Archive for April, 2006

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!

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