Laptop Workstation Suggestions for Civil3D 2023

[lleffler]

Hi all,

I work in civil consulting and am looking for help finding the best option on the market for a laptop workstation. 

I have referenced SourceCAD (https://www.thesourcecad.com/best-laptop-autocad/#:~:text=How%20good%20are,threaded%20operations%20m...) and would consider myself an intermediate to advanced user sometimes working with large data sets. 

I'm looking for a laptop so that I can work in office and remote settings. The majority of my work is Civil3D design - pipe and pressure networks, grading, site layouts and design, profile creation, sheet sets, etc.

Pretty broad request, but wanted to see what's working best for other civil design consultants.

Thanks!

[rkmcswain]

Processor: Highest clock speed you can get - forget the number of cores. AutoCAD is single threaded. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html will allow you to compare STR.

RAM: 32/64 - how much are you using now? (If applicable)

Video: I find for many applications, users overspend here. How much are you doing with point clouds, complex corridors, etc?

HDD: AutoCAD reads/writes to the HDD a lot - get a fast SSD.

Out of several hundred C3D users here, we only have a few that need anything beyond a standard spec of i7, 32GB Ram, A2000 Nvidia, and an M.2 SSD

[ChrisRS]

Good timing!

AutoCAD 2024 was released today. (March 28, 2023)

Memory - Basic: 8 GB, Recommended: 32 GB,  Display Card  - Basic: 2 GB, Recommended: 8 GB)

(For reference 2023 = Memory - Basic: 8 GB, Recommended: 16 GB,  Display Card  - Basic: 1GB, Recommended: 4 GB)

Civil 3D 2023 was released on April 12, 2022 with the same 8/16 and 1/4 requirements as AutoCAD 2023.

It is reasonable to expect C3D 2024 to be released in a similar time frame.

Edit: This morning (March 29, 2023) I received an invitation regarding an April, 18, 2023 presentation:
Link - What’s New for Civil 3D, InfraWorks, and ReCap Pro 
Presumably, C3D will be released prior to April 18.

System Requirements Link:  https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/forums/replypage/board-id/66/message-id/489440

[ChrisRS]

I edited message 3:

Edit: This morning (March 29, 2023) I received an invitation regarding an April, 18, 2023 presentation:
Link - What’s New for Civil 3D, InfraWorks, and ReCap Pro 
Presumably, C3D will be released prior to April 18.

[lleffler]

Thanks everyone! I've been referencing minimum requirements but was hoping for more specifics on brands/setups you've used and liked and ones that haven't worked well.

[andrewpuller3811]

Don't use the minimum requirements, especially with civil 3d. Our IT department used to get minimum spec PC and we wasted more in time lost due to crashes than a high spec machine is worth.

We are running Dell Precision 7560 15" laptops with 11th gen i7-11800H running at 2.3 GHz (turbo up to 4.3 GHz), 32GB ram, Nvidia Quadro T1200 and 512Gb KXG60ZNV5512G NVMe drive.

This spec works quite well for us running civil 3d with medium size projects on a daily basis with medium to large model in Infraworks on occasion and large point clouds in Recap, Infraworks and Civil 3d.

As stated above, a high base clock would be better, along with a faster SSD would be nice, but this works well for us.

[lleffler]

Thank you! Yes, this has been a struggle for us and our IT department - we've been meeting minimum requirements and have had so much lost time recently (updating to 2023), that we're trying to find a setup worth investing in. I'll look into Dell Precision, but do you have a 'dream setup' that would have the higher base clock and faster SSD?   

I've been comparing Lenovo ThinkPad P15v, MSI Raider, and a few others looking for 32+ GB of RAM. Is a 3840 x 2160 4k Display worth it for general design purposes (grading, pipe networks, etc.)? Do you have a preference of Intel or AMD? 

[lleffler]

Thank you! Do you have a setup you're partial to?  I've found referencing minimum requirements is a good starting point but often leads to issues and lost time dealing with crashes.

[ChrisRS]

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@lleffler wrote:

... Is a 3840 x 2160 4k Display worth it for general design purposes (grading, pipe networks, etc.)?  

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My opinion is that it is not worth it.

1920 x 1080 (FHD) is adequate for a 17", 16:9, laptop. I am not sure about the taller 16:10 screens.

My eyesight is 20-20 with glasses. I use a 17" laptop. MS Office programs and AutoCAD/Civil 3D are good. The icons are a bit small, but very useable because they are familiar. I do not use any Windows or AutoCAD display scaling. 

On as 17" screen, at 3840x 2160 (4K), the UI would be way to small. One pixel wide lines would be hard to see. You would probably want to display line widths. A 4K image has 4 times as many pixels as a FHD image. It takes more computation effort to push around 4 times as many pixels.

My 49" 4K TV, used as an external monitor, works fine without any display scaling. I can preview a 24" x 36" drawing at full size.

If you have access to a 4K monitor, take a screen capture of AutoCAD/C3D running full screen. Save it to a thumb drive and view the image on a 4K laptop. (COSTCO and Best Buy let me do this.) 

I may update this post later. Few screen resolution discussions address pixels per inch (PPI) and readability.

Good Luck!

[ChrisRS]

"This is not the droid you are looking for ..."

I mentioned my setup in message 9.

I am a one-person shop and use a ready-for-replacement, out-of-date, 17", 16 GB, laptop. 

I'm too lazy to look up the exact specs, but they would be useless to you.

(Grammarly did not like the term "one-man.")

[m_kingdon]

I mostly work on Civil 3D and Infraworks remotely on my laptop, I also moonlight as a photographer. After months of research I finally settled on the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. I believe the Legion 5 Pro is the best all-rounder machine for the money. It is powerful, has a large beautiful screen and is rugged. It is slightly heavy but the lighter laptops with similar specs were much more expensive. There is an Intel and AMD option, both good options but I think the Intel option is better this year.

[ChrisRS]

Looks nice.

I can see how a better resolution would be nice for photography work.

Do you do any display scaling for AutoCAD/Infraworks?

[londal]

I want to see Autodesk have specs requirements for POWER USERS! Enough of the minimal specs to eventually crash a computer and not be able to process lidar and point clouds.  🙂

[pendean]

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@londal wrote:

I want to see Autodesk have specs requirements for POWER USERS! Enough of the minimal specs to eventually crash a computer and not be able to process lidar and point clouds.  🙂

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https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System-requirement...

If that's not enough, post over HERE to get Autodesk's attention since that's where they look for feedback 

[rkmcswain]

@londal wrote:

I want to see Autodesk have specs requirements for POWER USERS! Enough of the minimal specs to eventually crash a computer and not be able to process lidar and point clouds.

They have to be conservative, they don't want to scare off potential customers with super high end hardware requirements.