Due to time constraints, I'll be unable to respond to this post any further after this reply. I hope that it will answer your questions.
QUESTION:
"You mentioned that ASE is intended for subdivision design primarily. For a typical residential subdivision project, where would you as an experienced user of both Civil 3D (or at least a fundamental understanding) and ASE use these products? Where do you stop with Civil 3D and then pick up with ASE, or do you use both programs back and forth throughout the duration of the project for different things leveraging the strengths of each product? Or, since ASE is intended for subdivisions, do you use it exclusively."
ANSWER:
I'm primarily involved in product development and support, but when I do have the occasional opportunity to design or produce, I use LDD and ASE Civil together, leveraging the strengths of each, as you stated. My use of C3D at this point is strictly for the purpose of providing access to surfaces, sites and alignments to satisfy our clients desire to have that capability in place. I own all versions of Civil 3D and have become familiar with it, but I
don't really care for the structure, for reasons I'll leave unsaid, so I do not use it. For my purposes and for that of most if not all of our clients, LDD and ASE Civil work great together.
ASE Civil is a relatively young application and does not yet have all the functionality of LDD or C3D, so we can't say that we're competing with Autodesk. However, it should be noted that Autodesk has openly stated that they are competing with us. I'm hopeful that after "...taking a look..." at our application they will not "adopt" any of our unique programming ideas or engineering approaches.
You cannot design and draft a subdivision from start to finish using ASE Civil alone. Our clients still depend on other tools available in LDD to complete the project. While ASE Civil does duplicate some of the common engineering tools (Alignments, 3D Road Modeling, etc.) available in LDD, C3D and some other applications, we try to improve those systems by adding properties that cannot be found elsewhere, or by making it far easier to implement. In addition to those common tools, we're also able to provide some very usable functionality that is found in no other software.
At this point in the development of ASE Civil, it's really unfair to say that we're competition with any Autodesk Civil application. The truth is actually contrary to that statement because ASE Civil is useless without Autodesk Civil applications.
---------------------------------------------------
QUESTION:
"What about other project types. Would you prefer to use ASE or Civil 3D for projects such as Road Reconstruction, Underground Infrastructure, Planning or Master Planning, Site Grading other than Residential? Or, would you use both products?"
ANSWER:
Many of our clients employ some very creative individuals who have found various ways to use ASE Civil's tools in other types of projects. I'm always pleasantly surprised to find ASE Civil's usefulness extended beyond our scope. To support those efforts of in-house programmers, our next version will begin to expose access to ASE Civil's data handling methods, preferences and object models as well as a simplified VLAX COM interface for Lisp users that have never been able to interact directly with AutoCAD, LDD or C3D databases or models. However we don't market ASE Civil as a general civil engineering solution at this time. Our focus is on subdivisions, with an emphasis on development of capabilities that support needs, standards and practices of engineers in the southwestern United States.
---------------------------------------------------
QUESTION:
"As an Autodesk partner and working with inquisitive CE firms that would also like to know, I would like to know how both products could be used in a typical civil engineering environment..."
ANSWER:
The level of integration of any particular application varies from one organization to the next. Based on my own personal experience with our "LOCAL" clients (We have clients in other states and countries as well), here's what I'm "TYPICALLY" seeing in terms of applications of Map, LDD, Civil 3D and ASE Civil for residential projects:
SURVEY - LDD
SITE LAYOUT - Map, LDD
PLATTING - (Outsourced to Automated Platting, LLC)
ALIGNMENTS - ASE
ROAD DESIGN - ASE, LDD
ROAD PROFILES - ASE
ROAD PROFILE SHEETS - ASE
3D ROAD MODELING - ASE
SURFACE MODELING - LDD, C3D
PIPE DESING - LDD, C3D
LOT GRADING - ASE, LDD
SITE GRADING - LDD, ASE
ROAD SECTIONS - Map
SITE SECTIONS - LDD, Map
WATER PLANS - Map, LDD
CONSTRUCTION NOTES – Haws Construction Notes Manager
The key idea to note here is that no matter how good an application claims to be, there is rarely, if ever, a solution that is comprehensive for all firms and all projects. Maybe this is why civil development has been referred to by some as Autodesk’s “Red-headed Step-child”. It’s very difficult to come up with a solution that works well for everyone without making it unnecessarily complex or cumbersome for most users.
It’s been my “hard knocks” experience that when solutions are too difficult for the “average” user to implement and other tools are readily available that will get the job done, complex approaches, no matter how effective, just don’t get used. The exception may be if the complex solution works perfectly, the first time, right out-of-the-box and has proven stability.
---------------------------------------------------
QUESTION:
"... I guess the real question is if one can exist without the other and the job can still get done, they may be perceived as competitive...."
ANSWER:
As I stated previously, ASE is not a standalone, general civil solution at this time.
---------------------------------------------------
QUESTION:
"... If a customer must make a choice of one or the other because of budget or other reasons, which one do you or I recommend? This is the position I would be in..."
ANSWER:
I'm always honest with people and make it a point to never, ever oversell the capabilities of ASE Civil. If a client had to choose only one civil application due to a limited budget, I would recommend they choose an Autodesk subscription. I would be hopeful that one day in the future they'd be in a position to extend their design and production power by adding ASE Civil to their software repertoire.
---------------------------------------------------
QUESTION:
"...Whereas if you look at it as I want to leverage both technologies for their strenghts, then it is just another tool in the toolbox that helps me get my job done faster..."
ANSWER:
This is the way that many, if not ALL, of our clients use ASE Civil. Typically firms are impressed with the demo but still apprehensive about "New" software so they usually start out by purchasing a single license. After a couple of projects, the time savings and the budget dollars saved brings more than 90% of our clients back for more. One of our clients, who is one of the largest civil firms in America, started out with a single license at a single office. 6 months later they've purchased more than 20 additional shared network licenses and have spread implementation to 3 other offices in another state.
Best Regards,
-Nick Merchant