civil3d.com

I’ve been asked a number of times how I wound up with civil3d.com, so here’s the Reader’s Digest version. At one of the earliest gunslingers for the product, a name hadn’t even been chosen yet. As part of the weeks activities, they ran a number of names by us, as they had been with focus groups and other members of industry. The product was simply called Vine at this point, and this was the 2004 release cycle.

On the last day of Gunslinger meetings, there is typically about two hours of open dialog, “What did you like? What didn’t you like? What’s still missing? What’s your favorite new tool?” type stuff. There have been some spectacular rants during these meetings, and some good smackdowns. It has never gotten ugly, but I think tense would be a fair assessment.

During this particular wrap-up session, someone comes in to announce they’ve chosen a name. Civil3d. I’m sitting at a computer, so my immediate reaction is www.civil3d.com. And what appears? A blank holding page? An Autodesk logo? Nope. This. Mining software. (Thanks Internet Archive!) Are you kidding me? Don’t you people Google? I was dumbfounded, but that’s the way it was.

Fast-forward to January of 2006. I’m telling this story to a Jason Hickey, laughing as I type www.civil3d.com, expecting the same thing. Instead, up comes a “This Domain for Sale” page. Done. Bought, and now blogged. And no, Autodesk has never asked for it back, or offered to buy it. Bentley on the other hand….

So, now that you know how we wound up here, a bit about the people behind civil3d.com:

James Wedding, P.E. Hall Monitor

Marc Scacco, P.E. Surly Pedant
Mark has been a consultant in the land development and construction industry for over a decade and has experience in all phases of development, from conceptual preliminary design through final platting and construction. He has designed projects ranging from small 1-acre sites to 500-acre, multi-phase subdivisions and is still currently active as a civil designer. Mark received his BSCE from Purdue University and is a registered Professional Engineer in Illinois. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers; the National Society of Professional Engineers, and the Geospatial Information & Technology Association. Mark has authored several training manuals; frequently writes articles for industry magazines; and is a regular presenter at training seminars. Mark is a member of the Autodesk Civil 3D “gunslingers”; helped create the Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert training material and has trained dozens of the top resellers. He is an Autodesk Certified Instructor and has provided training and consulting across the United States and internationally in Korea and Japan.