Blog Stats

About 800 more page views in order for this blog to reach a total of 100,000 page views.

It seems that it will happen on Friday.

Incredible.

AU2006 Day 1

If this is Tuesday we must be talking pipes.

I gave the first of my three class today:

Autodesk Civil 3D Pipe Networks Made Easy.

It is a bit unusual seeing 300-400 faces in a training session. The main session with over 7,000 attendees was a sight to see. Yes, 7,000 people in one room.

I will be giving two Civil Powertrack classes tomorrow.

Autodesk Civil 3D Corridors: Cul-de-Sacs Are Not a Dead End.
Autodesk Civil 3D Grading Made Easy.

Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 Reconfigured!

As of yesterday NEW (or Crossgrade) seats of Civil 3D 2007 will include Autodesk Civil Design and Autodesk Survey in the box. So that means when anyone buys Autodesk Civil 3D 2007, they will get...

Autodesk Civil 3D 2007
Autodesk Land Desktop 2007
Autodesk Civil Design 2007
Autodesk Survey 2007

Additionally, subscriptions (new and renewal), for Autodesk Civil Design and Autodesk Survey are being discontinued.

What this does to owners of existing multi-year subscription contracts for Civil Design and Survey, is still to be determined.

New Civil 3D 2007 Whitepapers

Autodesk has posted new whitepapers regarding Civil 3D 2007.

Autodesk Civil 3D CAD Manager’s Guide - 33 pages.

Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 – Project Management Workflow Using Autodesk Vault - 18 Pages.

I am sure many will find these useful.

AU2006

Well, I am now in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Venetian is an excellent place for Autodesk University 2006. With 7500 attendees expected I am awe struck by the logistics of this event. At this hotel AU attendees had a separate hotel registration area with 27 hotel clerks admitting attendees.

I teach one class tomorrow and two on Wednesday. Wish me luck.

I'll try to post as often as possible.

New Autodesk Labs Technology Preview Available

In the Autodesk Labs website there is a new technology preview available.

Autodesk Impression allows the creation of presentation-ready graphics made directly from our drawings.

The interface is supposed to be simple, and easy to learn and use. I wish I had some time to look into this, but with AU coming up next week I unfortunately can not.

If you wouldn't mind let me know what you think about this preview.

Civil 3D 101 - The First Decision

Things seem to be turning a corner. Many organizations are making their first forays into using Civil 3D. They are perhaps hearing of others having success with their efforts, however small, with Civil 3D.

So how does one begin? With Training.

No, how does one begin to use the product? Oh, well once we launch Civil 3D 2007 we have to begin a new drawing preferably from a template. Our chooses are:

_Autodesk Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS Base.dwt - Contains one, and typically only one, style named BASIC for every style-able object. (221 KB)

_Autodesk Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS Classic.dwt - Contains many styles per style-able object. Contains certain styles that mimic Land Desktop as much as possible. (433 KB)

_Autodesk Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS Extended.dwt - Contains many styles per style-able object. (430 KB)

All styles use layers based on the National CAD Standards.

If no custom styles are available I tend to start with the third template.

Oh, I did not mention that there are three equivalent templates for METRIC drawing.

AU Class Schedule Changes Deadline

Tomorrow Tuesday November 14, 2006 at 5;00 pm Pacific Time is the deadline for making changing to your Autodesk University 2006 class schedule.

After tomorrow the only way on attend a class or lab, that you are not enrolled in, is based on seating availability on-site.

New Civil 3D Whitepaper

Autodesk has just posted on the website a new Civil 3D Whitepaper. This one is titled:

Autodesk Civil 3D vs. Bentley MX Software

I am sure that many will find this 13-page whitepaper very informative.

Land Desktop Service Pack 2 News

During today's Civil 3D webcast, Dave Simeone, Autodesk Civil 3D Product Manager, mentioned that a problem(s) had been found with Service Pack 2 for Land Desktop (He was not specific about the issue(s)). So, Autodesk has removed the download from the website.

He stated that if anyone has downloaded the Service Pack but has not yet installed it, do not install it. They will be posting a new Service Pack as quickly as possible.

There was no mention of what those of us that have already installed it should do. If you have, and are having issues, I am guessing that an Uninstall/Reinstall may be the best course of action.

Bummer.

To reiterate this only has to do with Land Desktop 2007 and Service Pack 2.

KETIV Technologies at Autodesk Collision Tour

We here at KETIV Technologies will be at Autodesk's Collision Tour stop in Anaheim, California on Tuesday, November 14th.

After the General Sessions we will be hosting a Lunch and a Test Drive Lab where attendees can have some hands-on time with Civil 3D 2007. This would be a great opportunity to ask questions and gather information. We will have several Civil 3D experts present to address your inquiries.

If you will be attending the Anaheim session, please drop by our gathering. If you can not stay, maybe you can stop by quickly and say hello.

Autodesk University 2006 Update

Today, Friday November 10th, is the last day to pre-register for Autodesk University 2006. This year's edition is being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 27 through December 1. Anyone wishing to register after today can still do so on-site via late registration.

The demand for Civil 3D instruction has exceeded all expectations. This is evidenced by that fact that ALL three of my AU classes now have over 300 registrants. One of my two PowerTrack courses was closed at 440 registrants.

Joseph Wurcher mentioned in his AU Blog that overall registration is up 41% over last year's event. Remarkable!

Cul-De-Sacs Fix in SP3

Dan Philbrick, Autodesk Civil 3D Software Development Manager, mentioned in his blog, in the Civil Engineering Community, that Service Pack 3 fixes an issue that has existed when trying to design cul-de-sac corridors with arcs in the centerline alignment.

If our baseline was run around the cul-de-sac bulb entirely as one alignment and had as its target an centerline alighnment with an arc, the assemblies would not solve correctly and leave a flat teardrop shaped gap in the middle of the corridor. This did not happen if the centerline alignment was a tangent (straight).

The necessary workaround was to create two alignments around the bulb of the cul-de-sac each targeting the centerline alignment with the arc.

With the fix provide by Service Pack 3 we no longer need to create the two alignments and can accomplish this goal with one alignment if we so choose.




I went back through the ...README.htm file to see if this was mentioned. I could not find any mention of it. Either way this is a very good thing.

Too bad my Autodesk University "Cul-de-Sacs Are Not a Dead End" class handouts were already submitted. Oh well, I will just have to mention that that was fixed.

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom

I have been building and editing corridors this afternoon. I LOVE the 2X faster corridor builds. Whereas in the past I would store up some edits and rebuild in order to be efficient. I have been rebuilding (applying) edits one at a time. Because of the fact that Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 3 corridor rebuilds are at least twice as fast (sometimes more) I have been seeing my edits quicker.

This particular corridor is about 1,300 feet of rehab work (sawcutting and widening in a very irregular way).

Autodesk, a BIG thumbs up for this.

Civil 3D and Vizualization Blog

I see that Natan Elsberg of RDV Systems has started a blog. He will be posting about Civil 3D and visualization tools. It should be informative.

Good Luck Natan.

2007 Autodesk Civil Engineering Solutions (ACES) Service Packs

I have been receiving inquiries for the following, so here is a more complete list of Service Packs that were recently made available, and the order in which they would typically be installed:

Autodesk Data Management Server 5 Service Pack 1 - Sep. 18, 2006

Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 3 - Nov. 4, 2006

Google Earth™ Extension for Civil 3D® 2007 Service Pack 3 - Nov. 4, 2006

Land Desktop Companion 2007 Service Pack 2 - Nov. 4, 2006
or
Land Desktop 2007 Service Pack 2 - Nov. 4, 2006

Civil Design Companion 2007 Service Pack 2 - Nov. 4, 2006

Survey 2007 Service Pack 1 - Nov. 4, 2006

Raster Design 2007 Service Pack 1 - Nov. 2, 2006

Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 3 Now Available

Serivice Pack 3 for Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 is now available for download. You will absolutely want to install it. With 100's of combined fixes (it also includes Civil 3D SP1A & SP2, Map SP1, SP2, & SP3, Acad SP1), and some excellent performance enhancements. This Service Pack is a must have.

If you are using Vault, the Autodesk Data Management Server 5 Service Pack 1 must be installed prior to installing C3D Service Pack 3.

Which reminds me to mention, read the download page and the readme. Many people ignore these items and then complain when a documented situation occurs to them. These items are not lengthy and can save a lot of time and heartache if someone has a documented special condition. Trust me it is well worth your time to go through these items.

OK, mine is updated.

Civil 3D 2007 SP3 Due Today

Dave Simeone, Autodesk Civil 3D Product Manager, stated during today's Civil 3D webcast that it is their intention to make Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 3 available for downloading today.

With over 100 defect fixes and MANY performance improvements this SP is much anticipated.

I'll post when it is officially available.

PS. The links found in this post allow you to get to the Service Packs Page.