AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

The Help Files in C3D 2012 were pathetic.  In virtually every search I tried, the C3D 2012 Help would fail to return anything.

Now I'm trying some of the same searches in C3D 2013, and THEY ACTUALLY WORK, AND RETURN USEFUL INFO!!!!!  HOORAY!!!!!

[#2]

OK Sinc you've found the good stuff, but have you found any new errors yet?

So far I've found that every time 2013 exits I get a Windows crash error.  No CER and no data lost but it's annoying.  I've also found that my 2012 Tool Palette is now borked after installing 2013 - can't access any subassemblies now.

[#3]

Steve, I haven't seen either of those issues. I did get that annoying blank error with an exclamation point everytime I exited C3D2012, but a reinstall of 2012 corrected that.

[#4]

Yay! Sinc is happy for a change

Steve, this is odd. I've had it installed since December with no problems at all for 2012.

Maybe an RTM bug or something up with your system?

I'm waiting for someone to complain that you can't see any pressure pipes in your sections.

[#5]

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mathewk wrote:
Yay! Sinc is happy for a change

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Hey, I'm ALWAYS happy when they do something that helps us as users.  It's just so rare that I find something good that doesn't also involve an offsetting problem...

But even with all those problems, I find C3D to be the best available tool on the market, in general.  So kudos to the C3D dev team for that.  I just wish they wouldn't keep dropping the ball on so many obvious issues.

I know I complain a lot in this forum, but I think those complaints help make the software better (as long as the dev team listens).  On other forums, like the POB forum and the BeerLeg/SurveyorConnect forum, I often get slammed as an "Autodesk shill", because I constantly talk about how I can do so much more with C3D than with Carlson.  So I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

[#6]

Indeed. While we're on the subject, what are your thoughts on Micro Survey compared to C3D, assuming you've used it or even heard about it.

I'm training some hard nosed MS users tomorrow and some perspective might be good.

[#7]

Yes, I've heard of MicroSurvey, but never used it.  I've seen a bit of it.  For the most part, it reminds me of a simplified version of Land Desktop Survey, so it seems to cater a lot toward "old-style" CAD work, for people who have Softdesk/LDD experience.  I've seen enough that I think it's better than LDD, but that's not saying much.  Carlson seems better.  But I don't think either really compare to C3D, IF you can fight the learning curve and all the bugs.

[#8]

Oh, I should probably also add that MicroSurvey bought out Star*Net a while back, and Star*Net is SO MUCH BETTER than C3D's Survey Database that it's incomparable.  So that's actually a major selling-point for MicroSurvey, at least for Land Surveyors in some lines of work.

[#9]

omg i totally agree. I hated 2012 help search.

tony

CAD Manager

www.tonyscivil3dworld.blogspot.com

[#10]

I have MicroSurvey installed and our company surveyors use it extensively.  It's a mature product, focused on Land Surveying tasks, especially importing and analysis of field data.  The company also has field data collector software that is very good.  I would say that most or all of the C3D features used for survey tasks have an equivalent in MS.  They don't make any real effort to be a design package but if you want to import and balance traverse data to build a topo or legal plan then it works very well.  They've added point cloud processing recently so they're keeping up with technology.

I saw recently that they've been acquired by Hexagon/Leica, so I would expect that they'll be a significant player in the future.