IMAGINiT Civil Solutions Blog

Are your Workflows as new as your design technology?

In the last several years, the civil/survey industry has seen a lot of advancements with new and very powerful technologies like AutoCAD Civil 3D and Autodesk Infraworks. These new tools offer the potential to work faster, smarter and in ways simply not possible just a few years ago.  For those that have made the jump to using these new tools, the question is; have your processes and workflows been revised to match the new technologies or, are you still functioning the same way you did before you adopted the latest BIM for infrastructure technology? 

In this series, we’ll dive into common workflow challenges and discuss solutions.

In this post, let’s look at Civil 3D.  Because the program is built on AutoCAD, it offers users a familiar set of tools and processes that for many, are time-tested and even second nature requiring no more conscious thought than blinking.   

And while having these comfortable tools at our disposal is great for some things, I’ve also seen where it has become an anti-productive crutch too. Unfortunately, we’ve witnessed on many occasions users working with the latest version of Civil 3D but doing things the same way that they were 10 years ago, effectively skipping all of the powerful object-based functionality in favor for their more familiar AutoCAD means of achieving the end result.  When I find myself in these situations, I’ll ask the user why they’re not using the object-based method to more efficiently perform the given task. The response is usually either 1.) They were unaware of the “other way” to do it.  Or, 2.)  Because they need it to look a certain way, rather than fight with Civil 3D, it’s easier to just do it manually.  

In most cases, these issues are usually attributed to one of the following:

• The users were not properly educated on the software and don’t know how to use the new tools properly.
• The customer’s Civil 3D environment (styles, settings, standards) were not properly configured in the first place and users are put in a position where they need to spend time struggling with styles in Civil 3D on the fly in order to have their designs conform to their organization standards.

In short, most of the time when we encounter organizations who are struggling with BIM technology, it is because they didn’t take the necessary steps to properly implement the technology in the first place.  Simply installing new “CAD” software on users systems and have them “figure it out” will do nothing more than place them in a position where they are forced to do what they have to do to get the job done.   More often than not, this will not yield the benefits that BIM for infrastructure truly offers and leads to frustrated users and dissatisfied customers.   Not taking advantage of all of the BIM for infrastructure tools at your disposal, is like using a nail file to cut down a tree while a chainsaw sits idle at your feet.

 

How many IT people does it take to restore an old file?

Recently I was visiting with an engineering firm that had questions about a Civil 3D process within a project that they were working with the previous week and wanted to review the details of the project as it was at the point in time that they were dealing with the challenge.  Because they had since moved on from that point in the project and had chosen a solution that allowed them to continue, the specific conditions that represented the challenge were no longer present and as such, we could not address it.

Because this challenge was something that they are presented with fairly often, they really wanted to dig into the scenario while I was there.  The problem was, as noted, they had moved beyond that days earlier.   Because their data environment was the typical server & workstation type, there was no easy way to go back to an earlier version of the project where the conditions in question existed and as such, the only way to really get the files in question was to request the assistance of IT to dig up an earlier saved version of the files and restore them to a test location.  Now, had this been a single file and if their backup/server software was sufficiently configured to store enough versions of the file, it would have been fairly simply to restore the file from a specific date.  However, because we’re dealing with a project where there are several drawing files involved, with data shortcuts, xrefs, raster images etc., the process was quite complex and required that yet another person within the IT department be involved to help.  By the end of the day, they were unable to restore all of the files needed to properly recreate the point in time environment needed to address the issue and as a result, we were unable to revisit the process issue while I was there.

What’s the alternative?

In the case of Civil 3D, there are essentially two methods of facilitating data sharing in a project environment: 1.) Data Shortcuts and 2.) Vault Pro. And without turning this story into a Vault advertisement, it is worth noting that in addition to all of the higher-end abilities that Vault provides like site data replication, security, etc. one of the very applicable benefits (in this case) is the ability to restore versions of files within a project.  Had the customer been using Vault instead of their basic workstation and file server environment for their data management, it would have literally taken just a few minutes to restore any or all of the project-related files from a given point in time (assuming they would be storing enough versions in their configuration) and we would have been able to quickly jump into the issue and work towards a solution.

While in this specific case, the need to restore earlier versions of project data files is not something that would likely happen on a daily basis, it does illustrate the value that an optimized data management system can provide, and how users can benefit from a wide range of valuable, time-saving abilities, versioning being just one.  In this case, a very valuable one

By the way, they still haven’t recovered all of the files needed but, they’re working on it.  

Site Resources Builds Their Brand with Civil 3D

THE ORGANIZATION
Site Resources offers comprehensive land planning and site design services. The firm unites landscape architecture and civil engineering, viewing these as integral and collaborative disciplines when developing a site design.

THE CHALLENGE
Site Resources prides itself on having very clear, recognizable and professional site plans. They had been working with AutoCAD Civil 3D for three years, but did not have a critical mass of people on staff who knew how to fully leverage the powerful 3D design engineering tool. In addition, because the team had varying levels of experience with the software, they were not using it consistently and the graphic quality of the drawings they created varied across the board. Many staff members continued to use the newer software as they had their traditional CAD system, which meant they were not taking full advantage of its capabilities. Bob Morelock, Associate Principal at Site Resources, knew they could automate and standardize some of the look and feel they needed, but wasn’t quite sure how to begin.

“We design a lot of institutional and public spaces – especially for universities,” said Morelock. “End user clients are asking for building information models from architects now. We know that we can produce 3D designs using Civil 3D, but we didn’t have the right templates or content styles in place to ensure our drawings would represent our company’s designs and brand consistently.”

Bob understood the immense potential that Civil 3D contains, and he knew that the Site Resources designers and managers would benefit greatly if they had a standard set of styles and tools to use Civil 3D in a consistent manner across a range of projects.

THE SOLUTION
“As a manager, I saw some of our more advanced users not being as productive as they could be because they were constantly trying to get the software to mimic the drawings we produced in AutoCAD,” said Morelock. “It is my belief that people should be more effective, not less with Civil 3D. While our designers were individually creating some of the necessary styles, not all were shared properly and --because settings are modifiable -- there was a lack of consistency and drawing clarity, which we had to address manually before the plans went to the client.”

The Site Resources team asked IMAGINiT for their in-depth expertise to develop a standard template from the ground up that incorporated Site Resources’ graphic standards directly into the software environment. IMAGINiT’s experts worked with Site Resources to create templates that the Site Resources team can use consistently, incorporating their corporate brand, their professional look and feel and their standard display of information which Site Resources’ clients are accustomed to seeing.

This consistency not only provides Site Resources’ clients with a site design that is easily read and understood, it also means that all Site Resources team members now understand how plans need to appear, and they know that they have access to the tools they need to complete their designs without recreating or drawing from scratch each time. Having one unified standard keeps the Site Resources professional presentation style and their brand image front and center while showcasing the specific design solution.

RESULTS
IMAGINiT sorted through drawing styles and objects to provide a critical subset of symbols, line styles and other tools that are now used consistently by the design teams at Site Resources. Creating templates that incorporate these has allowed the designers to focus more on project design and less on the basics of graphic presentation, or which line style to choose when presented with the thousands available within Civil 3D.

“Working with a third-party like IMAGINiT was a huge benefit worth the investment,” said Morelock. “The team there genuinely knows about land development and our business. With all the available style variables and settings within Civil 3D, if we had tried to do this in-house, we would never have known where to start or how to develop a single template efficiently and systematically. IMAGINiT’s deep understanding of how Civil 3D can be customized provided the solid foundation we needed and was more effective than trying to do it ourselves. They knew exactly how to deliver what we needed.”

The team at Site Resources plans to further leverage their technology to incorporate a more model-based process and Morelock expects that they will continue to derive more efficiencies in the future as they become experts designing in Civil 3D.

Is this the most compelling new feature in Civil 3D 2015?

It’s here!  The latest edition of AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015.  As expected, there are new features changes, etc., but instead of getting into all of the “what’s new” stuff, I’d like to focus on the one feature that I personally find to be the most useful.  That new feature is (drumroll . . . ) the ability to actually print the Live Maps!   (. . . and the crowd goes wild!!!!)

 

Brief History:

In the 2014 version of Civil 3D, technically at the AutoCAD level of functionality, we were provided a new feature called “Live Maps” with the curiously different command name “GEOMAP”.  The “Live Maps” is a feature that incorporates georeferenced aerial, road and hybrid images into your drawings without the bogging down effect we see when attaching large images files.  I’m still stunned on how fast it is and how quickly the images render based on viewpoint.  It really is surprisingly fast considering the amount of raster-based data it delivers.  Also, it’s worth noting that the data is provided by Microsoft’s Bing Maps and not that other mega company whose name we all know.

Using this feature requires that you have an Autodesk 360 account (there are free options btw) and that your drawing be set to a defined geolocaion.

So the upshot is, easily accessible and FREE georeferenced color images in your AutoCAD/Civil 3D.  Cool, right?   Well, as many know, there was just a tiny bit of a catch with this fantastic new dynamic, color, georeferenced images feature and that was  . . . YOU COULD NOT PRINT THEM. 

Yes, this was a real buzzkill for a lot of users that were hoping to actually use this data.

Civil 3D 2015:

So, this is the part where I get to share the happy news and that is, we can now save static captures of the Live Map images and PRINT THEM!!!!!

 We now also have a readily available new tab specifically for managing the “Live Maps” data called “Geolocation” where in addition to Online Map access tools, we also have location tools too.

 

The “Capture Area” and “Capture Viewport” commands are the real stars of this story because this is what now allows you to create a static and yes, printable version of the images. 

The new captured image is actually a new type of image object called a “Geomap Image” and has both static attached image type adjustments such as Brightness, Contrast and Fade but also has some unique features too including the ability to switch map types (Aerial, Road, Hybrid) as well as the ability to change the resolution of the captured image.

 

The bottom line is, for those of us that find it useful to have nice, color georeferenced images easily accessible from within Civil 3D/AutoCAD that you can print, this is indeed a happy day.

Enjoy!

 

Update:
There has recently been a change in the way Bing map data is served and as a result a HotFix needs to be applied to Civil 3D 2015 to address the change. Please see the link below:

C3D 2015 HotFix for GeoMaps

 

To upgrade now or upgrade later? That is the question

So, it's that time of year again and we have that email letting us know that our Maintenance Subscription fees are bearing fruit in the form of new versions of EVERYTHING!   The question is: When is the right time to make the move and ratchet up for a new product (or multiple products ala-Design Suite) to configure and rollout to your organization?  Do you make the jump now or do you take the "I'll wait for service pack 1" or even a simple “wait and see” approach instead?

Factors to Consider:

1.)  Necessity: A basic question is: Is being on the latest version NOW advantageous?  Are there new features that are so compelling that you simply can't wait to start using them?  Will it be necessary to install the latest version to maintain version compliance with customers or partners?  

2.)  Upgrade Hiccup Factor: How big of a version jump are you looking at?  Is it a one version upgrade or do you still have a death grip on LDT 2009?  The migration from C3D 2014 to C3D 2015 is fairly straightforward and, as such, the upgrade is relatively minor.  The migration from LDT 2009 to Civil 3D 2015 (really any version of Civil 3D) is an entirely different thing and likely requires a much more significant change in not only the use of the software, but also your organization’s workflows and processes.

Advantages of Upgrading Now:

1.)  Gets you ahead of the game/competition:  If your organization prides itself as technologically progressive, then getting in front on the upgrade is going to be important.

2.)  Unique Service Offerings: The latest version typically offers tools and abilities that were not available before and having access to these may provide you with a competitive advantage.  This is your window of opportunity to gain footing while the competition sits back and takes a more reserved approach to upgrading.

Advantages of Upgrading Later:

1.)  Productivity Hiccup:  The productivity hiccup factor and the associated short term hit to efficiency (depending on what version you’re coming from) may not be easily absorbed this time of year for your organization. For example: Spring-Summer is a busy design season whereas in the Fall, it may be less disruptive.

2.)  Time Tested Security: Waiting until the program(s) have been in production for a while and maybe even have a service pack is released, may provide you a degree of comfort knowing that everything is running smoothly and that any upgrade-related issues have already been addressed.

The bottom line is, there is no one certain answer to the question of when you should make the upgrade and it depends on several factors that only your organization can determine.  That said, you don’t want to take an overly precautious position to the point that you find yourself multiple versions behind your peers.  In today’s rapidly advancing world of BIM technologies, a few versions behind your competition could make the difference between being successful verses struggling to keep the lights on. 

And as always when in doubt, remember dealing with these processes is what we do here at IMAGINiT.  We can help.