Civil and BIM 360

[sduffin]

There was a big emphasis at AU 2017 in one of the keynotes about fully integrating all disciplines into BIM 360. I’m with a large civil engineering firm and we are evaluating options on team collaboration, PM, and project delivery from the civil side and am struggling to find a clear road map and description for how a civil firm should move into the BIM Family. It seems like vault is going by the wayside, A360 I heard was being discontinued or transformed, and other non- Autodesk solutions look promising, but I don’t want to miss Autodesk’s BIM boat if that is truly where they are moving to integrate the civil side. Who do I reach out to, or where do I go, to get a clear picture of what is available today for the civil side and what the vision is in the future for the civil folks in the BIM world. Thanks for the responses in advance. I’ll probably post in another forum too.

[BrianHailey · Accepted solution]

"Those who know can't say. Those that say don't know."

If you would like to see the future of where the Civil 3D product team is going, I would recommend looking into the Civil 3D Futures. You can request access by going to beta.autodesk.com.

[Anonymous]

DO NOT use Civil 3D and BIM (or data collaboration) (or any other garbage name they try to rebrand it with).

The desktop connector is trash.  If you 'use civil' then don't expect it to work like a 'server' project.  Data Shortcuts glitchy at best.  Pipe networks = no, mms files = no, Sheet set manager = no, reference templates = no, xml files = no, point clouds = no, survey database = no, QTO = no.  Nested References cause Desktop Connector to go into a loop of updates that cannot be repaired.....so XREFing basically is a fail.

There are huge issues with BIM modifying files (changing the version) when nothing was changed in the drawing.  No accountability to see what is going on.  Autodesk cannot support the product because the development team has botched this. 

Other major issues.  You have to start a project from scratch on BIM.  That means you need new details, section, linework FOR EVERYTHING. 

[tcorey]

You're a person who would be valuable in the alpha/beta stage of the software. You might come on a little strong, but you have legitimate gripes. 

[Anonymous]

Well Tim:  When the Autodesk Global Support teams sends you this (today).....I might not be coming on strong. 

Does it work for you?

[tcorey]

@Anonymous I apologize for my cheekiness is saying you might come on a little strong...but I did say you have legitimate gripes. Lets be friends.

After seeing your post, we will be very careful when recommending Collaboration for Civil 3D to our customers. I do tech support and some programming, not production. In that limited role the collaboration software works well for me. I can create a project on BIM 360 while in the office and pick it up from home. 

We have clients who use BIM 360 Design for Revit and love love love it. None have complained about Collaboration for Civil 3D, but that might mean they're not using it. We're not getting support calls for it, so...

Best regards,

Tim

[Anonymous]

We are friends but we were sold a bag of goods.  I felt like someone should let others know.  I've spend months trying to resolve issue with ADSK but no solutions.  I would def caution recommending C4C3D to your customers.  This is a bad beta release at best.  I also participate in the futures for C3D....It is not discussed in that arena anymore. 

There is no forum traffic related to C4C3D.  I want those considering it to have some warning.  Don't get me wrong the idea of it is great.  The development team missed (at this point).  

The basics are there, start project, add people.  View it anywhere.  It's the nuts and bolts of C3D that don't play well.  I think the biggest issues are you need a really powerful computer and those just don't float around everywhere.  You need a super fast upload speed and that is not available everywhere.  And you have to wait on 'the cloud' to give your work back to you. 

[michaelZPKQP]

Has there been any improvement in this area in the last 2 years? From my experience, Autodesk appear to be pushing C4C3D a bit more of late. We're trialing it now, sub-consulting on a very large project in the Middle East. All the functionality seems to be there - data shortcuts are functional, surfaces, are live, pipe networks are functional - but all our C3D models have become INCREDIBLY slow and laggy. I'm not sure if this is a local issue for us, or a general C4C3D issue?

We're running C3D 2020 with the latest service packs, and desktop connector is up-to-date

[tcorey]

It would be most awesome if you would follow up here with your comments...

[michaelZPKQP]

We reached a point where opening one of the design files took 30 minutes+, if you were lucky enough to get it open at all. Ram and CPU usage just climbed excessively. Once the drawing was open, simply panning or zooming caused a lag. I tried downloading one of the files to my local hard drive and it was accessible without issue, so not a local hardware issue

We've now abandoned BIM as a working platform, and will use it for file share only. It's simply impossible to get anything done...