From the Ground Up

Autodesk Shared Reference Point Tool – Now available

aka as the BIM Coordinator released on our Labs site, we have had a good interest in making this available on our newer releases.

So for both 2013 and 2014 releases this tool is now available on www.autodesk.com/subscription under the productivity tools for AutoCAD Civil 3D.

 

There are two installers, one to be installed on Civil 3D which runs from the toolbox and a second that installs to run on Revit (any version)

 

The tool exports an xml file from Civil 3D with coordinates and z level/elevation, rotation and units.

From within Revit you select the same two reference points on your building/structure and it creates a ‘Shared Coordinate System’ for your location and can orientate the view to suit and most importantly export the building/structure correctly to be used in AutoCAD platforms, Navisworks etc.

Download the Video

or watch through Youtube

 

To see this in action I have recorded a new video that covers from the outline planning of a site with InfraWorks through to the project aggregated model in Navisworks.

As usual I throw a big supermarket on a public park in the UK close to where I live, of course its all made up!

 

Jack Strongitharm

Free Training for the AutoCAD Civil 3D Geotechnical Module

Our partners at Keynetix have created a series of videos to help you adopt and use the new Geotechnical Module, which is available under the productivity tools for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 on subscription centre.

www.autodesk.com/subscription

Please select this link to the Keynetix website to learn more.

 

Read More >>

Jack Strongitharm

Autodesk Geotechnical Module – Now available

Launched today for those customers with AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013, the Autodesk Geotechnical Module is available as a download from the subscription centre (www.autodesk.com/subscription) under the ‘AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Productivity Tools’.

Here are some introductory notes from the help file

The Autodesk® Geotechnical Module has been developed and licenced to Autodesk by Keynetix, it has been designed to ease the task of creating and viewing geological and subsurface information.
Geotechnical design is like any other engineering practice, the designs need to be revised and refined. In many respects this is more the case with geotechnics as the engineer with limited information tries to interpret the data to best fit the site. To this end the tool has been designed to quickly display data in AutoCAD® Civil 3D®to allow the user to start modelling and interpreting the site data.
The Geotechnical Module is designed to work with drill hole locations and geology data, this functionality includes:
Importing and connecting to geotechnical data, both AGS and CSV formats
Creating and managing Boreholes in both plan and model space
Creating and managing sub strata surfaces
Producing dynamic profiles and projecting log strips on to them
Geotechnical hatch and style management
The module is designed to show you the geotechnical data as-is, it does not interpret the data, however the surfaces that are created are a great aid and starting point in the interpretation, modelling and visualisation process.

There are going to be some video guidance and tutorials showing how the Autodesk Geotechnical Module can be used and examples of workflows modelling the data, visit: 

www.keynetix.com/civil3d

About Keynetix
Keynetix, based in the UK, is an Autodesk Industry Partner and has been developing geotechnical data management software for over two decades. The software ranges from on-site data entry tools for both drillers and engineers, desktop data entry tools including Excel extensions and the world leading geotechnical data management software HoleBASE SI. HoleBASE SI’s unique features allow you to manage your data throughout the lifetime of a project and access historical information alongside your current project, transforming the way you archive and manage site investigation. HoleBASE SI allows you to rapidly produce logs, reports, charts and interpretations of your data within seconds.

Autodesk Live Update for AutoCAD Civil 3D

Had a reformat of my hard drive last week as I got myself a nice new SSD (512GB) :)

Best thing you can do for your laptop, fast boot for the OS and of course your software and so much more responsive, more impressive than more memory.

 

Anyway, of course the effort then of reinstalling our software and others to get back to where I was.

The pay off though is a clean registry and a very happy laptop.

 

So I got 2013 installed and was about to go and download the Update 1 pack for Civil 3D 2013 and noticed the icon at the top right.

Then faced with this web page with the option to download and install directly.

And in it goes, it will ask to shut Civil down to complete the install

 

Also, another note.

On install of most of Autodesk software you also get the chance to include the Updates directly on the first installation, of course most people click ‘NEXT’ ‘NEXT’

 

Jack Strongitharm

FREE Autodesk Take the Lead Virtual Event

Register today for the FREE Autodesk Take the Lead Virtual Event. 

Join us on September 5, 2012 to see how the latest Autodesk solutions will help you Take the Lead in transforming the way you work. 

Featured solutions include:

· Autodesk Suites – All the functionality you need in one convenient package, specific for your industry

· Autodesk® BIM 360 – Cloud-based services within the Autodesk® 360 platform that provide mobility and accessibility to multidiscipline design and construction teams through infinite computing power.

Register now and secure your space for this FREE online event. www.autodesk.com/takethelead

 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/3Tk72NoNGXI

 Check out the trailer

Autodesk 360 Mobile–now available

We're excited to tell you that it's here! Autodesk 360® Mobile is now available for your iOS or Android devices. Update the Design Review Mobile app on your device, or download Autodesk 360® Mobile for iOS on iTunes® or for Android on Google Play.

Autodesk 360® Mobile extends the Autodesk 360® cloud platform to help you streamline and expedite the design process with anywhere, anytime access and robust collaboration tools.

This release has a dramatically different user interface and includes the following functionality:

· Open and view files stored in your Autodesk 360® account

• 2D and 3D DWG™ and DWF™ files
• Revit® and Navisworks® files

· Use multi-touch to zoom, pan, and rotate drawings

· View meta data and other details about elements within your drawing

· Find tools that help you communicate changes with your collaborators, including an activity feed, a click-to-share feature, and comments by file, sheet or view

SAC - Subassembly with varying lane width without targets !

This post is based on an earlier post made by Bart De Maesschalck from DEME on the Civil 3D Benelux usergroup page.

The challenge is to create a subassembly with the ability to apply a varying width without the need for a target alignment or polyline/feature line.

In this example the transition will be linear... a curved transition can be considered for another post.

The solution lies in the possibilities that SAC (Subassembly Composer) offers. I'm sure there are many ways to get this done, but this is how I did it…

STEP 1: Define the variables you need

• Base width (Width before the transition, also used in subassembly mode)
• Extended width  (Width after the transition)
• Transition length (Length of the transition zon)
• Transition start station (station to start the transition)

STEP 2: Implement this iS SAC

• Create the input variables we have defined in STEP 1.
• Define an internal variables to be able to calculate the real width during the transition (ActualWidth)
• Define the flows and decisions that need to be taken.
  For every assembly insertion of the corridor we need to define if the current station is before, in or after the transition zone.
  
  
  
  
• Calculate the actual width during transition
  
  

 

• Create the geometry for the lane

  

 

STEP 3: Test in AutoCAD Civil 3D

   

   

The Subassembly can be downloaded here: Download LaneWithTransition

 Peter Ingels

Autodesk BIM for Infrastructure - Transportation

Take a look at our latest web site pages with lots of resources on the topic of BIM for Infrastructure.

Also some interviews with some of our users

www.autodesk.co.uk/transportation

 

 

Jack Strongitharm

Autodesk® BIM 360 - Infrastructure Modeler now available

For those on subscription with Infrastructure Modeler/Infrastructure Design Suite Premium/Ultimate 2013 you can now share your model online via our cloud service for collaborating your design and planning proposals.

Download here

www.autodesk.com/subscription

 

For other services click here

Jack Strongitharm

Autodesk AEC Live on Tour - Nordics

Come and see us on our second tour in the Nordics.

www.autodesk.co.uk/aeclive

Jack Strongitharm