Do you do design work for state DOT’s? Does part of your job entail providing cost estimates for construction projects? If the answer to these questions is “yes” then you need to check out the Bid Express Extension for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012. This extension is of the Software as a Service (SaaS) variety in that it plugs into Civil 3D to bridge the QTO functionality with a third party web service to provide cost estimating based on custom pay item lists. You can download this extension from the subscription center and begin working with it now. To see it in action, follow the link below:
Occasionally we have customers asking questions such as “how do I compute the <measurement unit> of the <object> in my proposed road design?” Well the answer to that question is QTO, and usually the follow up to that is “Well that’s nice, but how do I do that?” As you may or may not know “how to” types of questions and general training are out of scope for us in Product Support, but it is nice to pass as much information along to the customer as possible in order to get them started. This is my attempt to pass along a little more information if you find yourself asking these questions.