Tonight I will show you how easy it is to create multiple profiles views for your street plan and profiles. After you have profiled you road and designed you PG now you are ready to create profile sections for your profile sheets. I have provided a short video presentation on how easy it can been. Enjoy.
Several new knowledge base post have been posted this week mostly related Civil 3D 2011. See link below for more information.
Have you ever opened up your civil 3D and turned on your Toolspace and noticed their were some tabs missing Well there is a simple fix for this. On your ribbon Home tab this is Toolspace icon on the far left. Next to the tool space icon is the features for toolbox, prospector, survey, and settings tabs. You can simply click on each to turn them on. In addition, you also have the tool palette and properties options. See video below.
For the past few months we have all heard all the talk about the performance boost C3D 2011 will have running as a 64 bit software. So today I decided to run performance tests with the new 64 bit C3D 2011 and the 32 bit C3D 2010. The test was to see how long each version would take to save a drawing with 3 large shape files. I map connected in a shape file for all the streets of the Town of Flower Mound,Texas. In addition, I also added the shape files for all the subdivisions and parcels. Then I exported the drawing as a dwg file. What this basically does is converts the shape data into basic polylines and hatches. I repeated the same process in C3D 2010. On top of that, I ran the same steps twice to get an average time. I posted my results below with information on how memory each program was using.
CIVIL 3D 2010 (32 bit): 6 min. 53 sec.
Memory Usage = 461 MB
Dwg File Size: 11.675 MB
CIVIL 3D 2011 (64 bit): 1 min 2 sec
Memory Usage = 436 MB
Dwg File Size: 11.667 MB
As you can see, C3D 2011 running as a 64 bit software uses slightly less CPU usage and memory. I also ran a test on startup time when opening each version. C3D 2010 took 7.9 seconds while C3D 2011 took 14.2 seconds. So that was interesting results. Anyways, just remember that the software is only as good as the person using it, so adequate training is a most. In conclusion, the new 64 bit C3D 2011 will increase your productivity and performance.
For those using dual core or quad core processors you can use the WHIPTHREAD command to improve performance.. What this does is controls whether to use an additional processor to improve the speed of operations such as ZOOM that redraw or regenerate the drawing. This can come in handy when you have large surface drawings with aerials. I just happen to come across this in one of the blogs website I follow. (Thanks Michael)
I read about something interesting tonight. It seems that the 32-bit version of AutoCAD Civil 3D, the AutoCAD Map 3D commands are not automatically enabled when you start AutoCAD Civil 3D.
The commands are enabled if you switch to an AutoCAD Map 3D workspace. If you want to run the commands at the command line without switching to an AutoCAD Map 3D workspace, then you can use the Enable Map Commands command.
Use this command if you receive an “Unknown Command” message when you attempt to run an AutoCAD Map 3D command at the command line.
After the commands are enabled, they remain enabled for the remainder of your AutoCAD Civil 3D session.
The 64-bit version of AutoCAD Civil 3D automatically loads the AutoCAD Map 3D commands so the Enable Map Commands command has no effect in the 64-versions.
comandline “mapload”
Three weeks ago was an exciting week for Autodesk as they announced some of the new features coming with C3D 2011. The pipe networks ribbon introduced new features such as the split and merge pipe networks. The split pipe network command allows you to split one pipe networks into two without moving the objects. This feature basically assignments a new network name to the selected pipes you chose.The merge pipe network command allows you to merge two different pipe networks into one. Within the command, it will ask you which pipe network you want as the source and which as the destination pipe network. Last but not least, the new vertex elevation feature when creating a new pipe network from objects. Instead of automatically assigning the elevation of the object to the centerline of the pipe, you can now specify which part of the pipe (Outside Top, Crown, Centerline, Invert, or Outside Bottom) is used to specify the elevation of the part. This can come in very handy for me. This feature should not be used when creating a pipe network from structures only or pipes only option. The best thing to do is to create your pipe and structures and then delete the structure you do not want. As a reminder you can create a pipe network from lines, 2d polylines, 2d spline polylines, 3d polylines, arcs, and feature line alignments. You can also select these same objects through an xref.
Overall I think everyone will love the performance and stability of C3D 2011 running in Windows 7- 64 bit OS. No more crashing a few times a day and slow lag time. :)
So today I was trying to think of a way to improve the productivity time with street design. I just completed a street improvement project for a 2 lane road with medians, transitions areas, superelevations and intersections. One thing I learned from this project was that I had created around 15 assemblies to meet my design needs. If I could have had these assemblies already created in my tool palettes it could have saved me some time. So today i created several street section assemblies that followed 2 different city street design standards. After that I created a new tool palette for my new street assemblies. I did have a hard time trying to figure out how to drag and drop the assemblies into my new tool palette. I finally got frustrated and called my right hand man and tech support guru Matt at DCCAD. He finally set me straight and told me what I was doing wrong. I felt dump afterwards because it was so simple. Anyways what I was doing wrong was using the grip that appears when I selected the assembly. I recorded a short video on how to do this. Thanks again Matt.. Now you can added tool palette to the template so everyone can use it. I did this in 2010 so correct me if I’m wrong, but you can’t do this in 2009. Anyways thanks for stopping by.
P.S. Man did I want Butler to win tonight. It was probably one of the best college basketball games I have ever seen.
Autodesk has release some new knowledge base issues. See below for information.
HP Designjet T610 installed from server crashes AutoCAD
Printed Manuals or Help for Autodesk 2011 Products
AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Installation Troubleshooting Guide
Panorama window does not display
Recommended system requirements for Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2007
