Beneath The Lines

Where's the Nearest Moving Van?

2006-08-10T19:39:00.000-05:00

Well, my house is too lonely, so I'm packing it all up and moving. It is my pleasure to announce that I'm joining the blogging forces of James Wedding, P.E., Nick Zeeben, and Dana Probert over at civil3d.com to help create a one-stop blog for you to go to when you want information about Civil 3D. I'll leave this up, and hopefully be able to set up a redirect. I'll be attempting also to move my (worthwhile) stuff over there so that we can merge the information. But change your bookmarks, and go to www.civil3d.com to see me now. Thanks!

I Love Picking On Architects

2006-08-03T16:47:00.000-05:00

Today, in a newsgroup that I frequently visit, an architectural drafter in Canada was complaining about how a "double leaf" door was drawn. Now, me being a dirt moving guy and not a building guy, I don't know what a double leaf door is supposed to look like in CAD. However, since I knew that the designer was in Canada, I offered up my own design....I think this should be the correct graphical representation of a double-leaf door in Canada: Thank you, I'll be here all week, please try the veal, and remember to tip your waitresses!

A Quick How-To Regarding Object Styles

2006-08-02T11:09:00.000-05:00

Many new users of Civil 3D are trying to get a working grasp of styles. Some are setting up their own styles, some are contracting others to do it for them (I have enough work orders on my desk to wallpaper my office...and all but one are for template creation). First of all, if you'd rather pay someone else to create your styles for you, email me - a link to my email is to the right. However, some of you would rather do it yourself, and may have a few questions. For those people, I'm about to clear something up that may have been puzzling you. Styles are different in the sense that you can really forget everything you ever learned about drawing layers - objects defined by a style can be displayed by the object style. Or, you can set everything up and define your object display by layer. Takes some getting used to - and for the most part, I've found that a combination of both methods works well for me. When you're first setting up styles, you have to go to your settings tab, right click on your drawing name, and click drawing settings. This will allow you to lay the foundation for a lot of the styles that you need to create, mainly by choosing your object layers. Setting these object layers is pretty self-explanatory, but there's a small check box at the bottom of that window that confuses people - Immediate and independent layer on/off control of display components. What? It seems as if a trip to the help file is in order..... Help specifies the following:

Specifies whether object display is controlled by layer visibility. Selected: Object components on a layer are turned off when you turn off the layer. Cleared: Object components on a layer are not affected by layer On/Off settings.

To say it in a way that can be understood even better - Check it if you want to be able turn objects on or off with the layer commands. Don't check it if you don't want to use layer commands. Have fun!

Birmingham, AL CAD Camp Registration LIVE!

2006-08-01T09:51:00.000-05:00

OK folks, it's time to sign up for AUGI CAD Camp! This year's AUGI CAD Camp will be held in Birmingham at the Cahaba Grand Conference Center - just southeast of the I-459/US Highway 280 intersection. This is an incredible facility for conferences such as this. But what is a CAD Camp? Tents, Campfires, s'mores? Not at all. CAD Camp is a full day of CAD instruction. Ever heard of Autodesk University? Picture that crammed into one fun day! Here's what the CAD Camp website has to say about the experience:

Training and procrastination often go hand in hand. You know you need training, you may even be pumped up about getting it, yet carving a large chunk of time from your already overcrowded schedule forces you to put it off time and again. But even the busiest professionals can devote one day to training, right? That’s where AUGI CAD Camp, a single-day training and networking event, comes in. At AUGI CAD Camp, you’ll get: A full day of training: Five different sessions designed to provide targeted training, giving you a lot of knowledge in a little time. Expert advice from top instructors across the country. Networking opportunity. Some of the best stuff you ever learned came from your peers, and AUGI CAD Camp gives you ample time to socialize with fellow CAD Camp attendees. Technology update. A few of Autodesk’s top developer partners will be on hand to keep you abreast of new products and updates.

Even better, yours truly is scheduled to teach three classes - below are the courses that I will be offering: Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2007 (S1-4) Essentials of Styles in Civil 3D Instructor: Jason Hickey In Civil 3D, styles are like wheels on a car – without them, you’re not going anywhere! In Autodesk Civil 3D, standardization can be achieved by using styles. This class addresses the development of Civil 3D styles to suit the needs of your organization. You will learn how to develop, integrate and manage all Civil 3D styles for use in data display and data storage. We’ll also look at some of the powerful visualization effects of styles. So if you’re using Civil 3D or Autodesk Land Desktop, or would simply like to learn the next generation of software for civil engineering, attend this session! Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2007 (S3-3) “Hidden” Geospatial Functionality within Civil 3D Instructor: Jason Hickey and Alice Craig Did you know that Civil 3D is a combination of TWO products? There’s an entirely different program in there that many people never utilize – Map 3D! Map 3D allows us to add geospatial functionality to any of our civil projects. You’ll learn about object data, what it is and how to utilize this data that has been created in other programs. We’ll also review how to create quick surface analyses without the need for a survey. Leverage the advantages of Map along with your Civil data. Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2007 (S4-2) Subdivision Design with Civil 3D Instructor: Jason Hickey Subdivisions are intensive projects. So intensive, in fact, that they use every aspect of Civil 3D – from parcels to corridors, and from surfaces to cross-sections. In this session you’ll get the foundation information to evaluate the design alternatives. We’ll cover the methods of importing survey data and creating subdivisions, site parcels and roads, as well as grading, piping and vertical profiles of the subdivision road. Finally, learn how to apply your new subdivision knowledge as we cover a real-world example. The last class of the day will be one that all ALACAD instructors will be involved with for you CAD Managers out there: Management Track (S5-4) The Product Migration Roundtable Instructor: Robert Green Are you responsible for migrating to the newest release of your software or transitioning from one product to another, or maybe even from 2D to 3D? If so, you’ll want to avoid the common implementation mistakes made by many CAD managers, and learn the secrets of those who’ve succeeded. This course will present general guidance on upgrading from planning, training and implementation standpoints while giving more specific advice for discipline areas such as architectural, mechanical and civil users in a technical context. At the conclusion of the class, an extended Q&A session will be conducted to address your software-specific questions. Hope to see you all there - hurry up and go register today!

Creating Colorful Presentations for a Client

2006-08-01T08:49:00.000-05:00

Hi folks! I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, but I've been busy. Hotel after hotel, mile after mile on the road, and it's hard to blog from a rental car. I'll try to be better in the future... I'm often asked the question "Is it possible to quickly create a drawing displaying cut and fill areas for a project?" This is a very good question - back in the Land Desktop days I was working for a German client who had a severe aversion to building his factory on top of fill. Anything else on the site could be filled, but not the part under the (very large) building pad. Using polyline tracing and hatching, I was able to show him those areas even back then, but it took some time. I'm going to show you how to QUICKLY display that information. This exercise works with a roadway surface. It also assumes that you've already gotten your existing ground surface and your roadway surface defined. Here's mine, and the profile that accompanies it: Here, I've got two surfaces defined, EG and Road. The first step that I need to take is to define a volume surface between these two surfaces. I do that by creating a new surface and selecting the type as TIN Volume Surface. I assign it a base surface of EG and a comparison surface of Road. I also assign it a style that I created called Elevations, which displays (of all things) the elevations that I'm about to run. Next, I select my new Volume Surface (Road Volume Surface in this drawing) and go to the properties of that surface. I'll need to click on the Analysis tab to run the Elevation analysis. In the Analysis Type box, I'll select Elevations, then set my range to 2. Next, I'll click the blue arrow down button to run the analysis - something that many people don't know or forget to do. Once this runs the analysis, I'll edit my two ranges. I'll set range 1 to a maximum elevation of -0.01 (this is my fill range). I'll then set range 2 to a minimum elevation of 0.01 (this is my cut range). The last thing I'll do is set the color of range 2 to red. Now, once I cliek OK, my surface changes display - the following is what you should see now: As you can see, the areas of fill are in blue, the areas of cut are in red. Have fun!

A Retraction

2006-07-25T20:07:00.000-05:00

It was pointed out today by Nick Zeeben that one of my posts is wrong. Well, not wrong per se, but misleading. Actually, I reported functionality that was only included wrongly by Autodesk. In this horribly wrong post, I told you that you could operate Land Desktop 2007 in MDI mode, rather than the SDI mode that it's always been. That was misleading. I take no blame whatsoever for this misleading post. Not only was I right (the caveat was that you couldn't do any LDT specific functions when in MDI mode), but James Wedding was sitting next to me as I discovered this and CONFIRMED that it worked. So there! I wasn't wrong, Autodesk was wrong for allowing broken functionality to be included in the program. Mark this day. I admitted that I was wrong. Doesn't happen often ;) Have fun!

Labeling Pipe Invert Elevations in a Profile View

2006-07-21T13:36:00.000-05:00

The question has been posed - "Can I label my pipe invert elevation in the band set of a profile view." That's a pretty standard request, right? A lot of agencies require this on all Sanitary Sewer Plan/Profile sheets. So, naturally, I tried to set my band set profile reference to the pipe profile. Uh, there's no pipe profile listed. After some thinking, and a bit of cursing the team in Manchester (I still love 'em, but the little things drive me crazy), I did come up with an answer. It's not perfect, but it does work. There are two main downsides - 1) It requires the manual drawing of a new profile, and 2) It loses the dynamic link to the pipe network - but more about that at the end. So, we've got this profile view - you can see that I have my existing ground, proposed finished ground, and pipe network profile all shown in the profile view. Here's what it looks like - and the profile is just for illustrative purposes, because not many agencies here in the southeastern US would allow me to design a roller coaster like this: Now, to get this pipe information in my band (the area at the bottom of the profile view that shows FG elevation and EG elevation....), I'll need to create a new profile by layout. I'm going to call it "Pipe Profile," give it a label style of "none" and draw it tangnet-tangent (no curves). When I draw this profile in, I'm going to snap each PVI to the start and end invert of each pipe. Make sure you have a profile display style that will actually draw in the invert of the pipe (I simply have a style that shows inside walls only). You can see my profile here: Now, to label this information, I'm going to go to my Profile View Properties, click on the Band Set tab, and change my Profile 2 setting for that band to my new "Pipe Profile" profile. Now, I've created a new label style that shows which one is the FG elevation and which one is the pipe invert elevation: One problem though - there's no way to keep the dynamic relationship with the pipe network. If I change the pipe network at this point, I've got to go back in and redefine that new profile that I created. It's quite a bit of a PITA, but it's better than the way we used to do it - calculating by hand and labeling manually. I personally hope that those great guys in Manchester can see fit to make this a bit more automatic in the future. Have fun!

Civil Pursuits

2006-07-20T08:40:00.000-05:00

Next week, I will be traveling to various cities speaking with government customers who use Autodesk products for Civil related projects, including Civil Design and Geospatial/GIS. The schedule is as follows: Monday, July 24 - Jackson, Mississippi Wednesday, July 26 - Huntsville, Alabama Thursday, July 27 - Mobile, Alabama If you are a government user (municipality, county, state, federal, etc.) or simply a private firm that works on government contracts, you're invited to attend and see what Autodesk has to offer you in the 2007 line of products. We'll take in-depth looks at Civil 3D and Map 3D specifically. If you'd like to sign up, you may do so here. Hope to see you there!

Is Training Worth The Cost?

2006-07-14T08:30:00.000-05:00

I believe it was Scott McEachron that posted about this long ago, and gave me this idea. I want to go over this topic again, and again, and again, and again, because it's THAT important. Not to mention, it gave me something to write on the plane Wednesday. Today, I’m going off the technical path and discussing something that’s very close to my heart – training. With the increasing market acceptance of technology such as Autodesk Civil 3D 2007, our users have a very powerful tool sitting on their desktops. It seems as if the perception of this program is that it is simply an upgrade to our existing technology. However, this is not the case – this is an entirely new way of engineering design. To fully harness the power of the technology, proper training is a must. The problem is that training is an expensive prospect for a company. The cost goes much deeper than just the fee paid to the trainer – after a company pays for the class, for the salaries of the students attending, and the cost incurred with the loss of productivity, a simple 3 day class can be a daunting cost. Let’s do some math to illustrate – we have a designer that is attending a 3 day Civil 3D class. That designer has a billable rate of $100 per hour, and is paid at a rate of $25 per hour (I’m using these nice round numbers for the sake of easy math). The class is $875. That designer’s salary for 3 days (24 hours) is $600. The money that his employer would be billing for his time for those three days is $2400. If that employee’s travel expenses are low (let’s say $100 per day for the sake of math, even though this is rarely possible), that’s another $300. Looking at these figures, we’re up to a cost of $4175 for a simple class! And people wonder why they have a hard time convincing their employers to send them to training! However, only the best companies look at the entire picture. Most people only see the immediate financial impact, and that’s the money that’s being drained out of the company checkbook to send students to class. Often, these companies have already spent tens of thousands of dollars buying the software and the hardware necessary to run it, and just can’t seem to find a way to bite off the cost of training. They figure that their users will just pick up the software on their own. What happens in this case is the users spend countless hours on the phone with technical support engineers trying to settle issues that would be covered in a training class. While they’re trying to solve those problems (and trust me, just because it doesn’t work the way your old software did does NOT mean that it’s a problem with the software), their employer is still having to pay them, the project is falling further and further behind, and the client is becoming more and more unhappy. Often, you see marketing material that tells you that you’ll be “X” percent quicker with this new software than you were with your old stuff. I’ve seen varying numbers, from 30, to 50, and I even saw one marketing brochure that promised users a 98% increase in productivity! That’s a pretty tough number to live up to, and in reality, it’s a totally incorrect number. After your training, you’ll likely lose money on your first project using the new software. Then, you’ll lose money on the second one, but you’ll lose less money. Third project, fourth project, fifth project…..you’ll lose less and less money every time until the users get comfortable with the software and begin to tap into the true power of the software. Then, you’ll notice a project that makes a profit – then another that makes a higher profit, then higher and higher and higher – now you’ve realized the return on your investment. You’ve built a foundation that is being built upon, and that foundation has made your company much more profitable by implementing much more efficient workflows. If you’re interested in training, contact ALACAD. We provide many options for training, including customizing it to fit YOUR needs – we want you to get the most out of your investment. Go ahead and make that step, and make your company more profitable.

Brand Recognition

2006-07-14T08:15:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back in the office (finally), and wanting to play a little game. Let's play a game of word association, and see where that gets us... Photocopy. Xerox - check. Ink Correction Fluid. Liquid Paper - check Facial Tissue. Kleenex - check Carbonated Beverage. Coke - check General Inquiry on the Internet. Google - check. OK, now it gets a little harder..... Computer Aided Drafting and Design. AutoCAD - check Autodesk. CAD - check GIS/Geospatial. Autodesk. Wait, that last one isn't right. I tend to think of other programs by other vendors when you mention GIS. Big dogs, like ESRI, for example. Nobody thinks of Autodesk in relation to Geospatial/GIS, do they? Not yet, but I'm betting that they will. I just spent 2 days in sunny (and remarkably cool) San Rafael, California attending the 1st of what is hopefully many Autodesk Geospatial Summits. At this summit, Autodesk Executives (marketing, sales, management, and development), VAR's (Autodesk Resellers), ISV's (third party application developers), independent consultants, and end users all came together to discuss and come up with a plan of action to change the way we think - and to change the way YOU think, as well. The message? Autodesk isn't just CAD, it's GIS too. GIS is such a broad term, it's almost universal. It can encompass just about anything. With programs specifically dedicated to GIS such as Autodesk Map 3D, MapGuide, and vendors such as Oracle Geospatial, Autodesk is a major player in the Geospatial community, a fact that was echoed in the small cross section of that community that gathered this week. With some of the technology coming down the tracks, Autodesk stands to be an even greater resource for Geospatial. I saw a preview of a program that's going to revolutionize GIS in the US. Hold on, folks - it's going to be a fun ride. But I hope to hear you say "AUTODESK" next time I say "GIS" Have Fun!

Volumes by Leaps and Bounds

2006-07-05T20:32:00.000-05:00

One of my clients asked me today how he could define a site (or sites) for volumes, like he did in Land Desktop. It's not quite the same, but still fairly easy... First, we have to have a Volume Surface created. Volume Surfaces are as easy to create as simple TIN surfaces, except for the fact that you have to select a base surface and a comparison surface. A Volume Surface consists of the area BETWEEN two surfaces. Once you have your Volume Surface created, you can draw a simple polyline to define your site. I've created a volume surface from my corridor surface here - not the best scenario for a demonstration, but it gives you the idea. The site that I want to define covers the north/south part of my horseshoe roadway - see if you can spot the polyline that defines the site below (I'm not giving any hints...): Now, I want to go to the Surfaces menu and select Utilities, then select Bounded Volumes, shown below: Once we select that, we're asked to select a surface - select the volume surface for our corridor, then select the polyline that defines your boundary (or "site) for the volume calculation. The results will be displayed in your command line, as shown below. (HINT: To open and show all the information in your command line, hit F2.) Have Fun!

TAG! You're It!

2006-07-05T17:55:00.000-05:00

Well, another week in a hotel for me. I'm at home sweet Hampton Inn this week, teaching a Civil 3D Essentials class. I'll go home Friday night, then fly out at 6 AM on Sunday morning for San Francisco to attend the Autodesk Geospatial Summit next Monday. My dogs have forgotten who I am.... This week, I'm teaching at CDG Engineers and Associates in Albertville, Alabama. I linked to them because I promised Audra that I would since she encouraged me to figure out the answer to her question ;) Her question was regarding Tag Labels. We all remember tag labels in Land Desktop, right? They were OK, but annoying, and if you ever deleted a line without deleting the labels, it took an act of congress to get back to that original number (renumbering wasn't that easy back then). Here's a quick and dirty "how to" regarding changing tag numbers on a line. First, you have to have a style that displays a tag. You do this by going to the General tab of your Label Style Composer, and setting your display mode to Tag, as shown below: Now, I've got a parcel (small, isn't it?) Since it's so small, I'd really like to label the lines with tags instead of bearings and distances. To do this, I go to Parcels and select Add Labels. I pick Parcel as the type of label that I'm inserting, and select Multiple Segments, then make sure that my Tag Label style is set as current. Then, I select the parcel (selecting the parcel label is the best way to do this) and all my segments are labeled. To show the data in a table, I go to Parcels, select Table, and add a Line Table. I now have the following results: Now, let's see what happens when we delete the label on the south line (the line running E/W) - it appears to delete it, all right, and updates the line table as well... OK, good enough. That's what I expected it to do. However, let's assume for a minute that I want that label back, and I want it to be L3 again. Let's just add another tag label...wait, that's not the right label! That puts L5 on the line! That's all wrong...we want that one to be L3, not L5, right? So what can we do, other than renumber the label. Yes, it's just that simple - we go to Parcels, select Tables, then select Renumber Tags: Now, that brings up the Renumber Tag Label dialog box. Since we want ours to start at 3, we type the number "3" in the Starting Number box: The program asks us what we want to re-label - a line or curve. We select Line, since that's what our parcel is comprised of. Next, we select the label(s) that we want to renumber, and it updates to L3, just as we wanted it to. More importantly, it changes the table, and moves L3 above L4, just as it should be (rather than below, as it was when it was L5.) And that, my friends, is how to renumber Tag Labels in Civil 3D. You can perform this the same way with Curves and Spirals, by the way. A lot easier than it was in Land Desktop, no? Have Fun!

Map Feature Sources in Civil 3D

2006-06-28T23:20:00.000-05:00

Hi Folks! Sorry that I haven't updated in a while, but I've been on the road. I did an on-site Civil 3D class last week, am doing one this week (in Chicago, of all places!), another NEXT week, then a meeting in California the next week, then a class here in our company headquarters the week after that. As you can likely tell, there's one heckuva demand for training and implementation for Civil 3D. If you're in need of these services, feel free to email me using the link to the right. Now, down to business. You didn't log in here to hear me talk about my busy travel schedule. If you did, you really need to find a hobby...I'm just saying... In the world of Civil Engineering, we often have to work with data that is in another format. One thing that I love to show my customers is the untapped wealth of information that you can have once you start using the GIS capabilities of Map 3D. The best part about this is that you already have it - it comes built into Civil 3D. For this how-to, we're going to assume that we're about to subdivide a piece of land, but the property owner wants to know if the project is feasible. That's a reasonable request, and one that we can do quite handily with the software at our disposal. Now, for the sake of this discussion, let's imagine that the area that we're looking at is already assembled in a county or city GIS. Many local governments have TONS of information that they've collected, from property descriptions to owner names to detailed information about property. Unfortunately (or so we think,) most of these local governments assemble and work with their GIS in a competitor's product. OK, I'll say it - they mostly use ESRI. Now, I'm not going to talk about the pros and cons of ESRI products vs. Autodesk Map 3D (at least not in this post), but I'm going to show you how this doesn't have to be a hurdle that you have to jump - you can use it too! Now, to use this ESRI data (which is in the SHP format), we've got two choices - well, with the 2007 release we do. We can go to the Map menu and select Import, then bring in the SHP file in question. However, it's now converted into DWG format and if we make any edits, we have to export to SHP file. That's OK, and how I've been doing it for years. However, Map 3D 2007 has a much better way of doing this using a Feature Source. You may be asking "What is a Feature Source?" AOTC Map 3D 2007 Essentials defines a feature source as the following:

A Feature Source is any source of spatial data that has been connected by means of feature data objects (FDOs). An FDO enables you to connect directly to SDF and raster data and databases that contain spatial data. No import or export is necessary to use the spatial data that resides in the original feature source.

What's great about Feature Sources? Since a Feature Source is just a representation of the data that you're working with, it renders on your screen very rapidly, allowing you to work far more efficiently. Feature sources can be sylized using the Display Manager, but that's a post for another day. However, one of the best things about a feature source is that we can edit the data (both vector and database) and save it to that file natively! No more import/export! Let's get to the meat of this discussion - how to use feature sources. First, of course, you need to have your Map Task Pane active. If it's not, or you can't find it, type MAPWSPACE in the command line. That should bring it up. Now, to connect to the data, you need to click on the Data button at the upper left of the Map Explorer portion of your Task Pane: (Hey, I finally got images to work in Blogger - it was an Internet Explorer issue - works fine in Firefox. Yet ANOTHER reason to use Firefox) Next, you'll want to connect to data - keep in mind that you're not IMPORTING data, but merely connecting to it. By connecting to it, you can view it and the data that it contains, edit it, and have it saved without ever doing an export or saveas. You'll use the following form to connect to data - simply choose the folder where your data resides: Once you connect to a folder, all the compatible data in that folder appears - for example, I'm connecting to SHP data, so all SHP files in the folder will be displayed. I now can check the ones that I want to connect to, and click add to map, as below: Once I've connected to it, you can see that the data is added to our drawing: Now, if we look in the Map Task Pane, we can see the data that we connected to listed at the very top: Now, to see the object data that is associated with this file, we need to select the data grid view. To select this, expand the data in your Map Task Pane and select the particular SHP file that you want to see the data for. Then, select GRID from the buttons above: This will bring up the grid view, as shown below: Now, select any bit of data that you'd like to edit, and edit away! This view is similar to a spreadsheet view, and can be edited easily: Note that there is no "SAVE" necessary. We've connected directly to this data and edited it in place. It's now saved DIRECTLY to the file. To edit the graphical (or vector) data, we can pick any particular piece, and use the tools on the DATA toolbar to check this vector data out and edit it, then check it back in. It's amazing how much functionality this gives us - the ability to connect directly to ESRI (and other) data, edit in place and always stay in sync with your GIS data is phenomenal. As usual, Have Fun!

Away From the Office

2006-06-27T23:00:00.000-05:00

I haven't forgotten about this place, and I'm glad to see so many people are still checking in on a daily basis - and people from places that I wouldn't expect....some domain names that are showing up are really surprising me. I'll say this - it's good to know that the "Mothership" is keeping tabs, but the competition is too.... Haven't updated lately because I've been out of the office teaching users all about Civil 3D. Late last week, I upgraded my laptop - I'm now running Civil 3D 2007 on Dell Precision M70 with 2 GB RAM and a 256 MB nVidia go1400 video card. So far, so good, but I haven't put it through all the paces just yet. This week, I'm in Chicago, IL, teaching another Civil 3D class. Been a rough day - delayed flights, lost luggage, bad directions...but it'll all be better tomorrow in the class. I'm still working on that big how-to post. Maybe I'll get it posted tomorrow night.

Rolling Out Civil 3D

2006-06-23T11:59:00.000-05:00

Thinking about rolling out Civil 3D? I get a lot of calls from people who've installed it and can't figure out what to do with it. There's a reason for that, people. Scott McEachron says it better than I ever could. Read his article here. By the way, I'm working on a rather long how-to right now regarding Feature Sources in Map 3D and Civil 3D. If I can ever get Blogger to post an image (I hate Blogger...), I'll get it up here. Stay tuned....

New Command for Civil 3D 2007

2006-06-16T11:21:00.000-05:00

This one is both undocumented and unsupported, so don't ask me any details. A user on the Civil 3D newsgroup wanted to know how to find object layers easily. Dan Philbrick (of the Friday Dan & Dave show fame...) mentioned a command called AecInspect. This gives object information, as well as object layer information. It won't get subcomponents, but could prove to be quite useful from time to time. Here's a sample result of a report on a surface that I have: Have fun!

IT'S HERE!!!

2006-06-16T07:53:00.000-05:00

Hey, I know I'm a day late. Gimme a break, I was on the road yesterday. Service Pack 1 for Civil 3D 2007 has been released. It's installed here, and I've noticed a little difference. From my perspective, grading is slightly faster, but still broken. I can crash it almost at will. Maybe one day.... *sigh* From the readme: This Service Pack resolves the following issues: General Memory usage has been improved when performing the following functions: labeling, masking of pipe objects, regenerating drawings, and plotting. Using the Alignment Grid View on multiple drawings no longer causes the program to close unexpectedly. Label text masking now plots as expected when using named plot styles. The text height on an xref label now scales as expected in a paper space viewport. An issue with zooming to a surface or to an assembly has been resolved. When you open a drawing that has been migrated from Autodesk Civil 3D 2006 to Autodesk Civil 3D 2007, the Display tab of the Profile Style dialog box now displays the 3D Chain component type in the Component Display list. An issue with drawings not showing existing ground profiles due to alignments containing problematic geometry has been resolved. Alignments Clicking on a parcel area label now responds as expected. Tangents displayed in a horizontal geometry profile band are now correctly represented (displayed and annotated) as tangents instead of curves. When two or more station equations are added to an alignment, the profile view data band now reflects accurate station values. Corridor Slope values for the following subassemblies now migrate correctly: LinkOffsetAndSlope, LinkSlopeAndVerticalDeflection, LinkSlopeToElevation, LinkSlopeTo Surface, LinkWidthAndSlope. When creating cul-de-sacs that are modeled with the corridor object, the offset from the arc now computes correctly when the offset point is located at exact center of the arc. Accessing the Subassembly Properties dialog box no longer causes the program to become unresponsive. Civil 3D 2006 drawings containing subassemblies with slope values now open successfully. Grading Transitions using relative elevation criteria are now created correctly. Previously, the projections were sometimes created with incorrect distances. Several issues that prevented drawings containing problematic grading geometry from opening have been resolved. A performance issue with grading into a surface has been resolved. For example, grading a pond into a surface now completes in a more acceptable amount of time. Pasting a grading surface into a corridor surface then saving now responds as expected. An issue with opening a drawing containing grading feature lines, after closing another drawing, has been resolved. Pipes An issue with pipes in a Profile View when connected structures are displayed as a solid has been resolved. Note that in the Structure Style dialog box, the "Enable part masking" check box is now hidden when the structure is being displayed as a solid. It is recommended that you use the Display as boundary option in the Profile tab of the Structure Style dialg box. The performance of this option is significantly faster than when the Display as solid option is used. Note that the Display as boundary option is the default for new styles, but existing styles from Autodesk Civil3D 2006 are set to Display as solid. An issue with structures displaying as blocks in Profile Views has been resolved. Masking now works as expected. Points Points modified in the Prospector tree and drawn by point groups other than the All Points point group now update appropriately. An issue with using the Point Editor to change point styles, point label styles, or point layers has been resolved. The Point Editor now responds appropriately when you change these items. An issue with opening a new drawing using a 2006 drawing template has been resolved. Drawings that have an external data reference in the point settings can now be updated successfully. Quantity Takeoff Reports Calculating volumes when more than one material is a structure type now works correctly. Incremental volume values for materials in the Select Materials reports are now reported correctly. Fill factors are now applied correctly for structure type materials and material areas. Switching the type for a material in the Material List tab of the Sample Line Group Properties dialog box now works as expected. The program responds as expected when deleting shapes from materials and adding shapes to materials in the Material List tab of the Sample Line Group Properties dialog box. Volume tables now display accurate values for structure type materials, and also react dynamically when editing volume related information. The list of available corridor shapes now displays accurately in the Select Corridor Shape list in the Quantity Takeoff Criteria dialog box. Survey Modifying and updating multiple dependent Survey Networks now produces accurate results. When inserting figures into a drawing with different zones, the program no longer closes unexpectedly. When creating a figure from 3D objects in the drawing, vertex elevations displayed during an inverse or mapcheck now display accurately. When using the Export to Field Book command, figures that are created from objects containing non-tangent curves using the Create From Object command, now export and re-import correctly. The Traverse Analysis command now finds the closing side under the following circumstances: A closed loop traverse is run where the starting station's coordinates are known and a reference direction and observations to the final station are taken. The traverse proceeds to the last station where closing observations are taken to the first station. For a four-sided traverse, the definition is as follows: Initial station = 1 Initial backsight = 4 Stations = 2-4 Final foresight = 1 An issue with saving changes made to Equipment items in the Survey Toolspace Item View has been resolved. Icons displayed in the Survey Points collection now accurately represent the current state of items in the Control Points collection. The Survey tab now opens as expected in Toolspace when you use a survey command. Issues with zooming or panning to an object from the Prospector or Survey tab when a UCS is in use in the drawing have been resolved. This Service Pack also includes resolution for the following AutoCAD issue: Saving or autosaving a drawing file results in a fatal error followed by the CER dialog. This issue occurs randomly. Have fun!

Secret Video

2006-06-14T16:53:00.000-05:00

OK, this is a breaking exclusive...you won't find this anywhere else. This is actual video of a typical Civil 3D user. Sorry, I've got to break up the learning with a little humor from time to time....which is why I always say: Have Fun!

MDI In Land Desktop?

2006-06-13T15:10:00.000-05:00

I've been proven wrong twice today... I was contacted yesterday by a user, Keith Kempker, about whether Land Desktop could be run in MDI mode (Multiple Document Interface). Well, no, it never has been able to, why now? Well, it seems as if there is a option on the System tab of Options in Land Desktop that allows you to run in SDI mode or MDI. I dismissed it as being something in there as a holdover from AutoCAD, but no, it works. I got a report back from him today that said he did, in fact, have multiple drawings and multiple projects open at once. I verified this with James Wedding, who was sitting next to me at the time. My question was "HOW?" His answer - "Magic" Anyway, here's a screen shot so you'll know where to find it: Have Fun!

Where'd the Image Manager Go?

2006-06-13T11:06:00.000-05:00

If you're on any AutoCAD 2007-based product, you've likely seen the new External Refereneces window. In previous versions, we had one window for XREFS (referenced DWG files) and one window for Image references (raster images). With the inclusion of DWF references (yes, we can now reference a DWF file into our drawing - too cool!), Autodesk decided to merge all these managers into one relatively simple window to manage ALL references. If you're not on 2007, here's a preview of what that window looks like: Now, not everyone likes this new window. I spoke with a long-time AutoCAD user yesterday, Keith Kempker about this very thing. He was irate (yeah, that's the nice way to put it) that Autodesk took away his Image Manager window. He was so irate, in fact, that he went off in search of his missing Image Manager window. Luckily for him, he found it on the AUGI Forums with the help of Tim Creary (I promised to give credit for this nice discovery.) In short, to get back your old Image Manager window, simply type CLASSICIMAGE at the command line - this brings back our old familiar interface: Have fun!

Speaking of Images

2006-06-12T11:55:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, I received an email from a person who has worked on creating and developing a pretty nice raster-to-vector conversion program. This program is called MagicTracer. I haven't done much testing on it, but what I've seen is very impressive. The install went smoothly, and was very straightforward. Since I haven't purchased the program, I can run it in a demo mode - this allows for 35 program uses, at a maximum of 12 hours per use (if I read it correctly). The interface is also pretty straightforward, and offers some very in-depth features. The program opens various raster image formats, although one negative that I saw was no Adobe PDF support. I get a LOT of drawings in PDF format that need to be converted to a vector format, so I'm wondering if this is something that could be added at a later time. Just to have something to do with it, I opened a topographic survey in Civil 3D 2007. I isolated the surface layer and then used SnagIt to do a screen capture of the surface and saved it as a TIFF file. Then, I created a new project in MagicTracer and opened the image file that I had created. Using the Vector menu "Vector Convert" command gave me a TON of options, some of which I had no idea what to do with. The first thing I did was turn on "Enable Real-Time Preview" so that I could see what I was doing. After changing a few options, I came up with a very reasonable conversion that wasn't too "out there". Smoothing was something that I didn't even attempt at this point. I also saw some very nice Raster editing functions in another menu, as well as image enhancements. At first glance, this seems to be a VERY powerful program. Even better is the price - at $49.95, this offers some nice raster conversion tools that you can't find in many other places. Try it out - I think you'll like it.

A Word About Images On This Website

2006-06-12T11:37:00.000-05:00

Blogger sometimes has issues with some of my images. I've spent the better part of the last hour trying to fix the last post. As a result, some of the images look TERRIBLE when viewed on this website. To see the full size image, simply click on that image, and it will display full-size. Have to be careful with my template layout - it can get pushed down the page VERY easily. And now, to try to put the hair that I just pulled out back in....

Volumes Can Be a Delicate Balancing Act

2006-06-12T10:17:00.000-05:00

What a catchy title ;) OK, many people have asked about balancing proposed surfaces in Civil 3D. So far, I've found how to do this, but I've had mixed results actually doing it. In other words, it crashes. A lot. I'm hoping this is fixed in the upcoming service pack. So let's look at what I've got - I have a 6 lot subdivision with an existing surface in it. I've imported some 2D polylines in that represent building pad locations. I've converted those polylines to feature lines, assigned elevations from my surface, and elevated the feature lines to the building pad elevation. I've also graded these building pads to the outside. One issue that I ran into when doing this is the face that create grading infill doesn't seem to work correctly. I've worked around this (somewhat) by grading to the inside at a very small relative elevation and very steep slope. 0.05' at a 1:1 slope filled in the inside of my grading quite nicely. This gives me a complete surface to balance. So here comes the fun - you can see where we're starting: Before we start, let's do a quick check of the volumes here. To do this, go to Surfaces>Utilities>Volumes. Select your base surface (EG here) and your comparison surface, and it will do a quick check of the volumes for you: OK, to get started, let's go to our Grading menu. Next, select Grading Utilities, and then Grading Volume Tools. This will bring up the following window/toolbar: The first thing we need to do is select the grading group that we're trying to balance. Note that this will only work if you already have a grading group defined and graded. Now, we have two different ways that we can balance our volumes - we can input a value and raise/lower the surface manually, or we can automatically balance the surface. Here's a screen shot showing how to raise/lower the surface manually: The other way is to automatically balance the surface. This will bring up indow that asks for the required volume - set it to 0 and it should balance the volumes: Please remember that grading, whereas more stable than 2006, is still buggy. I have issues with it every day. This may work for you, it may not. As with almost everything in Civil 3D, please save your drawing before performing any functions that require intense calculations (and boy, does this one require intense calculation). Have fun!

Santa's Delayed

2006-06-12T08:20:00.000-05:00

In keeping with the theme.... OK, sorry I haven't updated lately. Combine client meetings, a really bad summer head cold, fire department fund-raisers, and the death of a really close friend, and I just haven't been here lately. I had a good how-to ready to post on Thursday (balancing grading groups), but Blogger was acting weird and deleted my post before I could get there. I'll try to get it posted today. Now, with all that bad news, I also found out some other bad news last week: SP1 for Civil 3D 2007 has been delayed to a tentative release of Wednesday, June 14. You can believe that I'll be posting as soon as it's available (if Blogger can keep their stuff together...)

It's Almost Christmas Again

2006-06-05T09:57:00.000-05:00

OK, not really. Remember my post that talked about how the delivery of Civil 3D 2007 was like Christmas? Well, coming up soon is the day that Santa delivers the nuts and bolts that hold my shiny new bike together ;-) Yes, there is a tentative date of June 12th. It was announced during last Friday's webcast. Please note that the date is tentative. In other news, there is a service pack for Map 3D 2007. This service pack will help with general program performance enhancement and maintenance fixes. Just installed it on my machine. It should be noted that this service pack is intended for the Map 3D 2007 program, not any of the other programs built on top of Map 3D. In other words, it won't work for Land Desktop or Civil 3D, so don't try installing it there. Have fun!

Vault for Advanced Users

2006-06-01T09:41:00.000-05:00

Two links - in my discussion this morning with our DM ICE guy (Data Management Implementation Certified Expert) in the office, he told me about two very good white papers on Vault. I've looked them over, and they can really assist you in your implementation of the program. The first is Advanced Configuration Guide for Autodesk Data Management Server. As the title implies, it's an Advanced Configuration Guide, so it may be over your head if you're just diving into this pool. It does offer some very good information, though. The second is link tells you all about installing SQL Express - very important if you're concerned with the "limitations" (or perceived limitations) of MSDE that ships with Civil 3D. You can find it here. OK, I've got two more links - I like to give and give, so enjoy.... Best Practices for Implementing Autodesk Vault And, Autodesk Vault: White Papers. Please note that most (if not all) of these links reference Autodesk Inventor. Vault was designed to work with Inventor, and was recently adopted to work with Civil 3D. Rest assured, however, that most of the same principles still apply here - and, as it says in the Best Practices for Implementing Autodesk Vault, this is a very intricate program to attempt to implement, so it would be better for you if you contact someone (your reseller, or a consultant) who is qualified to help with this process.

Some Good Words on Vault

2006-06-01T08:52:00.000-05:00

OK, I try not to copy what the other industry gurus are posting - if we all post the same thing, then why would you want to visit all our sites? ;) So I'm not going to do that today. However, I do want to point you to James Wedding's blog, because he has some really good things to say about Vault. Call it a "Best Management Practices" for Vault. He and I talked about some of his thoughts regarding Vault yesterday. Of course, I can't argue with him, since I haven't done a major install like he has. And boy, has he done a major install. Wow, the problems he's had - I've talked with him and his customer, and they deserve a medal for what they went through (both of 'em!) I asked him a few questions - actually, very few, because I was able to answer most of my questions as I typed them, and realized that he's right. Even playing Devil's Advocate, I wasn't able to get one around him. He also talks about FUD. What's FUD? No, not the guy hunting wabbits on my kid's TV. FUD stands for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. It's what we feel when we embrace new technology, especially if we don't take the time to really research it fully. I've been seeing a ton of FUD in the past few weeks since Civil 3D 2007 came out. Yes, it's a new way of working and thinking, but I think it's a truly good way of working and thinking. If we get rid of the FUD, forget everything we know, and get to working with the program, then the light will dawn and we'll all realize that we've got one helluva tool here to work with.

New Civil 3D White Papers Available

2006-05-31T14:54:00.000-05:00

Do you check out the available white papers for Civil 3D? They're quite often full of very useful, detailed information. The last one I read was Using Autodesk Civil 3D for Hydrologic and Hydraulic Tasks, and I give it out to all my classes now. If you're a fan of the white papers, then you'll like this news - there are now two new ones available on the Civil 3D Website - one on raster imagery, and another on enhanced Land XML support and functionality. Here's a brief synopsis of each one: Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 LandXML Support LandXML interoperability is the preferred method of sharing civil engineering and survey data between users, software applications, and government agencies around the world. Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 provides the highest level of support for the entire LandXML-1.1 data model. This white paper details the new and expanded LandXML import/export functionality of Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 software, as well as changes from previous versions of Civil 3D. Getting the Most out of Raster Imagery in Autodesk Civil 3D Learn how by combining the powerful raster editing and conversion tools in Autodesk Raster Design with the comprehensive suite of site design tools in Autodesk Civil 3D, you can incorporate just about any data type, visualize your solutions, and get the maximum use from your data in 3D. Have fun!

Off The Road, and Deleting Styles

2006-05-31T13:19:00.000-05:00

Well, it's nice to finally be off the road. Thanks to all the customers that I met this past month, and hopefully the new customers that I met as well! I'm busy, busy, busy now, working on a TON of Civil 3D implementation services and preparing for the new Civil 3D 2007 classes. I'm really going to focus this summer on more "advanced" training - more than just the essentials. That's right, my customers ask for it, and I aim to deliver. Now, for a little tip. Part of any good implementation is creating styles and templates, and that's what I'm looking at for the next few weeks. One issue that has come up was also in the Civil 3D newsgroup today - how do I delete more than one style at a time in my template? It's not as fast as I'd like, but here's a way to delete multiple styles in one click, so to speak. First of all, open your template. Now, go to the setting tab in toolspace. Select any style category, and expand it. For my example, I'm going to use surface styles. Once you expand that tree, you'll notice all your styles, and they also are populated in the preview pane as well. In Toolspace, we can't select multiple styles for deletion, BUT....you can select multiples in the preview pane! Select them using either the control or the shift keys on your keyboards, and do with them as you please (but be gentle - styles are so important to us that we don't want to mistreat them!) Here's a screen shot, just in case you need the overall picture: Have Fun!

Enhanced Google Earth Compatibility

2006-05-25T17:04:00.000-05:00

No, I don't have dementia quite yet - I'm not re-writing articles here on the website. In tomorrow's Civil 3D webcast, the team will announce the availability of the new Civil 3D 2007 Extension for Google Earth. Tomorrow will also be a preview of that functionality. I haven't had time to test it yet, but here are some of the reported key features: - Take complete control over the data you want to publish and how you want it to display including symbology and elevation - Add layers of available Google Earth data including buildings, transportation systems, roads, etc to view your project within the context of the surrounding area - Publish Civil 3D objects as Google Earth placemarks allowing you to quickly locate and navigate to a specific place on your project site -Create drive-throughs along road centerlines and save snapshot views of your project site from different vantage points - Associate points in your Civil 3D model with realistic 3D content (in KML format) such as light poles along a street, houses, or cars - Publish your data using the coordinate system already specified in your drawing, pick from over 100 coordinate systems at publishing time, or apply a user-defined coordinate system. For clarification, this is different from the EXPORTTOGOOGLEEARTH command that I wrote about previously. This is a new wizard-driven application that lets users publish Civil 3D objects and metadata including points, parcels, alignments, corridor models, surfaces, and hydraulic networks directly to Google Earth. It’s much more powerful and flexible than the command within Civil 3D. To install the Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 Extension for Google Earth, you must have Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 already installed. You also need to have Google Earth installed. You can download Google Earth here. The Extension for Google Earth works with the free version of Google Earth as well as with Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro. You can view the Readme File here. You can download the extension here. As always, Have Fun!

Converting Files (Part Deux)

2006-05-23T21:02:00.000-05:00

OK, this tip/hint was given to me today by one of my readers named Erik Johnson. He had a great tip, but it didn't really fit into what the whole thought process was behind my last article. New to 2007 is a Batch Converter. It can be found in the File pulldown menu, located here: What's great about this converter is that it can do multiple files and, most importantly, gives you numerous options for saving it. You can change the units of the converted drawing, explode Civil 3D objects, give the converted files a prefix or a suffix, choose what version to save to, and even bind (with the option to insert) your xreferenced files. This is a very slick routine. Here's a look at the interface: I did get a message warning me that saving older AEC objects was not supported. Not that important, but something to be aware of... Have fun!

What if I'm not on 2007?

2006-05-23T09:37:00.000-05:00

I quite often hear grousing from customers (and non-customers) regarding the file format change in 2007. They all say that Autodesk is forcing them to upgrade by throwing in this file format change, and to that I say "Hogwash" (hey, there's a southern term for you!) So, what if you're stuck on R14 and your consultant is on the bleeding edge of technology? Ask the consultant to save the file down (and get grousing from that consultant, and embarrass yourself in the process?) Not anymore! I'd look into a program called DWG TrueConvert. You can download it FOR FREE (I know my customers love that word...) from Autodesk. Now, I download it (not that big...) and open the program. Here's the interface: Now, I can go over and add a file to this program by clicking the "ADD" button. I can even add multiple files and do a BATCH CONVERT!!! (I get excited over the simplest things...) Now, I've added 5 drawings to this, from various file formats. I can convert to any DWG format (well, at least back to R14), convert digitally signed drawings, create a backup (.BAK) file, convert pen width settings to lineweights, and include page setups. There is a nice warning up top (read warnings, they ususally warn you of something that might not be good...) that tells me that the converted drawings will replace the originals. As with any drawing modifications, I always copy my files before I alter them, and you should too. Click on Convert, and they're done! Have fun!

How to Delete a Project in Vault

2006-05-22T20:49:00.000-05:00

Well, it's the last week of our whirlwind month-long tour to roll out the 2007 line of Autodesk products. It's been fun. I've met a lot of people, and sold a ton of services. That's great for me - keeps me busy. As it is right now, I'm booked well into July for Civil 3D classes and implementations. One of the issues I see talked about the most in the Civil 3D newsgroups is the "big 800 pound gorilla" (to coin a phrase) that we call The Vault. Now, Vault has been around for a long time, and will likely be around for a long time to come. People are complaining, people are really struggling with implementing it, and people are drinking themselves to death because of it. I think it's a great tool that people will eventually wonder how they did without it. I'm going to help a few people out here with some gray hair with a little tip. Sometimes, we create a project that we just don't need. Maybe we're practicing, maybe we're testing, or maybe we just didn't get that job that we worked on. Whatever the case, it's time to delete a project. It's a straightforward process that can cause people to really scratch their heads, though. How do we do this? Simple! We go to the Vault Explorer. That should be installed with your Civil 3D install, and will be located in Autodesk>Autodesk Data Management in your Start Menu. Here's what the interface looks like: You'll see that I have two projects - Autodesk CER Test Project and Civil Acres. Well, I'd like to delete Civil Acres, so I go to it, right-click on it, and select Delete to get rid of the project. Fairly straightforward, no? Only one problem: Uh-Oh. We can't delete it. Or can we? What's this button in the lower right corner that says "Details?" Let's click and see... OK, in this window we can see that there are issues with some items that can't be deleted. This is because the file hasn't been checked in. We'll look at how to do that later, but for right now, we want to look at the box at the bottom - it says to Ignore Restrictions (delete unconditionally) OK, this is exactly what we want to do - so check that box and hit the "Close" button. Our project is now deleted! Have fun!

Creating Pipe Network Interference Checks

2006-05-17T21:37:00.000-05:00

Have you been looking for an interference checker for Civil 3D? Well, your long search is over, because it's here in the 2007 release. Here's a short how-to on using it: First, I've drawn two pipe networks. For this example, I have a sanitary sewer line that has a storm sewer crossing it. Where I'm from, storm sewer and sanitary sewer have to have a minimum distance between them of 5 feet. So what I'd like to do is see if there are any interferences anywhere in this network. I've done a simple one, but this works for multiple pipes in the same network (i.e., I can check along an entire sanitary network for crossing pipes.) Here's my design example: Now, I'd like to see if there are any interferences along that pipe network, so I go to Pipes>Interference Check. The program asks me to select a part from each network that I'd like to check, so I pick the sanitary line and the storm line. That brings up the following box: This shows that we have both networks selected, and an interference style applied. To view my interference areas, all I like to see if just a marker that shows where the interference is. The most important part of the interference check is to set up your proximity distance - this is done with this button: Once I pick that button, I can select to apply a 3D proximity check. This will not only tell me if I have one pipe hitting another, but tell if there is a pipe with "X" distance of my pipe. I'm going to apply a proximity check and set it to 5' here in this box: Now, I click OK, then OK once more, and the program starts crunching. After a few seconds, it tells me that I have one interference: Now, the problem is finding the interferences once they're detected. In this example, I know just where the interference is (hey, I created it), but what if we didn't know where, or if we had a lot of interferences? We go to our Prospector tab of Toolspace, and go down to Pipe Networks. When we expand that tree, we see Networks and Interference Checks. Expand Interference Checks and then highlight the interference check that you just created. Then, in that window, right click on the interference and select Zoom To: Now we can see where our interference is, and edit from there: Have fun!

While I'm On The Subject of Settings...

2006-05-16T22:16:00.000-05:00

OK, you all know that you can change the styles of objects and labels. However, let's say that you create this new surface style that you have named "Our Company Contour Standard" that you want to have applied to every style that you create. How do you do this? Do you just pick it each time you create your surface? What if you could have it as the default style? Well, good news, because you definitely can do this. Once again tonight, we're working on the Settings tab of our Toolspace. Note that this technique will work on almost any type of Civil 3D object, but we're going to use Surfaces for this example. Go to Surface and expand the tree there. At the very bottom of that group, you'll see an item called Commands. Expand this - this is where we're going to edit the command that we use to create our surface. In case you're lost, here it it: Now, we're going to edit the CreateSurface command. Right click on that command, and select Edit Command Settings. Now, a very familiar box pops up (especially if you worked through the previous tip). The 5th option here in this list is Default Styles. If you expand that tree, you can edit the styles that are applied each and every time you create a surface: If you're brave, browse in this window and see what else you can modify - you can select your build options, or the type of surface that you create each time. As always, Have Fun!

That Pesky Event Viewer Window

2006-05-16T21:58:00.000-05:00

The Event Viewer in Civil 3D is a pretty useful feature. It shows you "events" - if you create a data reference, it lets you know. If you have errors, or something wrong with your drawing, it lets you know. If certain events happen (crossing breaklines on a surface, for instance), it will let you know, and also let you zoom to that area where you're having the problem. However, sometimes it seems like it shows TOO MUCH information. For my purposes, I like to keep it turned off. The good news is that this is a drawing-specific setting. To access it, you go to the Settings tab of your Toolspace, right click on the drawing name, and select Edit Drawing Settings. In the dialog box that comes up, select Ambient Settings. In the property list below, expand the GENERAL tree. The third option down allows you to turn off the event viewer. Here's an illustration: Have fun!

Yet Another Civil 3D Blog

2006-05-16T21:02:00.000-05:00

This one comes from Dana Breig Probert from Cadapult. She's a frequent poster on the Autodesk Civil 3D discussion group, and frankly, I was wondering when she'd start a blog ;) Welcome Dana - I look forward to reading!

I just hit the 10,000 mark!

2006-05-16T10:49:00.000-05:00

After 282 hits so far this morning, I've surpassed 10,000 hits. Yes, in less than 3 months of this blog being online, we've had 10,000 page loads. Now, a guy with a big ego would be proud that he was so popular. However, I'm happy that so many people are interested in Civil 3D. To me, that means job security. So, to all my faithful readers, thank you very much for your support. And for anyone else, please let me know if I can help you and your company with implementing Civil 3D.

Any HP 48GX Users Out There?

2006-05-15T16:08:00.000-05:00

(Can you tell I'm finally in the office for a day? I've got time to update my blog!) OK, my first introduction to this industry was by a crusty old surveyor many many moons (and lots of "skeeters", thorn bushes, and swamps) ago, and that's made me a crusty old surveyor (at heart, anyway). I remember field notes in field books (no fancy data collector for me!), the HP41 "garage door opener" data collector, and finally, when I thought it could get no better, we got the HP 48GX with TDS Survey Pro data collection software. I was in heaven, and could operate that thing in my sleep. I knew where the shortcut keys were without even looking, and could literally collect data with the collector on the other side of the "gun" than I was. I thought I was hot stuff...then they came along with the TDS Ranger and Recon - TDS on a Windows-based platform, what the heck!?! Nice.... I know that most of you survey people have upgraded to that wonderful Windows-based collection system. However, there are still some people still out there using the old trusty 48GX. I fully understand - it was a good solution, that's for sure. Well, good news - survey functionality is included in Civil 3D now! Sadly, however, the TDS software that we're so used to seeing is no longer going to be available. Due to TDS being purchased by Trimble and the number of people downloading data using MS ActiveSync, it's just not going to be offered. If you still use that HP 48GX, you're going to have to use an older method of downloading your data collector, or update your collector. Sorry...it's a sad, sad day here for the crusty old surveyor-types.

Civil 3D 2007 Crashing on Save?

2006-05-15T15:52:00.000-05:00

Is your Civil 3D 2007 crashing every time you save or the program does an autosave? This is apparently a major headache over on the Autodesk newsgroups, and there is a workaround. Here's what to do: Open your drawing template (.DWT) file. At the command prompt, type PROXYGRAPHICS and hit enter. Next, type 0 and then hit enter again. Now, save your template file. Oh, and do this for any and all template files you may have. Have fun!

Another New Civil 3D Blog

2006-05-15T09:11:00.000-05:00

I've added another link to the right - Dave Dixon is writing "DCA to Civil 3D." Another blog by a user promises to give a fresh outlook, and isn't just some of us people "selling something" ;)

The days are running together

2006-05-11T21:43:00.000-05:00

When you're out on the road this much, the days tend to run together. Luckily, our crew gets along really well (we're like family), and can travel together. Two more weeks on the road, then I've got an extremely busy June planned, with several Civil 3D Implementations, classes, and consulting projects. If you're looking for a Civil 3D class (or Map 3D, I'm teaching it as well), check out the ALACAD Training Website. Since I've had a little (VERY little) spare time in the evenings, I've been spending some time in the Autodesk discussion groups, especially the Civil 3D newsgroup. I've made a few observations, a few allies, and a few enemies. Yes, I'm a very outspoken fan of Civil 3D. Yes, I work for a reseller. However, I'm not out selling this software - I'm selling ways to make this software work for YOU. Are there issues with the software? Yes. Several people have reported serious crashes when saving drawings. I personally haven't seen this, but I'm sure that many people can't be wrong. Yes, certain features are still missing. I'm not going to get into those issues. What I am going to do is challenge you to go through one project with Civil 3D. You'll have to work around certain issues, and there may be some things that you actually have to think about. But once you do this, let me know if Civil 3D is really the horrible product some people seem to think it is. I personally compare it to three other products - products that I have personal industry experience with: Eagle Point, Microstation with Inroads, and Land Desktop. OK, that's not quite honest - I can't compare those products because there's no comparison! I see people in the newsgroups bashing the Civil 3D development team. I have to say, I don't think there's a better team at Autodesk. They're doing a great job getting a product out in a deadline and then take a bashing because something's missing. Personally, I really believe the yearly release cycle is hurting the software. Notice I didn't say that it was hurting Autodesk - I'm sure profits are pretty high for the shareholders. However, rushing to get the software release out before all the problems are addressed doesn't help you the customer. Dave, Dan, et al, you've got my utmost respect. You're doing one heckuva job. Go ahead, blast away. And once you're finished ranting, ask me how I can help you. It doesn't matter where you are, we can work with you to implement the software.

Vault Isn't Just for Large Businesses

2006-05-10T07:29:00.000-05:00

OK, there is a multitude of information on various industry blogs regarding Vault. Yes, it's new. Yes, it works. Yes, it's different. Yes, there are things that you should really be aware of. Most people are thinking that Vault is a large-scale application for large user bases. It can be, but I'm here to emphasize that it can be used for small companies, even those rare "one person" shops. Yes, data management is just as important to one person as it is to a 100 person team. Here's my method, and how well it works for me. I've installed the Vault server on my laptop (localhost in your setup). I also have the client on my laptop. Now, when I work on a large scale project (a subdivision, for example) I use the Vault for the project functionality. For example, I'll create a project and then create a drawing to start off that project. As I create data that can be broken out into other drawings, I add that data to my project. Now, I can create multiple drawings for my project, which REALLY speeds up the performance of my projects. It's a little different, but once you get used to it, it's almost a transparent way of working. If you'd like more information on getting Vault set up, please email me. I consider it a very important pard of a Civil 3D Implementation, and would love to work with you on it.

What those other guys do

2006-05-08T22:21:00.000-05:00

Tonight, as my co-workers and I sat on the riverfront in Chattanooga, Tennessee eating our dessert of Cold Stone Creamery (heaven in a styrofoam cup, I'm telling you...), I was looking around at the impressive architectural feats that surrounded me. From the very impressive building housing the Creamery, to the Chattanooga Aquarium next door, some of the most beautiful architecture in the Southeast is right here in Chattanooga. As our VP of Building Systems told us that he'd worked on designing the very building that we're standing in, I was most impressed. That's why I link to his blog. It's called Knowing What You Don't Know about CAD, and is a very valuable resource to Building Systems readers - go and check him out. He and I pick on each other constantly (as architectural types and civil types so often do), but he's definitely a shining star in his profession. Like I said, check him out - even a "dirt guy" like me learns something from him.

New Civil 3D Blog - In the Trenches

2006-05-08T12:23:00.000-05:00

OK, I've added another Civil 3D resource to my links (over there) - it's written by Stephen Sherrill, and will hopefully be a great resource in our neverending quest for Civil 3D knowledge - the title of this post also links you there. I found this on The Swamp, a CAD forum that proves to be pretty informative. I was listed there as one of the many Civil 3D blogs that have popped up lately. And yes, I am definitely selling something, but the information I give out here is always free, and will remain so. Drop me a comment if you'd like me to cover a specific topis or if you'd like to see a change in the way I do things. Have fun!

Exporting Civil 3D to Google Earth

2006-05-06T15:15:00.000-05:00

Hi Folks! I've been on the road - and am exhausted. 4 cities in 4 days, and get to start all over next week. To all the customers I've met this past week, it's been a blast. From the feedback I'm receiving in my rollout presentations, there's a significant interest in Civil 3D, as well as a much higher than normal interest in training. OK, so you mainly come here for tips, and I aim to please. So, here goes...did you know that you can export Civil 3D data to Google Earth? Well, neither did I until I received an email today from Anthony Governanti explaining how to do this - and yes, he gave his permission for this to be posted. Here's the process: 1) Assign a coordinate system to your drawing. It's best to use the same coordinate system as the DEM or surface that you're working with. 2) Create a new surface definition. 3) Add a DEM file to your surface definition. This is best because DEM file data closely approximates the surfaces used by Google Earth. Be sure to transform the DEM to the coordinates set in the drawing setup. 4) Create your civil design, including alignments, vertical profiles, assemblies, and corridors. 5) Create a top surface for the corridor. The next command is hard coded to use the first surface in the list, so there's no need to create more than one surface. 6) (Here's the secret) Run the EXPORTGOOGLEEARTH command. If you're calling this command from a routine or a button, you can use aeccexportgoogleearth. 7) Select the corridor, then name and save the file. To access your Civil 3D Data in Google Earth: 1) Open Google Earth. 2) From the File menu, select OPEN. 3) Select the .KML file that was created above in step 7. Have fun!

For the People who HAVEN'T Heard about Autodesk MAP 3D

2006-04-28T14:58:00.000-05:00

I was sent this today by Rich Tate, our Autodesk State and Local Government Sales Manager. It's the Map Adviser - and one of the best marketing efforts I've seen coming from Autodesk. Unsure if Map 3D could help you? Check out the Map Adviser. If you do, and you've ever heard of the game "You Don't Know Jack" I'd like to see if you think there's a comparison ;) Have fun!

New Tool Available to Civil 3D Users!

2006-04-28T14:51:00.000-05:00

I try very hard not to copy what other people are putting on their industry blogs, but I've got to do it this time - this is too important for my readers to miss! To be fair, I'm giving thanks where thanks is due - this came from Angel's website. Autodesk has introduced something new on their website JUST for Civil 3D users - Autodesk Civil 3D Skill Builders. That's right - not only are the folks at Autodesk putting out a wonderful product, they're helping us to learn how to use a great tool even more effectively! Once again, you can find the Autodesk Civil 3D Skill Builders HERE! (Did you notice all the links? I really want you to go and check this one out!) As of today, the only skill builder available is the Superelevation skill builder, but more should be added soon. The skill builder contains a PDF that shows you how to do the skill, and the dataset to do it with. One word to describe this - AWESOME!

Hitting the Road

2006-04-28T14:47:00.000-05:00

Well, next week will be spent touring parts of the Southeast to rollout the new features of Autodesk 2007 products. Next week will find me in Jackson, MS, Memphis, TN, Birmingham, AL, and Montgomery, AL. If you're planning on attending, please introduce yourself to me - I'll have some time while our structural group does their presentations, and am more than willing to talk shop! Have a great weekend!

Don't Feed the DUCS

2006-04-26T07:42:00.000-05:00

Two tips this morning, both involving the word "Dynamic:" 1) A new feature of Civil 3D 2007 is called Dynamic UCS. This allows people using the 3D features of AutoCAD to change the UCS Dynamically (well, at least the name makes sense!) For example, let's say that I drew a box in AutoCAD. With DUCS turned on, I can hover over any side of the box, and my UCS will temporarily change to be relative to that face. This is pretty neat, and something I've had fun playing with (I also teach a 3D Drawing and Modeling class on occasion). However, being Civil-minded people, we all know that a change in UCS could prove BAD for the type of work that we do. As such, I'm suggesting that it be turned OFF. 2) If you didn't already know this...AutoCAD 2006 introduced the concept of "Heads-Up" design with Dynamic Input. This effectively put everything that could appear on the command line to be near your crosshairs. Again, great feature for AutoCAD, bad for Civil 3D. Some of the options that we need to choose on the command line in Civil 3D just don't quite make the jump to the dynamic input area. Again, I'm suggesting that DYN (conveniently located right next to DUCS!) be turned off. As a matter of fact, remove these buttons from your screen so you don't turn them on by mistake. Have fun!

It's Christmas!

2006-04-25T12:25:00.000-05:00

In April, you ask? Well, the guy in Brown (UPS) brought me a box yesterday. It had that nice green color and said "Civil 3D 2007" on it. HOORAY! My Bootcamp (beta) version would not uninstall! What? Nothing I could do would make it uninstall. So, it was a manual uninstall. To make things even more fun, I decided that this would be a great time to give my laptop a fresh start, and get rid of all Autodesk products on it. After a lot of manual deletion, registry editing (my office chair has a pronounced wrinkle in it now...) and general sweating and swearing, I got it clean. I'm installing the 2007 line of Audesk ISD programs right now - on my other laptop, checking in here. Good luck with your install - remember, your package will only have 2 discs in it this time rather than the 4 that we're used to. Civil 3D ships on one DVD and Land Desktop ships on another DVD. You can go online to request CD's if you need to.

How do I give my surface to an AutoCAD user?

2006-04-25T12:11:00.000-05:00

You know, Civil 3D objects are great. I absolutely love them - the ways that I can work with them, display them, and tweak them are simply incredible. However, for someone wanting to view Civil 3D objects who DOESN'T have Civil 3D, that ends up being a nightmare. Take a topo for example. You often have to ship it out, maybe to an architectural group running ADT. If you export to AutoCAD, you get nice contours. However, upon further inspection, you find that they're polylines, and they're all at a 0 elevation!!! That's not good - what on earth would someone do with contours that are at an elevation of 0? "Not much" is the correct answer, by the way. To get your surface into plain AutoCAD, you're going to have to do something bad...something that we never like to do. You're going to need to EXPLODE your surface. What's more, you're going to have to explode your surface TWICE! Yes, one litle stick of dynamite won't do it, you're going to have to do it twice. Exploding once retains the object, doing it twice explodes it to 2D polylines (with the correct elevation) and labels intact. Now, and only now are you ready to export your drawing to AutoCAD. Oh, and here's a tip: Don't explode your good surface. That would make it useless to YOU, and that's certainly a bad idea. Copy your surface! How to do this? It's as easy as using the AutoCAD "COPY" command - just select a base point of 0,0,0 and a copy point of 0,0,0 (or a displacement of 0) and you've got a copy of your surface over in Prospector that you can explode to your heart's content. Have fun!

Customizing The Double-Click

2006-04-24T11:45:00.000-05:00

This one doesn't really fall into the category of Civil 3D, but is a feature of AutoCAD 2007. Now you can assign what happens when you double-click an object, based on what that object is. From the Civil 3D 2007 help file:

Double click actions are used to make editing commands accessible when the cursor is positioned over an object in a drawing and a double-click is registered from a pointing device. The double click actions are object type sensitive, allowing you to set up a specific command to use for a specific object type.

Now, to make it clear as mud, let me give you a scenario. Let's say that you normally double-click on an image in AutoCAD to display the Image Adjust dialog box. But you want to shortcut and turn on the TFRAMES system variable - you go into your acad.cui file and expand the Double-Click Actions tree, then scroll down to the Image entry. If you expand that, you will find the macro that is attached to that double-click action. Currently (out of the box), it's set to the IMAGEADJUST macro. You can change that macro to ^C^C_TFRAMES to change the double-click functionality to toggle TFRAMES - here's a shot of it (click on it to enlarge): This is a nice addition to AutoCAD. Everything's been preset before for us, but now we can change what those preset functions are - sweet! More on some new features of the CUI later. Until then, have fun!

Dynamic Notes in C3D 2007

2006-04-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

Today's Dave and Dan Show was all about new production drafting capabilities in Civil 3D 2007. Again, I gotta tell you people, these weekly webcasts are like a gold mine. They're short, they're incredibly informative, and best of all, they're FREE! What more can you ask for. A new feature in C3D 2007 is dynamic notes. They're very nice, and I've got some samples to show. What's even nicer is the inclusion of REFERNCE TEXT - yes, I can create any style note that references object data. For example: Here's a spot elevation: What's so special about it? A few things make this note stand out - first of all, notice the background mask on it. (note: ok, so you can't see my background contours so well in this image. Trust me, there's contours there, and they're masked!) Yes, I can mask the contours with my label now. And once I insert one label, all I have to do is copy it and place new ones anywhere I want to. And what happens if I move it? The elevation updates, of course! Sweet! Here's a general note: Again, note the background mask (which can be turned off if you want it to. And changing the text contained in the note is as simple as right clicking on the note, and clicking "Edit Lable Text" This allows a note, or "dumb text" to have the automatic resizing effects that other labels do when you change your viewport scale. The last label that we're going to look at is a label that contains reference text. This is where new labels really shine. Let's say that I want to label the intersection of two alignments. I've created a note style that references the station of each alignment and the alignment name. Here's a sample: The good news is that they aren't that hard to set up, providing you have a pretty good grasp of label style creation. Email me if you'd like more information on creating these new label styles. Have fun!

Simple Marketing

2006-04-19T12:42:00.000-05:00

How'e this for marketing - think customers will get the message?

Back to the Grind

2006-04-17T08:34:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back here at the office for two weeks, getting ready for our 2007 product rollouts. Once again, if you work in the Southeastern United States, please go here to find out when we'll be coming to a city near you and also to register! Hey, c'mon, who wouldn't want to see my smiling face at 8 AM? ;) I know this is my work blog, but a little personal info about me so you'll know why I'm dragging a little this morning - in my "spare time" (what is that?), I'm the Chief of a Fire Department, President of the County Volunteer Fire Association (11 member departments), and President of a 5 station ambulance company. I'm an EMT, and this weekend was busy, busy, busy. Anyway, back to business. You'll notice the conspicuous absence of a review of the survey functionality in Civil 3D 2007 from last week's conference. That's because I'm still undecided. I can really see some real use in the program, but I'm not convinced it's what people are going to be thinking it is. Not to mention, I can foresee some problems if people begin using these survey databases and NOT using Vault - there simply HAS to be somewhere to store these databases. Let me work with it for a few weeks, and then I'll post a full report when I feel like I'm really qualified to do so.

It's Finally Over

2006-04-13T21:35:00.000-05:00

Well, Autodesk Bootcamp is finally over, and I felt like I've spent time with a drill sergeant yelling at me and running me to death. Classes here start at 8 and end at 5:30. That's a long, long day. However, I've learned a lot, met a lot of very interesting people, reunited with some old friends, and had some incredible Texas food and drink. Today, we learned about pipes, and some of the new functionality. How would you folks like a pipe interference checker? Well, it's here now. How about new rules? Yep, got 'em. How about customizable part sizes? It was in 2006, but undocumented, but PARTBUILDER is out of the closet, so to speak. We also learned about new roadway design functionality. New corridor styles, graphically editing regions and sections, and one thing that I love more than anything else. Yes, it's the small victories that make me smile - NO MORE "SET LOGICAL NAMES." That made no sense to my customers. Now, it's been changed to Set Targets. Much more common-sense. Lastly, we learned about new drafting and productivity tips. Note labels? Very nice, and easy to create. And hey - they MASK, too. Reference notes, sweet. Notes that reference MULTIPLE objects. As Matt Murphy would say, that's "Wicked Awesome" (or is it "wicked cool?") The remaining people at our company (those that don't fly until tomorrow) had a nice authentic Mexican dinner at a place called Javier's. Very good food, and the best margarita I've had in a while. We'll be sleeping in tomorrow (for a change), then flying back to Birmingham. I've got exactly 2 weeks to prepare for our month of Autodesk 2007 Product Rollout Seminars. If you work in the Southeast, we're likely coming to a town near you. Check here for our schedule, and to sign up. Take care!

You've Been Asking For It

2006-04-12T22:12:00.000-05:00

And here it is - back the way you want it, although I can't grasp why. Yes, Civil 3D 2007 has the ability to do quick profiles. What's a quick profile, you ask? Well, it's a profile, and it's created pretty quick. No need for a defined alignment, just a profile of a line, polyline, etc. Wait, maybe I do get it now. It really IS quick. Hmph, now I understand. So what's it like? Why do I need it? What's it for? Well, if you're asking yourself these questions, then you're in the right place. Say I've got a surface. Go ahead, you can say it. "I've got a surface". OK, I have a polyline across this surface, and I want to see that the surface looks like along that polyline. Well, in the old days (ok, last week when we were just using Civil 3D 2006), we'd have to define an alignment out of that polyline and then create a profile and a profile view. It's a little easy now. Here's my surface, along with the polyline that I want to quickly sample: Now, click on Profiles, then click on Quick Profile. Select the polyline (or line, or whatever) that you want to profile, and then you get the following dialog box: This lets you do two things - sample any and all surfaces in your drawing, and apply a profile view style to your quick profile. A quick click on OK and here's what you get: Two things to remember - first, there's no station information. That's no problem, really. Second, there's no way to save these views. They delete when you close the drawing. If you want a saved profile view, you're going to have to define an alignment and profile it as you would any other alignment. Have fun!

Creating an Accurate Surface From Contours

2006-04-12T16:51:00.000-05:00

This morning's class was about new survey functionality in Civil 3D 2007. This afternoon, we're working on site grading, something that is much more stable in Civil 3D 2007. But first, we need a surface to work with, don't we? Can't grade without a surface. We have an aerial topo that we can work with, so we're going to use it to build our surface. In the past, we would have problems with flat areas on the surface - not so much in Civil 3D 2007. So we start with our aerial topo: Now, we want to create a surface and add this contour data to is. So I create the surface, expand the Definition tree in Prospector, and right click on Contours. I have options now to add supplemental and weeding data, and to Minimize Flat Areas. Yes, this is the theme of this post. For the sake of comparison, I'm going to deselect all the options in Minimize Flat Areas so you can see what happens: Now, let's go back and rebuild our surface. If you look, the new contours of our surface do not closely match the original contours: The red original contours are a little hard to see in the image, so I added some arrows to show you the problem areas. What we've got now is a surface, but it's not very accurate. To make it a little more accurate, I need to go to my surface definition and right-click on Edits - tell me you knew about this. Now I'm going to click on Minimize Flat Areas. Here's the dialog box that comes up: You'll notice that I've got options 1, 3, and 4 selected. The reason is that Swapping Edges and Adding Points to Flat Triangle Edges both use the same processing algorithm, but Adding Points to Flat Triangle Edges produces markedly better results. Now that I've minimized my flat areas, let's check out the resulting surface: And now we have a pretty accurate surface (well, at least as accurate as the contours we were given). Now we've got a pretty good base to start from, and get into the new feature line capability of Civil 3D. Have fun!

All About the Vault

2006-04-11T21:46:00.000-05:00

Today has been a very informative day. Well, OK, this morning was. We have learned a lot about Autodesk Vault, a Data Management program that ships free with Civil 3D. It's a very good answer to a problem in past releases regarding multi-user access to Civil 3D "projects." It not only provides a different way of doing things than the old Civil 3D "project" functionality, but a much-enhanced way. Don't get me wrong - if you like the old version (2006) of Civil 3D "projects", you can still do it that way, but a lot of that functionality has been taken out in favor of the Vault solution. Here's a brief overview: (I'll show installation instructions at a later date - this post assumes that you've got Civil 3D 2007 w/Vault already installed and set up.) First, open up a blank drawing using the template of choice. Next, save that drawing. That's important - it's got to be saved. Next,go to the Prospector tab on the toolspace window, and switch from Active Drawing View to Master View. The first thing to do is to login to Vault. To do this, right-click on Projects and click on "Login". This will bring up the following window: You'll see here the options available - the user Administrator is created by default, with no password. You can create users and manage their permissions through Vault Manager, but that's for a different post. You'll also see that my Server is set to localhost, which is because I've got my Vault installed on my laptop (for demonstration purposes, of course). Yours will likely be a networked location. Next, you'll see the database that we need to open - this is the vault (note the lowercase "v"? Vault creates a vault called Vault. Confused yet?) The last option is to Automatically login next session. This should be set to make the Vault functionality as transparent as possible. OK, now we're logged in. We can now start our project work (wow, this one is going to be long...) To get some data into my project (that I'm about to create), I've imported a XML file to create some data. I've got some alignments and a surface in this drawing to start off with. Now that I've got data, I can right click on that drawing name in Prospector and click "Add to Project." This will save your drawing and add the drawing and data to a project. You get to select a project, where you want the drawing stored, and then what it is that you want to check in. This is a pretty important window - If you look, you are given the option to select the drawing dependencies that you want to check in, add any version comments, create a DWF preview of the drawing, and if you want to keep the drawing checked out for editing or not. The next window has you selecting exactly what data you want to add. For example, I have multiple alignments in this drawing, and I can add any or all of them to the Vault. Now, I've got that data available in my project to add to any new drawings. Let's do that now - open a new drawing, save it, add it to the project, and now we're ready to either import or reference data. Now, I'd like to reference my surface, so I'm going to go down to my project tree in Prospector and expand my project and then the surfaces tab. I'm going to right-click on my surface name, and select Create Reference. When I do, the surface creation box comes up where I can give my surface a style and render material. My reference surface is now created and I go up to my open drawing in Prospector and look at it - but there's something missing. See if you can spot it: Sorry about it being so small, but I did help you out by circling the issue in red. If you look closely, you can see that our surface name has a small arrow beside it, indicating that it's a surface reference. If we expand that tree, we'll see something VERY important missing, the "definitions" selection. This is because we can't modify the definition of something that's referenced. If I want to bring that entire surface into the drawing for editing, all I have to do is right-click on the surface name and click "Promote." Now we can edit all day long. Make sure to check the drawing back in, adding any revision comments that explain the edits that you made. Lastly, let's go see what's in our project - all files, not just drawings and associated data. Vault also integrates with Microsoft Office products, so I can add Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, and PowerPoint presentations to my project. I can also add any other file to my project just by dragging it into the Vault using Vault Explorer. Here's a glimpse of it: So that's the rundown on Vault. It's much more involved than I have space to write. It's going to take more training on my part, and more training on your part. At first, it appears to be needlessly difficult, but with proper setup and mindset, it can provide a very useful service to your company. It's really filled a void that hasn't been well addressed until now. Really good news for ALACAD customers - not only am I a Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert, but we also have a Data Management Certified Implementation Expert - rest assured, any areas that I might not be clear on with Vault can be cleared up by him! Together, we will work to provide a very stable and powerful data management environment for our Civil customers.

Implentation and Networking - the Basics

2006-04-11T09:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was pretty much a refresher for those people in the class that attended Autodesk Civil 3D Implementation Certifed Expert training. It was basically the entire class crammed down into one day. The last part of the class was dealing with network licensing and network administration - I saw quite a few blank stares in the class, which leads me to believe that there are people out there struggling with the networking issues facing us. For any of my customers, ALACAD provides custom network setup, installation, implementation, and administration. If you can't find that perfect candidate that can serve as both a CAD Manager and Network Administrator, give us a call - that's yet another service that we offer. We have many people skilled in network installation and administration of both Autodesk and non-Autodesk products. Let me know if we can help you! Today is training on the newly-included program for data management called Autodesk Vault. It's a process to be learned, but I think it is really going to address some of the multi-user issues that Civil 3D users have been wanting for some time. And to make it fun, it's being taught by Anthony Governanti of Autodesk - I finally get to put a face with the voice that I've heard so much. I'll try to post a comprehensive report tonight. I see Angel Espinoza 3 rows ahead of me steadily taking notes - check in on his site for his take on what's going on this week.

My Convention Center

2006-04-09T22:45:00.000-05:00

It wouldn't load in my previous post, so I'll show it here. Again, this was done in less than 5 minutes from scratch with AutoCAD 2007.

My First Post from Bootcamp

2006-04-09T22:03:00.000-05:00

First of all, they named it Bootcamp because that's what it is - very little rest here in Dallas. Tomorrow's schedule starts at 8 AM and is over at 5:30 - a long day by most standards. They're pretty serious about this training. Now, with that being said, it's time for a report of today's training. They were gentle with us at first, starting today at 1 PM for classes. Today was the same for almost everyone - AutoCAD 2007 update training. At first, I thought "meh", but it was a very fun class. OK, the first part was fun. We learned about the new 3D drawing environment in AutoCAD 2007, and how to draw using new 3D primitives. We discussed many new/improved commands, like how to loft, the new PUSHPULL command, how to draw a helix, and how to sweep a part. Now, let's throw in a disclaimer - I'm NOT a 3D Drawing and Modeling guru, even though the crew at ALACAD seems to think so. I have learned enough about it to be able to teach the class, but anything advanced makes me have to consult outside help. With that being said, I had FUN with the 3D modeling features in AutoCAD 2007 today. I created a few nice models, including this nice goblet: That was fun, and surprisingly easy. I created it in about 2 minutes, which should show you just how easy it was.

The next thing I created was my very own convention center. I tried to act like an architect would and make it as difficult as possible. ;) I also used some of the new Visual Styles in AutoCAD 2007 to give it that "just sketched" look that architects like so much, and even threw in a sun study to show where the shadows would be on a given date in a given location at a given time. VERY nice, and (like everything else I'm talking about here) is new to 2007. Here it is - try not to be too critical. Oh, and total time from blank drawing to the print screen that you're seeing was way less than 5 minutes: (ok, this one won't upload - I'll try to post it in a different post) Tomorrow will be spent learning all about Civil 3D 2007 Implementation and Network Licensing. I've been through this recently in the Civil 3D Implentation Certified Expert class, so maybe it will be more of a refresher than totally new. Hopefully, I'll be able to post tomorrow the ins and outs of the new Cascading Network License. Have fun!

A Week for Training

2006-04-07T13:26:00.000-05:00

You know, those of us that train and support these products have to get knowledge from somewhere. Well, since it's time for the new version of Civil 3D to come out, Autodesk is requiring that all reseller Application Engineers (that's us, by the way) attend a 5 day training session in Dallas, Texas. It's called Autodesk Boot Camp, and I'll be there next week. Hopefully, I can post some of the neat new information that I learn next week - stay tuned!

A Nod to Shaan Hurley

2006-04-04T15:17:00.000-05:00

If you don't know Shaan, he's the guru of the Autodesk Beta Programs. He's also one heckuva nice guy (and quite the party animal). Here's a link to his blog - I won't be the one to tell him that he reversed the code when he posted it....it's not in the correct order on his page. Shhh.....

Hello To All My Visitors!

2006-04-04T14:42:00.000-05:00

It's amazing to look at the stats on this web page. I have people visiting from all over the US (quite a few returning visits from Manchester, NH - is the Mothership keeping an eye on me?) I also have international visitors from Germany, Finland, Portugal, Canada, and California (I've been there, it's like a different country!) Would my returning visitor from Tallassee, Alabama please identify themselves? I've got industry ties to that area and am very interested in who's looking!

What's Better Than Free Learning?

2006-04-04T14:17:00.000-05:00

Want to explore Civil 3D a little deeper but don't have time (or money) to attend a training class? Autodesk provides free weekly webcasts exploring various Civil 3D-related topics. They're normally every Friday around 11 AM (Central Time). Here's the upcoming schedule: 4/07/06 – Digging in to Civil 3D 2007 Survey Capabilities Presenter: Rob Todd, Civil 3D Product Designer and Licensed Professional Surveyor See a demonstration of the new Survey features in Civil 3D 2007. Rob Todd, an Autodesk Product Designer as well as licensed Professional Surveyor, will show how to import survey data into Civil 3D, manage and analyze the survey data, and share the survey data among multiple users and drawings within a Civil 3D project. 4/14/06 – New Grading Capabilities in Civil 3D 2007 Presenter: Dave Simeone, Civil 3D Product Manager See how to complete various grading and surface manipulation tasks with the new Feature Line creation and manipulation tools in Civil 3D 2007. These new tools significantly streamline your ability to manipulate 3D objects such as feature lines, 3D polylines, and parcels. See a demonstration on how the feature line capabilities can be integrated into the surface modeling and grading projection tools in Civil 3D 2007. 4/21/06 – New Production Drafting Capabilities in Civil 3D 2007 Presenter: Dave Simeone, Civil 3D Product Manager See a demonstration of the many new drafting enhancements in Civil 3D 2007 including new label style control and editing, additional annotation options and more. Much of this functionality is based on user feedback and will help you complete your plans productions tasks faster and more efficiently than previously possible. 4/28/06 – Use Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and Satellite Imagery with Autodesk Civil 3D and Autodesk Raster Design Presenter: Matthews Mathai, Autodesk Raster Design Product Manager Learn how to use Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and satellite imagery in Autodesk Civil 3D and Autodesk Raster Design to assist in visualizing various design alternatives, help with site suitability studies, and speed up the overall decision making process. You’ll also learn how to efficiently edit, prepare, and manage this data to meet your project and organizational needs using the various raster editing tools found in Autodesk Raster Design. I'll see you there!

The New Inquiry Tool in Civil 3D 2007

2006-04-04T13:46:00.000-05:00

I'm in the middle of preparing for Autodesk Boot Camp, a 5 day training session in Dallas, Texas for reseller sales and AE's. I've got all my software downloaded and installed, and I'm playing with what SHOULD be the final incarnation of Civil 3D 2007 before I get my DVD in the mail. A nice new feature in C3D 2007 is the addition of an Inquiry Tool. This is a dockable window, similar to the Properties window. It includes Inquiry Tools, of all things! You can find it under the General menu in C3D 2007. Here's what it looks like:

It includes many different inquiries that will prove to be very useful in the design process:

Point - Point Inverse
Surface - Elevation and Grade at Point, Elevation and Grade Between Points
Alignment - Station and Offset at Point, Station and Offset and Profile Elevation at Point, Station and Offset and Surface Elevation at Point, Two Stations and Offsets Between Points
Profile View - Station and Elevation at Point, Elevation and Grade Between Points
Profile - Station and Elevation at Point, Elevation Difference at Station
Section View - Offset and Elevation at Point, Elevation and Grade Between Points
Section - Offset and Elevation at Point, Elevation Difference at Station
Corridor Section - Offset and Elevation at Point, Elevation and Grade Between Points, Elevation Difference at Offset

Time to Roll out the 2007 line of Autodesk Products!

2006-03-31T10:45:00.000-06:00

Customers should start seeing copies of the new 2007 line of Autodesk products arrive in mid-April. I don't know who else is like me, but I used to think that the mailman was like Santa Claus when it came time for new rollouts. This year, for the first time, I get to be a part of that rollout. I'm really looking forward to showing our customers (both existing and potential) the incredible new features of Civil 3D 2007! ALACAD will begin a product rollout tour the first week of May. If you work in the Southeast, we'll likely be coming to a city near you! Here's our schedule: Tuesday, May 2 - Jackson, Mississippi Wednesday, May 3 - Memphis, Tennessee Thursday, May 4 - Birmingham, Alabama (my birthday!) Friday, May 5 - Montgomery, Alabama Tuesday, May 9 - Chattanooga, Tennessee Wednesday, May 10 - Knoxville, Tennessee Thursday, May 11 - Nashville, Tennessee Friday, May 12 - Huntsville, Alabama Tuesday, May 16 - Florence, Alabama Thursday, May 18 - Dothan, Alabama (my wedding anniversary!) Tuesday, May 23 - Tallahassee, Florida Wednesday, May 24 - Pensacola, Florida Thursday, May 25 - Mobile, Alabama Friday, May 26 - Gulfport / Biloxi, Mississippi All specific locations are still to be determined. If you'd like to register or just find out more information, visit our Autodesk 2007 Rollout Page. I look forward to seeing you there!

Where'd my Symbol Manager go?

2006-03-31T08:13:00.000-06:00

I'm going to start this post out by giving credit where credit is due - both Nick Zeeben and James Wedding helped me along with this one. Without them, I'd still be stuck in a hotel in Hattiesburg, Mississippi beating my head against the wall. One of the first questions I received in my Civil 3D class this past week was "How do I find Symbol Manager?" For you Land Desktop users, you'll know what Symbol Manager is - it inserts, catalogs, and holds your standard symbols, from north arrow and bar scale to trees, the infamous "handi-man", and roadway signs. It's very simple to use and very useful. I thought for a minute, looked around, and tried to think of a good workaround. A good idea didn't come until later that night. Now, there's two ways to do this. There's the way that James and Nick told me, which is to use Design Center to navigate to the folder where your symbols are stored, and create a tool palette from all those blocks. Well, for those of you who don't mind a very long tool palette, that's fine, but I wanted to more closely mimic the Symbol Manager from Land Desktop, so here's what I did. I opened a new drawing in Land Desktop using a generic project (this drawing needs to be assigned to a project for this to work). I started with my blank drawing, and just went into Symbol Manager and began inserting blocks into my drawing. I created a drawing that is essentially a library of those blocks. I then saved that drawing in a place that could easily be found (and protected). Next, I opened the drawing in Civil 3D. and created a new tool palette. I right-clicked on each block and dragged it to my new palette (just to see if it could be done, the only palette that I did was survey symbols.) For what it's worth, here's what it looked like: Now, I can right-click on any symbol on that palette and change the properties. I can give it a name, set the insert scale to correspond to the dimscale, make it non-explodable (very nice for CAD management purposes) and specify what layer and rotation I want it to have when I insert it, in addition to other settings. Here's all you can do with that: Now, as long as you don't delete that block "library" drawing, or move it, you're set for your symbol manager. The final question was how to make the blocks to insert to the proper scale, which would be dependent on your drawing scale. This is pretty easy. First, in the block properties on the tool palette, make sure the scale is set to 1. Next, set your auxilliary scale is set to DIMSCALE. Now, go to the settings tab of toolspace. Right-click on your drawing name and click Edit Drawing Settings. Set your drawing scale to whatever you need it to be, then make sure "Scale objects inserted from other drawings" is checked. Your DIMSCALE variable is controlled by your drawing scale, so everything comes in scaled like you want it. Hope this works for you!

Quote of the week for Civil 3D

2006-03-30T15:36:00.000-06:00

I spent this week in southern Mississippi training 3 Civil Engineering firms on Civil 3D. They were extremely impressed, and I expect to go back in a month and see it being used in full production. As I was working yesterday with profiles, profile views, and profile bands, I threw up a band showing cut and fill data, much to the delight of my clients. I've seen this look before - slack-jawed, glassy eyes, not believing what they're seeing. I sat there in about thirty seconds of silence, allowing it to sink in. At that point, from the side of the room, I heard "Wow, that's almost sexual." I cracked up...I wonder if Autodesk marketing is looking for a new slogan? ;-)

Civil 3D 2007 Kickoff webcast tomorrow!

2006-03-23T13:22:00.000-06:00

If you read any of the other Civil 3D blogs out there (hint: look at the list to the right of this article), you'll see this, but it's important enough that I wanted to post it as well. The ISD group at Autodesk is really on the ball, providing weekly webcasts on Civil 3D. Some are very simple "demo" type webcasts, and some are very specific and focused. I try to catch every one that I can (if I'm here in the office.) These webcasts are a very valuable source of information. Normally, they're put on by the Dave & Dan show, but occasionally we see outside consultants doing webcasts (a big nod goes out to James Wedding for his webcast last week on styles. It looked suspiciously like his Elements of Styles class that I attended at Autodesk University!) I strongly suggest you attend all the webcasts that you can, especially since the upcoming ones will be focusing on new functionality in Civil 3D 2007. With that being said, this Friday (tomorrow) is the kickoff webcast for Civil 3D 2007! I can't wait to see it (even though I've already seen a lot of what they're going to cover). This is the big one of the year - and as such, you have to register for this one. You can do so by clicking here. Hope to see you there!

Where'd my dialog box go?

2006-03-20T14:40:00.000-06:00

Today, in the Autodesk discussion groups, I answered a question that I've been asked seemingly hundreds of times. It's not really a Civil 3D problem, because it can happen in any AutoCAD-based problem. Ever start a command and expect to see a dialog box asking you for options, but instead see the command options on the command line? For example, ever click on the "Open Drawing" button only to have the program ask you at the command line what file to open? That's a little scary, especially if it's never happened to you before. But, it's easy to fix. Before I tell you what the fix is, let me say that no, I don't know what causes this to happen. This is yet another AutoCAD gremlin that only shows up from time to time. I actually made it happen consistently in Civil 3D the other day. To fix it, there are two system variables that you need to check. To check the system variables, simply type them at the command prompt. The value that they are set to will pop up beside their name in brackets. The first one is FILEDIA and the second is CMDDIA. Hopefully, this tip will help you avoid panic next time you lose your command dialog boxes.

GIS and Civil 3D

2006-03-15T14:49:00.000-06:00

How many of you are avid MAP users? Who typically turns off that task pane and hides the menu? I used to be a part of the second set until recently. I never really used MAP until I came to work here and learned that I had to support the program. Some think MAP is a GIS program. Yes, it can be used as a GIS program, but it offers so much more than just GIS functionality. I like to think of it as AutoCAD on steroids (the Barry Bonds of Autodesk?) How can you use it? How about drawing cleanup? Ever get those nasty drawings that you have to work on? Drawing Cleanup provides a very powerful, but potentially very dangerous way to clean up those bad drawings. Please be aware that it's not a magic wand that you can wave - it takes some training and practice to use effectively. Ever have a drawing corrupted? If you've been using Autodesk products for more than a day or so, you have. How about those bloated drawings that you get from outside sources? Want a way to shrink them and PURGE won't work? Attach that corrupt or bloated drawing to a clean, blank drawing and query in only the data that you need to the clean drawing. The first time I saw this done, I sat there with my jaw hanging down to my knees...it's almost like magic. Got ESRI data? Got a Microstation file? Need that data in an AutoCAD DWG? Use MAP! MAP imports the following file formats: ESRI ArcInfo Coverage ESRI ArcInfo Export ESRI Shape Files GML v2 MapInfo MapInfo TAB Microstation Design MasterMap (GML 2) Spatial Data Transfer Standard Vector Product Format Coverage So why not get familiar with MAP? We offer training here at ALACAD. Also, you can purchase student manuals to work through on your own. I'm particularly fond of Digging Into Autodesk Map 3D 2006 by Rick Elllis, Michael Carris, and Russell Martin. You can find their books on the Cadapult web site.

ByLayer vs. ByStyle

2006-03-13T11:23:00.000-06:00

Everyone who has heard of Civil 3D has heard the catchword "Styles". Styles really run the program. Without them, the program is almost useless. People starting off playing with Civil 3D generally don't have any default styles in their drawing and end up getting so frustrated that they just drop the program altogether. A lot of the functionality of styles really changes the way we think and draw - we can have styles assign our objects colors and linetypes rather than having everything "ByLayer", which is what we're used to. That's been drilled into my head since I first learned AutoCAD, so much so that I even chant it in my sleep -"ByStyle, ByStyle, ByStyle" With the "new" way of working with Civil 3D, we can effectively draw everything on Layer 0 (WHAT? This goes against all of the "best CAD practices that we've ever known!) This is exciting, and works very well once you change your way of thinking. However, there's one small (ok, not so small) problem with having everything set up "ByStyle". Do you ever share your drawings with someone else? Ever give your site plan to an architect? I certainly do - that's a pretty big issue for most people. The problem with having everything "ByStyle" is that those styles don't convert over to other AutoCAD platforms very well - for example, a Civil 3D 2007 drawing set up "ByStyle" sent to a user running Architectural Desktop 2007 will see everything on the layer that object was created on. This can be bad - if you set up and draw everything on Layer 0 and assign it a style, then your architect is going to get information only on layer 0. This could be bad. This is why, for data interoperability issues, Autodesk suggests sticking to the "ByLayer" school of thought, unless you live in a vacuum and only use Civil 3D. Oh, and play nice - I know some of you Civil people are thinking that it'd serve the architects right if we sent them unusable information for a change... ;-)

More Civil 3D Resources

2006-03-10T19:33:00.000-06:00

I've added two more links to my Civil 3D Resources bar over there (to the right - yeah, that's it). One is the Taylor Tech Civil Solutions Blog, and the other is The Crazy World of Civil 3D. I hope these resources help you as much as they help me.

What's cool? ICE!

2006-03-10T19:01:00.000-06:00

Yeah, it's a cheesy post title. But what are you gonna do? I spent this past week in San Rafael, CA at the Autodesk Coppertop Training Lab learning how to be a Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert. This class taught Application Engineers how to properly assess a company for Civil 3D implementation and how to effectively complete that implementation. It wasn't a "how-to" for Civil 3D, but a "how-to-customize" for Civil 3D. One of the major things that we tried not to focus on was data management, since that is changing drastically (and for the better) in Civil 3D 2007. With this release, we will be getting something that MSD (Manufacturing, or mechanical) users have had for quite a while, Autodesk Vault. Some people are a little worried about this, but rest assured that it will not only integrate seamlessly with Civil 3D, but be almost invisible in the background. Even better, it will ship free with Civil 3D 2007. Oh, and the good news is that I passed the certification exam. Missed one question, which is something I can really live with. I was pleased, especially since I'm fighting this head that feels like it's filled with cotton, and haven't been able to sleep for the past two nights. I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's flight - it should bring back some of the pain of my diving days.

What's cool in Civil 3D 2007?

2006-03-07T18:37:00.000-06:00

I haven't had much time to work on the new features of Civil 3D 2007. However, sitting here in a hotel room overlooking Autodesk's Coppertop Training Lab makes for the perfect setting and time, so here goes. One member of our Civil 3D ICE class today mentioned the fact that she just wanted to be able to label a line or curve without converting said lines and curves (or whatever) to a parcel or parcel segment. The good news for her (and I'm sure some of you will like this too) is that you CAN do this in C3D 2007! Located in quite a few pulldown menus is a routine that says "Add Labels." This is pretty familiar, as it was also in C3D 2006, but in a very limited format. Here's a list of which features you can now "add labels" to: Note Line and Curve Parcel Alignment Profile View Section View Surface Pipe Network I think this is a great addition to the program. It's minor by many standards, but one of those nagging things that people wanted to be able to do. Another new feature is a "Create Reports" tool. This is found by going to the General pulldown menu and selecting "Toolbox". This will enable the reports manager as another tab in your toolspace (now there's MORE in toolspace other than just Prospector and Settings). There are many different types of reports that you can create, including: Alignments Corridors Parcels Points Profiles Pipes Surfaces I haven't gotten too deep into the new program. I did experiment with pipes last night and had some major issues, but I'm hoping that it was due to some setting that I didn't have already defined in the styles that I brought over from C3D 2006 (all my pipes came in at 0 elevation and 0% slope, and manholes didn't extend to the surface!) I'll try to work with that some more later tonight.

Another Industry Blog!

2006-03-03T14:22:00.000-06:00

Bill Frederick of Synergis has a new Civil 3D blog. I'm really good to see this - Bill will likely have some very informative articles regarding Civil 3D. He can be found here: It's Just Dirt

Can we talk about it?

2006-03-02T07:44:00.000-06:00

I guess we can... I posted about the release of Civil 3D 2007 yesterday - some of you may have seen it. However, fears about some mixed signals people were getting from Autodesk prompted me to quickly take that post down, just in case I was doing something wrong ;) Yes, we can now talk about Civil 3D 2007. I'd love to, but I'm teaching people how to do it the old way this week, which really cuts down on my time. So instead of posting, I'm going to refer you to a few spots on my link bar (hint: look right) that have really good reviews of the upcoming product. I'm going to go on record as saying that the 2007 release will be the one that puts some of the people still anxious about the conversion over the edge and gets it into full production. So, without further ado, here are some links for you to follow: Scott McEachron is like the rest of us, really excited about some of the new features (he even found a few that I didn't even know about) Angel Espinoza also has some really good insight into the program. James Wedding (even though he insists that he's not a blogger) ;-) has a really good review. James has been working with this for a long time, and really knows the ins and outs of the new release. He puts in a plug for Engineered Efficiency to help you implement the program, and has a point - you're going to need assistance putting this into production, especially for the first-time users. The addition of Autodesk Vault alone is going to take some serious training. Danny Counts also has a nice review of the new features, as well as the expected first customer ship date for the software. He also offers some innovative ideas on implementation of the product. I've installed the new release on my laptop (not this one) to play around with. I'll be working with it next week as I travel to San Rafael, California to attend Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert (ICE) training at Autodesk's Coppertop training lab. Hey, at least this will give me something to do during the 5 hour flight. More to come....

Oops...

2006-02-28T07:41:00.000-06:00

OK, r.K. McSwain had a pretty good point in his comments about the CUI. The file name is actually civildesign.CUI, not civil.cui. I wasn't thinking when I did that one. Thanks for the heads-up, R.K.

Question for all the Land Desktop Users

2006-02-27T16:51:00.000-06:00

I just got another question from a user who is having the corrupt Civil.CUI problem. I really wish Autodesk would address this issue, but the support specialists I call tell me they have no idea what I'm talking about. So I'm polling you, the user. Tell me your problems, if you've had any. Also, I'd be glad to hear of any solutions you've found for it. Well, I was going to place a poll here, but it appears that Blogger doesn't like Java script. So post your comments, people!

Working with Points in Civil 3D

2006-02-24T10:23:00.000-06:00

Most people are looking at points in Civil 3D and thinking "Hey, I did that in Land Desktop!" Well, yes, but..... In the days of Land Desktop, we used Description Keys to get our point objects to display the way we wanted them. Description Keys controlled what layer a point came in on, what the point name was, and even inserted blocks (on their own layers) along with the point. For example, we could take a field-located iron pin and import it into Land Desktop with the IP block on an IP layer and the point object on a PTS-IP layer. With this functionality, we had total control over the way our points were imported. In Civil 3D, however, there is not an option for inserting a block or symbol with a point. Civil 3D expands on the concept of Point Groups. The creation of Point Groups will be very familiar to most of you Land Desktop users. However, the things we can do with Point Groups now are incredible! Applying a style to point groups affect how they display, and applying a Point Label Style affects the text that goes along with the point. With these Point Styles, we can assign a common point object (the familiar + or x that we're all used to) or we can assign any block to a point object. That's right - Point Groups now control the blocks that come in with our points as well as the layer those points are on! A little different from Land Desktop, isn't it? One word of caution - those of you who are used to having description keys defining the layer that your points import on will have to keep an open mind. The best analogy that I've seen is in the book Digging Into Autodesk Civil 3D 2006 by Rick Ellis. In it, he writes the following:

As you have seen with the Point Group Display Order, the styles and layer of a point in multople groups is determined by the first Point Group in the display order list that contains that point. This means that the point will jump from layer to layer as you change the Point Group Display Order When you use Description Keys they can control the point layer. However, they do not change what you just learned about Point Groups. When you set point layer through Description Keys it is similar to creating a block with nested layers. In this analogy, the block is the Point Group and the individual points are the entities on specific layers within the blocks.

This (relatively) new idea of styles is hard to grasp, especially for people accustomed to using Land Desktop for the past (almost) 10 years. Keep an open mind when trying it out - you may have to forget a lot of what you know!

More on the CUI

2006-02-23T14:04:00.000-06:00

I just answered a question from a user who was the target of "Workspace Envy." This user had gotten his workspace set up perfectly and his co-worker decided that he wanted that exact same setup. The problem was that they didn't know how to export that workspace. This is a fairly straightforward process, and I suggest using it not only to transfer files from user to user, but as a very good way to back up your interface that you spent so many hours getting "just right." First, type CUI at the command line to bring up the Customized User Interface dialog box. Now, click on the "Transfer" tab at the top of the box. In the right-hand pane, click on "Create New CUI File." Now, in the left-hand pane, right click on the workspace(s) that you want to save and export, then drag them onto the Workspaces area of the new CUI in the right-hand pane. When you get everything exported over, click on the save icon (the little blue disk on the far right side) and save the new CUI file to a safe location.

The Lost CUI

2006-02-23T12:19:00.000-06:00

Losing your Civil Design CUI in Land Desktop 2006? This has been a major problem for many users. One day they open Land Desktop and they have no Civil Design commands. For some reason, the CIVIL.CUI file is being corrupted when you change workspaces frequently. Currently, Autodesk has no solution for this problem. I don't know of a way to prevent this from happening, so the best thing to do is to create a backup copy of your CIVIL.CUI file. This file can be found in C:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAMEHERE\Application Data\Autodesk\C3D 2006\enu\Support. I suggest saving it to a safe location for easy retrieval and restoration.