AU 2009

From the AU - direct!

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:55 GMT

Hi all,
Hope some of you made it to AU this year.
Me and Jack are meeting a lot of you, our customers, and that IS really a pleasure.

Of course we have time to do some fun stuff here as well, but now and then we also proceed to the serious events ;-)
This morning, on the Key Note, we sa Civil presented in the BIM workflow. Dana Probert presented how well Civil fits in under that process.

Take care / Ove and Jack

Combine with an Analysis Surface

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:55 GMT

Hi there,
Last week I was on Iceland again - and this time I spent some relaxing time on the Blue Lagoon. www.bluelagoon.com
Not bad, not bad at all... Half way between the airport and the city of Reykjavik.

In Civil 3D, as you are well aware of, it is very easy to create Surface of almost any kind.
I just want to give some hints to new users, to open up for a "broader mind", on how you can use it in an "extended" way.
For example, one thing is that because of the linked objects, you can relate a Surface easily to another.
If you then design a simple parking with elevations, Feature lines etc - present it with contours etc, like below:

What you can easily do, besides assigning a number of Surface Labels, is creating Slope arrows on the Surface.
Like below:

To avoid Slope arrows on the whole Parking Surface (including the Grading slopes etc) and just keep it over the paved area, you can create a new Surface.
In my case called "Parking Analysis". Then under that Surface, Definition, use "Edit" - "Paste Surface" and add the Parking Surface.
Apply a Surface Style that has Slope Arrows "ON" and set the "Analysis" parameters on that tab.
After that is done you simply put a Border to it using a Polyline etc from the "Curb stone" and then you don't have the Slope Arrows on the Grading anymore.
In my case, below, I get only a few Arrows. That's because we get one Arrow per Triangle.
If we add more Points to the Feature lines, preferable after we have given them proper elevations, grades, mid/low/high points etc, we can get more triangles.

Use the button with the Yellow triangle "Insert PI". Then select the Feature line, and type "I". Set a distance that will divide the Feature line in to more segments. In my case I use 15 meters. See the small grey triangles presented.

This gives a more dense triangulation as the Feature lines gets more segments. See the orange Triangles below that correspond to the Slope Arrows.
Of course you don't present the Triangles in YOUR Style... ;-)

Now I am really looking forward to AU next week.
Hope to see some of you there!
Best regards / Ove Cervin

AU Online 2008

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:55 GMT

AU Online is live and has the Autodesk University 2008 content including the recordings of the keynotes and some classes including the most valuable of all the HANDOUTS.

There is some really good materials on there for all the Civil 3D classes including yours truly.
(CV404-2 Junction Jack is Back)

It was great to see some familiar faces at my second AU. I am sure everyone who went really enjoyed this amazing immense event of over 9000 people where you can get served your lunch without queuing.

http://au.autodesk.com

Jack Strongitharm

Welcome back from your Easter break

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:55 GMT

Hope you have all had a good Easter break and some of you lucky buggers are even still on holiday.

Well a great weekend for me as I went to see 'The Prodigy' in concert at the M.E.N. arena in Manchester.
Those that have been to my AU classes for the last couple of years normally get blasted to wake you up at the start.

image from MEN website

I have never seen so many grey heads raving! unfortunately that included me.

There was even parents taking their kids, I suppose if you have them early enough they may even follow the music you like. No chance for me I guess.

Also the sun broke out this weekend, which doesn't normally happen in northern England and got the barby out.
That is probably our summer for the year done.

Jack Strongitharm

AUGI AUGI AUGI

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

Its just a week off the AUGI Design Academy in London next week on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th of September.

We have some attendance also from our product team from the Manchester in the US

The Godfather of Civil 3D, Mr Dave Simeone (Senior Product Manager)

one of the lead product designers Chakri Gavini

And finally from the UK, Ian McGregor (EMEA Product Manager)

What a good looking bunch!

So some bending of ears over a beer may just well take place!!

Just a reminder of what I am presenting

Designing Turning Heads

Also storing them and other features as Dynamic Civil Blocks, so to drag and drop onto your model!

Also the latest tips for Junction Design.

Also my colleagues will be presenting on Survey and Visualisation from Civil 3D to 3DS Max.
For everyone that attends will receive all handouts to all sessions. These are very useful for you to recreate the steps and also for those sessions you cannot attend for going to others.

Below is a discount for attendance if you sign up by Friday this week.
It will be great to see you all here

Special Announcement: Register by September 19th and save an additional 5% on top of the early bird discount.

Dear Autodesk User,

Registration for the AUGI Design Academy is now open. Don't miss out on your opportunity to receive AU-level training, learn best practices, and network with power users -- all with the convenience of a low-cost, local two-day event.

Join us in London on the 25th and 26th of September.Register today!
• Custom training: Choose from over 60 different courses that will enable you to work better, smarter and faster -- immediately!
• Professional certification for Inventor users: Autodesk Inventor Certification.
• Convenience: 25th and 26th of September in London (at the Novotel London West).
• Expertise: Industry- leading experts are your instructors, including:
o Autodesk Technical Evangelists Lynn Allen and Jay Tedeschi
o Top Autodesk University Speakers, including Paul Aubin, Robert Green and Matt Murphy
o AUGIuk Board Members and regional favourites, including Philip Medeley, Paul Oakley and Jack Strongitharm
o Insights: See the future of design and engineering technology with exclusive previews of new Autodesk solutions.
• Networking: Discuss everything from best practices to the latest industry and market trends with 'top-shelf' instructors, power users and design and engineering professionals.
• Food and beer! Free giveaways, breakfast, lunch, and the Second Annual AUGI UK Beer Bust.
• Bonus Discount: Register by 19th September and save an additional 5% off the early bird rate. Just use adapromo5 when you register.

Registration is easy. Just click here.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Best Regards,

AUGI Professional Development Team

Autodesk is the official sponsor of AUGI Design Academy.

Platinum Sponsors - Lenovo and PNY

Gold Sponsors - Wacom, CADSMART, NEC, Shark Finesse, GTX, Craft Animations, 3am Solutions, New Visual Solutions, 3D Connexion, and Object

Reseller Sponsors - CAD Academy, CADAssist, CADLine, CADPOINT, and Excitech

Jack Strongitharm

Restore your corridor codes

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

Wow, I've actually made it one blog a day all week!!

Probably think I have nothing better to do with my time.
Well actually I am grounded at present waiting for the arrival of my first child as he is due any day now.

This is Aaron Strongitharm, time he made an appearance!

So while I have been patiently waiting I have got my AUGI and AU class papers together and hopefully giving you some good posts this week.

*Anyway back to some Civil 3D stuff.*

It seems that the Update 1 (aka service pack) has restored the codes file in Civil 3D to the US one.

What do I mean?

The codes file will ditate whether you see a feature line code in a corridor as either ETW (US terms) or EC (British term).

There is a backup of the file that was installed with the UK and Ireland Country Kit and also your local country kit that you should have installed.

With Civil 3D not open.
Go to one of these paths depending on your operatiing system

On XP
C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\C3D 2009

On Vista
C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\C3D 2009\enu

Rename the C3DStockSubassemblyScripts to a temporary name as a backup
Change the C3DStockSubassemblyScripts_en-GB (or your country) to C3DStockSubassemblyScripts

Start Civil 3D and the British codes etc are then applied

Jack Strongitharm

AUGI UK Design Academy 2008

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

UKs answer to the Las Vegas AU event is back again for the second time.
You wont loose your shirt on the slots and tables anyway!

Mark in your calendars 25th ad 26th of September in Hammersmith, London.

Also if you are up for presenting there is still time to submit a proposal.

For more information click below

AUGI Design Academy 2008

The event covers all Autodesk products and CAD Management sessions for

AutoCAD®
Revit® Architecture
Revit® Structure
Autodesk® NavisWorks®
AutoCAD® Architecture
AutoCAD® Mechanical
Autodesk® Inventor™
Autodesk® Showcase
Autodesk® Alias Studio
Autodesk® Vault/ Productstream
AutoCAD® Civil 3D®
Autodesk® Impression
AutoCAD® Map 3D
Autodesk® Maya
Autodesk® 3ds® Max

So want to learn more in the UK, this is the place to be.
Registration starts from July 1st

It will be good to see you there.

Jack Strongitharm

Another little plug

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

So you will have seen that I have plugged the Dynamite VSP Plugin to Civil 3D a couple of times. This is for high end visualisation and animation using 3DS Max.

But there is another plugin to Civil 3D that has been available from the start.

For that daily quick and easy way to visualise your project but also for checking your design for sight lines.

At AU this year they annouced a new application that takes this checking to a new level.

Below is some information about it and also two webinars that are planned for the next two days.

Through 3D analysis the Rapid Road Safety Analyzer will help customers make informed decisions regarding road safety based on a complete picture and full understanding of the roadway environment.
Project planners face daily critical design issues relating to budgets, cost, and deadlines. Traditionally geometric road design has been based upon mathematic equations where site distance is a key factor driving design parameters. In the real world, things are much more complex. With over 1.2 million fatalities worldwide annually in road crashes - it is clear that more can be done from a design and analysis perspective to improve roadway safety.
Learn more about this amazing new tool by participating in the webinar on the Rapid Road Safety Analyzer on:
Tuesday December 11th at 16:00 GMT, 11:00 Eastern Time, 8:00 Pacific Time.
Wednesday December 12th at 19:00 New ZealandTime, 17:00 Sydney Time.
The 45 minute live webinar sessions take a task oriented approach aimed at solving everyday real-life visualization challenges that face civil engineers, designers and land planners. The series will provide a broad base of information for all interested parties regardless of the design and visualization software they are using today. Civil 3D users will find extra value in the online seminars as the concepts are both optimized and will be demonstrated in the Civil 3D platform.

www.rdvsystems.com/wcr.php

Until next time

Jack Strongitharm

Viva Las Vegas!

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

Well back from my first AU.
Top event and a must if you can get there.

All the class papers and screencasts are now available if you login at http://au.autodesk.com

Thanks to my colleague Marco Martens (The Italian paparazzi!) for the piccys.

Have a good weekend!

Jack Strongitharm

Packing my bags for Vegas!

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

It's Friday!!

Happy thanksgiving across the pond!!

AU is now upon us and just getting the last things sorted here.
Any readers of this blog that are going please say hello if you see me around, will be great to meet you all.
I am there from Tuesday afternoon (after my 9 hour flight from Manchester)

I am presenting on Wednesday along with Ian McGregor, Pete Kelsey, Dominick Gallegos and Nick Zeeben (big team) at 3pm on the Vault class CV314-3P and my Visualisation class CV404-4 on Friday at 10am along with 225 of you. No pressure!!

To tie in nicely with my visualisation theme this year, you may remember my post about a third party application called Dynamite VSP and we had a seminar in October in the Netherlands.

They have just released V3.5 of the software which now supports AutoCAD Civil 3D model objects and transfers them straight into 3DS Max. This application on 3DS Max really leverages the AutoCAD Civil 3D dynamic model as it links to the changes and additions in the model.

Therefore model and visualise to a high end standard from the outset rather than last minute.

Dynamite is produced by 3AM Solutions and Bruce Harfield (Director) will be exhibiting at AU, so please go and check it out.

Below are some images and a link to a model that we produced within the 45 minute demo we gave in October, plus render time. We created the road design, surfaces and linework detail for bridges in Civil 3D and linked to Dynamite VSP to add the bridge structures, vehicles, signs and roadmarkings. Finally camera views and enviroments to create the final animations.
The cool thing is, if we changed the design in Civil, like we always do. All you have to do in Dynamite VSP, is reload the file that is linked into the model and all the details are dynamically updated. Sound like a familar concept?

Play the Video

See you in Vegas everyone who is going!

For everyone else have a nice weekend, enjoy your turkey those who are enjoying thanksgiving.

Civil regards

Jack Strongitharm

Surface breaklines

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

Apologies for disappearing for the last couple of weeks from here.
I see Ove has been throwing some great things up here anyway, you must try the contour tool and dont forget the automatic rebuild on your surface!!

Anyway, this week I am at the home of CIvil 3D in Manchester, NH meeting with all the developers etc.

Back home today, but I thought I would post you something to look at

When adding a breakline to a surface, you may have seen that around your radius corners you dont have much detail in the surface and also along large spaces in any straight lines you get very big triangles.

What we need is to add some extra detail to the surface without adding more points to the feature lines

This panel shows a 'mid-ordinate distance' - this is used to tessellate the polyline arcs from which the breakline is being created.

Selecting ‘Supplementing distance’, is used to add more triangles along straights in the breakline to create a smoother surface.

The result would be this

This can really improve your surfaces but without adding more points to your linework, which in turn can save you a lot of time in setting levels and gradients.

Jack

Just a little reminder I will be presenting at these two events next month, please come along if you can

AUGI event in Birmingham http://www.augidesignacademy.co.uk
and

AU 2007 at http://au.autodesk.com/2007

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

Probably wondering where we have been on this for the last couple of weeks as our Civil 3D blogging friends have been revealing some of the new key features.

As Autodesk staff we have a different date we have to work to, but never mind.

So rather than just talk about the same features here is something cool and not obvious to your first glances. (i like these ones the most!)

Those that saw me at AU last year got an early look at these as we now have 3D content to aid visualisation in your 3D models.

They are designed as Multiview blocks (i.e. have a 2D display and a 3D display, similar to our Civil 3D styles)
This is so when plotting a drawing in plan you get a nice simple appearance, but when viewed in 3D you have a model.

2D

3D

Where do I find them?
Right click on the toolpalettes grey bar on the side and you can see the selection of 'MV Blocks'

There is four catagories

Highways, External Works and Landscaping

Also there are some simple Building footprints

These are all really a sample of what is possible as we could never give every single content type. But use them to create more realism and also copy what is there to change colours, image types for sign faces and even add a little model of yourself on a billboard to place in the scene!

There are plenty of hidden gems that are in this release and myself and Ove will help you explore these as you start with this great new version.

Jack Strongitharm

Corridors and Sections in separate DWGs

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

Yo!

This week we are in Vegas - trying our very best to spend every $ we have... No! ;-)
The event in Vegas is a great way to meet all partners, some customers and also colleagues from everywhere. Looking forward to a meeting on the Survey Topic. (Will be back here on that topic)

Some people asked about how to get the Corridor Cross Sections (Multiple Views) stored in a separate DWG. It is very common that users have all data in the same DWG, although we have Vault and Data Shortcuts.
Anyway - here is the way to do it:

Below is my design drawing, a lot of things in it.

Create a Data Shortcut (.xml-file) with at least the Alignment you need for your sections.

Open a new DWG and set the proper Scale in it.
Use the UI for Data Shortcuts again to bring in the Alignment as a Reference.
(Here is a Blog Post on Data Shortcuts in general)

Once the Alignment is in you will also have to XREF the DWG that has the Corridor in it.
Use normal XREF to bring it in (also works from Vault) and set it placed on origo 0,0,0

This looks a bit much in terms of needed graphics and I'll tell you how to make it a bit better here, on another blog post. (Fading Layers)

Well, once you have the Corridor DWG in - Create Sample Lines the normal way. If needed - use "Send to back" on the XREF to be able to select the Alignment more easily (or use right click).

Sample lines created!

Now you can create the Multiple Views - on a scale that is normal for those Sections.

Now all is fine - but to avoid having all graphics presented like this - see this solution.
There might be other ways as well to hide the Xref with the Corridor.

Hope is explains how easy it actually is... ;-)

// Ove

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

So here we are myself and Ove back in Vegas in the sunshine and away from dark days and rain!!

This week is the annual Autodesk conference OTC.

So while we are all in one place we tried to gather all the Autodesk Civil AEs together and some of the US resellers such as Mark Scacco of Engineered Efficiency from Chicago.

The great thing about Civil as I am sure as you as users/readers are finding is that we are all acting as one big worldwide club. Its great to share experiences and knowledge and it really pushes us all to a higher level.
There is so much in Civil 3D, we have not even started even one year on with this blog site.

The Civil 3D team from around the world

The godfather of Civil 3D, good job his wife does not read our blog as he will get in trouble, Dirty big cigars!!

More useful posts on their way!

Jack Strongitharm/Ove Cervin

Share Now - Civil3D on Autodesk Labs

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:54 GMT

Greetings everyone!

Back now from an internal trip at the ski resort Hemsedal, Norway. (Yes - I'm going to Zermatt as well, over Easter)
Hemsedal is a nice place. Go there on a vacation! ;-)
60°51'51.91"N
8°33'10.94"E

We rented a few motorized things and raced for while. I got cramp in my arms...

But the most fun machine was this one!! Not for rent, but I was allowed to try it out ;-) GREAT FUN!

Anyway - this night I got an e-mail from Autodesk Labs saying they have enhanced the "ShareNow" technology a bit.

It now supports all AutoCAD based products - also Civil 3D.

I tried it out (on my own risk of course...)
You have to log on to this page to get an free account,
http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/ShareNow/

Once downloaded and installed you get a small Toolbar in C3D.

Use it and it creates a DWF to be shared automatically.

It will also automatically bring up an web browser with a session that loads you design file.

You can zoom, pan etc

You can then Share the Session with others.

Set a Session name

An e-mail gets created...

Someone get an invite - and, yes I got it myself ;-)

Join the Session and you will see a list of participants (Graphics gets better than shown below)

All participants can zoom etc and also use the tools for Markup.

Some notes...

The markups gets saved in a list and if you "hover" over them you get "zoom to".

Give it a try - it's free... Just remember - it is a Lab thing...

Tomorrow I go to Las Vegas. It's "only" a 22 hour trip over three flight legs... I wonder how Sweden can be so "close" to all places...?

Cheers / Ove

AutoCAD Civil 3D Visualisation and Beyond

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:53 GMT

This week I have been with a long time developer of 3D Studio this week working on a Visualisation Seminar we are setting up for October in Holland.

(Bruce Harfield (3am Solutions), Peter Ingels (Prodesk) and myself)

Bruce Harfield of 3am Solutions, has an application for 3D Studio called Dynamite VSP, which can dynamically create visualisations to a very high level from 3D model data.

Later this year, Dynamite VSP will support the AutoCAD Civil 3D objects models to be able to create bridges, roadmarkings, object placement and of course the ground and corridor surfaces. However when it comes to a design change all you need to do is a quick export out of Civil and Dynamite can rerun the visualisation settings and positioning which in turn will automatically bring the visualisation upto date.

Recent developments also have brought in true traffic simulations from traffic design models to fill and animate the vehicle objects placed in the scene.

The conference will explore the possibilities of AutoCAD Civil 3D and Dynamite VSP working hand in hand with live demonstration by myself and Bruce using this new link and also presentations from existing users and experts in the field.

To register for the event please click the image below.

If you are unable to attend, 3am Solutions will be exhibiting at AU in Las Vegas this year in November.
Please pay them a visit.

Jack Strongitharm

Visualisation for Engineers

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:53 GMT

This week I had a request for some AVI's from Civil 3D.
I did not really have much to my kit bag.
The other thing in my mind is that I have been accepted to present a class at this years AU on Visualisation (Friday November 30th)

So maybe time to have a quick look at what I could do. As you have potentially read in this blog I have already written a couple of posts on creation of your design to suit render materials, setting up a camera etc. But to date nothing on the camera fly through.

It is not a big deal at all.

From your model just go to 'View' menu and 'Motion Path Animations'

Select a line you want to run your camera down (it should be a 3D one unless you want to look at nothing) and secondly you can select a point on your model to look at or another path to follow your eye to.

Then, choose the duration of the video on that path and you will see that it will calculate the number of frames you require.

Visual style, to begin with to test how it will look, you can choose a wireframe or realistic visual style. When we create the video, it can take a while if we go with the full render (like an hour). But choosing a CAD visual style it will take upto a minute. This then you can review the output before committing to tieing up your computer for an hour or so.

Choose the video type, WMV works fine for computer video, but if you want to use this video and add titles, put on a DVD etc, choose AVI. AVI is a much bigger file.

Finally resolution/video size. For test again use something small, but to be honest 640x480 is enough anyway for most uses.

Below is some output that I made this week with very little effort from the model I had already made or the Golf course I got from one of our partners in Sweden (Man and Machine, Thomas Nilsson).
Each photo links through to a seperate webpage with a flash video. The video is small in size and time so that they stream to your pc quickly.

My class at AU will go into detail on what we need as an engineer to create good visualisations with of course as little effort as possible. As engineers this is currently the last thing either our mind, or potentially the managers mind due to time and cost restraints. Dont forget though that we are designing a 3D model and just by viewing it in 3D, with a realistic style and a couple of 3D object blocks it can look very real in next to zero time.

This is until perceptions change and that really this is a very important part to any design work as you should experience your design before it is real (it is an Autodesk marketing slogan, but it totally correct). Also it can make the scheme happen as you need to prove to either client, public or planning departments the impact that the design has and on the surrounding area.

Jack Strongitharm

Las Vegas comes to the UK and Birmingham - AUGI UK

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:53 GMT

Yes Birmingham England!!, less reasons to burn your hard earned cash I guess on the slot machines and tables in Vegas.

This year the AUGI UK has setup a big meeting on the 13th and 14th of November at the The Hilton Birmingham Metropole.

This event is similar to that of AU as it will have classes for all types of industry using Autodesk based products.

For Civil 3D, I am personally presenting two classes

WORKSHOP 6: 14 Nov 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Course Number: S6-3 INFRASTRUCTURE CIVIL 3D
Title: Intersection and Roundabout Design

WORKSHOP 8: 14 Nov 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM
Course Number: S8-3 INFRASTRUCTURE CIVIL 3D
Title: Visualisation Techniques in Civil 3D 2008

Also my colleagues Lucy Kuhns and Pete Kelsey from the US will be presenting.

Also I gave a colleague of mine Joe Wright a little push on this one so please support him as it is very well done on 64bit technology. This one does of course clash with mine, but choose your weapons!

WORKSHOP 8: 14 Nov 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM
Course Number: S8-7 EDUCATION AND CAD MANAGEMENT
Title: Learning Lessons Toward the 64-Bit Revolution

I look forward to seeing you there please use the link below for more information and registration