Caltrans Civil 3D Template

[Anonymous]

Has anyone worked with this template much?

[Anonymous]

Yes

[Anonymous]

Are you use to working with an STB vs. CTB? Do you use it just for design work and do all your cut sheets in Microstation or do you do everything in Civil 3D?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hmmm I do working with CTB and Uses C3D for my plan & Production work (not micro station). Yes I do use C3D for my design work as well as for plan & production work. Also have implements the C3D template as per the local municipal standards. here are some example you will have an idea about our work process & Adoption of C3D into our work environment. 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-civil-3d-customization/dynamic-construction-call-out/m-p/64559...

[Civil3DReminders_com]

Yes, but be aware that Caltrans has a different workflow than most Civil 3D users. They take the Civil 3D Roadway design and then export the drawing to Microstation. So there isn't a whole lot of labels in there. I like the work flow since Caltrans gets rid of the Civil 3D overhead and get spiffy fast drawings to print with. 

[Anonymous]

HUH!!!????  why would that be the workflow?  That makes no sense at all.  I thought Autodesk told us several yrs back that CALTRANS adopted Civil 3D or was that just Florida DOT?   Having been in CA for a year now it doesn't surprise me if this really is true.  

[Civil3DReminders_com]

It makes perfect sense. Have you attempted to use Civil 3D for large projects? It simply isn't built for large projects and its performance sucks big time. You spend a lot of time managing how much Civil 3D objects are in a drawing. If your job is to simply add note type labels to the plans why should the user have to wait for Civil 3D objects, that should be static, to update over and over again, with no real benefit?

Have you tried to print plan sets of over 500 sheets with AutoCAD? It simply can't do it without a lot of extra unnecessary work. Former CEO Carl Bass saw a world of infinite computing power, but AutoCAD Sheet Set Manager can't even handle more than 255 sheets. An AutoCAD drawing can only have 255 layout tabs. What do you do if your project has 10 miles of roadway and 400+ cross sections sheets? You don't look to AutoCAD to get the job done.

Seems like Autodesk could have moved closer to infinite computing rather than their products being kept close to zero computing power in the six years that Carl Bass starting blabbing nonsense about infinite computing power (while not having software developers work towards that goal in the former flagship product of Autodesk).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqxJ7YY4QKo

It really makes no sense to use Civil 3D with the lack of work by Autodesk to improve Civil 3D's performance. Instead of getting speed improvements to the product we instead get our money for Civil 3D going to Infrasucks. When was the last release Autodesk bragged about speed improvements in Civil 3D? It's been a long time. 

Civil 3D is simply used as a Roadway Design Software, Microstation is the drafting platform. Since AutoCAD can't do the heavy lifting required for the drafting job.

These opinions are mine and mine alone.