Being Civil

Windows 7….revisited

So a while back I had posted that Windows 7 was not officially supported for Civil 3D 2010.  While we certainly continued to assist customers that were early converts, Windows 7 lacked that, ummm, “official” blessing.

While, some of you may have stumbled across this post in our Discussion Groups from our Sr. Product Manger, which stated:

The Civil 3D team is excited by the interest shown in Windows 7 and on
moving to a 64 bit operating system. We have tested Civil 3D 2010 and
Windows 7 and haven't found any issues that should stop you from deploying
Civil 3D 2010 on it. We are planning to update our website to list Windows 7
as an operating system for Civil 3D.
Windows 7 is one of the operating systems that Civil 3D will be tested on
moving forward.
Regards,

Peter Funk
Autodesk, Inc.

Could it be?  Is this legit?  Absolutely!  Peter stopped by my desk yesterday to confirm that this is truly official at this point. 

So for those of you waiting to jump to Windows 7, now is the time.  Just do yourself a favor and make sure you go for the 64-bit version!

Win a trip to Autodesk University!

The Autodesk University 2009 YouTube Contest is your chance to win one of three (3) AU 2009 Las Vegas 3-Day, All-Inclusive Passes (includes conference, classes and hands-on labs, hotel, meals, and social events).

Check out this link for more details.

Good luck!!

Windows 7 Support

We have been getting quite a few questions about this, and even a few requests for support.  Please keep in mind that Windows 7 is not supported at this time. 

I like to be on the cutting edge of technology as much as the next guy, but Windows 7 is not officially released yet, and won’t be for a few months.  Civil 3D 2010, on the other hand, was released back this spring.  There is no way our Development Team can design and test on an OS that was still in Beta form at the time of it’s released.

So remember, if you do choose to install on Win 7, we won’t be able to provide support on issues related interoperability. 

That being said, how about that new Windows Taskbar?  :)

Tips: Section View label display and Plot to PDF missing symbols

I got few minutes and just wanted to share a couple of useful tips with you. The tip number 1 is showing why centerline band labels shows wrong data that looks like it’s using metric units while the rest of the drawing is in feet. Situation looks like in the figure. Grid shows range between 90–110 feet while band label shows 33.15:

 

Being Civil - Tweets and all

Hey there, you may have noticed I changed a few things on the blog:

1. Twitter - we have a BeingCivil account on Twitter.  It will automatically notify for new blog posts and new Knowledgebase articles as well as Updates/Downloads.  We will also try to add more commentary there, so it isn't just an RSS feed!
2. Updates & Solutions - I took out the "Recent Posts" section, as I don't think it adds much value.  I replaced with an RSS feed from the Autodesk Knowledgebase articles on Civil 3D and the Updates/Downloads areas to keep you up to date with the latest Civil 3D content there.
3. Other Autodesk blogs - I am adding links to other Autodesk blogs (we have lots!) and may add other links as well in the future.

Please let me know what you think of the tweaks and any other tech/info you would find useful!

How to change the default Project Templates Folder location

When you create a new Data Shortcut folder, you are given the option to use a Project Template.  This Template is just a snapshot of how you want your folder structure to look.  If you, for example, want every project to have an Images folder, than this is the place to make that change.  I am going to show you a quick tip to make this selection process a little easier for you.

What version was this drawing created in?

Sometimes when troubleshooting an issue for a customer is it useful to know what version of Civil 3D the drawing was created in. For all you Windows XP users, this can be discovered in Windows Explorer by setting your file display type to Details, and right clicking on the grey bar and selecting More:

     

The dialog box displays a wealth of information to be displayed for your files, but in this case, we are only concerned with DWG Creator Name and DWG Creator Version. Check these boxes to display them and click OK to exit. You will now be able to see the information displayed in Windows Explorer. Please keep in mind that if you save an earlier drawing in a newer version, it will update both of these columns.

I thought this was pretty cool when I was shown this, and if you haven’t discovered it yet, I hope you do too!

Drawing Cleanup - a tool you should all know about!

So we know in Product Support that there are some of you out there who regularly use the functions of Map 3D included within Civil 3D.  But there are many of you out there who hardly if ever touch the Map functions and don't really need to most of the time.  Well here's a tool that has been around a long time.  If you haven't used it, read on, as I'm sure it will come in handy at some point for you.

Go to the menu Map > Tools and select Drawing Cleanup (or you can type in _mapclean).  The first panel is where you choose which objects to work with.  On the second panel you choose the cleanup options you would like, I have highlighted some that I have found particularly useful:

 

Delete Duplicates - always good for cleaning drawings you get from other sub-contractors (I'm sure no one in your office ever creates duplicates, right?)

Break Crossing Objects - I love this one for testing pesky plines that won't join.  Or if you are having problems with feature lines, explode them back to a pline and run this little gem.  It will find any cases where the pline may have crossed back on itself, for example, and then you can use a small erase window to easily select the offending parts and delete them, rejoin or remake into a feature line, and just maybe, problem solved.

Zero Length Objects - well like it says, can clean out some little objects that are hard to find.

Weed Polylines - we have other ways to accomplish this, but this one works too, an oldy but a goody.

Spend just 10 minutes today reviewing the Help on this tool, get familiar with it and I'm sure it will come in handy before you know it.  Feel free to leave your own story on Mapcleanup, I'm sure I'm not the only one using it!