AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

in my humble opinion...

until you can copy and paste c3d objects from one drawing to another and data referance expands its capabilities, c3d has no place in a production environment. being stuck within one drawing is not an option. Use the tool for what it does...points/surface/parcel/grading/alignment/profile/section/pipes...then export results to auto cad.

...anyone agree? your thoughts?

[#2]

C3D has tons and tons of problems, but we've been using it in a production environment for 2-1/2 years now...

It's all relative.

-- Sinc
http://www.ejsurveying.com
http://www.quuxsoft.com

[#3]

...we have also...and i wonder if it is counter productive. The object is to print off a 24"X36" piece of paper.

[#4]

I disagree in part... a partial objective is the paper, the other part
is the model, which can be exported for machine control, which we hope
to do in the near future with our projects.

I never put all my Civil 3D objects in one drawing! I find the project
environment and the use of data shortcuts/references too easy to bog my
project down in that manner.
My $.02

Lisa Pohlmeyer
Engineer Assoc.
Williamson County, TX
lpohlmeyer at wilco dot org
Civil 3D 2009 SP2
Dell T3400 Quad Core, 2.4Ghz, 4Gb RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 1700 - Performance Drivers

Neil Fallon wrote:
> ...we have also...and i wonder if it is counter productive. The object
> is to print off a 24"X36" piece of paper.

[#5]

Great point...I need support. When i first heard of c3d i thought it would be a HUGE advantage to generate field calcs. for the survey crews off of the proposed model. In order to take advantage of this I think I need to wait till the software advances and becomes more flexible. Till then I feel it's counterproductive to employ it in plan sets/exhibits/details etc....should the power of c3d and the flexibility of autocad be seperate? I vote yes...

[#6]

> {quote:title=Neil Fallon wrote:}{quote}
> When i first heard of c3d i thought it would be a HUGE advantage to generate field calcs. for the survey crews off of the proposed model. In order to take advantage of this I think I need to wait till the software advances and becomes more flexible.

We already do this. But of course, we use the Sincpac-C3D, which contains many tools that help Surveyors... Some of them even leave Carlson in the dust, and we can run circles around most people when it comes to Survey Calcs. The price is we needed to learn Civil 3D to do it, and C3D has an incredible learning curve.

And of course, most of the stuff we get "from others" is not done in C3D, so we almost-never have a C3D model to stake from unless we create it ourselves. And when we DO get a C3D model, we have the issues that we don't want to work in the "drawing from others", and getting their model into files created from our template can be problematic.

> Till then I feel it's counterproductive to employ it in plan sets/exhibits/details etc....should the power of c3d and the flexibility of autocad be seperate? I vote yes...

You lost me here... I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

-- Sinc
http://www.ejsurveying.com
http://www.quuxsoft.com

[#7]

...I'm simply saying c3d should be used as a tool only...when producing plan sets/exhibits/details, export c3d objects to autocad and work without the c3d puzzle.
I'm excited to get to the point you have with the survey calcs. I just need a team that is thinking in the same direction to make it happen.
thanks for the inspiration...

[#8]

I still don't really follow...

I agree that C3D is a "puzzle". It would take very little effort to make it twice as user-friendly as it is. But I don't understand what you mean by "used as a tool only". And exporting C3D objects to Autocad destroys the model, removing all the extra information that lets us do all the neat things.

That sounds like Autodesk's approach to Projects.... People complained a lot about the poor Project Management in Land Desktop, so for C3D, Autodesk decided to completely remove Projects. Never mind that Projects are an integral part of our work, and we desperately need them...

I think the usual cliche for this sort of thing is "throwing the baby out with the bathwater".

-- Sinc
http://www.ejsurveying.com
http://www.quuxsoft.com

[#9]

Machine control is looming here in New England. It really hasn't got here yet.

Out of curiosity... firms that offer their models up... are they charging the earth work contractor accordingly? Roughly the fees that the stakeout survey would have brought in? Or are you just giving the model out ffor the good of humanity?

Craig

[#10]

Everyone our office has been using it
exclusively since 2/07 for everything from sheets, details, engineering &
surveying design/calcs, GIS data conversions, Aerial photography plans, and
more.

Does it drive us nuts at times? I'd need a minute
to pick up some of the marbles I lost before I answer.

--
John Mayo, PE

Civil 3D 2009 SP1, LDT 2008 SP2, Raster Design 2009 SP1
P-IV at 3.5 GHz,
2 GB Ram, Nvidea Quadro FX w/ 128 MB Ram

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<Neil Fallon> wrote in message
href="news:6132473@discussion.autodesk.com">news:6132473@discussion.autodesk.com...

...I'm
simply saying c3d should be used as a tool only...when producing plan
sets/exhibits/details, export c3d objects to autocad and work without the c3d
puzzle. I'm excited to get to the point you have with the survey calcs. I just
need a team that is thinking in the same direction to make it happen. thanks
for the inspiration...