Underwhelmed by Civil 3D 2014

[neilyj666]

Anyone else a bit underwhelmed by the "new" features in Civil 3D 2014??

http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-autocad-civil-3d/features.type-new

If it has the Live Maps feature as vanilla AutoCAD does then as the maps etc can't apparently be printed this renders what could be a great feature almost useless (presumably it's a licensing thing) and don't get me started on the Geotechnical Module only being available in the Suite edition of Civil 3D.

Hopefully there have been a lot of changes "under the hood" that they don't boast about and now it doesn't crash using gradings and they've fixed the Quick Profile Bug etc etc

Obvioulsy I'll need to wait until it is released before I can be more critical....

[dasindog]

The interoptibility with previous versions is good to see. Hopefully the pressure networks are ready to be used without being hacked together. I've given up on using them as it's just a pain in the ****. Generally yes, the new features are underwhelming at best. The software is overpriced so it should contain all features without having to purchase a "suite". If 2014 is stable we will use it but this is probably the end of our subscription either way.

[ToddRogers-WPM]

I noticed that they have focused more on performance and stability this time opposed to "new" features that are worthless.

[neilyj666]

Did they succeed (realising you can't possibly comment on Beta testing without the Non Disclosure Agreement Police paying a visit)

[ToddRogers-WPM]

Yes, for once.

[AllenJessup]

That's good to here. If this opinion persists I will congratulate them.

Allen Jessup

[neilyj666]

will have to wait a few weeks yet until it's finally released

[TrevN]

Apart from the normal guesses, Do we have an "Official" date for release?

[neilyj666]

Not as far as I'm aware - so just guesses for now

[jbear0000]

I am starting to see less and less reasons to maintain Civil 3D subscriptions. My company has around 60 licenses of Civil 3D. 2013 didn't offer anything useful to us. Pressure pipes could have been useful, but they were so limited that there was no reason for us to upgrade everyone from 2012. Maybe pressure pipes will be useful in 2014, but after that, there isn't really anything else that I can even think of that I'd like to see except bug fixes. The slim chance that they will fix the bugs isn't worth paying thousands and thousands of dollars per year.

[mathewkol]

Not sure which list you saw, but have a gander at this post.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/Civil-3D-2014-New-Features/td-p/3816516

[neilyj666]

still not an essential upgrade though?

[mathewkol]

My point is not to pass judgement, only to inform.  I'll leave that opinion to each user.

I have several clients who, I anticipate, will find the backward compatibility irresistable.

Every time a new release is offered, I see the same old posts; "I don't see anything in this release that turns me on."  Not every release can be a blockbuster year after year, like when Civil 3D was young.  We're now seeing "normal" feature improvements.  Users simply have to decide if they are worth upgrading for themselves.  And also decide if they'll continue subscription.

[neilyj666]

if there are are major stability improvements then that would be worthwhile...but only time will tell

[Cadguru42]

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@jbear0000 wrote:

I am starting to see less and less reasons to maintain Civil 3D subscriptions. My company has around 60 licenses of Civil 3D. 2013 didn't offer anything useful to us. Pressure pipes could have been useful, but they were so limited that there was no reason for us to upgrade everyone from 2012. Maybe pressure pipes will be useful in 2014, but after that, there isn't really anything else that I can even think of that I'd like to see except bug fixes. The slim chance that they will fix the bugs isn't worth paying thousands and thousands of dollars per year.

---

If you don't stay with the subscription program then you'd have to wait approximately 10 years to get your return on investment back. If you upgrade your license anytime before 10 years then you've lost money since subscription is basically 10% of the license cost. 

[Neilw_05]

I was thinking the same thing. The new subscription policy pretty much makes you purchase the software at full price if you let it lapse for a year.

[ToddRogers-WPM]

It's actually 70%...almost full price.  

[Jasono2009]

About the subscription renewal - you are assuming they will stay with paying into a subpar software. C3D is not the only game in town by a long shot.

[ArchD]

Seems to me that AutoDesk should release new releases only when there are major changes or in increments like every 3 or 5 years.. Upgrading each year is kind of silly. Instead, they should do a patch to fix the bugs and new minor features to the existing version.

I know they have to make money, but the headaches it causes to reinstall new software each year just to be able to read newer files from clients kind of makes me wish I could turn away from Civil 3D. The backward capability is a huge sigh of relief though. Hopefully they keep that going for years to come.

But, regarded the new features, that geotechnical modeling piqued my interest. Is that boring hole or piezometer locations that are being shown? Is 2014 a bit more gypsum stack type designs friendly? Is Infrastructure Design more for waste water management than Civil 3D is?

I like Civil 3D, but for complex designs that we do, gypsum stacks, many features like corridors can't be used too easily.

I'm just trying find the best product for my company and with this first post, it has me interested in Infrastructure Design.

[dgorsman]

With software development its not always possible to add things with just a patch, more so with something like Civil3D which is heavily dependant on interrelated data.  How do they add new features like pipe networks such that they won't kill the program if somebody didn't get a previous patch?  There's also some development compatibility problems along the lines why the 2012 release will never be "officially" patched to run on Win8 or later.

It also adds more complexity to technical support - did they install Patch 1?  What about Patch 2?  Do they even know?  What order did they add them?  If they applied Patch 2 without Patch 1, and they don't want to, then will they accept their problem won't be fixed?  That applies for those answering questions here as well.

Finally, the complaints will almost certainly switch from "Its too buggy for what I'm paying, they should stop adding features and make it work!" to "I'm not seeing anything new for what I'm paying, they should make it do what I want!" - I'm already seeing that for the new products.