Being Civil

Delivering Being Civil Articles to Your Outlook

It’s that time of the year, where we all are getting ready for coming up of the new release of Civil 3D. In the next few weeks we will be writing new posts about new features found in Civil 3D 2013, so getting those delivered to you may be what you want to have. That way RSS feed will keep sending you cool new posts right into your Outlook. This is how:

Corridor Solids Technology Preview

We are very excited to share this great news with you. Corridor Solids Technology is available on our Autodesk Lab site. Using the Corridor Solids Technology Preview, users now can create AutoCAD solids in the current drawing or a new drawing by quickly extracting solids from the following objects:

• All regions and baselines in a corridor
• Sub-regions within a corridor (e.g., construction phases)
• Specific subassembly shapes (e.g., retaining wall, tunnel, barrier)

And there is even more... If this is something you would like to play with or get more information about you can download it from http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/civil3D_corridor_solids/.

Let us know how do you like it.

 

New Bid Express Extension for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012

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:

Civil 3D Landing Page?

What is Civil 3D landing page you may ask? Our friends from Content Management team have provided us with a page that can serve as a portal for many Civil related questions and issues starting from product information to troubleshooting.

On this page you may see some training materials, videos, general information about products, useful documentation, recent downloads and technical solutions…pretty much all you need to know to start your Civil 3D journey if you are a novice Civil 3D user. Users tips and tricks if you are seasoned user, or some help troubleshooting and searching our knowledge base or a quick access to forums if you have years of Civil 3D use under your belt - all from the same spot neatly organized and frequently updated. The landing page can be accessed from here: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/index?siteID=123112&id=3571865&linkID=9240697

Believe me, if there is one page about Civil 3D you would want to have bookmarked this would be the one. 

 

New Things to Being Civil Blog

If you are reading this post you may have already noticed few things different to this Blog. With growing popularity of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as our world wide presence we decided to add few cool features to help the message get out there quicker and stronger.

 

On the top right you may see a Google Translate bar. All of our non-English speakers may appreciate this tool. Please look at Google Translate as a work in progress tool. Some languages or articles are spot on, while others are not so much. The tool is getting better every day and maybe in the future will be good enough to do an error proof translation. But, until then use it to get the sense and better understanding of the topic we are are covering in the post.

Right below the post you may now see a star rating for the post. This way you can give us your instant feedback. With this tool we will be able to report the topics of your interest and learn from it. Off course, the more popular subject and rating is the more similar areas we will try to cover. Other way to look at it is to virtually “tip your server”. If you are happy with what you are getting please tell us so.

Slightly below the Star rating widget, there is another tool that basically link the post to a similar previous posts. I have to admit, I am not sure how the linkage is being determined, but suspect there is some smart gremlin running inside, reading the post and deciding what links to what. If you have better explanation please share it with us.

Even further down, there are few buttons which allow you to tweet (Twitter) the post or Like (Facebook) the post. If you like it or you think it’s worth sharing, then don’t be shy. Just click it!

Unlike other “Like” under post, the Like at the left side is used if you like Being Civil Blog Facebook page. Yes, we do have Facebook page! Please use these addition and help us spread the word. Help us get the cool tips and ideas get further than our closed community. Evangelize and educate!

 

 

Viewing AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawings Using AutoCAD WS

I’m quite sure that you’ve all heard of AutoCAD WS by now. AutoCAD WS gives you the ability to view AutoCAD DWG files over the internet or via an app for the iPhone, iPod, or iPad. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that I’ve seen the app, but I do not use it because your Civil 3D product support team is comprised entirely of Android users. Yes, every single one of us. Our team mascot is a tiny green robot. So to say that we are not intimately familiar with the AutoCAD WS app would be the understatement of the decade. That’s why we all scratched our heads when a case came in today asking how to get AutoCAD Civil 3D objects to show up on an iPhone running AutoCAD WS.

Since we didn’t have the app to play with, I turned to a colleague, a friend, and the biggest Mac fanboy that I know, James Wedding. If you don’t know James, he and I have worked together before and have known each other for years. He’s the face of the Autodesk Civil Resource Center and THE James of “Ask James.” He’s also an all around good guy, and one of the premiere Civil 3D gurus. I knew when I asked him what the secret to viewing Civil 3D objects on AutoCAD WS was, he’d have the answer quicker than I could type it. And he did.

Set PROXYGRAPHICS to 1 before saving your drawings.

See how easy that was? Since there are no object enablers for AutoCAD WS, you have to enable proxy graphics in order to see the objects that make up a Civil 3D drawing. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Autodesk University Virtual

Just because the travel budget is a little tight this year, doesn’t mean you need to skip out on one of the greatest events around!.  This year, Autodesk is offering a web-based option for those who want to attend AU, but can’t make it out to Las Vegas.

Check out this website for more information and to see Lynn’s video on this exciting event.

Browser troubles when running report in Vista

If you are one of the many people who are using a default web browser of anything other than Internet Explorer, you may have seen this message when running a report from the toolbox:

Error displaying report in registered browser.