Civil 3D 2012 - The Little Things Part Two

Just under the ribbon in the upper left corner of the drawing window, you'll see some text...

The [-] can be clicked to reveal some commands, like Viewport control and turning on and off screen helpers such as the View Cube, the Navigation Bar and the Steering Wheels.

Right next to that you'll see [Top]. That's because you're looking at the top of the model. This little guy gives you control similar to the View Cube. Clicking will display the list of directions from which you can view your model. You can turn off the View Cube now :)

And finally, next to that you'll see [2D Wireframe]. That's the visual style that you're currently using. Quickly and easily change the visual style by clicking here and picking a new style.

Dynamic Input. Hate it or love it, it's been "enhanced".

Now when you start typing a command, DI will start listing options for you. You can pick from the list it provides rather than finish typing the command. I'm not too sure about this yet, it doesn't seem to get in the way but I haven't had a huge model loaded either. It will interesting to see if performance was comprimised to implement this feature.



Next up are just some AutoCAD enhancements. For this, here is a lady with a nice speaking voice from Autodesk!

Civil 3D 2012 - The Little Things Part One

Are you ready for another round of Autodesk products? I sure am ;)

Today, I'd like to talk to you about Civil 3D 2012 and the smaller changes and some of the AutoCAD changes that you'll see.

I'll start at the top and work my way down. First, in the Application Menu you're going to see a new feature - Batch Convert. Before 2012 we'd have to download DWG TrueView to get the convert functionality, now it's built in.

You can change the Units, add a prefix or suffix to the exported file name and change the drawing file format. Now, I want to make this very clear - CIVIL 3D IS NOT BACKWARD COMPATIBLE. That means that even if you save the drawing to an earlier version, the Civil 3D entities won't work in earlier versions of Civil 3D. I don't like it either, but that is what it is.

Moving on, you can choose to explode the objects in the drawing (This will dumb it down, but make it backward compatible...), and Bind XRefs. This will allow you to grab all of the drawings in a specified folder and save them out to a desination folder. You can also pick specific drawings from the source folder to convert.

You can find the batch convert command by going to the Export menu in the Application Menu.

Now for the Ribbon. You'll notice a few extra tabs. The Help Menu now shows up.

I'll be posting more about the help menu in the coming weeks, there really are some great resources in there.

Next, you'll notice the Online tab.

This is the link to AutoCAD WS. If you're unfamiliar with AutoCAD WS, check it out here. Its a great resource if you have an Android device or, if you were having a lapse of judgement and purchased an Apple mobile device. Just kidding Apple lovers ;)

Next you'll see Add-Ins. This tab shows the Content panel. This is the Autodesk Content Browser. Right now it reminds me a lot of Design Center. Hopefully I'll have more to report on this feature later.

Looking through the Ribbon tabs there isn't much difference between 2012 and 2011 - other than the new tabs. But, there were a few new commands that caught my eye.

In the Insert tab, there is a new Panel called Connection Point. The Connection Point command allows Civil 3D users to connect Civil 3D pipes to other objects that may or may not have been created in other programs. A 3D Solid for instance. Some new interoperablility functionality that Autodesk has implemented. It will be interesting to see how this is used.

On the Analyze tab, you'll see a new way to work with Hydrology calculations, the Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Extension. It's built in and will install with Civil 3D 2012 if you don't uncheck it during installation.

More on that later, too.

On the Output tab, you'll see a new command to export to 3DS Max. In case you missed it I wrote about the Civil Visualization Suite for 2011. It's now built in to Civil 3D.

The last noteable change on the Ribbon is in the Manage tab. There is a new Styles panel that incorporates the Subscription Advantage stuff.

Now you can import styles from another drawing or template and remove (purge) unused styles from the current drawing.

That will do it for this post. Next time we'll go below the ribbon!

See ya,
Denver

Civil 3D Visualization Suite

Subscription customer benifits are vast these days. Autodesk is pushing out new technology to subscription customers and increasing the benifit of subscritpion. This is no different. I'd like to talk a little bit about the Civil Visualization Suite and what it can do for you.

First of all, if you're a subscription customer, sign in and download both modules. The Civil 3D module and the 3DS Max Design module. That's right, I said 3DS Max Design. I know, you likely don't have a copy of 3DS Max laying around, but you can download that too.www.autodesk.com/3dsmaxdesign Just grab a 30 day trial and when you figure out what it can do for your presentation value, give your reseller a call and purchase a license. You can update that existing 30 day trial.

So what does this thing do? It allows you to link your Civil 3D model with 3DS Max Design. Take note - I didn't say import. A direct link between Civil 3D and 3DS Max means that anytime your Civil 3D model is updated, it can be updated in 3DS Max, eliminating needless rework.

Ever wonder how Autodesk gets those images for the logos and box shots on Civil 3D DVD cases? This is it. This plug-in enables civil engineering materials, signs, and road striping inside of 3DS Max. It does more than make pretty pictures though. You can run traffic simulations and record real-life animations to show your ideas, bringing everything to life before it's built.

If you're interested, and you should be ;), take a look at this demonstration from Autodesk. You can find it here.

Have fun!
Denver

Subscription Advantage 2011

Hey guys. Autodesk has released the subscription advantantage packs for their 2011 products. This means a couple of things. First, we're about 1/2 way to seeing 2012, but it also means that subscription customers can get a first look at what's new. Go check out the features for each product here. This page contains links to download the packs, videos showing the features and text descriptions.

Take advantage, go download the packs today.

See ya,
Denver

Civil 3D 2011 is 64bit

WooooHoooo! Finally. AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 will ship with 32 AND 64bit versions. For any who don't know, this means that 2011 has the potential to perform a lot better and a lot faster. Of course, you'll need the proper hardware and operating system... and RAM to take advantage.

Plenty of you have been using workstations that are already 64bit, but forced to run Civil 3D in 32bit compatibility mode. What does that mean? Well, it means that your workstation is pushing more horsepower than Civil 3D can handle. If you ask me, I think that Civil 3D 2010 in 32bit compatibility mode is more stable, quicker and more responsive than it would be running on a 32bit system. However, it will be much more stable, quicker and more responsive running a native 64bit version.

Yes, there are many more features of Civil 3D that I'd like to share, and I will as we get closer to release. If you don't already have a 64bit workstation and you're planning to upgrade when 2011 lands at the door.. or desktop via download, you might consider the jump.

For any who would like to read more about 32 and 64bit computing, the boys over at BeingCivil from Autodesk Support have a good article. Go check it out here: Basics of RAM and 32/64bit Enviornments

Until next time...
Denver