Archive for October, 2006

Today, on the POB Message Board, a gentleman named Danny Wilson asked about downloading a HP48GX data collector with TDS software to Civil 3D. I can understand the question, as I’ve had to answer it before, and feel like our HP users are being left out in the cold…

Luckily, R.K. McSwain was on hand to point Mr. Wilson to a previous post of mine regarding this subject. Unfortunately, someone really misunderstood the question, and seemed to disagree with my article. Please allow me to explain…I’d do it there, but don’t want to sign up for a yet another membership to forget.  (For what it’s worth, I found this on our referrer stats.   As of 12:16 AM Eastern Time, 55 people had visited from that link, so I can see that there’s some real interest in this subject.)
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This morning, I’m in the Moose Training Lab in Manchester, NH…I’ve seen Dan Philbrick so far this morning, and am looking around for other somewhat familiar faces. A few observations so far - it’s cold in NH, especially for an Alabama resident, and people up here drive funny. Oh, and I’m not sure the sun exists here since I haven’t seen it yet.

I’ll be looking for Nick as he wanders around with that “first day” blank stare on his face.

Check below for revisions as the day goes by…

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By the time most of you read this, Nick will be right in the midst of his orientation session in Manchester. Nick has taken a position in the Q/A team in the mothership. We’ll miss him, wish him best of luck, and keep his blog warm for him for whenever he feels the urge.

Engineered Efficiency Inc. is pleased to release our HEC-RAS Import/Export toolset for Autodesk Civil 3D 2007, an inexpensive tool that pays for itself in one use and is a must-have for HEC-RAS users running Autodesk LDT or Civil 3D as their CAD platform.

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Part three? Four? Whatver. I spent some time discussing the files I’ll be building, now let’s talk about building our plans. So let’s look at what we get for existing information and where we stick it. For now, I need to understand existing conditions. I’m going to start with some DEM information, then Aerial data, then on-the-ground survey…where to put it all? Read the rest of this entry »

OK, this is not in any way Civil 3D related, not Autodesk related, not even CAD related. Since I know a LOT of our readers are true geeks at heart, I’m begging for help here.

Those of you who know me know that I live in the middle of nowhere. It’s nice to sit on 100 acres of pristine forest land and have a house that’s paid for, but living in the country has it’s downfalls. One of those things is the fact that I cannot get traditional broadband internet resources here. Cable internet comes within 1.5 miles of me on both sides, and DSL is out of the question. Heck, they don’t even have ISDN available. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to all our readers here who attended AUGI CAD Camp in Birmingham, AL this past Tuesday. I got some really good feedback from some of our attendees, and did an informal poll during my first presentation that leads me to believe two things - first of all, we have some very interested readers. That excites me. Secondly, there are quite a few people already using Civil 3D in production, and a lot more that are interested in it. I got to hang out with some great people, answered a lot of questions, and learned some things while I was there. Read the rest of this entry »

Assuming things go as planned, I’ll be teaching the Nov 13 & 14 Civil 3D 101 at Cadapult, Ltd. in Newark, DE. Take advantage of this opportunity to get oriented with the Civil 3D environment. Read the rest of this entry »

(Except the building, this entire site was modeled using ONE corridor)

I had one of those Third Semester Calculus Moments over the weekend. Suddenly, I saw everything as a corridor. I have always seen roads, streams, swales, berms, walking paths and others as corridors. But what about Parking Lots? Sanitary Lagoons? Gumby? I began wondering if everything could be explained in terms of a Corridor. Easy ones- trash cans, pencils, sure, but what about cars, Barbie Dolls, cheesesteaks?

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So last time I talked about where we were headed, now lets look at the pieces to get there a bit. This entry will outline a file structure of sorts. My Project name is Carson Park, the job number will be MMW001.

The Design Files are all designated with an X in front. These sheets will be Xrefed and Data Referenced (Drefed) via Vault as appropriate. This nomenclature would typically carry a job number in the middle, but for ease of listing and because I don’t feel like typing it over and over, I’ll omit it here. Read the rest of this entry »