Skill Builder

I am not certain when this particular Skill Builder became available, but there is one available titled:

Managing an AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 Project with Autodesk Vault

This Skill Builder is a 20 page .pdf file that demostrates how to set up a AutoCAD Civil 3D project using Autodesk Vault, how to modify project structure with Vault, and contains some best practices.

For those that are just starting down this road this can be very useful. For others this can be a good refresher.

Be Better!

Data Management Server 2008 Service Pack 1

OK, Let's try again from the top.

Service Pack 1 for Vault 2008 and Productstream 2008 has been reposted.

Service Pack 1 for Vault 2008 and Autodesk Productstream 2008 fixes a variety of issues pertaining to both of these products. As always, carefully read the Readme file (it is not very big), it provides installation instructions, details of corrections, and additional information.

By the way, this service pack does apply if your are using Vault 2008 with Civil 3D 2008, Civil 3D 2007 (with ADMS 2008 Support Patch), Civil 3D Land Desktop 2008 Companion(Subscription only), and Land Desktop 2008(Subscription only).

Data Management Server 2008 Service Pack 1 Pulled

Friday, we released Service Pack 1 for Vault 2008 and Autodesk Productstream 2008. Unfortunately, there was a problem for certain configurations. A newer service pack will be made available very quickly.

If you downloaded Service Pack 1 and have not yet installed it please wait for the newer service pack.

Check back for more information.

Autodesk Vault in Wikipedia

I found the following while doing some research. I thought some might find it interesting.

New and Updated Whitepapers

As announced by Dan Philbrick, Autodesk's Civil 3D Software Development Manager, in the blog he shares with Dave Simeone, "The Dave and Dan Civil 3D Show" Autodesk has just released one new whitepaper and updated a previous whitepaper.

The new whitepaper is titled:

Best Practices for Working with Large Data Sets

The updated whitepaper is:

Civil 3D 2008 Project Management Using Autodesk Vault

Lastly, Dan mentions technical solution 1071001 that involves enabling Window to over-ride the 2GB limit for applications and allow Civil 3D to use 3GB of physical memory to improve performance.

All of this information is very useful and much appreciated. Thanks Autodesk.

Civil 3D 2007 & ADMS 2008, Service Pack

Because Civil 3D 2007 installs Autodesk Data Management Server (ADMS) 5 and Civil 3D 2008 installs ADMS 2008, and because these two items can not co-exist on the same machine, Autodesk has released for Civil 3D 2007 - ADMS 2008 Support Patch. This will allow Civil 3D 2007 with Service Pack 3 to connect to ADMS 2008.

This will solve this challenges for those that are configured this way..

Autodesk's Official 2008 Press Releases

On Monday many websites carried Autodesk's official press releases about the 2008 family of products. Here are a couple as carried by Yahoo!:

AutoCAD 2008 & AutoCAD LT 2008
The item that caught my eye was the new annotation scaling capability (similar to Civil 3D labels) which will apply to things such as tables, text, and leaders.

AEC Products (Civil 3D, Architecture {new name}, & MEP {new name})
Most of the items related to Civil 3D caught my eye. Things like enhanced multiuser environment (I am assuming that this means Vault), automated sheet generation, and Google Earth interoperability.

Click on the links to read them yourself.

So this begins the official process of learning about, and then learning Civil 3D 2008.

Read the Labels

I have now been able to provide "labels" for the majority of the almost 400 posts of this blog.

You will notice at the bottom of most posts what Blogger terms "labels". Other applications might use the term tags. If you pick on a "label" all blog posts that have similar "labels" will be displayed. I accomplished this relatively quickly and not with a fine-tooth comb. So there may be some posts that are not perfectly "label"ed.

This was worth the effort because this can be a good method to find all posts that have to do with a particular subject, such as Vault or Profiles etc.

Give it a try, see if it helps. Feel free to comment about any posts or "labels".

I will add some of the current "labels" to this post, to kick start the process.

Vault Questions and Answers

I have been out of town in lovely San Luis Obispo, CA, on business. Prior to going there, and while I was there, I received some inquiries about Vault and Civil 3D. I normally carry a series of documents and white papers about this subject. This trip I left that binder behind.

Today, I found that most of these documents are from this webpage at the Autodesk Website. The documents from this page are:

1. Autodesk Vault and Data Management Questions and Answers 6 Pages
2. Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 - Project Management Workflow Using Autodesk Vault 18 Pages
3. Project Management in Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 94 Pages
4. Remote Vault Access: WAN Versus LAN Performance 2 Pages
5. Managing Your Data for Autodesk Civil 3D 38 Pages
6. Implementation Guide for Autodesk Civil 3D 80 Pages

One Additional Document is from the White Papers Page:

7. Autodesk Civil 3D CAD Manager’s Guide 33 Pages

Clearly, there are many other sources of information about Civil 3D and Vault. These documents are a must have for the reference library of data about Vault seeing as they are from the Mothership (Autodesk) herself.

Note: Some of these documents I had very resently posted about.

NEW! Project Management Document

Newly added to the bottom of the Civil 3D Service Pack 3 page is a document (over 80 pages) titled:

"Project Management in Autodesk Civil 3D 2007".

This is a very comprehensive document prepared specifically for Service Pack 3. The introduction states:

"The content will appear in an updated form in the online User’s Guide for Autodesk Civil 3D 2008."

Sections include:
Transition from Land Desktop
Using External References
Managing Data Using Data Shortcuts
Managing Data Using Vault
Vault Best Practices
Migrating Old Autodesk Civil 3D Projects
Detaching a Drawing from a Project

This is a large and VERY helpful document.

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.

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.

Design Profile View vs Construction Document Profile View

Ghosts of the Past
Somethings that some Autodesk Civil 3D users can not easily get away from are their Land Desktop habits, procedures, and knowledge. When it comes to profiles most former LDt users limit themselves to one profile view for one profile because that is what they were limited to by Land Desktop (it would ask to erase the older info). If they had more than one representation of a profile and one was edited the other would immediately be out of date. So why do it?

The Present
Now with Civil 3D and dynamic updates, I often find it useful to have at least two profile views showing the same geometry (profile) but each view is very different in appearance, and the annotation within them is different.



In the above example I have a view that allows me to see the data that I find useful for designing and the other view is what will be used in the construction document. If either is edited the other will always update, thus remaining current.

The Future?
A similar concept can apply to master design profiles that one person is responsible for and either Vault reference profiles or shortcut reference profiles that are read-only. These second profiles can be the responsibility of drafters to pretty-up (make construction document ready). These second profiles (some are referring to these as DRef's) will update entirely (annotation and all) whenever the master is modified. The first would be the sole reponsibility of the designer or engineer.

These new concepts take full advantage of the software. There are many other examples where we will want to change our old habits or processes to create a more efficient or productive workflow. I often see workflows entrenched in organizations because thats how it was done in Softdesk, or Land Desktop, or (your favorite older application here). Because we need to be more efficient... being open to such changes can be very profitable.

Civil 3D - SP3 Update

Just a reminder that there will be a Service Pack 3 for Civil 3D 2007. It is expected in the next two weeks. We have been told that it will...

Restore non-projects shortcuts (with this some will choose to not implement Vault)
Performance improvements (such as 2X faster corridor processing, 5X faster contour label regen and more).
Includes most recent Service Packs for AutoCAD® 2007, Autodesk Map® 3D 2007, and Autodesk® Vault 5.

Civil 3D 2007 SP3 Info

During the webcast on Friday Oct 06, 2006 Dave Simeone, Autodesk Civil 3D Product Manager, gave some glimpses of what may likely be in Civil 3D 2007 Service Pack 3. These items include:

Civil 3D 2007 (SP1a, SP2 and NEW FIXES)
AutoCAD 2007 SP1
Map 3D 2007 SP3
Components of Vault SP1 (he made it clear, DO NOT INSTALL VAULT SP1 YET!)

He mentioned that users will likely see the following improvements:

2X Faster Corridor Processing Speed
50X Performance Jump in Project/Reference Interaction
Improved Surface Memory Usage (surface memory leaks have been an issue for some)
Stability Improvements
and (drum roll, please)
Restoration of Non-Projects Shortcuts

This last item translates to shortcuts that WILL ABSOLUTELY be remembered from session to session. No longer will we have to reload the .xml file from which we load data references. Remember data reference synchronization notifications. He also demonstrated a NEW ability to change the source file of a data reference (see image below).



So when is all this supposed to be available? They are aiming for the end of this month (October).

Vault and Shortcuts Future (Interesting Read)

If you have not already read the most recent post in the blog by Dave Simeone, Civil 3D Product Manager, and Dan Philbrick, Civil 3D Development Manager, about Civil 3D 2007, Vault and Data Shortcuts, I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to do so. Simply click on the title of this post to see what Dan says about these subjects.

He also mentions that anyone that wished to be a part of the beta program for their plans, they can make it so.

Lastly, Dan states that they will provide more details this Friday during the weekly webcast. Do not forget, to view the weekly webcasts it is necessary to register.

New Service Pack Heads-Up

Anthony Governanti, Autodesk Technical Marketing Manager, recently posted a comment to this blog about holding off installing Vault 5 Service Pack 1 until a new Service Pack is available for Civil 3D. Previously it was also mentioned in the Discussion Groups (and the SP2 Readme) that AutoCAD 2007 Service Pack 1 is not included in any Civil 3D 2007 Service Packs. So what does this all mean? It means that there should be a third service pack for Civil 3D 2007 available in the future.

Vault 5 Service Pack 1 Guidance

I am just returning from an event where someone approached me well after to ask a question. This person had heard that Service Pack 1 was available for Vault 5. The question was "Should I install this service pack because the Readme file does not mention Civil 3D at all?"

My answer was based on the following comment by Anthony Governanti, Autodesk Technical Marketing Manager, in the discussion groups on September 5th, 2006.

"Just a quick update on this; we are still working through the testing on the Vault sp on Civil 3D. For now, please do not install the patch until we make an announcement and give the go ahead."

At the moment, this is the last information that I have heard or read about this matter, and until told otherwise I suggest that it be the current coarse of action.

If anyone else has any sort of update many would benefit from this sharing.

The Tips Are Coming In

There are now 20 tips for Civil 3D in the Civil Engineering Community. I have found these are helpful for learning or recalling tips and tricks. As with just about everthing in the community pages, we can rate the usefulness of an item with a 5 star rating system.

Here are a few tip titles (along with their current ratings):

Increase performance when working with surfaces 5 STARS
Improve Drawing performance 4 STARS
Logging into Vault automatically 3 STARS
Importing LandXML data 4-1/2 STARS
Quick Profile 5 STARS

Note: In it's first week over 700 members have joined the community.

Vault Quickie

I had someone ask a quick question regarding Vault. How many roles/permissions are available in Vault?

In Civil 3D there are three roles available:

Administrator - Full privileges to all folders all the time and administrative privileges on the server (this means manage roles also).

Vault Editor - Full privileges within the vault, but no administrative privileges on the server (can create and edit data).

Vault Consumer - Read-only access to files and folders only.