AutoCAD Civil 3D

[#1]

Scott: In part I understand the rational. However, that only works if money is no object and you can easily afford the extra channels. However, in the real world, firms may not have the resources to layout the extra funds to purchase the bells and whistles just to get one single add-on. Especially if the cost for the bells and whistles are significantly above the value of the one add-on that they need. For you, the one channel that you wanted must have been a must have regardless of the cost. In other cases, the cost of the add-on must be reasonable for what they are getting. In the case of Autodesk and the suite packages, for many small firms there is little need for many of the extras. In many cases if they are a detriment to their relationship to their clients. As an example, several of my clients have taken the position that they will not pay for fancy plan sets and presentations, due to what they believe will only raise the bar with the reviewing agencies and ultimately up the costs. I understand that the programs allow some of this to be done in the same timeframe and for the same or less cost than the standard drawings, but if you can't convince the client, who will pay the bill, then as a consultant, you don't do that or use that software. Under these circumstances, the benefit of having the software is very limited and not worth the extra money. -- Tom Suchoski Hydrologic Design Inc. 10969 Topview Rd South Jordan, Utah 84095 tjsuchoski@hydrologicdesign.com www.hydrologicdesign.com 801-576-9259 (o/f) 801-608-2414 (c)

[#2]

Hi, sorry if the question have already been answered, but is there any way to use this extension in meters instead of feet?

[#3]

> 1. Adding more an more functionality to products was making them larger and larger. They are plenty big already.

The products are getting too big, so the solution is to require customers to buy and install a bunch of other bloated software just to get new features that they are already paying for with their existing subscription contracts?  I don't follow the logic...

[#4]

If you are using Microsoft Word and need to add two numbers, you need Microsoft Excel. Microsoft did not add spreadsheet capabilities to Word. Instead they sell Word and Excel together as Microsoft Office. You may only need addition today, but because you get Excel, tomorrow you may find yourself taking advantage of the rest of what Excel has to offer.

[#5]

That would make sense, if Civil 3D wasn't Autodesk's flagship civil engineering design application.  To use a more correct version of your analogy, it would be as if I only owned Excel, but Microsoft decided to include the "addding of two numbers" functionality only in some new application called "Numerical Modeler" which would be included in the newest version of Office.  Sure, I could buy Microsoft Office to save some money over buying the two applications separately, and sure, I could get all of the extra functionality that comes with Office, but that doesn't really help me with  my spreadsheets, does it? 

Placing that capability in some fancy new application and including it in a suite would send the wrong message to Excel customers.  All it would do is reinforce everything negative that those users had ever heard about Microsoft.

[#6]

Hi.

I have the same problem.

When I start my calculation I recive the same massage as you.

Have you managed to fix the error?

Best Regards 

[#7]

Looks like the speculations were on point…. It just went ®2014 IDSU….

 http://www.autodesk.com/suites/infrastructure-design-suite/included-software

I just consolidated all of our licensing across north America 2 months ago, now to find out I need to upgrade some of our suites from IDSP to IDSU so I can still run the River Analyst Module that I’ve been beta testing for years now… Fun…I'm sure my IT Manger and CFO will love to hear that...

Would have been nice if the sales team at Autodesk eluded me to that fact that this change was definitly coming, rather than finding out 2 months after I've made a major upgrade…

[#8]

I feel your pain, but resellers are usually not informed about these kinds of things and if they are, it's very close to the release date and even then, the plans cannot be discussed publicly.  Publicly traded compnay issues and all.

[#9]

Good Point, however I was negotiating a large purchase and Autodesk was directly involved as was our reseller…. But you are correct, the whole publicly traded company aspect probably does limit them to what they can share… (but a hint would have been nice…) I’ll take it w/ a grain of salt…

[#10]

I'm just happy it's finally built into a suite and will be supported as such. The beta version had some serious issues both messing up other features and instability issues. I'm hopeful those are all ironed out in the 2014 version...