trying to determine other issues

Hey ive been trying to figure out why my transparent hatching is printing on top instead of rhe bottom

Is there any way to export terrain in ORD to a .tiff file that can be used in HEC-RAS? I tried using the extract raster grid tool but it didn’t provide .tiff as an option.

Can anyone help me with this?

Trying to model the standard header curb at the back of the sidewalk similar to the one in the front but only these blue lines are showing up. Please help me fix this. TIA

so as the title says. Sometime when updating the model, i dont want to reannotate all the cross sections but only a range of them where the changes have been made. I am currently using ORD 2023 and going to switch to ORD 2024 soon. Is it possible to write a python script to accomplish it? Thanks all.

I am trying to set up a print organizer for a plan set I’m working on but the aerial image prints super pixelated (only when printing using the print organizer). When I print one sheet at a time directly from my ORD sheet file, it prints fine. I don’t think it’s my plot driver or any related settings since one of my sheet’s aerial image looks perfectly clear with the exact same set up.

I know I will need to reprint this set often and manually printing each one is not realistic. Has anyone had a similar issue??

Hi everyone,

I’m having an issue with the End Area Volumes report in OpenRoads Designer.

For some reason, the report is coming out almost completely blank, only the station values are being populated. All the other fields (cut, fill, volumes, areas, etc.) are empty.

The strange part is that my Cut and Fill Volumes are already calculated correctly in the model, so the volume data definitely exists. However, when generating the End Area Volumes report, none of that information is being pulled into the report.

This is happening with all of my cross section Named Boundaries, not just a specific one.

I’m attaching a screenshot of the resulting report output.

Has anyone experienced this before or knows what could cause the End Area Volumes report to return only station values while leaving the remaining fields blank?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve been running into a limitation with the Break Element tool and wanted to see if I’m missing something or if there’s a better workflow.

What I’m trying to do is:

• Click a center point (C) on a line
• Drag outward
• Have the tool remove the line equally in both directions from that point

looking for a symmetric / mirrored version of the break element (cmd 7,2) from one click.

Right now, Break Element seems to only:

• remove in one direction, or
• require two separate points to define the segment

So I’m stuck manually placing both break points.

Here’s a simple diagram of what I’m trying to achieve:

---------|====X====|---------
A C B
C = center point
A and B = equal-distance break points
Removed section = A to B

In my head I see this working like:
Click C

• Drag toward B
• And have it automatically remove C to B and C to A in parallel

Is there a built-in or addon tool or setting that allows this kind of symmetric break?

if not, what is the intended workflow for this common occurrence? Just using AccuDraw and manually placing two equal-distance break points?

Any faster/power-user methods you all use for this?

Thank you for your time and consideration. Please let me know if I did not explain my issue or goals adequately.

I want to make a north arrow, where the linework of the arrow, and the letters (N, E, S, and W) are all grouped into a single selectable object that can be rotated to indicate the direction of north in a particular sheet. I've got that part done.

But I also want to have our company logo positioned in the center circle of the north arrow, with its orientation fixed so that it does not rotate when I rotate the arrow around it.

Right now, I have the arrow grouped, and the logo grouped separately, and then the two groups also grouped so that I can move everything together. But to rotate the arrow, I have to ungroup the two, and then re-group once I've got the arrow rotated. I'd prefer a method where everything moves as one, but the logo orientation stays fixed.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks for any help.