Community
Civil 3D Forum
Welcome to Autodesk’s Civil 3D Forums. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular AutoCAD Civil 3D topics.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

multiple users on civil 3d drawings

15 REPLIES 15
Reply
Message 1 of 16
mrgibson66
2013 Views, 15 Replies

multiple users on civil 3d drawings

is it possible for more than one user to have the same drawing open to make mods. if so how. and is there more than one way.

one user would be working on say ground topo another user would be working aerial etc.

 

15 REPLIES 15
Message 2 of 16
lsimms1
in reply to: mrgibson66

Not the same drawing at the same time.

options would be to split the drawing up and xref one into the other, or have one person do a save as and only work on specific layers to copy paste in.

Message 3 of 16
Jay_B
in reply to: mrgibson66

Also look into Data Shortcuts, which make it easy to share Civil 3d objects in multiple drawings so multiple users can work on different tasks at the same time on the project.

 

The Best Practices Guide is a good place to start.

C3D 2018.1
C3D 2016 SP4

Win 7 Professional 64 Bit
Message 4 of 16
mrgibson66
in reply to: lsimms1

THANK YOU. CAN ANYONE GIVE EXS OF HOW TO DO THIS

 

Message 5 of 16

Not to be cruel, but seting up xrefs is a basic autocad fundemental, and this DG is a user forum for civil3d and how "it" is used.

F1 will give you the answers you need and perhaps a visit to the "AutoCad" Dg would be benificial
Message 6 of 16
sboon
in reply to: mrgibson66

There are many threads on this forum about splitting up a project into manageable pieces.  It really depends on the size and complexity of the project, how many people are going to be working on it, and what their roles are.

 

In my office the typical project would have:

  • An existing baseplan which includes survey data, linework and symbols, plus the surfaces produced from that data.
  • If there are other sources of existing data - GIS, Lidar etc. then each of those has its own drawing.
  • A design baseplan which includes alignments, profiles, corridors, site grading and any surfaces produced.

None of the above drawings include any layouts, labels or text once they are complete.  These are working files built by the design staff for presentation elsewhere.  There are sheet drawings created by the drafting staff which reference the model files, and often there is a sections drawing for calculating volumes and printing the sections.

 

I don't often do large pipe networks but if I did then each of those would probably have its own drawing. 

 

Steve
Please use the Accept as Solution or Kudo buttons when appropriate

Steve
Expert Elite Alumnus
Message 7 of 16
dsimenic
in reply to: mrgibson66

In our firm we found that Vault is the best option (for large projects, I think it's the only option), but since 2011 Vault with Civil Project Management (Workgroup) must be purchased separately.

Message 8 of 16
JOKO_
in reply to: mrgibson66

I agree that it should be possible for multiple users to work in a single drawing at the same time.  I would have expected autocad to be advanced enough to make this possible by now.  I am thinking of Onshape as an example.  This would solve a lot of difficulties and frustrations in the office.  

Message 9 of 16
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: JOKO_

Onshape as an example?

surely you wouldn't expect user A modifying elements ABC and User B modifying elements CDE to be able to modify the others elements. 

 

Are you wanting User A to be able to modify elements ABC &DE while User B is modifying same?

 

proper discipline separation use of data shortcuts and xrefs abd sheet files will allow many individuals to prepare any given sheet files contents

Thank you

Joseph D. Bouza, P.E. (one of 'THOSE' People)

HP Z210 Workstation
Intel Xeon CPU E31240 @ 3.30 Hz
12 GB Ram


Note: Its all Resistentialism, so keep calm and carry on

64 Bit Win10 OS
Message 10 of 16
JOKO_
in reply to: Joe-Bouza

I hear what you're saying.  But some of our jobs are rather large, so it would be nice if I could work on storm drain here while a colleague works on storm drain over there, while we're trying to push out rough grading plans.  This would maximize collaboration and efficiency.  Same idea as google docs. 

We utilize xref's and dref's on the regular since that is currently the only way to do it.  

 

Thanks for the feed back Joe!

Message 11 of 16
dgorsman
in reply to: JOKO_

I know it *sounds* like a good idea, but in practice it doesn't work that way.  The program has to continually lock and unlock content to control access, and that doesn't get into the complexity of other content being driven by those changes.  Start throwing in EDMS like Vault or Projectwise and it turns into a real mess.

----------------------------------
If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.
"I don't know" is the beginning of knowledge, not the end.


Message 12 of 16
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: JOKO_

Divide the network into smaller pieces so you can work with others. they can be merged in the end. its all about coordination and communication

Thank you

Joseph D. Bouza, P.E. (one of 'THOSE' People)

HP Z210 Workstation
Intel Xeon CPU E31240 @ 3.30 Hz
12 GB Ram


Note: Its all Resistentialism, so keep calm and carry on

64 Bit Win10 OS
Message 13 of 16
JOKO_
in reply to: Joe-Bouza

Even Microsoft has caught on.  You can now "co-author" spreadsheets and docs.  You should be able to co-author an autocad drawing.  You could be able to select permissions, see who else is working and where, see changes update immediately.  This would allow us to divvy up tasks among staff engineers and still have the project manager involved without having to walk over to someone else's desk and say "let me know when you get out of that file so I can copy in my linework from my temporary file."  Again, we utilize xref's and dref's extensively, splitting a job into several appropriate drawings, but multiple people in the same drawing would be great. 

Message 14 of 16
Joe-Bouza
in reply to: JOKO_

You Can co-author an "ACAD" drawing using Map Queries. Not AEC objects

Thank you

Joseph D. Bouza, P.E. (one of 'THOSE' People)

HP Z210 Workstation
Intel Xeon CPU E31240 @ 3.30 Hz
12 GB Ram


Note: Its all Resistentialism, so keep calm and carry on

64 Bit Win10 OS
Message 15 of 16
drazen.galic
in reply to: Joe-Bouza

Hi,

Just my contribution.

Recently (1 year) I did spend a lot time analyzing possibility of multi user environment.

 

There are in C3D possibilities in using XRefs and data shortcuts which help organizing bigger projects and make design more efficient. Vault definitely put a lot additional possibility and functionality for design in multi user design team. But, somehow, not sure why (price, complexity?) it is not widely used (at least from my experience).

 

In our development (Urbano - pipe design software) we investigate options of multi user design and concluded that the only efficient way is to inaugurate DBMS in design workflow. With all possibilities of rights, undisturbed access to design data, notifications and other well known DBMS features.

 

Our analysis, thoughts and conclusions I summarized in LinkedIN article which I published:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/multi-user-environment-pipe-infrastructure-design-dra%C5%BEen-gali%C4...

 

In the article there is link to YouTube video which shows the concept in live.

 

I don't want to use DG for promoting our software but to present concept which can be in the future maybe solution in other software solutions (including C3D).

 

Drazen Galic

 

Message 16 of 16
AllenJessup
in reply to: JOKO_

As mentioned. You can break up the project into different drawing;

Existing Surface,

Alignment and Profile,

Xsections,

Corridor and Prop Surface, etc.

Link them with Xrefs and Drefs. Each drawing can be worked on individually and can update in the other drawings.

With non-Civil 3D entities you can check the entities out of a drawing with a Map Query and check them back in. We don't do that.



Allen Jessup
Engineering Specialist / CAD Manager

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Rail Community


Autodesk Design & Make Report