Being Civil

Civil 3D Performance Part II–How Much RAM is Enough?

My second post in the series from my class at Autodesk University (CI3200-P Improving Performance with AutoCAD Civil 3D) is going to be dealing with memory and will put to bed a few myths and misconceptions.

As usual, follow the link for the full article!

Civil 3D Performance Part I - Memory Management and Your Operating System

In my Autodesk University class, I talked about operating systems and which one was best for AutoCAD Civil 3D. Of course we all know that the ultimate answer is “Windows 7 x64.” It just makes sense. But during a luncheon, I had a customer tell me “You know, common sense told me that Windows 7 x64 was the right operating system to use, but you really simplified it and told me why it was the right one.” I’d like to share with you why Windows 7 x64 is the best operating system to use for AutoCAD Civil 3D as well…find out the secret after the jump (teaser – I’ll be showing the infamous “school bus” graphic if you click the link to see the rest of the post!)

AutoCAD WS and the Civil 3D User

Most of us on the Being Civil team are gadget junkies and now that AutoCAD WS is now available for both iOS and Android mobile operating systems, I thought I would share my thoughts on both versions of this very useful mobile application. Although this application is not Civil-specific, nor can it edit or create Civil Objects, I still think this can find a welcome home with our Civil 3D users.

Having tested and used both the tablet version (for the iPad) and the smartphone version (Android HTC EVO), I can say that this is a pretty slick application that I could have seen myself putting to use back when I worked out in the industry.

First off, the tablet version for the iPad. You definitely get a lot more screen real estate to get a better “picture” of your project, and the same functionality found on the smartphone version. The potential downside I could see of the iPad or tablet for a civil engineer/surveyor/field crew would be that, at least in my experience, they generally go to “dirty” places when out in the field. Although it is not overly large hardware, it is still a 10” piece of glass that is not easily tucked away in a pocket. I would also be hard pressed to risk my shiny new $600+ gadget at a construction site or out in the middle of the woods with the potential for rain.

Next is the smartphone version available for both Android phones and the iPhone. Although you may be working with a much smaller screen, I definitely can see this being used out in the field more frequently. For the reason that many people (including myself), are not more than 2 feet away from their phone at all times. It is easily concealed from dirty, wet environments and can be carried around in your pocket. I can just picture myself entering in foundation dimensions in a freshly dug hole, or grabbing a quick survey monument description deep in the New Hampshire woods.

I would’ve saved a forest’s worth of trees if I had this when I would field check road jobs that I had previously surveyed. Back then I would have taken rolls of paper out just to ensure I had something like all the correct UP numbers entered during data collection. Then having the ability to save the edited .DWG and the drafting technician would have those edits almost immediately, could have potentially saved hours of time and gallons of gasoline considering I would not have had to drive back to the office to drop off the marked up plans.

These are just a few examples of uses I have thought about using this new technology for when I worked in the field. I encourage you to leave your thoughts or comments about how you could see this being used in our industry. I am interested to hear your thoughts!

NOTE: Don’t forget to set PROXYGRAPHICS to <1> in order to view your Civil Objects!

Update: Added this cool QR code to scan from any number of barcode scanner apps found on the Android Market:

 

Update 1, ViewCube, and other graphics issues

About a week ago I wrote a blog post about the ViewCube and the “white box” after installing Update 1. Many of you probably already know about this, and have already addressed the situation. For those of you who have not, I will recap and provided some additional information and issues.

You may or may not have noticed that after installing Civil 3D 2011 Update 1 that there is a “white box” around the ViewCube in the upper left corner of the application window. This is outlined in the Update README:

 

 

Known Issues in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 Update 1

In some situations users may observe that the background area around the ViewCube has turned white. This issue is benign but can be resolved by turning video hardware acceleration on/off.

It has come to our attention, and I noticed on my machine as well, that you may also see some additional issues. The additional reported issues may include the following:

• Cursor flickering
• Poor display of Ribbon, or missing Panels
• General video degradation

All of these issues should be resolved by the above entry from the  Update’s README. Simply typing 3DCONFIG and selecting MANUAL TUNE will allow you to toggle the Hardware Acceleration. I would like to make it clear that this DOES NOT require you to turn off Hardware Acceleration, it just requires you to toggle on/off or off/on. Just ensure that when you toggle, you click OK to close the dialogs and retype 3DCONFIG to toggle it again.

Please note that if this is left unaddressed we have had users report that they will experience crashing of the application. We would recommend toggling the Hardware Acceleration to avoid this situation.

Also in certain instances if you find that the check box for Hardware Acceleration has become “grayed-out”. If you find this is the case on your machine, please check to ensure you are running the latest drivers available for your graphics card per our Update Graphics Card Driver instructions. This should allow the toggle to be made.

New Video: Understanding Performance using Civil 3D

Time for the monthly Product Support video over on the Autodesk YouTube channel.  This review of Performance covers a collection of topics including:

• RAM and Virtual Memory
• 32 bit and 64 bit Applications and Operating Systems
• Recommended Operating Systems
• Performance Tweaks

Then it ends with a few FAQs:

• When will we have a 64 bit version of Civil 3D?
• Is Windows 7 supported?
• I am upgrading my hardware, what should I buy?
• Task Manager never shows Civil 3D using all the available virtual memory, why not?

Please do have a look, comment and rate it - this is useful feedback for us, thanks.  And thanks to those who responded to the poll on video content - we are reviewing the results and seeing where we can make improvements!  I understand from the poll some of you are blocked from YouTube; I will create some posts to cover the major topics presented in the video wihin the next couple of weeks.

To see the collection of monthly videos, go to the general playlist here.

Sometimes The Answer Is Not Staring Us In The Face

Sometimes cases come in that are pretty easy to resolve – I can’t count the number of times that I’ve run around my office giddy with excitement when a FILEDIA=1 question comes through the pipes. But occasionally, answers tend to hide out a little more and it takes time to find them. In this post, I am going to walk you through the steps that I took during a particularly difficult case that finally reached a resolution. The answer was so simple, but of course it was the last thing we checked. Follow the link to find out some of the thought processes that we go through during some cases.

Civil 3D 2010 System Requirements

Today was/is supposed to be a house-work day.  As much fun as scraping and painting the living room windows sounds, I just can’t seem to break free from the computer and get started.  All the more reason to use this time to put up some more 2010 content here.

With all the buzz of the upcoming released, I have been getting this question for the last couple months: “What are the system requirements for 2010?”  While it’s now final and can be viewed on the Autodesk site, here.

Maintenance tips for your computer

I don’t really like blogging about other people’s blogs, but Adrian over at ZDnet wrote up a post on some best practices for the thing we rely on for almost everything we do – our computers! 

While at first glance these would come across as common sense, unfortunately, they often get forgotten about, or their importance underestimated.  Especially in regards to data-backup.  So take a few minutes and make sure you are following these tips to keep your computer running smooth, and your data secure.

Enjoy!