Friday, November 10, 2006

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.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an absolute fallacy! Civil3D vs. MX. That's like asking to compare R11 vs. 2007.

Who uses MX? I can only think of one state in the whole country still using it, and they are moving away from it. MX is used overseas, but even then, it's going away for the 'next gen' product from Bentley.

Let's try Civil3D vs. InRoads. CalTrans did (your home state), and which did they pick? hmmmm...

Granted, this is an opposing view, so I'm not sure you'll post it.

But let's get real: Civil3D vs. MX is just marketing hype. Take on InRoads or GEOPAK, and then let's see what happens.

Angel Espinoza said...

Clearly, there will be lots of opinions regarding any comparison of software. The simple statement of "comparing apples and oranges" will always apply. This document is information. For those that need this information I am provding the link.

Regarding Caltrans' evaluation process. Here is a timeline that may put things into prospective.

Feb. 2004 Caltrans gets notified that CAiCE v10 will be last official release. (No Civil 3D yet)

Dec. 2004 Caltrans re-forms Roadway Design Software (RDS) Committee. (1st for production release of Civil 3D-2005 is two months old)

Feb. 2005 RDS Committee receives charter (Civil 3D 2005 4 months old)

Mar. 2005 RDS Committee choose to evaluate 3 applications. (Civil 3D 2006 releases 1 month later)

Jan. 2006 RDS committee submits recommendations. (Civil 3D for production is 15 months 2005 & 2006)

One of the selection criteria (worth 5%) was.. Number of State DOT's currently using product. (at that point zero for Civil 3D)

Report states Civil 3D elapsed time to complete 575 individual funtions is faster than others and has more Local Government acceptance.

Apples and Oranges? Equal or Non-Equal? Fair or Unfair? I am just providing the information.

Anonymous said...

I see you now work for AutoDesk - how can you possibly be an objective source of information?

Angel Espinoza said...

Hello Anonymous,
I am attempting to provide as much information as I can for the Civil Engineering community as a whole. Most of it will relate to the use of Civil 3D from my perspective. That means that the information will likely me most useful to people who use Civil 3D or those that are considering doing so.

That is the extent of what I can do. These are my thoughts. I do not have any information about other products. I do not compare other products. I provided the link to this whitepaper in Nov. of last year because it was available and someone may wish to know about it.

As to being objective. There are blogs by Autodesk employees (typically those with most experience and knowledge), Resellers (Lots of knowledge and very good at teaching), Users (On the job knowledge)(experience/knowledge is growing very quickly). I believe that ALL of the information helps.

Ultimately, the best teacher is experience.