Wicked Cool Stuff

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• Christmas has come early

  Posted 12/22/06 by Anthony Governanti

  Well, a couple days anyway. A couple "gifts" for you, and some seasonal wishes.
  
  First off, I want to extent a warm welcome to some colleagues of mine that has joined the Autodesk Blog-world; please pop over to From the Ground Up and say hello to Ove, Jack, and Chris; three "rock Star Application Engineers from our Europe Sales team. They bring a wealth of industry knowledge and experience to the world of Civil 3D, and I expect great things from this "toxic-trio"! If you want to track their posts with a feed reader, use this link.
  
  Secondly, I was messing around with my Parking Lot site, and generated this rendering. What do you all think (that's y'all for my southern friends)?
  
  View image
  
  Lastly, I want to wish all of you a happy holiday and send my best wishes to you and your families. We have next week off here at the 'Desk as the company shuts down for a "week of rest", and I hope to not touch my laptop during the next 7 days. So we'll see you all next year!
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG
  
  
  

  0 commentsIn Wicked Cool Stuff > All

• Behind the Curtain - Part 2

  Posted 12/17/06 by Anthony Governanti

  Ok, so we left off with our peek behind the curtain with the understanding that new features are chosen for a release with a method called Pairwise Comparison.
  
  We also left with a question about how the features that are compared are actually chosen in the first place. Well that is where product management comes in. It's the job of Dave and Peter and the rest of the Product Management team to collect the requests of all our customers, sales staff, AEs, partners and resellers and start narrowing down themes and duplicates and to create a master list of requirements. This list becomes a document called the Product Requirements Documents, or the PRD (Yet another TLA). Early on in the product life, a lot of the features on this list were pretty obvious - we needed to get the core items in the product so we could have a product to work with, like points, surfaces, alignments, profiles etc. Now that Civil 3D is starting to mature, and more and more users are adopting it, we can start to narrow in on specific features that help round out the product, and get us closer to the nirvana of a truly "complete" solution. The problem is, that the closer to this we get, the more input there is from a wider audience, this job get more and more difficult.
  
  So for each release cycle, there is a process of documenting what that release will focus on. The PRD is used as a framework and conduit for communicating the "themes" of features that will be added. Development then takes the PRD, and runs an analysis of the amount of effort needed to complete a feature (this is basically and estimate of man-hours it will take to write, test, and integrate the new code into the software). Once the estimates of effort are weighed against the business case for each feature (this is where your input is paramount; because we can't just say "this would be a wicked cool feature, let's do it", we have to map the need of the feature to solving a customer issue or making the product better for a customers need). This again is where hard decisions have to be made; it may come down to a situation where a feature is really needed, but it will take a lot of work to get it done; the team has to decide to either add that feature, and remove others from the list in order to do it, or not do it, and concentrate on other features (hope that makes sense).
  
  I guess my whole point here is to show you that the decision making process that shapes Civil 3D is very important, but that it is also very complex. It takes a lot of dedicated folks and at times, very hard decisions are made. Just know that in the end, we here at Autodesk are trying to get you the best products on the market, with the highest quality, in the most timely manner we can. The next time you say to yourself "well any 'good' cad program should have that feature", stop to think about this process a little, and try to see the scale of a program like Civil 3D.
  
  Next time for Behind the Curtain; we'll get a little closer to things that are near and dear to my heart; demonstrating Civil 3D.
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG

  0 commentsIn Wicked Cool Stuff > Wicked Cool Ramblings

• How do you grade?

  Posted 12/11/06 by Anthony Governanti

  I had an interesting conversation via IM the other day with the Civil 3Diva. We were discussing the different ways to grade a commercial site, and we had some differences of opinion when it came down to some of the methods you can use in Civil 3D.
  
  Dana has become a big proponent of using the corridor model to do the bulk of the site grading, and I am a bit more of a traditionalist in that I make heavy use of feature lines and what I call "reference" surfaces. So we went back and forth as to which way is better, and it dawned on us that this conversation should probably be more public.
  
  So we've decided to each post about our methods to our respective blogs, and let you decide which one is better for you. In the end, I think it will depend on the site conditions, and your familiarity with the tools available. Either way, it should make for good conversation, at least in cyberspace.
  
  The site:
  
  View image
  
  This site is a fairly typical commercial development, with large parcels for industrial buildings and a simple road that splits the property in half. Here I have a parking lot laid out with an entrance to the road, and I need to make some decisions for how I will grade the lot.
  
  The Flow:
  
  View image
  
  I've decided to split the parking lot in half from east to west, and will make a grade line that runs parallel to the parking spaces. As you can see, I'll flow the water to the east (away from the proposed building pad that will be on the west side of the parking lot) and will tilt the lot 1% down from the north and 2% down from the south.
  
  The Setup:
  
  View image
  
  With the general flow conditions determined for my site, I can create some reference elements that I will use to base my grading on. I take my flowline and convert that to a feature line, and set grade on it using the elevation editor. I then use the Stepped Offset feature line command to offset this line to the north and south 150 feet, at 1% and 2% respectively. I add these feature lines to a new surface, which is my reference surface for my site. It dictates the flow characteristics for the overall conditions of my design.
  
  Site Topology - this is where the lessons we've learned on site topology are crucial; we need to keep the feature lines for our reference surface is a separate site from our lot grading feature lines. I make it a habit to create two sites as soon as I start my grading; one for reference lines, and one for my actual site grading.
  
  The Grading:
  
  View image
  Feature Lines created and then graded from the reference surface.
  
  Now that I have this reference surface, I simply project all my parking lot feature to it, and they become "graded". This is where a lot of time is saved, in that I don't have to set any points, or project any slopes; I simply just grab the elevations from my reference surface, and BAM, my lot is graded for me. I then add these lines to a new surface, and we can start to see the design coming together.
  
  
  View image
  Feature lines added to a new surface.
  
  Two tips here; when you convert the linework to Feature lines, make sure to uncheck the option for erasing existing object; we'll need this linework again later if and when we do some site visualization. Two, when you get elevations from surface for the new feature lines, make sure to uncheck the option to insert intermediate grade points as this will save a lot of processing time by eliminating a vertical point being added to every triangle crossing point.
  
  Next I create all my curb lines by again using the stepped offset feature line command. I use a distance of 6 inches and an elevation difference of 6 inches.
  
  View image
  
  Now I finish the design by adding the curb lines to the surface, as well as projecting the outer limits of my parking lot to existing ground using the grading tools.
  
  
  View image
  Final Parking Lot surface.
  
  So I hope you can see that by using the feature line tools and the surface capabilities of Civil 3D, you can do commercial site grading. By using my method of feature lines and a reference surface you can quickly grade the site, and if anything changes, you have the flexibility to either make adjustments to individual features using the feature lined editing tools, or to the entire site by changing the reference surface.
  
  With a little effort on the visualization side you can quickly create powerful rendering of your work.
  
  View image
  
  Look for Dana's version of this site to be posted over at Civil3D.com sometime soon.
  
  So I leave it up to you which method you prefer; just know that Civil 3D is capable of doing commercial site grading - its all in the tools and methods you use.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG

  7 commentsIn Wicked Cool Stuff > Wicked Cool Tips

• Beta for Civil 3D is available

  Posted 12/07/06 by Anthony Governanti

  Just a quick tip that the first Beta for Civil 3D has been released. If you are interested in being a beta tester for the next release follow these instructions.
  
  Note, this requires you accept a non-disclosure agreement, which is very important to us, so please don't take it lightly.
  
  
  Go to the My Feedback portal.
  
  Sign up as a user, and make sure to check on that you wish to test Civil 3D as a product.
  
  Once approved - yes someone does look through the list to make sure we don't have any bad apples, you will get an invite with instructions for accessing the beta project.
  
  Happy testing!
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG
  
  PS - I'm starting to shop for a new vehicle, and the Chysler 300 is catching my eye. Anyone out there have one, or has experience with them?

  2 commentsIn Wicked Cool Stuff > Wicked Cool Tips

• Behind the Curtain - Part 1

  Posted 12/05/06 by Anthony Governanti

  I'm going to try to bring you a series of posts that hopefully give you all a glimpse of the inner workings of Autodesk, at least from my perspective, and the software development process. I'd like to share with you, what I am legally allowed to anyway, some of the things that I find interesting that I see on a daily basis.
  
  Sausages and Software
  So what do they have in common? A little more then you might think. When I first started here at the 'Desk more then 6 years back, I heard someone quote a saying "There are two things that you never want to know how they are made; Sausages and Software". This statement struck me as pretty funny at the time, but later I came to realize how profound it really is.
  
  Essentially, sometimes there are hard decisions to make or things that a software company has to do in order to get a product out on time and as stable as possible. Does it always work? No I would say it doesn't, and I'm not just talking Autodesk here, I referring to all software, all types. For sausages, if you could see how they are made, you'd probably not want to eat sausage ever again. Well that's where the analogy will stop short, because what I hope to give you is a sense that things are not all bad here behind the scenes, and that the decisions made and the direction we take with our products, particularly Civil 3D, are made with the best interests of both our customers AND our company in mind. My hope is that you'll come away with a feeling or at least a realization that in the end, everyone that works here is human, and that we care about the work we do, and we care about what you think about it.
  
  So the first thing I want to discuss is how high level decisions are made when it comes to the features that make it into the product each release. We use a system here called a Pairwise comparison. This is a way to compare items to each other in an ordered fashion.
  
  Essentially, we take a list of features, usually in buckets or groups, and we order them, say 1-20. Then a group of folks sit in a room together, and start to compare the items. You start with number 1 and compare it to number 2, ranking which of the two is more important. Then you move to comparing number 1 to number 3, again ranking which is more important, 1 to 4, 1 to 5, so on a so forth. After a while, you will have compared every item to every other item, and will have a ranked list of which ones are most important. We then take this list and start to prepare the development cycle of actually writing specifications and developing code.
  
  This means that there is an actual process and there are hard decisions to be made. Let's face it, there are only so many horus in a day, and only so many days in a development cycle. So the hard decisions have to be made, and sometimes features that would be really cool, or are things that we've been waiting for a long time (cough, H&H, cough) have to be put off until the correct resources and scheduling can be commited. I just want you all to know that there is a real process, and there are real people involved in it, and the process is evolving everyday. I can say from first hand experience that it works pretty dam good, and its only getting better.
  
  So now you probably saying "That's all well and good Govna, but who picks the list of items that get compared in the first place?"
  
  Well, I'll get to that in Part 2.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG
  
  I've registered this blog with Technoroti, so please give this link a try to show some support. Technorati Profile
  Thanks

  4 commentsIn Wicked Cool Stuff > Wicked Cool Ramblings

• Las Vegas reflections

  Posted 12/04/06 by Anthony Governanti

  Well, as you may have seen form all the other Civil 3D bloggers out there, AU is over, and I'm just today felling normal again. It was a great - no awesome -conference this year that saw attendance up some 41% over last year!
  
  For me there were some significant events:
  
  Beta preview for Civil 3D - I had the pleasure and the privileged to demonstrate some of the future technology the Civil team is working on to an invite-only crowd of AU attendees. Along with Dan and Dave, we were able to give a sneak peak into what might be coming in future releases, and judging by the applause, ooh and ahhs from the crowd, i came away very excited for our future. Plus, I was able to have a couple beers AND demo, which made it even more fun :-)!
  
  ISD General Session Main Stage - This was a session that I took part in, again with Dave and Dan, where we gave attendees a snapshot of where Civil 3D was a year ago, where it is today, and where we are going tomorrow. Our Geospatial counterparts did something similar for the MapGuide and Map 3D products. The session went well, but I was disappointed in the attendance. I can attribute the low attendence to two things; 1 - classes were still going on during the session, and if you were an attendee, would you go to class or a presentation? 2 - The ISD party was the night before, and I must say that this party was one of the best industry parties I've ever been too at AU. Since the general session was the next morning at 8 AM, I'll assume that a lot of ISD attendees took the morning to sleep in and "recover" if you will.
  
  So hopefully lesson learned there; don't schedule classes at the same time as general sessions, and don't have it the morning after the industry party.
  
  Friday Morning Classes - this year both Dan and I had our one and only classes for the week on the last day; Friday. Since our classes were closely related in topic, we sort of made them into a part 1 and 2 session. Dan did a great job, and had the higher attendance of the two, but it was still about 75% of what it was supposed to be. My class was similar, with about 60% of what I expected. This is not a big deal though, because after all, this was the last day of classes, and these were the last classes of the day. Anyway, I felt my class went well despite the attendence, which was still about 300 die-hards. It was a great way to end a week of networking, talking shop, drinking/partying, and most of all fun. This isn't to say that it wasn't a lot of hard work too, but that all pays off with a successful event and a productive week.
  
  
  Well, that's my recap of last week's events. There was a lot of work done, and a lot of fun had, and from my perspective, a great conference was had by all.
  
  Till next time,
  Cheers,
  AG

  0 commentsIn Wicked Cool Stuff > Wicked Cool Ramblings

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