Civil 3D and LDD Functionality

[mdemers]

We recently purchased Civil 3D 2005 (and received Civil 3D 2006 upgrade). We were told LDD was in static development and that Civil 3D 2005 was the way to go because it will aparently replace LDD soon. With our C3D 2006 upgrade we received a version of LDD with it. So I'm led to beleive this shift towards C3D will be a slow one. Will C3D 2007 and beyond slowly incorporate LDD and Civil Design functions or am I going to have to have 2 or 3 programs installed to get what I want done? Its almost like the Civil 3D product dosen't have the functionality of LDD, which really bothers me. It feels like we were steered in the wrong direction.

[Anonymous]

Well, you apparently only had two choices:

1. Not buy AutoDesk
2. Purchase LDD & Civil 3D as a package. You can continue with LDD and
putter around with 3D OR use LDD and try to get as much as you can with 3D
and spent 1/2 your time running back & forth between the two products.

That's good for my $.03 (Inflation added)
Bill

wrote in message news:4835942@discussion.autodesk.com...
We recently purchased Civil 3D 2005 (and received Civil 3D 2006 upgrade).
We were told LDD was in static development and that Civil 3D 2005 was the
way to go because it will aparently replace LDD soon. With our C3D 2006
upgrade we received a version of LDD with it. So I'm led to beleive this
shift towards C3D will be a slow one. Will C3D 2007 and beyond slowly
incorporate LDD and Civil Design functions or am I going to have to have 2
or 3 programs installed to get what I want done? Its almost like the Civil
3D product dosen't have the functionality of LDD, which really bothers me.
It feels like we were steered in the wrong direction.

[mdemers]

WFB

We originally did not have an Autodesk product but we assumed (and were told) C3D was industry standard so we went for it. We were led to beleive that LDD was incorporated into C3D product, so if thats the case why are Autodesk giving LDD as a companion software on its 3rd release of c3D? We have no intention (or had no intention) of even loading up LDD because of its static status.

What I hope Autodesk does is eventually incorporate LDD and Civil Design into C3D. Whats going on now is kinda silly. Let me give you an example, lets say Autodesk comes out with Autocad 2007 and removes commands such as extend and the Area command, but they send you Autocad 2006 "just incase" you needed to use these commands, wouldn't that be kinda silly?

[Anonymous]

[nobr]

Hey Canon;

The reason you were told that LDT was in
"static" mode, is that AD is directing all resources (and have been for 5+
years) into Civil 3D.

Those of us who've been around the block
with it can see that the recent demise of Stand Alone Civil Design is a landmark
on the path to assimilation of LDT into C3D.

There may be a "cottage" industry where
folks go to get support for LDT in 5 years, but the Deskers are showing me that
they are pushing to get more and more functionality into C3D. And this is pure
speculation, based on my observation of their ability to incorporate items
expressed here or on the weekly webcasts.

If I were you, I would check out the Civil
3D Webcast Archive at:

face="Bookman Old Style">http://tinyurl.com/3duor

and check these two out first -

[img src="@79332"]align=baseline border=0>

watch the 3/4 archive first, and then the
3/18 to get the "what was" and "what is" story straight.

They last an hour, so they fit nicely into a
lunch viewing schedule.

HTH

--
Don Reichle
"King Of
Work-Arounds"
"The only thing worse
than training your staff,
and
having them leave is -
not training your staff,
and having them
stay."
Courtesy Graphics Solution
Providers
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Intel 64MB

<canon> wrote in message
href="news:4836141@discussion.autodesk.com">
face="Bookman Old Style">news:4836141@discussion.autodes...
face="Bookman Old Style">...

face="Bookman Old Style">WFB

We originally did not have an Autodesk
product but we assumed (and were told) C3D was industry standard so we went for
it.   We were led to beleive that LDD was incorporated into C3D
product, so if thats the case why are Autodesk giving LDD as a companion
software on its 3rd release of c3D?   We have no intention (or had no
intention) of even loading up LDD because of its static status. 


What I hope Autodesk does is eventually incorporate LDD and Civil Design
into C3D.  Whats going on now is kinda silly.  Let me give you an
example, lets say Autodesk comes out with Autocad 2007 and removes commands such
as extend and the Area command, but they send you Autocad 2006 "just incase" you
needed to use these commands, wouldn't that be kinda silly?

[/nobr]

[Anonymous]

There are a few fundamental things that must be realized about the migration
from LDT to C3D. The most important thing to realize is that this is
autodesk's first major software release since AutoCAD that was predominantly
written "In House". All the others in between were mostly based on acquired
software. Exactly how LDT was created - by the acquisition of SoftDesk.

autodesk made what I think was a bold move. It distributed the Beta release
of C3D (2004) to all of it's subscription holders. This provided a wide base
of testers for the product. LDT 2005 saw a companion release of C3D. Now
Civil 3D 2006 has LDT as the companion.

The people who sold you the software may have told you certain things. They
were correct to say that C3D is the future of Design in the Civil industry
(along with some other softwares). The were also correct to say that LDT is
now in a more or less in static mode as far as development goes. But if they
said that you could accomplish everything you need to do in civil production
work with C3D they missed the mark. Many of the LDT functions have
equivalent functions in C3D. But not all. Not yet.

autodesk has never claimed that C3D 2006 was a complete package. They only
make the claim that C3D is now stable enough to be used in production and
not as just something to play with. The LDT companion and Civil Design
Companion (with C3D Pro) are necessary to do work in areas that have not
been implemented in C3D yet. Don't get me wrong. C3D is a wonderful program
and it will do an awful lot.

Of course a'desk could have waited until C3D had everything that LDT had.
But they would have missed a lot of input from people who are actually using
the product. They also realized that LDT users had gone for around 5 years
without any substantial improvements in LDT. The natives were getting
restless! I'm also sure that they wanted to start getting a return on the 5
years of programming.

Your analogy of AutoCAD 2007 not having an Area command is slightly off the
mark. Civil 3d is NOT the next release of LDT. It is a completely different
program. Some of the algorithms survive and some of the interfaces look
similar, but the program is vastly different. So they can't just grab the
Hydrology module from LDT and stick it into C3D. It has to be rewritten. We
are getting a modern program now. Not the hodge-podge of mostly outdated
LISP and ARX files that made up LDT. SoftDesk is finally dead!

I can't offer you any solutions except that you will need training in C3D.
Part of that training should include what you can't do yet and what you will
need to do in LDT

Allen

wrote in message news:4836141@discussion.autodesk.com...
WFB

We originally did not have an Autodesk product but we assumed (and were
told) C3D was industry standard so we went for it. We were led to beleive
that LDD was incorporated into C3D product, so if thats the case why are
Autodesk giving LDD as a companion software on its 3rd release of c3D? We
have no intention (or had no intention) of even loading up LDD because of
its static status.

What I hope Autodesk does is eventually incorporate LDD and Civil Design
into C3D. Whats going on now is kinda silly. Let me give you an example,
lets say Autodesk comes out with Autocad 2007 and removes commands such as
extend and the Area command, but they send you Autocad 2006 "just incase"
you needed to use these commands, wouldn't that be kinda silly?

[mdemers]

Thank you all for your input. I have a better understanding of what 's going on now.

Canon