AUGIWorld Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 10) AutoCAD Civil 3D Today and Tomorrow for Civil Engineers Over the last several years, AutoCAD® Civil 3D® has undoubtedly earned its place in the civil engineering industry. The product, which only a few years ago was more or less the “cool new technology of the future,” has today become the “here and now” of civil engineering design. As that evolution has occurred, it has left many civil engineering professionals wondering when Autodesk was going to pull the plug on AutoCAD® Land Desktop. Honestly, if that’s your foremost goal for becoming a “BIM firm,” then you would probably be better served by hiring a rendering specialist. Contrary to somewhat popular belief, BIM is not all about creating the model, but rather how the model is used. BIM models are not just pretty pictures; they are a design collaboration tool. What this means for the civil engineering industry is that we must fundamentally change the way we approach the concept of sharing data. Gone are the days where a LandXML export containing our finished grade surface, pipes, alignments, and profiles is the end-all solution to transferring our designs. Instead we have reached a point where DWG files of plan sheets are just the tip of what we’re sharing on a continual basis. Today the standard protocol is quickly evolving to include the continual exchange of digital 3D models throughout the design process. Land Desktop discontinued Autodesk answered that question in June 2008 as it announced, among other things, the discontinuation of Land Desktop. As a result there will not be a Land Desktop 2010, and the current 2009 release will be the last production release. Although there will be no further development on the platform, Autodesk has vowed to make Land Desktop available for download for as long as demand warrants its availability. Needless to say, the seconds until Land Desktop is completely obsolescent are ticking by as we speak. While the news of Land Desktop’s discontinuance dominated the headlines, another interesting announcement was also made in June: AutoCAD Civil and AutoCAD Civil 3D are now two separate products. To me, the naming is a bit ambiguous as both versions are fully capable of “3D” design. In their present form, each contains the same design tools, surveying and coordinate systems, civil drafting tools, etc. So where’s the difference, you ask? The answer to that currently lies in the geospatial (Map 3D) tools, and the stormwater analysis and simulation tools which are now exclusive to AutoCAD Civil 3D. For many, those features are not absolutely necessary to complete most design tasks. At press time, the list of new features for the 2010 release was not publicly available. Consequently it’s hard to say with absolute certainty, although I personally expect the difference between Civil and Civil 3D to become more apparent in 2010 and subsequent releases. Still, for users whose jobs are drafting, lower-tier design, and surveying, AutoCAD Civil offers the necessary tools for these tasks, and at a significant discount. BIM in civil engineering Whether you opt for AutoCAD Civil or AutoCAD Civil 3D, the importance lies in the 3D model you are able to generate with either product. We are witnessing a paradigm, where not only are clients requesting the traditional 2D plan set, but also a 3D model often dubbed a “BIM Deliverable.” The interesting piece to this riddle is that civil engineers have created “models” ever since we began using Land Desktop many years ago. However the disconnect has been in the way the all-encompassing project team (consultants and all) utilize these models. Despite these models being commonplace throughout the civil industry for years, civil engineers have traditionally kept a tight grip on the 3D model itself. Rarely have these models been shared with the outside. This closed-door policy has drastically limited the usage of our models to analyze our designs in-house and generate 2D plan sheets. Frankly, this is grossly undershooting the potential of the robust 3D datasets we are now creating using either AutoCAD Civil or AutoCAD Civil 3D. Still the fact remains that many professionals see BIM as little more than a means to create a 3D model to impress a client and make their firms appear more competitive in their respective markets. Sharing your model When our primary goal was nothing more than creating 2D plan sheets, the “digital submittal” was rather simple. Generally a client would request digital plots (DWF/PDF) of our plan sheets and a copy of the AutoCAD DWG files from which those plan sheets were created. Although we are providing a digital representation of our design, we’re still keeping the vast majority of our design (e.g., the model) private. The way we structure our files—and more importantly our design data—has little impact on the digital submittal itself. This all changes as more and more clients begin to require BIM models as a part of their digital submittal. Suddenly both the structure and overall fidelity of our Civil 3D model become just as important as the plan set itself. Consequently, without a cognitive plan, bad practices that have plagued us all at one time or another are more likely to reveal themselves not only internally, but to the entire design team. Structuring your data This fact further defines the increasing importance of the model. Until recently, w w w. A U G I . c o m 10 http://www.augi.com
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