My love/hate relationship with AutoCAD Civil 3D
Today marks the 6th anniversary for Civil 3D® and I!
Now this may make me seem like a real CAD geek, or BIM nerd, but I am. Autodesk® design software keeps me awake at night! I wish I could learn how to use all of it, but that would be impossible. I would estimate that I have spent 30,000+ hours learning AutoCAD® and AutoCAD based products, and 12,000+ hours learning Civil 3D. I consider it all learning, working in it, reading about it, researching etc… No matter how much I learn, all I keep learning is “there is so much more left for me to learn”! I am a Civil 3D User, a Trainer, a Consultant, a Manager, a Support Technician and a Writer. I loved AutoCAD Civil 3D, even before it changed my life. In the beginning Civil 3D hated me, but we have come to terms and now, it at least really likes me. Love may be asking for too much.
I was an AutoCAD Land Desktop® and Softdesk® user, when I started trying to figure out how to learn Civil 3D, as I knew that was the future. Two years later, I finally started up Civil 3D 2007 and it was not a trial version that was going to run out of time before I spent an hour using it. It was a legitimate license and on subscription, I had made it and you couldn’t stop my progression. Where others saw a roadblock, I saw an opportunity.
I have fired up Civil 3D in the middle of the night more than once. I have had my family calling to tell me, ok that is enough, time to come home. I have even been working before the sun comes up, cause I just couldn’t wait to get back to my beloved-ed software, and I don’t do mornings. I have spent every possible minute working in it for months on end sometimes. One year I think I only didn’t work a total of 8 days the entire year, it was by choice most of the time. My wife has even referred to it(her) as my mistress.
I was attending AUGI® CAD Camp when I met a salesman for the AutoCAD Reseller that had hosted the event. We started talking and I told him how the company I worked for was not going to purchase Civil 3D. He informed me of a local company in my area that had purchased it, and how they needed someone to learn the software. As they had it, but were having major issues with its use. So when I was back from camp, I went and got a new job right away. I put in my 2 weeks notice and told them “I was leaving because it was critical to my career that I learn the future of Civil Engineering software”. While I was waiting out my two weeks to pass, the company called a reseller and purchased the software. Since I had already committed to leaving, I did just that, I left.
During the first hour I was at my new position, I was asked if I wanted to give Civil 3D a try. Of course I did! No training, no books, no recorded online training, no one to consult really, the reseller staff was still in the learning process as well. All I did find helpful was a blog or two, and mostly AUGI’s discussion boards. The Autodesk one’s always felt too busy to me. Special props go out to Dana and James as they stand out in my mind more than any others in those early days, appropriate they both work for the same company. 
I quickly found out that lots of people did not have any interest in switching to Civil 3D, and many of them would not be able to if they did desire to learn it. I don’t have to tell anyone who has spent more than an hour using it, that it is very difficult to learn Civil 3D! But once you do it can open many doors. The only reason why? Is because it is so damn hard to learn. I tell people all the time how happy I am that it is so difficult to work with at times, as it makes me money. 
Here are just a few things AutoCAD Civil 3D has done for me
- Helped me land a new job 2 days before Christmas, one hour after dropping off my resume, when the company was not hiring
- Allowed me to start my own consulting business with not much more than my knowledge, a little confidence and maybe a slight bit of charm
- Allowed me to not only move from one coast to another, but I picked the city I was going to live in off Google searches with no concerns of finding a job
- Caused me to have to turn down an unknown amount of positions during this down economy, many times when they had no open positions before I had arrived
- Assisted me in designing many Civil Engineering projects that I could not have done with such little assistance from others, without such a powerful design tool
- Most of all; it has allowed me to make very good money at times, more than I would have ever guessed a CAD Guy could make
Anyways; I wanted to share with you how much this amazing software has changed my life, enough so that I know within a 20 minute window of the time when I first used it, 6 years ago. I know of several other people that have had similar and even better experiences from learning this software. So don’t get discouraged. I once had a custom toolbar in the center of my screen so I could save my drawings before it crashed, a one second savings in cursor movement was helpful. You think it is hard now, you should have tried using it when it was only a 32bit application! I had an average of 12 crashes a day for at least the first 6 months I used it. Then I figure out at least half of the time it was my fault, or I could have kept it from happening at least. Then I only crashed every other hour, for a couple of years. My advice to everyone using any version of Civil 3D, save and save often. I tell people this; “only save after you have created something you don’t want to create again”, which should be about every 10-20 minutes.
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Cadtechs on-demand Autodesk® product training list
Here is a list of the Autodesk products we have available for on-demand training.
Click any of the products to see the available tittles for each product. We have a 193 titles currently, and this list is still growing!
All of these are available 24/7/365. The future of CAD training is already here! These videos are searchable, meaning you can search for the specific training you need, when you need it.
Autodesk® Products
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2011 Autodesk product keys
AutoCAD 2011 001C1
AutoCAD LT 2011 057C1
AutoCAD Architecture 2011 185C1
AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 237C1
AutoCAD Civil 2011 544C1
AutoCAD Map 3D 2011 129C1
AutoCAD MEP 2011 235C1
AutoCAD P&ID 2011 448C1
AutoCAD Raster Design 2011 340C1
Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2011 507C1
Autodesk Navisworks Review 2011 504C1
Autodesk Navisworks Simulate 2011 506C1
Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise 2011 276C1
Autodesk 3DS Studio Max Design 2011 495C1
Autodesk Productstream Prof. Pro 2011 261C1
Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 240C1
Revit Architecture Suite 2011 241C1
Autodesk Revit Structure 2011 255C1
Autodesk Revit Structure Suite 2011 256C1
Autodesk Revit MEP 2011 297C1
Autodesk Revit MEP Suite 2011 257C1
Free AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Automation Class
Link to recorded class videos
Here is a link to my youtube channel (Civil3Dguide) where you will find yesterday’s class posted in a 5 part series. Here is the link!
Here is the download link to the 2012 Civil 3D class drawing. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29031836/Class.dwg
Here is the download link to the AutoCAD 2010 version of the class drawing. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29031836/ACAD-Class.dwg
Here is the download link to the XML file containing the class data, in case you would like to recreate this data in an earlier version of Civil 3D. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29031836/Class.xml You will still need a couple of styles from the class drawing in order to duplicate the class drawing.
Visit this page on our website for additional information on online training classes. Here is the link http://cadtechs.biz/training_overview.html
Free AutoCAD/Civil 3D class this week!
The upcoming online CAD training class is FREE to everyone that is on our newsletter mailing list, one hour prior to the class start time! We will send out invitations,Wednesday @11 PDT so mark you calendar! Class begins at 12pm PDT, 1pm MDT, 2pm CDT & 3pm EDT
AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Drawing Automation Class
Free AutoCAD Civil 3D styles and a AutoCAD dynamic scale bar inclded with class!
This class is intended for AutoCAD Civil 3D users and CAD managers. This class focuses on drawing production and automation using some standard AutoCAD functions, and Civil 3D styles for designing by sight. Through the use of styles and display functions, we can design faster and more easily in Civil 3D. All while improving accuracy of our designs and making it easier for new designers to visually see their design. Any user of AutoCAD® or any of the AutoCAD based vertical applications, would gain valuable information from attending this class.
Class registration is free to all Cadtechs newsletter subscribers! A $25 value!
Class topics:
Layer tips and tricks: (ACAD & C3D portion)
Working with too many layers? Want to speed up production time? Want to make it easier for users to understand your firms layer names, or National CAD Standards?
- Predefined Layer filters
- Predefined layer overrides
- Using layer descriptions
- Using no plot layers
Drawing production, automation and management tools: (ACAD & C3D portion)
Want to reduce the chances of simple errors from user input? Want to speed up the sheet creation and plotting process? Want to know who was the last user in a dwg?
- Automated plot stamp that floats freely
- Automated scale for viewport scale
- Who saved this drawing last saved
- Automation for project data
- Using a dynamic scale bar
Visually designing a storm pipe network: (C3D only portion)
Would you like to make it easier to design storm networks and roadways using C3D?
- Using flow arrows for structure placement
- Using a low point marker for storm and road design
Register here
We have hidden an Easter egg on our website! Be the first to find the Easter egg and win an Autodesk® 2GB USB flash drive!
You will know when you find it, because you will find the instructions for how to register finding the egg!
Help spread the word!
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AutoCAD Civil 3D Users Group
Join our Civil 3D Users Group.
The AutoCAD Civil 3D Users Group is for anyone that uses or has an interest in AutoCAD Civil 3D software. A place to share tips, get answers and to share information on Civil 3D! Civil Engineering, Survey, Environmental, Oil & Gas, Utilities, etc…
We are currently working towards having Online Users Group meeting.
You can find us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
How to remove all Autodesk products from a Windows system
Copied from Autodesk website; here is the link.
Issue
A previous attempt to install or uninstall an Autodesk® product failed to successfully complete and now you are unable to install or reinstall an Autodesk product on your system.
In these cases, it is strongly recommended that you clean your system by uninstalling all Autodesk products and supporting applications (add-ins, utilities, enablers, etc.), and by removing related files and settings before attempting to reinstall. The end result is a clean system on which you can install your new Autodesk product.
Visit the Autodesk site for complete instructions. Autodesk site
Model/analyze rivers for infrastructure planning and design projects.
From the Autodesk Labs website:
Project River Analysis Extension for AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2012 software and AutoCAD® Map 3D® 2012 is a sophisticated river modeling software package supports HEC-RAS within the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 and AutoCAD Map 3D 2012 environment. This technology preview of River Analysis makes it easier than ever before to compute water surface profiles for modeling rivers, bridges, culverts, spillways, levees, floodplain and floodway delineations, stream diversions, channel improvements, and split flows.
This extension for Civil 3D 2012 and Map 3D 2012 makes it extremely easy to:
- Automate HEC-RAS cross section cutting, water surface analysis, flood plain mapping, and all related modeling tasks.
- Utilize numerous automation mapping tools for extracting cross sections from various digital terrain sources including contours, TINs, DTMs, DEMs, LiDAR data, survey files, surveyed cross sections, etc.
- Perform sophisticated bridge and culvert analysis as well as automating the process of designing and analyzing roadway crossings.
- Automate mapping of bank station locations, channel and overland flow lengths, levee locations, ineffective flow areas, Manning’s roughness data from topographic map data.
- Perform automated bridge scour computations for FHWA and state DOT roadway studies.
- Automatically generate floodplain and floodway maps, ready for FEMA and other agency submittals.
This technology preview is now available as a free download from the link above. The River Analysis Extension for AutoCAD Civil 3D / AutoCAD Map 3D technology preview is licensed for a limited term and for a particular territory as referenced in the End User License Agreement. The technology preview executable expires at the end of the technology preview based on a time-bomb date that has been set forDecember 31, 2011.
Why Land Surveyors don’t need Civil 3D!
Land Surveyors don’t need AutoCAD Civil 3D because they do not need all of the functions in this software. Many of them only need something more simple, such as Autodesk Land Desktop. They could get by with plain AutoCAD except they need to import survey points, set coordinates to their drawings, label bearings, create a surface sometimes, sub-divide a parcel here or there and maybe create alignment every now and again. They are very likely fluent in these tasks that they currently do in the software they are using now. Do we agree?
Ok, now this is why they need to be using AutoCAD Civil 3D!
First and for-most, they need to be competitive. Using older software can make any business harder to work with. They need to have drawings of the same software as the Engineering firms they work with do. Sharing drawings back and forth is always better than not being able to use each others data or drawings. There is so much more control of survey points in C3D. From their display, to being able to perform adjustments inside of the CAD software. Surface creation and editing is by far much faster in C3D than in LDD (LDT depends on the version). You can easily move around the contour labels and create surface elevations anywhere on a C3D surface. C3D surfaces can be used for staking, allowing the surveyor to stake any point on a project site, with elevation, and without first creating a point for this stake-out location. It is much easier in C3D to preform quantity calculations, for the borrow pits, landfills, ponds, etc…
Sub-dividing parcels in C3D is so much better, faster and easier, that if you have to do even a few of these a year, it could make the transition worth it for this feature alone. The automated annotation can keep you from having to calculate the text size in each and every drawing. I know; I once had that memorized as well, but no longer have a need for knowing that sort of information, let alone having a font size table taped to my desk. Having the ability to create and market 3D as-built information or BIM models is a pretty cool thing for your firm to boost about! Autodesk is not going to support the very last release of LDD (2009 version) for very much longer. Which is another issue, trying to get LDD installed on a Windows 7 64bit computer. And last; hopefully this never happens, but if you find yourself without a job you better have some Civil 3D knowledge, or you may find yourself at a bit of a disadvantage in the job market.
