>Is this going to be incorperated into Land Desktop at a later date?
Currently, LDT and C3D are both under development. I think you can read the
writing on the wall though. When C3D has all of LDT's functions, why would
you keep it? That's speculation on my part, and I expect it will be a few
years.
>When is this going to be ready to use on production drawings?
How brave are you? I would consider the preview edition a VERY public beta.
If you're willing to tempt fate, go for it now. Personally, I'm going to be
doing some minor production work with our planning and surveying folks, but
that's a risk I'm willing to take. Your mileage may vary.
>How much is this going to cost? (Yeah we got the preview free but what
about
>the production version)
Pricing has not been set yet. With that said, and remember that I don't work
for adesk, this is my understanding of the pricing. C3D will be free for
each copy of Civil Design and LDT you have on subscription. For each copy of
LDT on subscription, it will be available at a reduced pricepoint. There
will be another price point for new purchases. This could change, so contact
your reseller if you really want to get after it. I wouldn't bother for now,
I expect this could all change based on reaction to the Preview edition.
>What happens when people that only have LDD 2004 see when they open a
>drawing created in Civil 3D?
If you install LDT and C3D SBS, LDT will have a C3D enabler. You'll see the
objects without proxies, etc. If you don't have them on the same machine,
you have to install the C3D OE in order to avoid proxy warnings.
>Can the data be exported back into the LDD database (or does it stay there
>to start with)?
C3D has full LandXML capabilities. It does NOT interact with the standard
LDT database sets. Again, this is my personal suggestion: Don't do it.
decide you're going to do some work with C3D and do it. Don't mix the two if
you can avoid it. If you must have Road Cross Section design, wait. If you
must have pipes, wait. I personally think mixing will lead to some real
headaches in keeping things current. I _always_ think that though, any time
I have to have two sets of data.
Hope this helps!
--
James Wedding, P.E.
IT Manager
Jones & Boyd, Inc.
Dallas, TX
XP/1 on P4-1.6/512
LDT2004+C3D