Wicked Cool Stuff

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• Vault workflow for Civil 3D

  Posted 11/20/06 by Anthony Governanti

  We here at the Autodesk Marketing Machine are pleased to announce the availability of a brand new white paper that outlines a workflow to use with Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 and Autodesk Vault. This white paper goes into some detail about the implementation and setup considerations you or your company should make when choosing to deploy Autodesk Vault for Project Management with Autodesk Civil 3D 2007. The paper also details a workflow for using Autodesk Vault on your projects from initializing the project all the way through to creating plan sets.
  
  Please download the white paper below. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments section.
  
  Vault with Civil 3D Page
  
  I would like to extend a special thanks to the team at LA CAD for their effort assisting with pulling this paper together.
  
  Please use this paper as a tool to educate yourself or others in your organization on how to setup and use the Autodesk Vault technology for Project Management in Civil 3D to your advantage.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG
  
  PS - I've changed the link above to the Vault page on the Civil 3D website. Also note that there is a help file supplement that includes new information about Project management with Civil 3D that can be found here.

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• Vault and creating plan sets

  Posted 11/17/06 by Anthony Governanti

  This year at AU (see I knew yesterday wouldn't be the last AU post) I'll be teaching a course on sheet production called "Keep the model, but get that Sheet out of here!" This class really is an extension of Dan's class on using the project management tools that are included in Civil 3D 2007.
  
  In my class, I essentially pick up on a project where Dan has left off, and most of the engineering and design are complete. We use the Vault to store and manage this project information, as it offers some distinct advantages when it comes to plans production.
  
  Well instead of going into a ton of detail here, I've decided to just share my paper to any and all that are interested, before AU. Consider it a preview of what's to come, or an incentive to make sure you can go next year.
  
  Now granted, you won't get the benefit of my powerful presentation and lecture that goes with this paper, but I think you'll still get something out of it :-).
  
  Download file
  
  Here is a PDF version of my paper. For the complete class including the lecture and presentation, make sure to log into AU Online after the event to view a recording of my session, as well as may of the others at this years AU.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG

  1 commentsIn Wicked Cool Stuff > Wicked Cool Tips

• One last AU post....

  Posted 11/16/06 by Anthony Governanti

  Well, maybe, but I just can't help but share this stuff, I think its Wicked Cool.
  
  So registration and scheduling is done for AU, any last minute attendees have to register onsite. I just got the final attendance numbers for the Civil 3D Power Track, and thought I'd share.
  
  
  View image
  
  As you can see, all the PT classes have at least 300 attendees or more, and six of them have 400 or more!
  
  Pretty cool I think, especially since last year at AU, only about a third of the total Civil classes were on Civil 3D.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG

  3 commentsIn Wicked Cool Stuff > Wicked Cool Ramblings

• Define Traverse Stations from a Figure

  Posted 11/15/06 by Anthony Governanti

  Shameless plug time; this time on the behalf of a co-worker of mine here at the 'Desk. Rob Todd, product designer and our resident Survey expert, has posted a new utility to the content sharing section of the community that is a must have for anyone doing traverse analysis in Civil 3D.
  
  The utility - Define Traverse Stations from Figures allows you too "automate the process of defining a traverse’s station values before performing a traverse analysis in Civil 3D", a tasks that can be fairly cumbersome if your traverse stations aren't sequential.
  
  It's a pretty cool utility that extends the functionality of the traverse analysis tools in Civil 3D. Here are some screen shots.
  
  
  View image
  
  Start by Selecting the Network that includes the traverse you are working with.
  
  
  View image
  
  Then you can select an existing traverse definition, or create a new one.
  
  
  View image
  
  Then you select the figure that represents the traverse loop.
  
  
  View image
  
  As you can see, it fills in all the stations from that loop automatically for you. Now all you need to do is enter the initial backsight and the final foresight, and the traverse properties will be filled in for you.
  
  
  
  Final traverse properties.
  
  Pretty cool huh?!
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG

  3 commentsIn Wicked Cool Stuff > Wicked Cool Tips

• DEM Surface vs. TIN Surface

  Posted 11/13/06 by Anthony Governanti

  I've been working with Dan and Dave on the demo set we are going to use during the Civil 3D portion of the ISD breakout session at AU this year, and have a couple of DEM files that we are going to use. While I was building one of the drawings that will have the DEMs in them, I was reminded of a tip that I've been meaning to share for quite some time on the differences between a DEM surface and a TIN Surface with a DEM added to it.
  
  You see, we have two ways of adding DEM information as a surface in Civil 3D; from a DEM file directly, or by adding a DEM file to a TIN Surface definition.
  
  Now I don't know too much about the technical specification of each surface type, but as far as i can tell at a high level, when you create a surface by simply importing a DEM file, it uses a Grid Surface as its definition, then pulls the DEM "points" to define the surface values. With a TIN surface, you add the DEM as a data type, and it uses the "points" contained in the DEM file to build a Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN).
  
  Now which one do I use and when? Well that depends on what I need to do with the surface. In the case of the dataset I mentioned above, I need to create the surface from the data, and I need to translate that surface to a state plane coordinate system. To do this properly, I need to add the DEM file to a TIN Surface definition, instead of importing the DEM directly.
  
  
  View image
  
  I've imported the DEM in both ways here, and as you can see, they are nowhere near each other when I zoom extents. This is because that a DEM import doesn't do any transformation when it builds the grid based surface. But when I add the DEM to a TIN surface as a data type, I can set the coordinate zones, and the transformation is done for me.
  
  
  View image
  
  This is the window you get when you add a DEM to a TIN surface. Note the ability to see statistics on the DEM file, and the ability to set a coordinate zone for transformation purposes.
  
  So basically, if you aren't working with a local coordinate system, or just don't care about transformation, then importing the DEM file directly to a grid surface will work just fine. But if you are working in a Coordinate system, or are taking advantage of other Geospatial data to analyze you site conditions, then adding the DEM as a data type in a TIN Surface is the way to go. Also, you can't export a grid based surface to a LandXML file, so if you plan on sharing this surface via LandXML at some point, TIN surface is the way to go as well.
  
  With the DEM data added through the TIN Surface, I can now continue with my project in a State Plane coordinate system, and do other cool things like underlay a MrSID image using Raster Design.
  
  
  View image
  
  So anyway, that's today's wicked cool tip; know that there two different ways to work with DEM files In Civil 3D, and what they are good for.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG

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• A fix you might care about

  Posted 11/09/06 by Anthony Governanti

  So you have probably heard by now that SP3 for Civil 3D 2007 is out, and has a bunch of fixes and a bunch of performance improvements. Here is a fix that you may not be aware of, or at least didn't care about before.
  
  Pre SP3 we had a weird issue with render materials on Civil 3D surfaces and corridors. Sometimes all the textures would show and sometimes they wouldn't.
  
  
  View image
  
  Here is an image form a small project I worked on a couple months back. You can see that the grass on the left side of the road and all of the material in the road itself is just a flat color; no texture. But on the right side of the road, the grass has the texture it should.
  
  Here is the same project rendered after SP3 was installed.
  
  
  View image
  
  Now you can see it renders all the textures, making for a much better picture. All I did was simply install SP3, and opened the drawing that I had done the original rendering in, and BAM, all was right in the world again.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG

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• To share or Not to share....

  Posted 11/09/06 by Anthony Governanti

  That is the question. Whether tis easier to leave your vault working folders local or to place them on a network share....Ok Ok Ok, 'nuff of the Shakespearian stuff.
  
  So the debate continues to wage on about how to setup vault with regard to where to store working folders. I've been fairly torn over this battle myself for quite sometime. Just when I felt I had a decision made, and I picked a side, someone would come along and make a great counterpoint to the argument, and I'd be right back on the fence.
  
  Well no more; I'm a pickin' sides, and that's that!
  
  Network locations for working folders is the one I'm stickin' with; for now anyway.
  
  Here are the advantages I see on this side of the fence.
  
  - Locating the Working folder on the server allows for nightly backups of one set of data files.
  
  - IT best practices discourages data being stored locally.
  
  - Drawings that have data references or external references will be notified/updated every time they are saved; they don’t need to be checked back into the Vault (I think this one only applies to a shared working folder).
  
  - Sheet set manager can leverage the network shared Working folder for construction documentation.
  
  - Working remotely can be achieved via VPN.
  
  - This is the way people are already used to setting up there project folders.
  
  Of course, the next level of the debate, even after choosing this side, is whether or not to make the network share have a folder for each individual user, or use a shared working folder. That still remains to be decided.
  
  Now this isn't to say that I'm dead set against local folders, I just haven't heard or experienced enough argument for them as I have for networked working folders. So for now, that's what I'm sticking too, take it or leave it. I'm open to hear arguments either way, so feel free to comment.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG
  
  
  P.S. For those of you who care, I just got my final grade for my first class back at school; A-. Not too bad for a stress case like me huh?

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• More AU numbers

  Posted 11/08/06 by Anthony Governanti

  I know this is probably just a bummer for those who can't attend, but I can't help but be a little proud of the results so far with the Civil 3D Power Track at AU.
  
  The numbers as of last week are pretty awesome. Out of the 13 classes that are part of the PT, only one has less then 300 attendees signed up. 3 classes are full (440), and 6 have 400 or more!
  
  Pretty cool if you ask me; just goes to show that Civil 3D is turning a a major corner, and a lot of people are really interested!
  
  See you all in Vegas - well, those that can convince the boss that a week of debauchery and geek-talk is really beneficial to the company anyway :-)
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG

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• Data Sharing vs. Data Management

  Posted 11/07/06 by Anthony Governanti

  With the release of Service Pack 3 for Civil 3D 2007, we now have an alternative way to share objects between drawings; Data Shortcuts. This is functionality that a lot of customers may have been waiting for after either hearing about or experiencing difficulties implementing vault.
  
  I want to make it clear that this is an alternative to Vault, but it IS NOT a replacement for it.
  
  There are some key differences, and I like to explain it as the difference between Data Sharing and Data Management. Using data shortcuts is simply data sharing. Using Vault and a Civil 3D project is data management.
  
  For the context of this post data I'll define sharing as the ability to share Civil 3D objects (surfaces, alignments, profiles, and pipe networks) between drawings. On the other hand, data management is inclusive of data sharing, but adds some key functionality like automatically creating the data references, automatically updating data references, tracking the file dependencies across drawings, versioning of drawings, and access control.
  
  So now you ask - "OK Govna, you guys are making a big frickin deal about SP3 and Data Shortcuts....now what the heck are you trying to say here?"
  
  What I'm trying to say is that you need to be aware of the differences so you can make an informed decision. Prior to SP3, you didn't have much choice when it came to sharing data across drawings in Civil 3D, Vault was really the only viable solution. Now you do have a choice; Data Shortcuts or Vault. The key thing to understand is that Data Shortcuts are for sharing the data, but not really well suited for managing it. If you are ok with having to do the management of data manually, then they are the right tool for you. But, if - or better yet - when you get to a point where that manual process is too much to deal with, Vault will be there ready and waiting to accept you with open arms.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG

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• Is 1 Gig enough?

  Posted 11/01/06 by Anthony Governanti

  No, I'm not talking about the world tour for AC/DC, I'm talking about RAM. I often see or get questions about the minimum system requirements for Civil 3D, and what is "really" recommended. Back in the day when I was in support, we used to always recommend 2x the minimum. These days that's a little harder because Autodesk now just makes a "recommendation" that isn't necessarily the minimum, it's more of an average.
  
  In those recommendations, it sates that 2 GB of ram is needed...really, TWO GIGABYTES of RAM, wow that seems a little much don't it?
  
  Well, actually it isn't, and I've seen the ill effects of not having at least 2 GB of Ram first hand. See my laptop decided to have some fits on Monday. I went to plug in my Black Berry to charge it via the USB cable, and Bink - she shut down on me. No blue screen of death, no forced restart, nuthin, just lights out!
  
  After a coupe tried to get her back to life, I gave up and called our IT department with urgency in my voice, and fear of the unknown trouble ahead of me. Afterall, my life exists in this machine - all my current work files, including the scripted demonstrations I'm working on; all my email (well, the 7.5 GB that I have local in my PST file anyway); a bunch of work from my recent class; the list goes on and on.
  
  Anyway, after some great tips from the IT Gods, I was back up and running as I finally got it to boot and successfully start up - whew, no data lost thankfully. Ok, the pulse rate finally got back normal, and I settled back into the Monday routine of checking email and catching up on NG posts and Blogs, when I noticed that my USB ports were now dead. Another call to IT, and they came with a new laptop "chassis" for me to temporarily use while they ship mine off for a new system board. Pretty cool if you ask me, they just swap out the hard drive, and since they share the exact same hardware, it boots without problem.
  
  Ahh, but there is a small hiccup here; I forgot to have them grab the extra 1 GB bar of ram that my machine had, and so I'm currently running on a machine with only 1 GB. (yeah, yeah, yeah, woe is me, right:-))
  
  So back to my point here and yes there is one, so bear with me. It's really a good idea to follow the recommended system requirements, because now that I only have 1 GB of RAM, life in Civil 3D is not as good as it was. It takes longer to launch, it takes longer to login to vault, and it just plain takes longer to use - all from an apparent lack of RAM.
  
  So the moral of the story kiddies is that you make sure your machine at least has what the 'Desk recommends for system requirements; it'll save you a lot of headaches, and more importantly, time.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers
  AG

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