Components are building blocks for templates, and can be edited intelligently after the template has been applied.
Normally, a designer would create a typical road template, apply that template, and then add/remove components using the Section Graphical Editor or the Edge Level spreadsheet. These changes would then be part of the road design and applied during recalculations, thereby retaining the integrity of your road design.
You do not have to use components, you can still use your existing templates.
Some of the important properties of components are:
Components are created with the Component Editor.
A component can be a closed figure, which is drawn as a filled polygon in the Template Editor, Cross Section Editor and cross-section plots.
For strings roads, components are drawn in the component fill colour in plan.
Each component can have its own layerwork definition.
Each component can have additional formulas associated with it to calculate quantities.
The following tutorials will guide you through setting up and using components: