New White Paper - AutoCAD Civil 3D - Technical Note - Harnessing the Power of AutoCAD Civil 3D

While discussing White Papers and Skill Builders with co-workers today, I ran across a White Paper I had not seen before.

AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2010
Technical Note
Harnessing the Power of AutoCAD Civil 3D

This 12 page document covers things such as...

• Strategies to Enhance the Civil 3D Experience
• Hardware Requirements for AutoCAD Civil 3D
• Performance
• Memory Primer
• Operating Systems Primer
• Optimizing Memory Usage
• Operating System Recommendations
• Model Optimization and Best Practices
• More Strategies and Tactics

As users contemplate new equipment, changes in workflows (perhaps the adoption of a BIM workflow), and other company procedures, we should be well familiar with how to get the most out of what is in place.

Click on the title of this post or the title of the PDF file to get to this document.

Be Better! ...harness your potential.

Carlson Connect for Civil 3D 2010

I often get asked if certain third party add-ons are available yet or not. Well, I was just informed that Carlson Connect for Civil 3D 2010 is available.

Here is the description from the Carlson site:

Add-on for AutoDesk Civil 3D 2010. A collection of routines for transferring and converting data between Civil 3D 2010 and several popular data collectors. Carlson Connect runs inside Civil 3D 2010 and uses the current project data. Free utility to any Civil 3D 2010 user.

Click on the title of this post to get to the download page.

Be Better! ...connect with others.

Subscription Advantage Packs

It is likely that most have heard about the availability of Subscription Advantage Packs for various products that are now available for download from the Autodesk Subscription site. But, not everyone has heard yet.

These Advantage Packs provide new functionality to these products well ahead of next year's releases.

Subscription Advantage Packs are available for:

• AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010
  
• AutoCAD Civil 2010
  
• AutoCAD Map 3D 2010
  
• AutoCAD 2010
  
• Autodesk Navisworks 2010
  
• Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010
  
• Autodesk Revit MEP 2010
  
• Autodesk Revit Structure 2010
  
• AutoCAD Architecture 2010
  
• AutoCAD MEP 2010
  
• AutoCAD P&ID 2010
  
• Autodesk Inventor 2010
  
• AutoCAD Mechanical 2010
  
• Autodesk Showcase 2010

The AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Subscription Advantage Pack adds most of the new features to the Toolbox tab of the Toolspace

So far, the initial reaction has been very positive. Many are looking forward to benfit from the new capabilities.

Be Better! ...take full advantage of your benefits.

AutoCAD Civil 3D Importer for Trimble Business Center

I saw this a while ago and had not had the opportunity to mention it. This utility allows direct import of Civil 3D models data into the Trimble Business Center - Heavy Construction Edition software.

This extends the capabilities of TBC-HCE to read alignments, profiles, COGO points, and corridors, natively. This means, for some, the process will be more interoperable (no specific file creation for contractors).

Click on the title of this post to get to the Trimble download page .

Be Better! ... share.

AutoCAD Civil 2D 2010 Update 2 is Available

Click on the title of this post to get to the download page for the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 2 on the Autodesk website.

As always, it is very important to read the Readme file which will contain important information about the update.

This Update resolves over 30 issues, and contains the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 1, AutoCAD 2010 Update 1, and AutoCAD Map 3D Update 1.

Be Better! ...resolve issues.

Communication Center has Civil 3D 2010 Update 2

On a hunch, after seeing a "tweet", by Matt Anderson, about Update 2 being available I checked my Communication Center...



and noticed that an update was available.


After clicking on the Comm. Center link, I was taken to the following page to install Update 2...

Notice that it says that the original product CD will be needed (it asked me for CD #2). After pressing the "Update" button and allowing the process to complete (maybe 5-10 minutes I did not keep track), my Communication Center then displayed...

And to confirm I checked "Help" > "About" which now displays as Version 3 (original plus 2 updates).

Be Better! ...update yourself.

Civil 2010 Update 2 Available (Not Civil 3D)

For those of you that have AutoCAD Civil 2010 (not Civil 3D 2010) Update 2 has been posted and is ready for download.

Please read the Readme file to get the installation details and any known issues (None).

The update resolve over 30 issues and it includes Update 1 (for those that have not yet installed it).

Click on the title of this post to get to the download page.

Be Better! ...Update things.

Survey Regarding Help

I have long felt that the help systems in AutoCAD Civil 3D is vastly improved over the help systems of many legacy Autodesk applications.

In my opinion as a former instructor, one the most important abilities for competent users, was the ability to find help from within the product versus asking others over the cubicle walls. Finding "official" help tends to provide the exact way to use, or do something, versus someone's belief of how something works. Sometimes, pressing the F1 button was my best skill.

I was made aware that we have created a survey that requests your input regarding Civil 3D's Documentation and User Assistance system (Help). If you would like to participate please click on any of the links in this post. Below is the official invite:

AutoCAD Civil 3D User Assistance Survey

You are invited to participate in the Civil 3D Documentation and User Assistance Survey.
By participating, you are helping us understand how you use the Civil 3D documentation and providing us with feedback on how we can improve future documentation.

Click here to take the survey

Be Better! ...help whenever you can.

Production Software Poll & Being Civil

On the left edge of the screen you should be able to see a poll that asks about your primary version of civil engineering design software. Please take a moment to enter your vote.


This poll will be active until August 28.


This is the same poll that you might see on the "Being Civil" blog. If you have not visisted that blog you absolutely should. There is lots of great info there. Like the post about a video titled:


"Understanding Performance using Civil 3D".


That is a 22 minute video with great information about the different memory, video and operating system considerations that impact performance.

Be Better! ...always vote.

Field to Finish Screencast

Similar to the "AutoCAD Civil 3D: The Road Ahead" screencast there is a new screencast titled "AutoCAD Civil 3D: Field to Finish".

This screencast contains a few vignettes that describe AutoCAD Civil 3D's surveying capabilities when it comes to gathering survey information and having that information automatically create symbology, linework, etc. in a drawing, saving significant time in a project workflow. Also mentioned are more modern techniques that can replace certain legacy procedures.

I enjoyed watching the screencast to remind myself of a few processes that I may not interact with on a day-in, day-out basis. This screencast is also good for conveying AutoCAD Civil 3D's capabilities with individuals that may be involved in the decision making process on when to implement Civil 3D.

If you are unfamiliar with what AutoCAD Civil 3D can do in this segment of a project I encourage you to view this screencast.

Be Better! ...Finish what you start.