From the Ground Up

AutoCAD Civil 3D Country Kit Workshop 2013

Every year we get our team and consultants from around the world into a room and share ideas and work on the content you install with Civil 3D.

Its a good week where we share ideas and general stuff

Here are some mug shots from our Farnborough office in the UK.

BIM for Infra at ICE south region meeting - Plymouth University

Hi,

I stood in for a colleague this week and presented at the ICE south region meeting. There was a good turnout and some engaging discussion around what BIM means to Civil Engineers in the current UK context (see http://www.bimtaskgroup.org/ if you don't know what I'm referring to). Anyway, I've been getting some requests for the slides I used, so I thought I would ask Jack if it was OK to use this as a distribution mechanism so anyone can grab them. Ian McGregor

Download ICEBIM4Infra

Bridge Modeler for AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2013

The Bridge Modeler for AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2013 which enables users to create bridge models based on critical geometry in the Civil 3D corridor model and existing ground surface has been posted live to Productivity Tools for AutoCAD® Civil 3D®. Bridge elements include abutments, piers, and bearings configuration and modeling as well as bridge deck, barriers and roadway. Users can also create AutoCAD Civil 3D alignments and profiles from key bridge strings such as bottom of lowest girder or top of barrier. Finally, users can quickly transition bridge parameters created in the AutoCAD Civil 3D version of this Bridge Modeler into the Autodesk Revit Structure Bridge Modeling extension (REX) where additional modeling can be accomplished. 

The Productivity Tools for AutoCAD® Civil 3D® are available on subscription center.

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

Guest post - AutoCAD Civil 3D - GENIO file Export

Hi,

Jack's been badgering me to write a guest post on his blog for ages, so at last, here is my first one. My name is Ian McGregor and I've been involved in Infrastructure Product Management at Autodesk for the past 6 years or so, but I have a long history with MOSS^® and MXROAD^®.

You can install an extension for Civil 3D from Autodesk Subscription Center that enables you to import data from Bentley^® MX^® GENIO and 'modelfiles' (MX users will know what they are) and also to export GENIO files.

GENIO isn't strictly speaking a file format. It is a 'Major Option' in the MX Command Language, it's a means to import and export data from MX models, somewhat akin to LandXML but it's really a command script that drives MX, into which you can embed data. For example, this means you can put other commands in the same file to draw that data to your screen, or edit it in some way.

I've been having discussions with customers who use both Civil 3D and MX on their projects and they've uncovered a challenge when using GENIO export as a means to provide a model deliverable from Civil 3D. The challenge is that they don't have both Civil 3D and MX on their computer and they want to test the file exported from Civil 3D to see if it meets their expectations as a deliverable. So, quite logically they try to reimport it into Civil 3D to see what it looks like.

Therein lies a problem; the online help introduction states; "It should be noted that the Import/Export Extension for GENIO does not aim to provide round-trip support for GENIO and Model File data between Bentley MX and AutoCAD Civil 3D."

One of the primary reasons for this lies in differences between the way Civil 3D and MX calculate and store alignment/profile data. This makes it impossible for Autodesk to write this data in a reliable way into the GENIO format and have MX recreate a consistent alignment and profile. It is for this reason we don't attempt this functionality, but use the MX command Major options HALGN and VALGN to create the alignment/profile objects. These commands are simply embedded in the export file.

Feedback from MX users has been very positive about this approach and the quality of data produced. Whilst you can check point, feature line and surface boundary data in this way, it does mean you can't reimport the exported alignment/profile data into Civil 3D using the GENIO import option because Civil 3D doesn't understand those commands. If you need your exported alignment/profile validating, the only way you can really do that is to ask an MX user to do it for you.

I hope that clarifies things, happy to field comments/feedback either here or on usual ADSK email <first>.<lastname>@autodesk.com

Ian

Autodesk AEC Live on Tour - Nordics

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

www.autodesk.co.uk/aeclive

Jack Strongitharm

Article on Autodesk hits 30 years in business

April 26th in 1982 Autodesk was founded.

This local article gives you some of our history

http://www.marinij.com/sausalito/ci_20550073/san-rafael-based-autodesk-celebrates-30-years-business

Jack Strongitharm

Infrastructure Excellence Competition - 3 weeks left to enter

Want to win a trip to Las Vegas, our AU Event, cash and a top of range computer from HP?

If you have a project you want to show your design skills and the application of the BIM Process, this is the competition for you.

Enter at the link below

http://www.infrastructure-excellence.com/

 

Jack Strongitharm

Are you using BIM on Infrastructure Projects?

 

A new McGraw Hill Smart Market Report on the business value of BIM for Infrastructure shows that nearly half of the firms responding to the survey are currently using BIM on infrastructure projects. Spatial coordination and structural analysis were cited as contributing the highest value to the 67% of all users who reported a positive return on their BIM investment.

 

Do you agree?  The Autodesk Industry Strategy team for Engineering, Natural Resources and Infrastructure would like to learn a little bit more about how you are using and benefiting from the use of 3D modeling technologies, even if you aren’t. Could you spare 5 or 10 minutes to take this brief survey?

 

We’re trying to reach 1,000 survey responses within the week, so thanks in advance to anyone who helps us reach this goal by sharing the survey link with your engineering and infrastructure followers.  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ADSKBIM

 

Jack Strongitharm

BIM City - Our new Autodesk BIM for Infrastructure Showreel

http://youtu.be/7QlMM1z9lwE

 

Jack Strongitharm