From the Ground Up

InfraWorks 360 2015.3 Service Pack 1 - Released

You will notice today the application manager has pushed out a service pack for InfraWorks 2015.3

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 Productivity Pack 1

Available this week is the productivity pack 1.

In all Civil 3D supported languages on subscription centre for all users of Civil 3D 2015

www.autodesk.com/subscription

Solid Surfaces

I really like as a method to create a more tangible 3D object for use in Navisworks/Revit and others

I have shown on this blog a couple of methods to create these solids and its not easy and time consuming.

So with one operation you can create solids with multi varying TIN’s or to a datum level/elevation

Maybe even 3D print your results, it is now easy

Solid Pipes

So the pipe models are already solid objects, but if you are looking to publish as standard 3D objects and remove the proxy Civil object, this makes this task very simple.

 

InfraWorks – Civil 3D

Bringing together conceptual design of InfraWorks to complete the detailed design in Civil 3D

Direct import from your local InfraWorks model to import surfaces, geometry, pipe networks to your own Civil 3D styles.

On import you can select the area of interest, aided by bing maps to save trying to import the whole InfraWorks model.

 

Finally

Geometry curve editor

is for those surveyors out there to handle your COGO editing requirements

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 Point Cloud Surface Extraction

Some of you might have noticed that the surface from point cloud feature had disappeared in the original release of the 2015 version of Civil 3D.

Well for good reason.

So this extension has been posted on the subscription centre for a couple of weeks, but thought I would make a quick video to show you how it works.

Thanks to Topcon for the supply of the point cloud from their IPS2 mobile mapper solution which I had indexed in our Recap technology and comes in directly into AutoCAD.

The Recap point cloud can be consistently controlled and accessed through AutoCAD Civil 3D for this technique.

Currently limited to only extracting 800,000 points to a surface by filtering out non ground points is making point clouds now useable beyond just viewing to a huge user base.

Think of maintenance, widening etc to capture all the defects in the existing surface is much easier than just traditional survey.

Depending on your equipment used to capture the data, the time can be reduced to how long it takes to drive the route

Link to YouTube video

www.autodesk.com/subscription

UK - Use OS onDemand via WMS in AutoCAD Map3D

Some people have been experiencing troubles accessing the OS onDemand product using AutoCAD MAP3D so here is the correct workflow you should follow;

1. Data Tab > Connect > Add WMS connection

2. Add Server URL > Add user name & Password (If you do not currently hold a current OS onDemand licence you can apply for a trial version following this link http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/os-ondemand/index.html)

3. Make sure you select Version 1.3.0

4. Change the Layer CS Code from LL84 to British National Grid (You just need to change it in one layer and it will automatically change in all the others)

5. Change the Server CS Code from ESPG4326 to EPSG27700 (Unfortunately, you need to change all of them one by one, including the ones you do not intend to use)

6. Now select the last Layer “GB overview” as first layer, and all the other layers you need to bring into you Map (Note; the OS free trial will only give you access to OS OpenData products http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/opendata-products.html)

7. Select Combine into one Layer
8. Click on Add to Map

9. You should now have access to OS onDemand via WMS connection.

Please note; The display of individual layers in OS OnDemand is controlled by scale threshold settings. This is to ensure that the appropriate map products are automatically displayed for the map scale requested.

You can find more detailed info on the OS onDemand User guide. http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/docs/user-guides/os-ondemand-user-guide.pdf

Cristina Savian

 

 

UK - New OS building height data - How to use it with AutoCAD Map3D/C3D and Autodesk Infraworks

Customers using Ordnance Survey MasterMap Topography Layer can now access information on the heights of almost 20 million buildings across Great Britain with the alpha release of OS building height attributes (www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk) Released on 17 March, OS MasterMap Topography Layer – Building Height Attribute is a product enhancement to OS MasterMap Topography Layer, and available to licence holders at no additional cost.

If you are one of the lucky customers who can now access this very useful dataset then here you will find how to use it in AutoCAD Map3D/C3D and Autodesk Infraworks environments.

First of all the OS MasterMap Topography Layer – Building Height Attribute comes as .cvs file and it is not joint to the topography so in order to reuse it with Autodesk products it is necessary to manipulate first the .csv file then you need to join it to the topography.

Step 1 - Managing the CSV data

The Building Height Attribute .csv contains the attribute OS_TOPO_TOID, which is the TOID from Topography Layer. This TOID is the attribute that is used to join the data to your Topography Layer data.

TOIDs are stored in GML as a character string, with the prefix ‘osgb’, and can comprise of either a 13-digit number or a 16-digit number after ‘osgb’ (for example, osgb1000042992516).

The first step is to open .csv, removes ‘osgb’ and adds three leading zeroes to 13-digit TOIDs and save as .xlsx

e.g. osgb1000042992516 becomes 0001000042992516

Step 2 - Managing OS Mastermap Topography Layer 

To make the TOIDs joining process simpler it is reccomend you filter the Building poligons in the OS Mastermap Topography Layer and you save it as sdf file.

a. Command line: MAPIMPORT, Select .gz file and bring it into your Map, > Select "Topographic Area" only > Create object data and select Import polygons as polylines.

b. Command line: MAPEXPORT to .sdf (export Object data too)

c. Connect to Data > Add sdf connection to the .sdf file just created

d. In the Task Pane> Select Layer> Right click, Query to Filter data> Filter the Buildings only

Step 3 - Create Data Source Name (DSN)

You now need to create a Data Source Name (DSN) .

a. Using ODBC Data Source administrator, create a user DSN connected to the .xlsx file.

b. Add an ODBC connection;In AutoCAD Map3D or Civil 3D Select, Task Pane > Manage data content > Connect to Data > Add ODBC connection to the user DSN just created.

 

Step 4 - Join the Building Height Attribute to OS Mastermap Topography

Once you have Building Height.xlsx file and the OS Mastermap Topography Layer (Buildings only) added to your Map;

a. Right click the Topographic Layer and Select "Create a join"

b. Create a join between the sdf building topograpy layer and the building height data by matching the TOIDs

c. In order to Save the joint Map, Right click the topography Layer and select "Export Layer to SDF".

Step 5 - Use the OS Building Height Attribute into Autodesk Infraworks

a. Launch Autodesk Infraworks

b. Drag and drop a digital terrain of the area. 

(If you do not have it you may want to use the free OS Terrain 50 Open Data  http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/products/terrain-50.html)

c. Drag and drop the .sdf file created earlier and use the AbsH2 coloum for your building height.

and voila' your town have now realist building height

 Cristina Savian 

Autodesk Unveils 2015 Suites for Building and Civil Infrastructure Industries

 

Hundreds of improvements fulfill customer wish lists forcleaner, easier user interfaces; more flexible data handling; and enhanced design and engineering tools  

 

Autodesk today announced the Autodesk 2015 software portfolio of design, engineering, and construction solutions to help drive a global transformation to Building Information Modeling (BIM).  The 2015 Suites for buildings, civil infrastructure, and oil & gas projects offer hundreds of improvements and new capabilities for Autodesk Building Design Suite, Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite  and Autodesk Plant Design Suite.  In addition to the Suites enhancements, the Autodesk InfraWorks 360 family of offerings now includes enhanced roads and highways capabilities and new features to help civil engineers to model and visualize more realistic bridge design concepts.

 

“The architects, engineers, and contractors who use our products told us that they needed solutions to meet their real-world challenges, and we are responding. The 2015 Suites meet requests for greater productivity, improved collaboration, and more complete, better integrated BIM workflows," said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president, IPG Product Group, Autodesk. “We also continue to offer more flexible ways to license our software, as well as more cloud services to improve customer collaboration and efficiency. Together with our customers, we are transforming the way buildings and infrastructure will be designed and built going forward.” 

 

Here are the new features available in all of the 2015 Design Suites

·         Productivity and design improvements including:

o   An updated, modern interface for Autodesk AutoCAD 2015and AutoCAD 2015-based products: Helps building designers and civil engineers quickly open new and existing drawings with New Tab, visually access drawing content with Ribbon Galleries, and easily find tool locations with new Help Window functionality

o   Integrated 2D & 3D quantification capabilities in Autodesk Navisworks Simulate 2015 and Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2015

·         Better integration with the cloud: New one-button access to Autodesk BIM 360 from Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2015, Autodesk Navisworks Simulate 2015, Autodesk Revit 2015, and Autodesk AutoCAD 2015 helps customers collaborate and manage their BIM project workflow and data

·         Enhanced point cloud capabilities include improved control over point cloud datasets and enhanced display settings in AutoCAD 2015-based products, as well as Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2015, Autodesk Navisworks Simulate 2015, Autodesk Revit 2015, Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2015, and Autodesk InfraWorks 2015, provide more realistic visualizations and walk-throughs

 

 

CIVIL ENGINEERING

 

Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 software (included in various editions of the Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2015) includes these improvements users have been asking us for:

·         Greater flexibility for designing and displaying corridor models

·         More efficient creation of profile layouts

·         Better production drafting to create deliverables more efficiently

·         More consistency between the AutoCAD Civil 3D and AutoCAD ribbon/command set

·         Simpler ways to create custom subassemblies

·         Streamlined geographic location functionality includes ability to capture and embed Online Map Data (e.g. aerial map information) for offline viewing and plotting

·         Better interoperability and data exchange functionality for DWG and DGN files   

 

 

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 corridor modeling enhancements provide greater flexibility when designing and displaying corridor models.

 

 

Autodesk InfraWorks 2015 (which is included in various editions of the Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2015 and Ultimate edition of the Autodesk Building Design Suite 2015) and Autodesk InfraWorks 360 (which offers additional cloud services that add collaboration and analysis for large-scale preliminary designs) offer new features and capabilities including:

·         An updated user interface for quicker access to the tool you need

·         Support for additional data formats including AutoCAD 3D DWG, AutoCAD Civil 3D DWG, 3D DGN, IFC, and Sketchup (SKP)

·         CityGML import now supports schema location, building asset mapping, and self-intersecting geometry

 

 

Autodesk InfraWorks 2015 and Autodesk InfraWorks 360 now offer a new, more intuitive user interface to help speed workflows.

 

Key updates for Roadway Design for InfraWorks 360include style zones within road sections and fixed width parametric grading for roads with discrete control over grading, cut slope, and fill slope.

 

The new Bridge Design for InfraWorks 360 helps civil engineers explore preliminary bridge design options more effectively by modeling and visualizing realistic civil structures in the context of the surrounding proposed site. This new application helps simplify, accelerate, and focus the layout of girder bridge design concepts, and maintain consistent data and context.

 

Autodesk also released previews today for upcoming industry-specific applications for InfraWorks 360 including Drainage Design for InfraWorks 360 and cloud services including Model Builder for InfraWorks 360 and Corridor Optimization for InfraWorks 360.

 

 

Availability

Autodesk Building Design Suite 2015, Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2015, Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2015 and Autodesk InfraWorks 360 availability and related cloud services vary by country. Details and purchasing options are available at www.autodesk.com/purchaseoptions, with subscription options outlined at www.autodesk.com/subscription/overview.

 

*Autodesk Revit 2015 software is available in the Premium and Ultimate editions of the Autodesk Building Design Suite 2015, and in the Ultimate edition of the Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2015.  Autodesk Revit Structure 2015 software is available in the Premium and Ultimate editions of the Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2015, and in the Premium edition of the Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2015.