HEADS^®Rail^TM

The largest and versatile software for Railway Engineering projects

The development of effective rail transport system is the primary need of any developing country and the upgrading of existing railway network system is essential for the developed countries as the capacities of railways are reached to saturation level with the passage of time.

The railway development involves very high degree of attention by the project Authorities as well as by the Consultants, Engineers and Contractors. Any mistake May result in expenditure of a few millions which could have been avoided. Normally the design of route alignment and the ancillary structures decide the cost of a railway project and for this job the best experienced manpower and best available tools must be deployed.

The best available tools essentially Include the selection of most appropriate Railway Design software which must be capable of handling any type of situation and the best manpower is the engineers and other technical staff who have the essential educational background and sufficient experience in working for similar projects and most essentially have required level of training to use high quality design software products.

TechSOFT Engineering Services (I) Pvt. Ltd

NEXT GENERATION TECHNOLOGY

Presently there are two varieties of Software available based on two basic concepts namely: “Template” and “String” modeling. The first group of products are simple to learn and handle but have substantial limitations in handling today’s demand for railway geometric design, Whereas software using “String” modeling technique is efficient for railway projects involving Cost Control for new rail routes, double tracking of existing routes, Surface Correction & Strengthening, Design of multi-alignment railway junctions, points, crossings, yards, varying cross-sections, with or without service corridors appearing anywhere along the length, design of Underground Metro Rails, Elevated Metro Rails, Mono Rails, Hill routes having special considerations, Railway Tunnels with sharp turns ranging from 90 to 180 degrees. In HEADS Rail the conventional String technique is modified to make the production more efficient. HEADS Rail has full power CAD engine to view and edit drawings as desired. The drawings are compatible to all commonly used CAD softwares.

Fig 1 Power of CAD based design technology

HEADS Rail software from TechSOFT Engineering Services is based on “String” modeling technique and is today’s established name in offering the users all the facilities described above. It accepts Topographical Survey data from Total Station, Auto level, GPS, Topo Maps, Aerial Photograph, Satellite Imagery Remote Sensing etc. It offers the facility to use Digitized Topo Maps in case of absence of Topographical Survey data. Detailed tables are also generated for Traverse Survey, EDM Survey and Co-ordinate conversion from Spherical (Lat-Long) to Rectangular (Easting-Northing) which is a very complex process and is hardly available in market available products.

HEADS Rail has its own CAD engine and is best appreciated for its Power, Completeness, Versatility, Fastest Processing, Simplicity and Exchangeability of Input and Output with other commonly used Railway Engineering software of similar kind and all popular CAD software.

HEADS Rail itself is a marvel in the history of railway engineering softwares. The main power of HEADS Rail lies in its CAD engine which produces sophisticated construction drawings for the project. This achievement is in addition to its engineering output with best possible accuracy and widest range of coverage in any Railway engineering project.

Salient Features cum Technical Specifications:

Applications for Land Survey , DTM and GPS:

• Processing of Total station Survey data,

• Development of Ground Modeling,

• Digital Terrain Model, Digital Mapping, producing Survey Base Plan,

• Ground Long and Cross Sections,

• Contouring, Perspective views,

• Traverse Co-ordinates correction by Bowditch, Transit, Closed Link, EDM Applications,

• GPS Survey and Co ordinate Transformations,

• Storage of Ground information in Layered CAD System compatible to AutoCAD, MicroStation etc.,

• In-built CAD graphics and design system is very sophisticated and full of drawing features

String based software generally starts functioning using the Detail Survey data primarily using Total Station instrument. But there are a lot more tasks to do in an actual project, before obtaining the Detail Survey data. These essential tasks are most commonly the Obtaining two Reference points at every 5 Kilometres using GPS instrument, Using the GPS Co-ordinates carrying out Traverse Survey by using Total Station instrument, Obtaining Correct Traverse Co-ordinates by Bowditch or Transit or Closed Link method followed by installation of Reference Pillars to help in carrying out the Detail Survey. These are essential tasks for any Detail Survey project. The GPS data is more reliable if obtained in the form of Longitude and Latitude (than in the form of East North), the Long Lat data may be converted to Easting and Northing by using correct parameters specific to the location in the globe. Once the GPS data are available in Easting and Northing, these become usable by the Total Station instrument. The data conversion needs correct parameters and the process is also quite cumbersome. Additionally the Correction of Traverse Co-ordinates to install Reference Pillars also needs considerable amount of time and effort by the engineers at the project site. Here comes HEADS Rail has the complete one stop solution for all these requirements by the site engineers at simplest effort. Being a String based software HEADS Rail is very versatile to handle various site situations and eventually comes as an ‘All Complete Solution’ for various Railway Engineering projects.

Applications for Engineering Design :

• Alignment design for Railways, Metro Rail Tunnels, Mono Rails, MRT, LRT etc.

• Processing Geometric design with complete set of site setting-out information

• Producing best formatted construction drawings for PLAN, PROFILE, Cross Sections

• Produces Estimation of Quantities,

• Analysis of Item Unit Rates,

• Hydrological design of Drainage,

• Under ground Metro Railways with generation of Coach profiles at turnings etc.

• Elevated Metro Railways

• Detailed and well formatted Design Reports and Drawings.

• Produces LANDXML output for 3D Visualization Drive Through by software UC/winRoad.

Applications for Construction:

• Processing Cross Sections Survey by Auto Level,

• Bill of Quantities for Running Account Billing

• Chainage wise Cross Section Drawings,

• Analysis for Unit Item Rates,

• Generating Site Setting out details with desired modifications as and when required,

• Preparation of As built Drawings

• Alignment Control for Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM),

• String Tables with Elevations at Normal Cross fall & Super elevated sections for construction by advanced motor grader and Paver.

Special Points on Technical Specifications

• Co-ordinate Conversion to exchange data between GPS & Total Station.

• Traverse Survey with String Modeling and closing error distribution.

• Contouring with user defined intervals and display of Elevations.

• DTM is accurate & can take up to 300,000 points.

• Model Strings may take up to 20,000 Strings.

• Conceptualization of Route Alignment on Aerial Photograph / Satellite Imagery.

• Co-ordinate transformation from Long-Lat to East-North and the reverse

• Design of Points, Crossings, Yards etc.

• Design and estimating of routes with “No Land Acquisition” criterion

• Optimized vertical profile design for Exact Quantity of Earthwork at desired Haulage capacity.

• Design of Hill routess with Sharp bends and variety of design conditions.

• Hydrological design of Drainage.

• Cost Estimation with Analysis for Unit Item Rates.

• Auto level survey for Cross Sections and Bill of Quantities.

• Extended ground in Cross Section drawing to show full Survey Corridor.

• Built-in CAD engine for viewing and editing drawings compatible to AutoCAD.

• DXF Plan, Profile & Cross Section Drawings compatible to all CAD software.

• Long Section Drawing with Alignment & Super Elevation /CANT details, even in Pieces.

• Plan drawings in sheet wise pieces by Sheet Layout.

• Interactive design for a large alignment length in one go (in True Sense).

• Control on Shifting of Alignment for Tunnel Centre Line.

• Design interchangeability with other popular design software.

• 3D perspective view from various angles

• Exporting LANDXML data for “Drive Through” Simulation by UC winRoad.

• Straight forward interactive design for Main Alignment, Loops.

• Irregular occurrence of Service corridors on either side and change of cross section.

CO ORDINATE TRANSFORMATION BY GPS TECHNOLOGY

The instrument GPS (Global Positioning System) is based on Satellite technology. In total about 24 Satellites are rotating around the Earth in various orbits all through the day and taking different times to complete a rotation. For GPS usage 8 Satellites are required in between the First and Second Horizon Circles of the instrument.

If the observer stands in a Plane ground he observes that the sky is touching the ground all around him forming a circle, this is the First Horizon. From his point of observation if a straight line is projected to the sky and rotated to complete a full circle then that is the Second Horizon.

Any circle inside the second Horizon or vertically above is not taken into account, because any object if seen from the top does give any measurement on the height of the object. So to get the height the object is to be seen obliquely. The average observation of 8 or more Satellites gives almost the true height of the object. In case of Ground it is the elevation with respect to the mean sea level.

GPS gives the output in two modes Spherical Coordinate System as Longitude & Latitude in Degree Minute & Second and Rectangular Coordinate System as Easting & Northing in Metres.

If the output is taken in spherical system the user is always safe as the values of Longitude & Latitude are unique for a particular location on the earth. But if any Total Station Survey is to be carried out by using the GPS data as reference point, then the data must be in Rectangular Coordinate system ie, in Northing & Easting in metres.

Here comes the first conversion which is from Spherical system to Rectangular system. If the radius of earth is ‘R’ in metres and Ø1 is the Latitude and Ø2 is the Longitude in Degree Minute & Second then Easting equals to R x (Ø1 in radian) and Northing equals to R x (Ø2 in radian) and finally both the values are in metres.

The above computed values of Easting and Northing in metres are quite large as these are with respect to the Global Coordinate System. Almost every developed & developing country has its own Local Coordinate System. The origin of the Local Coordinate System is separated from origin of the Global Coordinate System by two distances X-Offset & Y-Offset in metres. The axes of the Local Coordinate System is also rotated about X & Y axes of the Global Coordinate System by angles Lat_Offset & Long_Offset, both in Degree Minute & Second.

The Second conversion comes by deducting the X_Offset and Y_Offset values from the Easting & Northing values already computed as stated above to get the reduced values of Easting & Northing. Next the rotations of both the axes Lat-Offset & Long-Offset are also applied on the reduced values of Easting & Northing to get the final values of Easting & Northing which are specific for a location in a particular country.

The Earth shape is not spherical rather it is of irregular shape because of High altitudes at locations of numerous high mountains and Low elevations at locations of various oceans. This irregularity in the shape of the globe does not give a unique radius ‘R’. The problem is solved by considering different radii valid over different regions on the globe. The radius valid for a country may not be applicable in its neighboring country.

The parameters relating the Local Coordinate System of a country to the Global Coordinate System are X-Offset, Y-Offset, Lat-Offset & Long-Offset. These values are also expected to be different for different Country.

So, it is very important to calibrate the GPS instrument by using appropriate country specific parameters Radius of Earth, X-Offset, Y-Offset, Lat-Offset & Long-Offset before using the GPS instrument and when the output is desired in Rectangular Coordinate System which are Easting & Northing in metres. Otherwise the market available GPS instruments are normally holding the parameters of the country of its origin and will result incorrect coordinates.

It is therefore advisable to receive the GPS output in Spherical Coordinate System and Convert into Rectangular Coordinate System using the country specific parameters. The facility is available with HEADS Rail under menu option ‘DGM-Coordinate Conversion’. User may change the default parameters in the dialog box with parameters obtaining from the Survey Department of the country.

The Parameters for Transforming Longitude / Latitude to Easting / Northing to be given to yield the desired transformations are described below. These are default parameters and are applicable to a particular part in India, User has to change the parameters as applicable.

Fig 2 Co ordinate Conversion for GPS and Total Station

1. Spheroid : Everest 1956

2. Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

// Spheroid Parameters

    A = 6377301.243; // India 1956

    F = 1.0/300.8017; // Everest

// False Northing & Easting

    x_offset = 3000000.0;

    y_offset = 1000000.0;

// Origin - Zone Specific

   lat_offset = 19D 15m 14.9818s

   long_offset = 79.0D 0m 0s;

// Standard Paralells Specific

   PHI1 Æ1 = 17D 15m 0s;

   PHI2 Æ2 = 21D 15m 0s;

For Converting from Longitude & Latitude to Easting & Northing user has to select the Radio button From WGS84 to LCC located at top right hand corner of the screen.

User Input file may be named as LongLat.TXT containing the following data:

 HEADS

130,COCONV

131,Conversion from Long Lat to Easting Northing

132,79 2 22.144 20 3 24.97384

132,79 4 51.829 20 1 1.082126

132,79 4 43.159 20 1 10.11755

132,79 4 29.555 20 1 13.29371

132,79 4 15.749 20 1 22.25524

FINISH

Output data will always be in the Report File : EastNorth.REP

Easting Northing

(Metres) (Metres)

3004127.79184 1088809.39141

3008476.63357 1084388.68017

3008224.67406 1084666.24799

3007829.48842 1084763.68565

3007428.36707 1085038.93019

For Converting from Easting & Northing to Longitude & Latitude user has to select the Radio button From LCC to WGS84 located at top right hand corner of the screen.

User Input file may be named as EastNorth.TXT containing the following data:

HEADS

130,COCONV

133,Converted Data from WGS84 to Lambert Conformal Conic Projection

134,3004127.79184 1088809.39141

134,3008476.63357 1084388.68017

134,3008224.67406 1084666.24799

134,3007829.48842 1084763.68565

134,3007428.36707 1085038.93019

FINISH

Output File will always be the Report File : LonLat.REP

Longitude Latitude

(Deg Min Sec) (Deg Min Sec)

79 2 22.144 20 3 24.97384

79 4 51.829 20 1 1.082126

79 4 43.159 20 1 10.11755

79 4 29.555 20 1 13.29371

79 4 15.749 20 1 22.25524

IN BUILT CAD ENGINE FOR INTERACTIVE DESIGN AND DRAWINGS

HEADS Pro is the masterpiece for its various applications in railway engineering projects. It enables the engineers and professionals to produce the best in their work by suiting the site condition most accurately and economically.

Fig 3 CAD based interactive alignment design and modification at any time

CAD BASED INTERACTIVE ALIGNMENT PLANNING

The availability of Google images is a remarkable achievement in recent time. HEADS opens the images and upon setting actual Easting & Northing coordinates in the image the route alignment may be tried for various options against the existing land use of the region and finalized for best techno-economic option.

Fig 4 CAD based interactive Alignment Planning on Satellite or Google Images

DESIGN OPTIMIZATION FOR COST MINIMIZATION

Advanced technology is available in HEADS Rail to Optimize the Vertical Profile of the proposed railway for the Earthwork in Cut & Fill in case of new construction or double tracking projects.

Fig 5 Design Optimization for Cost Minimization

DESIGN OPTIMIZATION DECRIBED IN PROFILE LONG SECTION DRAWING

Advanced technology is available in HEADS Rail to Optimize the Vertical Profile and Grades of the proposed railway for the Earthwork in Cut & Fill based on available Haulage capacity.

Fig 6 Optimized Vertical Profile in Long Section Drawing

The Long section drawings are produced with maximum information to make the construction easier. In case of multi track sections with or without service corridors on either side the vertical profile of each track and service corridors can be shown with various design details. The information in Long section drawings are also in international standard and fulfills the requirements of most of the country’s standard.

Fig 7 Long Section Drawing with various Design Information

DETAIL ENGINEERING WITH HEADS Rail

HEADS Rail produces Survey Base Plan by Digital Mapping from the Ground model, Contours and DTM, writes detailed reports for every analysis and design with CAD drawings for Plan & Profile, Cross sections with designed Pavement Layers, Benched/Stepped slopes for Cut & Fill in Embankment construction with Embankment Toes on either side to keep the design within the right of way, Earthwork & Mass Haul diagram, side Drains, Gabion walls in Hill routes, Diagrammatic details for Horizontal & Vertical alignments and Super Elevations required for preparation & submissions for various Detail Project Reports.

Fig 8 Design Plan Drawing

PROJECT DRAWINGS BY HEADS Rail

HEADS Rail produces Plan-Profile and Cross section drawings for the projects in international standard, which means that the information mentioned in the drawing fulfills all construction requirements following the standards and specifications of most of the countries in the world.

Fig 9 Plan & Profile Drawing

CONSTRUCTION DRAWINGS FOR RAILWAYS

Fig 10 Cross section Drawing in CUT

Fig 11 Cross section Drawing in FILL

DESIGN OF Rail YARDS of types Diamond, Pyramid etc.

Fig 12 Diamond Type of Rail Yard [1]

Fig 13 Diamond Type of Rail Yard [2]

Fig 14 Diamond Type of Rail Yard [3]

DESIGN OF POINTS and CROSSINGS

Fig 15 Design of POINTS

Fig 16 Design of various elements in POINTS [1]

Fig 17 Design of various elements in POINTS [2]

Design of Mono Rail for Alignment, Profile, Switch details etc.

HEADS Rail is applicable for Railways for design speed of 135 Kilometres per Hour or more, Standard gauge, Broad Gauge, Meter gauge, any defined maximum “Cant” at Super elevated sections giving inner edge rotation, Curves with Clothoid Transitions, Earthwork Estimation, Construction Drawings, Design of rail Yards, Design of Points, Crossings, Track Diversion in case of Repairing, Curvature, Train Resistance & Haulage Capacity on Grades and Track stresses.`

Fig 18. Design of Mono Rail for Alignment, Profile, Switch details etc.

ACCURACY IN COST ESTIMATION

In case two embankments are proposed to be constructed close to each other on the original ground, this results overlapping of the slopes of two embankments and results double computation of earthwork on the overlapped zone. HEADS Rail is capable to handle such situation and avoid double computation of earthwork with the help of powerful technology of model edit.

Fig 19 3 Dimensional Perspective view at Embankment merging section

Analysis of Item Rates

With In built formulas on components of Materials, Equipment and Labourer the Unit Item Rates are computed for most of the Embankment, Culvert, Bridge and other work in worksheet.

Fig 20 Complete facilities of Item Rate Analysis in Worksheet

TUNNEL DESIGN: HEADS is the ideal solution for the engineering design and construction of vehicular and Railway Tunnels. All market available road / highway design softwares are not meeting the requirements of Tunnel engineering. A truly 3 Dimensional drawing generating software is essentially required to handle various demands of the design office.

Every design trial has to produce real 3D drawings for Plan, Profile and Cross sections to enable the designer to audit the work for various aspects of the design and safety standard.

Any design must balance the efficiency as well as the economy of the work done and for this the designer must have the best available software. The software used for such work must provide the user with all essential and desired features to make the work best in all respects. Absence of an essential feature in the software may prevent the user from making some important considerations and finally leads to produce a deficient engineering, some times substantial design work leads to additional cost.

Heads produces real 3D drawings along with dynamic 3D visualization and drawings are compatible to all popular CAD drafting software.

Fig 21. Design of Tunnels for Metro Rails

TUNNEL CONSTRUCTION: The design Audit is extremely important during the Tunnel construction. Any deviation of the Tunnel axis from the original alignment must be rectified as soon as it is detected. For an early detection appropriate instrumentation is essential.

Other than the Tunnel axis the measurement of deviation may also be essential for other relevant points in the cross section. The comparison is done by using the original design alignments through those points. So the original design must be available for alignments through those points.

In normal straight sections and in curved sections it is essential to generate alignment with shifts in horizontal & vertical directions at various locations and elevations. Because of the super elevation calculated from the curve radius and design speed, the tilt is more at greater height & distance. This may lead to reduction of the lateral clearance between the coach top edges and the side walls of the Tunnel. The deviations by TBM at any station are numerous, the final shell alignment is fixed by Curve fitting mentioning limits along both the axes.

HEADS creates such most essential Tunnel cross section drawings taking points at various offset distances and elevations in the cross section to create the dynamic coach profiles and make the audit possible in true sense. In Tunnel engineering HEADS is the most essential software to produce engineering reports and drawings with most of the information required and with best sophistication.

Fig 22. Design Audit for Construction of Tunnels for Metro Rails

TechSOFT Engineering Services (I) Pvt. Ltd.

Email:

techsoft@consultant.com

dataflow@mail.com

techsoftengineering@yahoo.com

Web site:

www.techsoftglobal.com

Cell: +91 9331 9330 39

Tel: +91 33 4008 3349

+91 33 2574 6314

+91 33 6526 1190

Fax: +91 33 4008 3349