Comments regarding the Autodesk Site Design Solutions

Andy’s back at it again!  This time our good friend, Andy Carter, has created a quick 5 minute tutuorial in which he uses Civil 3D (and Map 3D) to import the National Flood Hazard Layer Web Map Service.

In my opinion, Andy is a genius and innovator when it comes to exploring and finding methods to connect data to Civil 3D.  I thank him for sharing his knowledge with us and allowing me to blog about him.  I think you will find the information that he shares with us highly useful.

Check out his latest video:

This week’s blog takes us back to AutoCAD basics.  I’m prompted to write this by the fact that in the past couple of months I’ve worked with a couple of people who were completely surprised by this command while working with them.

Le’ts say that you’re working on a drawing and that you’ve erased an object.  You’ve proceeded forward in your drawing by using other commands.  At one point you realize you needed that object you erased a few commands ago.  Don’t UNDO all your work until that object reappears.  All you need to do is use the OOPS command.  The OOPS command will restore the object(s) erased by the last ERASE command.  Remember, you can only use the OOPS command to restore object erased by the last ERASE command.  You cannot use the command to restore any and all objects you’ve erased through the history of the drawing, and you cannot restore any erased objects if you’ve closed your drawing and reopened it.

Here’s the explanation of the command from the AutoCAD help file:

I just got off the phone with a good friend of mine who has a Civil 3D drawing with a large surface. Every time that he maneuvers around the drawing it takes too long to regen. Now we both believed he had a video card issue, but he’s under a deadline (of course, anything that can go wrong will go wrong near the end of a deadline). So until he can get a new video card we had to come up with a way to minimize the regen process.

So of course my brain starts cranking because I had to back, way back, behind all those cobwebs in my head and dust off an old friend. Some of you may already know this, but for you newbies, you may want to take not of the system variable REGENMODE:

That helped minimize the issue, but the it still took too long to regen.  So we discovered a little setting that saved the day.

Apparently, he was drawing his contour labels and allowing his major and minor contours labels to be drawn, along with his contour label lines to be displayed as so:

He’d then go into the properties dialog box and control the masking and display of his contour labels.

It’s recommended that you control these setting with the label style rather than through the properties dialog box.  We found that when setting the masking to “Contour Line Only” that’s when the lagging the drawing was most evident.  Keep that set to “From Label Style.”

Also, don’t forget that you can layout our contour label lines and not have to deal with the display of the contour label line at all.  Just go into the Settings tab and navigate to the to the “AddContourLabeling” command settings within the surface styles.  Right-click on “AddContourLabeling” and select ”Edit Command  Settings”:

In the “Edit Command Settings – AddContourLabeling” dialog box expand “Contour Labeling Defaults” and change the value of “Display Contour Label Line” from true to false:

You may want to change this setting in your template as well so you don’t have to do this for every drawing.

Ever since our last webinar on this topic I’ve had many phone calls and e-mails asking when this will be released.  I apologize for the delay. I had some issues with the original recording and had to create one from scratch.  I also apologize that there is a link to the video rather than having it embedded in this blog. I’ve been working for a week to upload this video to this blog with no luck. I’ll continue to explore it, but for now you have access to the direct link.

Remember, I’m not a GIS guru nor do I know where all the GIS websites reside.  The data that I’m using here is data that I’m familiar with, but most GIS data should be imported and act in a similar manner.  I hope you find it informative.

Here is the link:
GIS_Into_C3D

This is a few days late, but better late than never.  Late last week Autodesk released Civil 3D Update 1.  These are some of the topics resolved in this update:

• Alignments issues
• API issues
• Corridor Design issues
• Corridor Volume issues
• Data Shortcut issues
• Grading issues
• Hydrology and Hydraulics issues
• Object Enabler issues
• Performance issues
• Pipes issues
• Profile View issues
• Project management issues
• Quantity takeoff issues
• Surface issues
• Survey issues
• Surperelevation issues
• User interface issues

Lately I’ve been getting lots of tech support calls from people who have finally decided to install their Civil 3D 2012 software.  They are usually calling for one or both of these scenarios:

1. “I’ve been ready and anxious to install Civil 3D 2012.  Do you know when the DVD’s for my company will ship?  We’ve been waiting awhile.”
2. “I’ve got the DVD’s but there’s no serial number on it.  Can you please tell me what our serial number is?”

Both these scenarios usually leave me wondering. . .”Did I not tell them about the Subscription Center?”  By now you should know that future releases of Autodesk software will be only available through the Subscription Center.  However, you must have software coordinator rights to do so.  Someone in your company has coordinator rights.  It’s usually the individual who does the ordering.

Once the software coordinator logs into the Subscription Center he/she will want to navigate to the “Downloads” page.  This the page where you can simply click on the “Download Your Upgrade Now” button to begin downloading your software.  Be forewarned, it’s not going to be a simple 10-minute download (we’re talking hours here, people).  If you prefer to get your hands on the DVD’s then simply click on the “One-Time DVD/CD Shipment” link and follow the instructions.  If you always want to receive your DVD’s in the mail in the future then click on the “Delivery Preferences for Future Upgrades” link and follow those instructions.  Once this is set you should receive your DVD’s in the mail every release.

To obtain your serial number (and your product key) read the “Obtain Your Product Key and Serial Number” section near the bottom of the screen.  Of course, you can always contact your reseller and they should be more than happy to provide you that serial number and product key.  And, NO!!!  Your serial number and product key used for your previous releases WILL NOT work.  Every year, every release will render you to use a new serial number.

Also, you DO NOT need to have your previous version software on your computer in order to install your latest version.  Every release is independent from the previous.

Here is a screen capture of the “Downloads” page in the Subscription Center:

Early registration for Autodesk University 2011 is now open to Autodesk Subsription Customers.  This year it will be held at the Venetian Hotel in las Vegas from November 29 – December 1, 2011.  Classes fill up fast so REGISTER NOW! !

For those of you who’ve never been to AU I highly recommend attending.  It’s three days of intense tips and tricks from some of the world’s top usrs.  It’s a platform to network and share ideas.  It’s higly informative.  And best of all. . .it’s fun!

This year D|C|CADD’s own Matt Dillon will be one of the featured presenters.  For those of you who may also use Revit or AutoCAD Architecure don’t miss his classes.

Don’t wait too long to register because the sooner you register the better your chances are of getting the classes you want.

I”m very excited about this post.  I recently had the privilege of meeting Andy Carter, PE for Halff Associates, Inc., at one or our live user group events.  He informed me of a technique that he had been working on to SUCCESSFULLY export data out of Civil 3D into HEC-RAS, manipulate the data in HEC-RAS, and re-import it back into Civil 3D.  As you’ve probably guessed it, I consider Andy a genius.  He definitely exploded my brains with his vast amount of knowledge in this realm.  We were fortunate to have the ability to capture his demo in a webinar he did for us a few weeks ago.  It is such a great demo that Andy will be presenting it an extended version of it AU this year.  Well, you don’t have to wait until AU.  I’m providing you an opportunity to view the bulk of his demo right here.  And thanks again to Andy for all his hard work in putting this together! 

I know it’s been awhile since my last post.  I’ve been extremely busy.  This is not a Civil 3D post as much as it is to inform you of some changes. 

Sadly, on our part, Matt Castelli is no longer with DC CADD and will no longer be contributing to this blog.  This change comes by his choice and not ours.  Matt has decided he needed to pursue his own personal dreams.  He has left us to work for a reputable design firm to get more experience as well as go back to school.  As much I despise the idea of his departure I completely understand that we must all chase down our own personal dreams.  Matt is a great guy, an extremely hard worker, contains a vast amount of knowledge (both in design and in Civil 3D), a great team player, a joy to work with, and, mostly, a great friend.   We, here at DC CADD, wish him all the best on this next chapter of his life.  He will be missed greatly.

 Good luck, Matt!

PS – you still owe me lunch!

I’m sure most of you have already been informed of the Product Design Suites now being offered by Autodesk.  For those of you who haven’t, the Infrastructure Design Suite is a Autodesk’s new way of packaging multiple software that you may use at a highly discounted price.  For more information on which products are in which package you have find all the information on the Autodesk website or simply click on this link:  Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite. 

For those of you who have the Design Suite on a network license you may have already run into the licensing issue.  The issue is that when the Design Suite portion of the license file is added you may find that the licenses are pulling incorrectly or the number of licenses allowed to the users is not correct.  To resolve this Autodesk released today the Autodesk Infrastructure Design Sutie License Hotfix.  Please be sure to select the appropriate 32-bit or 64-bit hotfix for your environment.