Northern Pacific Civil Consortium

Last Thursday, I was fortunate enough to attend a meeting of the Northern Pacific Civil Consortium (NPCC). This is a group of CADD managers for Civil Engineering companies in the Sacramento, California area.

This group meets on the fourth Thursday of every month, to discuss issues, have presentation, and share knowledge about matters that they have in common. NPCC is modeled on the highly successful Civil CADD Consortium (C3) group in Southern California that I have mentioned before.

Subjects of this last meeting were

1. AUGI AU Promo
2. Educational grants of Autodesk software
3. Autodesk software home use policy
4. Sheet Set Manager Demonstation

Although the August meeting is a planning meeting for current members only, potential new attendees may want to place the September meeting on your calendars. It will be on Thursday, September 27th at 5:00 PM. Contact the current President David Zavislan at FirstnameDotLastnameAtNolteDotCom (Please forgive the need for this precaution) for meeting location information.

So, if you are a CADD Manager for a Civil Engineering company in the Sacramento area, and wish to be a part of such a organization, I highly recommend that you attend and/or join this group.

2007 Video Card Support

The title of this post gets us to an Autodesk website page where we can check the status of our video cards as to whether or not they are supported by the NEW 3D display capabilities of the 2007 family of products.

I believe my current laptop falls into the "Supported, not recommended" range.

Thanks to Josh Nelson of CNC Engineering, City of Industry, and a C3 member for bringing this to my attention.

C3 Visits Autodesk

C3 the Civil CADD Consortium spent a few days up in San Rafael with Autodesk. This was time very well spent and demostrates the value of the Consortium.

C3 allows member companies to collaborate on solutions to challenges and brings a larger voice when addressing needs and desires with Autodesk.

I believe all attendees valued this visit. I know I did.

Note: I sat next to Dave Simeone at dinner Thursday evening. It was nice getting to know him better. Thanks Dave.

C3 - Civil CADD Consortium

There is a group of Southern California civil engineering companies that have organized in order to better serve their own co-workers/users and ultimately their clients. This group is the "Civil CADD Consortium". The slogan is "Promoting Civil Engineering Excellence Through Collaboration".

The main idea is that Local Office and Corporate Level CADD MANAGERS from different companies, large and small, meet and share their experiences and challenges with one another. The collaborative nature of this group is very genuine and profound.

Needless to say this group has gained Autodesk's ear. This is the "AUGI" for the Civil Engineering community of Southern California.

If there are similar organizations in your area I encourage you to look into them. Aside from the obvious business networking benefits. The ability to develop friendships with people in similar roles is both gratifying and worthwhile.

I mention this group for two reasons...

1. Today on the agenda is an in-depth review/analysis of Civil 3D 2006

2. More importantly, I have the good fortune of being a member of this group. I wish to thank each and every one of them for their contributions to the group.