Daily Civil 3d

If you had a chance to see or watch the AEC Keynote Presentation at Autodesk University, you might have been excited to see some of the bridge modeling tools for Revit Structure. If you missed the presentation, it is available for viewing. Get the link to watch the AEC Keynote here.

Scott Hammond will be doing a webcast on these tools on January 27, 2009 at 10AM PST.

Register for Civil Structures with Revit Structure 2009 here

Also note there are some great archived webcasts listed at that link including:

Getting Up and Going with Revit Structure 2009: From Pilot to Production
Revit Structure Best Practices: Concrete Structures
Revit Structure Best Practices: Steel Structures
Revit Structure and AutoCAD: Which tool is right for you?
Revit Structure: Analysis Showcase

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Just a few quick things I wanted to share as we get rolling in this new year…

Last year I made a few New Year’s Resolutions. Here is a status update on how I did.

1. I let my subscription to National Geographic lapse, so I no longer have this problem. CHECK!
2. I kicked the cookie dough habit, and picked up a cheeto habit to replace it. CHECK!
3. I submitted three. Once got accepted, I was asked to repeat it. So I did two classes, but they were the same. (And it was based on last year’s material, so it didn’t take that much time to prepare.) semi-CHECK!
4. It became exhausting to buy anything, and I gave away half of the other stuff in my attic because I just couldn’t deal with it anymore. Though I do admit to buying new gloves because the old ones were packed away somewhere that I could not find. NO CHECK!
5. I used to have a 4 cup coffee maker. Now I have a 12 cup coffee maker. So I still make 4 cups, but its not a full pot. CHECK! Cheating? Maybe.
6. Panorama is waaay to smart to let me get away with this anymore. CHECK!
7. While I may not read a book every month, some months I’ll read two books. I also count watching episodes of "House" and any Clive Cussler novel movie as reading a smart book. CHECK!
8. I applied for the P.E. last year. Some of my experience letters didn’t come back in time for the October exam, but 4.8 years worth are in the hands of the DAPE right now. There is another 1.1 years out there I am hoping gets signed for in the next few weeks. So April is looking like it might be a winner. Cross your fingers.

This year, my biggest resolution is to rediscover my inner athlete. Secondly, I’m always looking to continue to learn and grow. I’ve tweaked my list of daily blog reading to include a wider variety of sites- not just CAD and Civil 3D, but industry sites, travel, education, and fun.

One thing I wanted to share with you is this little video about RSS and reading blogs on feed. I’ve mentioned this before, but it came up again this weekend when my Dad asked what feeds were. If you like reading blogs, but are frustrated by having to check lots of websites and missing new things, watch this little video. Also, if you are already feed reader savvy, share this video with your friends who aren’t.

For some more information and a somewhat dated list of blogs that I read, check out this post: Read What Dana Reads.

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It’s been busy around here- deadlines butting up against the Autodesk "Week of Rest", the post AU catch up frenzy, my design class coming to an end, oh yeah, and that whole Christmas thing.

We’ll get back into some hard core Civil 3D tech once I drink a few egg nogs next week.

In the meantime, if you needed some artwork for your Holiday Greetings this year, one of these just might fit the bill.

These drawings came from looking at an aerial of spaghetti junction immediately after I hit my head on the sink while standing on the toilet to hang a clock.

Here is the one that I wound up turning in.

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I don’t think I am the only geek in the CAD universe who celebrates the new year on the day I return from Las Vegas. Everything we work on comes to its apex during AU. There hasn’t been a year yet that I don’t sit in McCarran and scribble down my "AU Resolutions". The first year it was "Submit a Proposal", then the next "Learn how to write a paper that doesn’t suck" and of course "Wear more comfortable shoes".

In all seriousness, we have 361 days from one Autodesk University to the next. How are you going to take advantage of each day? Those days are going to go by whether you like it or not, and before you know it, we’ll be right back here again.

If you spent one lunch hour per week watching an AU Class (crank it up to 2X speed to get through it in 45mins), you’d be able to experience 52 classes. If each one of them gave you one little idea, think of how far ahead you’ll be. If you download the AU Online podcasts and listen to them while you drive to work, you can dig in even more. I know I will spend a lot of time watching and listening because the AU crush always leaves too little time for me to see as much class as I would like.

On that note, what do you do on your drive to work? Replace one commute time rock out session per week with a ULI podcast, a TED talk, or maybe an interesting audio book or language program. That’s another 52 hours of ideas, insights and skill.

What if you spent an hour or two on a Sunday afternoon once a month flipping through Urban Land, Landscape Architecture, New Civil Engineer, CE News, ENR or another industry magazine to keep up with what is going on in the industry and feed your brain some new ideas?

In addition to learning more about graphic design, presentation skills, visualization and of course civil 3d civil 3d and civil 3d, I need to find my former physical self. I read an article this year about an Estee Lauder executive and mother of four who said Take Care of Yourself First: “You’re going to need energy for this juggle.” She was right and running around like a maniac in the month before AU and while in Vegas let me know that I need more endurance to keep up. Like learning Civil 3D or preparing for a presentation, physical fitness is an exercise in consistency over the long haul.

Here is some stuff I have on my list for this week:

1. Presentation Zen Webcast. You’ve heard me talk about Garr Reynolds before. While I didn’t get a chance to implement all of his ideas, Presentation Zen helped me immensely this year, and I can’t wait to learn more to become even more comfortable with my talks.

2. This month’s Urban Land Magazine

3. Tons of Classes on AU Online. I’m beginning to bookmark my MUST WATCH AND READ list here.

4. An article called Water In Balance from this month’s CE News. Salvatore Napolitano from Metcalf & Eddy /AECOM shows some ideas for using Civil 3D for floodplain modeling.

5. ENR’s Continuing Education Center features tons of online readings and quizzes that you can use for continuing education credits and general learning fun. I’m checking out Pedestrian Friendly: Planting Trees and Celebrating Stormwater in Urban Areas and some of the other topics under sustainability and site infrastructure design.

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Check out the Autodesk University 2008 AEC Keynote Session at the new AU Online.

If you don’t have an AU Online login, access the AEC Keynote here.

The Civil portion begins around minute 62 or so. It is a twelve minute talk about BIM for Civil Road and Highway projects.

Adam Strafaci speaks about the process, and I show live demonstrations. We also work in video from mobile LiDAR, RDV Systems Rapid Road Safety Analyzer and a really spectacular visualization done with Civil 3D and 3DS Max using the tools from 3AM’s Dynamite VSP.

The Civil 3D portions are shown in Civil 3D 2009 to focus on thought leadership for using the current product.

This presentation was designed to appeal to a variety of technical and non-technical audiences. We wanted them to say “I didn’t realize that Civil 3D could be used for that type of project!”

I urge you to watch the entire presentation. There are great pieces on using Inventor as a key part of AEC projects, also some great Navisworks information, and an integrated segment on Sustainable Design using many products in our portfolio.

If you are looking for some more information about Civil 3D for transportation projects check out Civil 3D for Aviation and Airports customer success story, Civil 3D for Port and Harbor Projects, and much more at the Civil 3D Transportation Success Story page.

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I don’t think its too late. If had your badge scanned when you came into a class, you should have gotten an email about filling out class surveys.

I cannot stress how important this feedback is. As a speaker, I know that I have taken the comments and ratings to heart and used them to help me improve. I credit this for my steady improvement over the past three years.

The results are also used my the selections staff to decide which speakers come back, which speakers could potentially wind up on certain tracks and how to improve the AU experience in general.

My classes both have are at about 60% reporting. That means there still close to 40 people out there who need to fill theirs out.

Don’t leave me hangin’- tell me what you really think so that all of AU can improve!

If for some reason you can’t get in to fill out the survey, or you wanted to tell me more than 200 characters can handle- email me anytime. Dana.Probert (at) autodesk.com

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And the best part about it is that I can finally talk about it. I’ve been BETA testing the software for some time now and the curtain has finally been lifted and I can share in my excitement!!!

FIRST THINGS FIRST… I want to tell you about my TWO favorite things… In order…

The Field to Finish tools ROCK, to put it mildly, NO MORE NASTY FIELDBOOK FILES (.fbk) I’d like you all to give a warm welcome to a new tool in the Survey Database know as “Linework Code Sets”. What these nifty little babies will allow you to do is code your point descriptions so that you can begin, end, draw curves and so on within your point file. YOU CAN FINALLY DOUBLE, TRIPLE, SHOOT… QUADRUPLE your point codes and your linework will come through the ASCII file, HIP HIP HOORAY!!!! What this means for all of you Surveyors out there is that AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 is FINALLY a viable tool… wait, it’s now an AWESOME tool!!!

And I would like to give MANY kudos to the second runner up in my list of EXCITING new tools inside of 2010… Drum roll please… INTERSECTION DESIGN WIZARD!!! Yay!!! This makes designing intersections MUCH MUCH MUCH more streamlined!

Please stay tuned for some fun “How-To” guides once I get the BETA software off and the full version installed.

Cheers!!!

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Well, it’s been a LONG time coming but it looks as if the second version of SP 2, which is SP 2.1 actually works and to the best of my knowledge does NOT break anything.

Here’s the link:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=12624522&linkID=9240698

Cheers!!!

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I have to admit that this came to me as a surprise find…..is this intentionally not mentioned anywhere? Or could this be some sort of unintended behaviors of Civil3D Pipe Networks? For as long as I have tinkered with Civil3D and more specifically Pipe Networks I had always thought that you cannot connect parts from one network to another network. In fact, this required me to teach users that there was a certain workaround that required duplicating a “dummy” manhole on the second system. Apparently that is not the case!

Anyone see this error message?

Step one: Create two separate pipe networks. (See image)

Step two: Edit network of secondary pipe network system via “grips”. (See image)

Step three: Using square grip – drag pipe toward manhole on the first pipe network system towards where the pipes connect to the manhole on the first network until you see the connection glyph. (See image)

Step four: Check your results! Notice the pipes are connected at the same invert, but remain separate systems. (See image)

Authored by: John Rodriguez | Civil Engineering Technical Specialist

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I am extremely excited to announce the release of U.S. CAD’s Styles Template.

Please check out the link below.

CLICK HERE

Have a great day!!!

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