IMAGINiT Civil Solutions Blog

Windows 7

I get a lot of questions about Windows 7 and Autodesk products.  Here's a brief rundown.

Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system is the next evolution of what started out as Windows 6, later called Vista.  Windows 7 is certainly a jump from XP and it has some powerful new features and functionality that should benefit Autodesk applications, including full support for 64-bit computing, Windows search and (GASP!) improved performance. Multi-touch support now is also a core capability within Windows 7.

I haven't installed Windows 7 on my system yet, but I've been running Vista 64 for about a year.  Although Vista 64 is a vast improvement over Vista 32, I think it still lacks the performance you would expect from a 64 bit OS.  As well, an initial lack of device drivers caused a lot of problems for older peripherals.  I want to look a bit further into the "improved performance" claims before I upgrade.  Although, when it comes down to it, I've found that all of the Autodesk applications I use, including the 32 bit ones like Civil 3D run without much problem.  I'm finding Vista 64 to be enough of an improvement over XP, that I can't complain too loudly.

So, does Autodesk certify anything to run under Windows 7?  Yes, it does.  Here's the list so far:

• AutoCAD 2010
• AutoCAD LT 2010
• Autodesk Inventor 2010
• Autodesk Inventor LT 2010
• AutoCAD Architecture 2010
• AutoCAD Electrical 2010
• AutoCAD Mechanical 2010
• AutoCAD MEP 2010
• Autodesk Algor Simulation 2010

When I talk with people who are running other Autodesk applications including Civil 3D 2010 and Map 3D  2010, I hear they are not experiencing any major problems, but these applications haven't made the list yet since Autodesk wants to be thorough before certifying them.

I think Windows 7 looks promising from an OS point of view and I don't anticipate a major problem as far as the existing Autodes applications go.  I'm sure we'll see new features in these products to take advantage of the new capabilities in Windows 7, but probably not before the 2011 release.

Sunday

It's Sunday, and I'm sitting in the Calgary airport waiting for a connection to Regina.  I go to Regina a few times a year, and even though it's not a big place, I can always find something new to write about.  I'll be there for a few days, so I'm sure I'll have something for you.  Stay tuned!

An AU Update

OK, most of you know that Autodesk University (AU) happens December 1 - 3 at Mandaly Bay in Las Vegas.  IMAGINiT has several presenters this year.  From the Civil and Geospatial side we have Malcolm Fernandes and Warren Medernach.  Warren also is our Geospatial Blogger.  Here's his presentation topic.

From AutoCAD® Map 3D to Autodesk MapGuide® in Three Simple Steps: Connect, Stylize, Publish

GS114-1: Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - 1:00pm

 

Class Description
If you are interested in distributing geospatial data to the masses, then you don't want to miss this class. Learn how easy it can be to publish data directly to Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise from AutoCAD Map 3D. You will see how to connect to a variety of data sources through FDO Technology, stylize and theme your data to create a cartographic masterpiece, and finally, how to publish the data to MapGuide Enterprise. In addition, through the use of MapGuide Studio, you will also learn how quickly and easily a web application can be built around your published map data.

Sounds good!

I'll have Malcolm's presentation information for you soon.

A Wider Road

We were looking at a road widening the other day.  AutoCAD Civil 3D has a few subassemblies to take care of this.  We decided that since we had an existing ground surface representing the road surface and ground to each side, a centerline alignment, and not much else, we would use one of these subassemblies to widen the road.  There was no superelevation data for the existing road, so we wanted the existing surface to control the pavement slope as we went along the alignment.  There was no milling or overlay to the existing roadway, so we chose the OverlayWidenMatchSlope1 subassembly with an overlay thickness of zero,

This subassembly commonly is used to extend the width of one side of the road.  The Sample Point usually is at the crown and the insert point at or near the existing EOP.  There is no right or left to this subassembly; you specify positive or negative values for the offset to the Insert Point.  This all works very well if you are doing one side of the road, but what if you want to do both sides at once?

What we wanted to do is show the datum surface and get some volumes.  Here’s our assembly.

You can see what happens when we built the datum surface.  Notice the triangular area caused by the crown in the roadway.  Now, this wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but it is correct as far as the coding of the assembly goes.  There is no Datum link between the Sample Point and the Insert Point, so the surface goes straight across the road.  Not a problem if you are doing one side of the road.

 

We added a Basic Lane subassembly to the right and left of the crown point using 0.001m thickness for the pavement.  The width was also set to 0.001m.

Now, here’s what we ended up with.

There’s some other trickery we could have used to obtain this result, but this was a pretty simple fix.  It demonstrates how flexible these assemblies can be, and what you can do with a little effort.  There may be some debate as to whether the existing road surface could actually be referred to as a datum surface, but I’ll leave that for another time.  We got what we needed to show the surface.

I’m sure you’ve got other ways of dealing with this, and I’d love to hear them.  So, leave a comment here.  Maybe we can get a discussion going on this.  Even an argument might be fun.

Blogs and Friday the 13th

Some technical difficulties here.  I've got a few things I've been working on, but when I try to post, they disappear into the aether.  More electrons wasted!  I should have this sorted out soon, but I guess blogs and Friday the 13th have a special relationship!

Why Does It Always Snow in Alberta?

A couple of weeks ago I was over in Alberta, just east of Edmonton in Strathcona County.  Now, Alberts is a nice place, but whenever I go there it snows.  This time it only snowed a bit, just to show me it could.  This story's not about snow, anyway, but it sets the stage for what I do want to talk about, which is ice.  Specifically, the ice you find in arenas.  You see, where I was staying was right next to this amazing facility called Millennium Place.

It's a multi-sport and fitness complex.  Lot's of ice for hockey, public skating, and lessons.  Plus a lot more.  The Edmonton Oilers held their training camps here from 2000 - 2004.  In 2007, they held the Western Canada Summer Games at Millennium Place.

Check out the facilities!

• Shell Edu-tainment Centre features an unique climbing wall and a permanent climbing structure with a variety of slides, interactive games, ridem toys and more
• spacious rooms for creative crafts and discovery activities
• twin arena and leisure ice, open all year round
• twin sport fields
• Petro Canada Fitness and Wellness Centre has the newest equipment
• leisure wave pool with 0-depth entry
• old fashion steam tractor water play structure
• whirlpool, sauna and steam room
• lazy river with spiraling vortex
• 10-lane, 25-meter competition pool
• indoor track that is three lanes, 235 metres long (6.8 laps = 1 mile) and features a unique incline

If you are ever in the Sherwood Park area of Strathcona County AB, be sure to stop by the Millennium Place.  I just sat and enjoyed watching a hockey practice.  Watching the ice was sure a lot more fun than watching the snow.

There's a Cloud in My Drawing!

Well, I'm back in the office for a couple of days after a week on the road.  I've had some time to take a look at the point cloud object in the Civil 3D and Map 3D Subscription Advantage Pack.

An increasing amount of ground data is being represented by lidar surveys.  We've all been in the situation where we have to generate a TIN based on a large (> 2 million) points and we've all run into the problems associated with trying to do that.  Things have improved with the surface simplification commands and the data clip boundary, but we've been hoping for a solution that will let us build a surface from large data sets without a lot of data manipulation.  So, do we have a new tool with the point cloud object?  Well, not quite.

What the point cloud object allows us to do is take a substantial number of points (I think up to about 2 billion) and represent them accurately as an object within Civil 3D and Map 3D.  This has obvious advantages for adding 3D representations of surfaces, vegetation, buildings and other structures from scanned surveys.  The points are held in a data base and can be updated and modified as new surveys become available.  The point cloud can be stylized based on criteria such as elevation or point classification, and the database can be used in multiple drawings and applications throughout the design, construction and maintenance process.  Think BIM.

What the point cloud object doesn't do in the Civil 3D installation is allow us to create a surface of any kind.  It would be nice to make a TIN from the cloud, but we can't.  Maybe in the next release.  To see a surface created from the point cloud, we need to use Map 3D.  That functionality doesn't exist within Map in the Civil 3D product.  Here's a point cloud in Civil 3D.

This cloud has been stylized with an elevation range.  Here's the same cloud shown as a surface in Map 3D.

You can also add a contour layer.

Now, all of this won't get you a TIN surface, but you can use the drawing you created in Map as a drawing in Civil 3D and overlay the point cloud or add additional cloud data such as buildings or other surveys.  Here's the surface with the point cloud in Civil 3D.

There are couple of other things to note about this object.  It seems to be a bit fragile when viewing it in 3D, either in Orbit or the Object Viewer.  I've heard other people have experienced the same instability and crashes, as I have.  To be fair, I'm not sure if it's the application or my video setup.  I'll have to look into that a bit more.  It can also be a bit slow to respond.

So, while I'm disappointed that we don't have an easier way of generating TINs from lidar and other large data sets, I'm impressed with what Autodesk has done with the Ambercore engine so far.

 

Digging the Hard Way

I was in Aruba a few weeks ago and came across these guys digging a ditch for some new water pipe.  Not a machine in sight!  I went over to offer support, knowing what fun they were having.  My first earthwork job was a summer one I had in high school, digging graves in a local cemetery.  That's a big hole when you just have a pick and shovel!  Anyway, these guys were in pretty good spirits, considering it was about 104 degrees in the shade that day.  Now, that's hard work!

Boredom on a Plane

I spend a fair amount of time in airplanes and airports.  I was having a coffee on my last flight, and because I had nothing better to do, started reading the ingredients list for the "non dairy" creamer I had just put in my coffee.  What's in this stuff, anyway?  Chalk?  Powdered feldspar?  Sawdust?  No, according to the ingredients list, milk is the main ingredient of this "non dairy" creamer.  I guess it only counts as milk if it's a liquid.

I595 on Google Earth

A while ago I was browsing Google Earth looking for some examples of different interchange configurations.  I came across this one on I595 just west of Ft. Lauderdale FL.  It looks OK at first glance, but when you look a little closer, you notice an obvious disconnect.  I've flown over this interchange and the road does join: this is just an image stitch issue.  It does point out that you can't always take an image at face value!