AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

We are about to upgrade from R2008 and LDD to R2012 and Civil3D. We went thru a 3 day class given by our vendor for the Civil3D Fundamentals. The survey department was included in this class.

After taking the class, the whole survey department thinks that Civil3D is not survey friendly.

Just wondering what all of you Surveryors think about Civil3D.

i remember when we upgraded to 2008, I didn't see some of the advantages at first. It was not till I started using it. I'm just hoping the same will happen.

There is also a Survey Fundamentals class that the vendor gives, I will look into that

Any input would be great

[#2]

Do a search thru this forum and you will find a lot of posts on this subject.

[#3]

Thanks, Not sure why I didn't do that first.

[#4]

Sinc,

Your Cat-5 is ringing.

[#5]

After working with a small survey firm for the last month it depends. If they want to keep doing the simple surveys plotted on paper as their end product then it may be more than they want. However if they want to keep up with technology and this century then they should be using it. It wont be long before they need to have the end product as 3D in a known coordinate system as digital information.

[#6]

IF you set things up correctly (description keys, etc.), it works quite well to go back and forth. But everyone has to agree to play nice.

I suggest go take a field to finish course/demo from your vendor...

[#7]

To answer "Is C3D survey friendly" it depends on where you came from and what you'll use it for. Since you came from LDT, it's no less survey friendly than LDT and C3D has far more to offer, but at a cost of using a completely new system; training, growing pains etc.

There will be those who don't like it simply because it's new, or "we used to do it this way before".

It's not as much about whether it's survey friendly than it is about getting people on board and getting them trained.

That said, many surveyors have valid concerns about C3D's functionality compared to dedicated survey software.

[#8]

Thanks for the input everyone!

We have 35 Cad users, 17 of which will be using Civil3D at some poiint.

Growing Pains is the best way to describe what is going on.

Points are the biggest concern. There are some old habits we will have to learn to forget about

[#9]

I think it is very much user friendly as long as you can get through the learning curve after using LDT.  Took me about a year but definitely worth it.  I would never go back to LDT.  The survey tool space is very nice in the way it allows the user to organize different sets of data.

But...

I have found that if your are preparing surveys for clients who use your cad drawing such as architects and engineers and those clients are not using C3D or enven using a previous version of C3D, those clients will not be happy with what you deliver.  Many have told me that they would rather receive a LDT deliverable even though they use C3D... Yes, there is LandXML, but it too has issues.  We use C3d2011 and really like it, but we are not going upgrade for sometime and hopefully let the masses catch up....may be a while.    Are others having this same issue??   I will add that a couple of commands in Sincpac has helped a lot in allowing us to get C3D drawings downgraded in a format that certain clients are happy with.  You have gotta keep the clients Happy...C3D or not!

[#10]

Change the term unfriendly to overwhelming. It is all that and a bag of chips. BUT.....the more I use and the more I learn the more I like. You prolly will also. Take your time, ask questions, and dig into it.