Today is the day we can talk about C3D 2015

[ToddRogers-WPM]

Here is the Help file to review...

http://help.autodesk.com/view/CIV3D/2015/ENU/

[DarrenP]

see if this works

2015New Features
http://help.autodesk.com/view/CIV3D/2015/ENU/?guid=GUID-A2D82D86-C85C-42C0-BA42-B62948A58FDA

[DarrenP]

you can also download it

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-civil-3d/downloads/caas/downloads/content/download-and...

[doni49]

We were able to get there by going to Help>Getting Started>New Features on the left hand side.  My message was more about getting the link on the right side fixed otherwise it will prompt a lot of questions.

[AllenJessup]

That links to the New Features page. But if you then go to the home page of help and try the links there. They're still broken (or denied).

Good find on the direct link though. I looked for it quickly but didn't find it.

Allen

[JoelW7]

Interesting, not many new features and it will be interesting to see how many bugs are fixed. Although it was nice in 2014 that they finally fixed the xref issue for section views for moving labels (Even though this issue was identified many versions previous to this).

Civil 3D is starting to mimic CAiCE in terms of the way Autodesk is maintaining and improving it.  CAiCE would have a few new features that would be added but the bulk of the improvements between versions were fixes to bugs that we issues in the previous one.  Even so, CAiCE still had many bugs that were never fixed and we had to program around them.

I am clearly aging myself by discussing CAiCE but Civil 3D is technically over 10 years old and since we started using it in 2008 quite frankly there has not been many new features.  I have a feeling this is currently going the way of CaiCE: It is going to be out of date to the point where Autodesk realizes they need to do a complete rebuild and start from scratch.

Civil 3D is a good platform but technology moves quick and without improvements software can quickly become archaic.  I have always preferred Autodesk products but the open roads technology Bentley has is impressive.  Autodesk is going to have to start improving versus their current trend of maintaining civil 3D if they want to keep up. The good thing for users is that competition between the two keeps them on their toes giving us better products.

[Cadguru42]

Anyone notice that there's really nothing new for Map 3d at all? Just an update to FDO and that's it, at least listed by the help. Pretty sad.

[ToddRogers-WPM]

You are correct.  Absolutely nada.

[Neilw_05]

I've been following the development of Bentley's Open Roads (Civil Platform) technology and they have taken a superior approach in my opinion. The technology is only partially developed and depends on components of the legacy products to handle the parts that are not yet available (which requires file translation processes), so it is too cumbersome to use at this stage of implementation. One of the big downsides to their products has been the annotation and plan production tools. I have yet to see any foregleams of how they are going to handle that. If they can catch up to C3D on the annotation side of the problem then their technolgy would be the one to beat.

[Joe-Bouza]

It's interesting; most agree the new features are thin and the fixes are nebulously non-existent. Which may portend the demise of the product due to lack of interest from the top. Oddly, I've heard other topics claim InfraWorks is the future and that's where development has spent their resources. But, when you view an InfraWorks feature video, if you listen closely they say... blah blah blah... "...and when planning is complete, you can export to civil3d to do the final design":

Obviously they know where their bread is buttered.

[_Hathaway]

What is the actual release date?  Or is it out?

[neilyj666]

Typically released a few weeks after AutoCAD - for reasons best know to Autodesk

[AllenJessup]

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@neilyj666 wrote:
Typically released a few weeks after AutoCAD - for reasons best know to Autodesk

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In the way-back when DCA and Softdesk were 3rd party apps. You'd have to was nearly half a year for the next version to run with AutoCAD.

I can understand not wanting to throw everything out at once. It's also possible that the final release of AutoCAD isn't ready until just before the release. The vertical teams may then want to do one more round of tests.

Allen

[neilyj666]

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@AllenJessup wrote:

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@neilyj666 wrote:
Typically released a few weeks after AutoCAD - for reasons best know to Autodesk

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In the way-back when DCA and Softdesk were 3rd party apps. You'd have to was nearly half a year for the next version to run with AutoCAD.

I can understand not wanting to throw everything out at once. It's also possible that the final release of AutoCAD isn't ready until just before the release. The vertical teams may then want to do one more round of tests.

Allen

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...some would say it isn't even ready after release..!!!!

[ksorsby]

Is that it? Well done Autodesk, well done.

Kevin

[MikeEvansUK]

I was also surprised by the lack of new features as oposed to older versions (Pre 2013) perhaps as in the past excessive new features would be rolled out with some bugs slipping through the teams are concentrating on fewer more stable aditions and previous bug fixes.

I have to admit it does seem like a very stable version, I have found it very difficult in 2015 to get any bugs to show not saying they don't exist but I thing you have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The only downfall I found so far is the Screen gliphs which have been added for basic AutoCad commands, I still have not found out how to turn them off.

Some major new introductions like label reassociation and profile solid projection styles are most welcome. I have noted that when using the VECs command and multiple viewports you CAN now minimise & maximise viewports without the VECs command stopping something I found in 2012 I think.

[AllenJessup]

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@mikeevans wrote:

I have to admit it does seem like a very stable version,

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OK. There are hundreds of post complaining that they should concentrate on fixing what we have rather than push for new features. If it does turn out that this was the main focus of this release. I'm all for that!

Does QTO now work correctly? That was probably the biggest fault in the previous releases.

Allen

[neilyj666]

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@AllenJessup wrote:

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@mikeevans wrote:

I have to admit it does seem like a very stable version,

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OK. There are hundreds of post complaining that they should concentrate on fixing what we have rather than push for new features. If it does turn out that this was the main focus of this release. I'm all for that!

Does QTO now work correctly? That was probably the biggest fault in the previous releases.

Allen

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They haven't mentioned anything about this so either they haven't fixed it (most likely) or they aren't admitting to it as that would confirm the defect...!!!

The ability to save and plot an aerial photo as a background (like the old Bingmaps Lab project) looks like it could be useful

[ToddRogers-WPM]

Pipe network syncronization is broke in 2014 and is not fixed in 2015 (when pipes are synced, they return to default settings).  This has been escalated to development as a high priority.

[Jay_B]

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@neilyj666 wrote:

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They haven't mentioned anything about this so either they haven't fixed it (most likely) or they aren't admitting to it as that would confirm the defect...!!!

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It looks like a QTO item may have been addressed for the method of calculating corridor areas in 3d?

From the 2015 new features list:

•3D areas for corridors can now be reported in a quantity takeoff report.

[fcernst]

That new Help link says they have added the ability to compute 3D surface area to QTO. Now we will be able to produce accurate areal quantities for entities that have steeper slopes such as ditches, channels, and daylight slopes.

There are still three other defects within QTO that were found last summer that need to be tested in this release.