Cadalyst - March 2008 - (Page 28)

cadlabsreview AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 Dynamic modeling transforms civil engineering design, documentation, and delivery. By Jerry Laiserin C ivil engineering is and always has been a threedimensional process; 3D in design, 3D in visualization, and, of course, 3D in the actual construction of civil works on, over, and/or under real-world 3D terrain. Although several generations of modern engineers have mastered a system of 2D representation of 3D designs, the underlying work remains three dimensional. If Roman engineers could have magically encountered a twentiethcentury system of 2D representation, they likely would have been familiar with many of the principles and methods — especially the tedious and error-prone process of revising dozens or hundreds of drawings every time a profile or alignment had to be changed and edited along an entire aqueduct corridor. However, in the twenty-first century, civil engineers no longer need be burdened with the tedious processes of 2D design tools for 2D representation of 3D work. Modern software can manage consistent and coordinated 3D representations in computer form while presenting a 2D interface to design engineers via screenbased graphical input and output, as well as printed/plotted paper drawings (or their digital file equivalents) for project communication across the extended team from the office to the job site. In building design, this multidimensional process of representation, with associated data or building information, has come to be known as building information modeling (BIM). Because no comparable acronym exists for the civil information modeling counterpart to BIM, Autodesk has wisely chosen the simple and descriptive name Civil 3D for its product. Unlike Revit, Autodesk’s BIM model-authoring platform for architects and building engineers, Civil 3D is an Autodesk-developed product built as a native AutoCAD/ DWG application. (Revit was developed by another company on a database technology entirely independent of and different from DWG and subsequently acquired by Autodesk.) Of Autodesk’s prior solutions for civil engineers, Land Desktop remains available as a separate product, but Civil Design and Survey are no longer available for purchase or renewal as separate products. However, “the full functionality of the historical Autodesk Land Desktop, Civil Design, and Survey software is now included in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008,” according to Autodesk. Users of Land Desktop should note Autodesk’s use of the word “historical” as a double-edged sword: Civil 3D is and will continue to be backward compatible with Land Desktop using Land XML or project-import features, but I suspect Land Desktop will eventually go away as a standalone product. Migratory Flocks Autodesk would prefer to have its current civil engineering, survey, site-design, and land-planning customers migrate to Civil 3D. Such migration is not without challenges, however. Prior to Civil 3D, most land-design–related software mimicked the paper-based 2D workflow of hand drafting — substituting a computer interface of pick-and-click line work for manually drawn lines guided by T-squares and triangles. Many engineers practicing today learned to transpose their manual procedures to software from DCA, which became Softdesk, which was acquired by Autodesk and eventually evolved into Land Desktop. The dynamic-model approach of Civil 3D is conceptually different in the design and documentation process, as well as procedurally different regarding the how and why of the program’s picks and clicks. Both the conceptual and procedural transitions can be eased with the Eagle Point Task Navigator add-on (see “Eagle Point Task Navigator for Civil 3D” sidebar). For street and road design, Civil 3D uses assemblies to generate cross-sections, with multiple cross-sections strung together along an alignment (figure 1) and profile to form a corridor. Because all Civil 3D objects are AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 A+ Surveying, Civil Engineering, and Land Development Software based parametric design; style-based documentation process; and ripple-through change management. Cons: Deployment requires significant shifts in existing workflows and user experience. Price: $7,495, subscription required; upgrades available. Autodesk 415.507.5000 www.autodesk.com This version: . . . . . . . . . . . A+ Ease of use: . . . . . . . . . . . . A Features: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A+ Installation: . . . . . . . . . . . A Customization: . . . . . . . . . A Interoperability: . . . . . . . A+ Third-party add-ons: . . . . A+ Help: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A Innovation: . . . . . . . . . . . . A+ Value: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A Pros: Dynamic-model–based software transforms civil/site engineering and related disciplines with constraint28 March 2008 | cadalyst | www.cadalyst.com http://www.autodesk.com http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - March 2008

Cadalyst - March 2008 Contents Editor's Window CAD Central Thicker than Water Safe Keeping — Backup Software Secures Your Designs AMD’s ATI FireGL Graphics Cards AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 — Surveying, Civil Engineering, and Land Development Software Cool Software Utilities for Your Job History, Nonhistory, or Both? In the Eye of the Storm Builders’ Information Modeling CAD Cartoon Issue Indexes CAD from the Streets

Cadalyst - March 2008

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