Assigning a Color to a New Layer Problem

Good morning everyone. I hope everyone is enjoying their xmas week. Just a few more days before I go back to San Diego to spend time with my daughter I can’ wait.

Anyways for the past few weeks my coworkers and I have noticed a problem with assigning a color to a new layer in C3D 2012 and it not staying. I researched the issue on Autodesk discussion board and other people were having the same issue. I informed Autodesk and I was told their were aware of it and there was not fix for the issue at the time.

Well 2 days ago I decided to seat down and find a work around for it. Here is what I ended up with. When you create your new layer you have to hit enter to exit out of the new layer command. Then you can assign the color and make it current. If you try to assign the color while in the new layer command, the color will change as soon as you exit out of the layer manager. See video below. I want to clarify that this problem has not affected very one using C3D 2012.

Enter video caption here

Best AU Class of 2011

Good morning everyone. Now that AU-Con (like Comic-Con lol) aftermath is over, I would love to hear about which class was the best of the best at AU-Con 2011, for those of you that had the privilege to go. Feel free to post below. I am definitely going to go next year for my first time.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Good evening everyone. I hope everyone is having a great xmas month so far. Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, I have lots going on with a second job now. Plus getting ready for the xmas and new years lol.

Anyways, the other day one of my engineers ask if the was simple way to remove Carlson points from base drawing but leave the tree description so he could send it to a client? Our Carlson point are cogo blocks displaying 3 attributes. (point number, point description, and point elevation) After a few minutes of thinking, I remembered the BURST command. For those of you that use Carlson cogo points for surveying, know that you cant just simply use the layer isolate feature to isolate the the point attributes. If you do all you will get is the point marker. You have to actually go into layer manager and turn on the description, point number, and point elevation layers. See image below.

Ok at this point, some of you might say “just simply explode the cogo points”. Well if you do that, you will lose all the attribute data. See image below.

To get around this problem, you will use the BURST command. What this does is actually separates your cogo point block attribute data into their individual layer. So it’s kind of like a explode and extract feature. After I typed my burst command and windowed all the cogo point, I was then able to use the layer isolate feature to isolate the point number and point elevation layer and delete from my drawing. My engineer was shocked after I completed this task within 1-2 minutes for home.

Anyways I just thought this was a cool command that everyone should know. I hope everyone has a great week.

Knowledge Base for November

Hi everyone. Sorry I haven’t posted lately. Here is Autodesk’s posted known issues. I will try to do part 2 of Civil 3D 2012 this week. In addition, I will also do a post on catchments and labels. Thank you all those that have emailed me about the training videos. I am currently working on the pipe network DVD first. I will have it done this week. As soon as they are ready to be shipped out, I will send emails out and post on here on how to order the training DVD’s. Because of the popular demand, I have decided to create a roundabout DVD. The DVD will basically be the city user group presentation I did few months ago. A handout will also be included with the DVD. Anyways, thank you all for emails and comments. Have a great week.

Delete Used Layers In Civil 3D

3rd party application, AutoPlant, is crashing

3rd party application, CADconform, is crashing

 

Civil 3D 2012 New Volume Dashboard Extension

Good evening everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed the Halloween weekend. I know I did. I ended up dressing up as Goose from Top Gun lol. Anyways, I just wanted to share some cool information to all those Autodesk Subscription members. Autodesk just released the new Volume Dashboard extension for C3D 2012. This new C3D extension is basically a more advance version of the surface volume feature. Now you have the capabilities of analyzing surface volume for particular sections/areas of you project site. The volume dashboard extension will definitely come in handy for those that design subdivision. I already love it because it helped me balance my site. The new Volume Dashboard is compatible for 32 bit or 64 bit versions of C3D 2012. As of right now, the extension is only in English.  Anyways I have provided a short video presentation for yall. Let me know what you think. Enjoy

Civil 3D 2012 Part 1

Hi everyone. I decided to create a short video presentation over a few feature that have been incorporated into civil 3D 2012. I’m sure most of half if you have already installed C3D 2012 and designing away like crazy lol. This short video can be a refresher for some of you or a training video for some of you. This video will be part 1 of 4 videos that I will create. On top of that, I have decided to create my very own person training DVD’s for civil 3D beginners. Each DVD with have 25 videos. I will create 4 training DVD’s over pipe networks and labels, alignments and profiles, grading, customization and settings. Feel free to email me if you are interested in one of my DVDs. Enjoy the video

Tip of the Week: Fun with Character Map

Good morning everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend? I know I did watching the Texas Rangers win again. GO RANGERS!!! Anyways, the other day I was playing around with mtext and I was wanting to add some subscripts and basic math operations to my text info. Well after about an hour of messing around I found something very interesting and cool in the Character Map dialog box. Have you ever found yourself scrolling thru all the endless amounts of characters? Well I found an easier way to display characters by groups. What if you only want to display the math operation characters? Here are my steps on how to do this.

• Open the text editor and select the Symbol pull down and pick other.The character map dialog box will appear.

• Next on the Character set select Windows:Western.
• Then select the down arrow for the Group by and select Unicode Subrange.
• The Group By dialog box will appear. Here you will be able to choose from characters pertaining to that particular group. For example if you only want to see the math operation character you would select the Mathematical Operations group. Anyways I hope this information was helpful to you. See the short video for an example. Have a great week and GO RANGERS!!!

 

Tip of the Week

How’s everyone doing so far this week? I hope everyone is enjoying the week. Last week one of my engineers was working onquantity takeoffs and he notices that my profile pipe label length did not reflect the alignment stationing.  So I took a look at the label style that was create (before I became the CAD Manager) and noticed that the 2D pipe length Center to Center was 122.2. So why was the label rounding up? We typically use the normal rounding standards. So I went into the pipe label style and into the Text Component Editor. Here I found out why my pipe label was rounding up. The pipe length precision was set to Round UP and not and not Round Normal. Some of you may be thinking what’s one foot right? Well if you are designing large subdivisions with a large storm, sewer and water pipe networks, that 1 foot segment can turn into 10-20 feet. That in turn can cost the client an extra $500-$2,000 depending on the type of pipe and size.  Anyways, I hope this information becomes helpful to a few of you. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

 

What Process Is That?

Good afternoon everyone. Wow how about those Texas Rangers!! Anyways, I would like to go over a few processes that Autodesk uses that you might see in the Windows Task Manager. I’m sure some of you are saying” what is this?. Well after doing some research here is what I have found. Feel free to add more information if you like.

Connect.Service.ContentService.exe.*32 = used by Content Explorer Service to allow advance searching, watching & sharing functionality for AutoCAD 2012 & Civil 3D 2012. It can also be used to sharing objects such as blocks, layers, styles …etc. across the network. I typically just terminate the process since I don’t use this feature or share my stuff through the network.

WSCommCntr2.exe = Autodesk InfoCenter which provides balloon notifications for live updates, RSS Feeds, Subscription announcements..etc. Sometimes if this process does not close after closing C3D it will not allow you to open a new session of C3D. You will have to close the process thru task manager.

raysta_3dmax2012_63server.exe*32 = rendering application used by Autodesk 3ds Max Design. If you are not currently using Autodesk 3ds Max Design you can terminate the process.

Aec32BitAppServer57.exe*32 = application that runs when using Storm and Sanitary Sewer Analysis software.If you are not using SSA you can terminate the process.

AcHelp2.exe*32 = Autodesk Help application. This process runs every time you hit F1 for the help menu.

Tip of the Week

Wow what a crazy day it has been. Anyways, todays tip of week comes from a email question I received today. I want to thank everyone that reads my blogs, follows me on tweeter and emails me.

Problem: How do I show the deflection angle for an alignment PVI?

1. Go to your Annotation Contextual Tab and select the Add Labels feature in the Labels & Tables ribbon. (Or General pull down menu and select Add Labels)
2. The Add Labels dialog box will appear. Change the Feature options to Alignment and Label Type to Tangent Intersection.

3.  Now go into the label Editor by clicking the down arrow on the right and select “Edit Current Selection”.

4.  The Label Style Composer dialog box will appear. Select the Layout Tab. Click on the small icon button just right of text Contents to make our edits. The Text Component Editor dialog box will appear. 

5.  Highlight and delete all information in the window. Then in the Properties options select the Delta Angle option. Change the format to DD’MM’SS’’ and hit the right arrow icon at the top right to add our label property.

6.Click Ok, APPLY, then OK. Now we can add our new intersection label to our alignment. Make sure that your alignment style is set to show line and curve. I hope this will come in handy to some of you. Have a great day.

New Autodesk Cloud

Hi everyone. Today Autodesk introduces Autodesk Cloud. These new package is for subscription members only of course. Autodesk Cloud allows for storage, sharing and viewing of your of design anytime and anywhere. In addition, you can view your design with the AutoCAD WS to edit your drawings. I have provide some cool links below for more information.

The main benefits of Autodesk Cloud are:

1. Storage, Sharing and Viewing
2. DWG Editing
3. Mobile Viewing
4. Rendering
5. Optimization
6. Energy Analysis

Benefits With Subscription to Select Products and Suites

Rendering

Autodesk Subscription

Design Review Mobile

AutoCAD WS

AUTODESK NEWS LETTER

Additional cloud services exclusive to Autodesk Subscription customers give designers, engineers and digital artists sophisticated new capabilities, such as high-performance 3D visual communication, simulation and collaboration that were once limited to organizations with privileged access to expensive, high-end supercomputing centers.

These exclusive services include:

• Autodesk Cloud rendering ― Customers with an Autodesk Subscription to the Premium or Ultimate editions of Autodesk Design Suite or Autodesk Building Design Suite will have access to powerful rendering capabilities, helping them better visualize designs, increase the number of renderings they can create and reduce hardware investments.
• Autodesk Inventor optimization ― Customers with Subscription to the Premium or Ultimate editions of Autodesk Product Design Suites will gain an intuitive cloud-based simulation tool, enabling them to test multiple design options in the cloud, and to create more sustainable designs and higher-quality products while reducing material, transportation and energy costs.
• Autodesk Revit Conceptual Energy Analysis ― Customers with Subscription to Autodesk Revit Architecture or Autodesk Revit MEP software, or select suites containing these products, can extend design beyond the desktop with powerful cloud-based energy analysis capabilities, helping them to quickly gain insight into the energy consumption and building energy costs of early design concepts from within the design application.
• Autodesk Green Building Studio web-based energy analysis software ― Customers with Subscription to Autodesk Building Design Suite and other select products have access to this cloud-based service that can help designers, architects, engineers and building energy analysts perform faster, more accurate energy analysis of multiple building design iterations, optimize energy efficiency and work toward carbon neutrality earlier in the design process.
• Autodesk Buzzsaw software as a service (SaaS) ― Customers with Subscription to Autodesk Vault Collaboration AEC software now have access to cloud-based document, data and design management solutions for architecture, engineering and construction firms and owner-operators, helping them centralize and securely exchange project information and enhance team collaboration.

Autodesk works with multiple partners, including Amazon and Citrix, to provide a scalable cloud computing infrastructure to meet customer needs. Autodesk has been working with Amazon Web Services for more than three years in order to securely host high-demand, scalable applications such as Autodesk Homestyler software and Autodesk Seek web service. Amazon Web Services provides Autodesk with the flexibility to scale computing around the world with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and resilient storage capacity with Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Block Store (EBS), as well as the ability to more efficiently deliver applications and content to customers. Autodesk also teams with Citrix to provide customers with greater efficiency in their use of Autodesk applications. Delivering solutions to end users with Citrix XenApp can help customers reduce workstation costs while still providing the software performance they need.

“Our relationship with Autodesk demonstrates how innovative and forward-thinking software companies can leverage the power of AWS to provide greater value to their customers,” said Terry Wise, Director of Business Development at Amazon Web Services. “We are pleased to work with Autodesk to provide secure, on-demand, pay as you go cloud services, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the design and engineering market.”

In addition to the new Autodesk Cloud services, Autodesk Subscription continues to provide the most up-to-date software, online technical support and flexible licensing privileges for customers looking to maximize their competitive advantage.

Subscription Advantage Pack for Autodesk 3dx Max Design 2012

Good morning everyone. I just wanted to let everyone know that Autodesk just added the Advantage Pack for Autodesk 3dx Max Design 2012 for subscription member. I have listed  some of the new features below. The advantage pack is great for presentations that needs 3D rendering and a realistic look. See below for me info. More documentation and videos can be found in the subscription website. Have a great day.

• Render pass system—Segment your scene for downstream compositing with an entirely new render pass system that features a visual interface.
• After Effects and Photoshop interoperability—Enjoy significantly enhanced interoperability with Adobe® After Effects® and Adobe® Photoshop® software.
• ActiveShade for iray*— Experience a truly iterative creative process for finalizing renderings with new ActiveShade support for the iray® renderer from mental images. This feature is a GPU rendering system. It’s a photometric accurate rendering.

September’s Knowledge Base Issues

Good morning everyone. Wow what a busy week it has been. It’s going to be a busy weekday also with my girlfriends birthday, C3D training and moving. Anyways, here are Autodesk posted knowledge base issues. I hope everyone had a chance to watch CENEWS live webcast yesterday. Anyways I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Common FlexNet Error Codes

2012: Cascading Sequences for Autodesk Products

2012: Resolving installation issues with a clean install of AutoCAD Civil 3D

2011: Resolving installation issues with a clean install of AutoCAD Civil 3D

2012: Windows system requirements for the Autodesk Network License Manager

AutoCAD crashes while trying to locate the target for transparent orbit

How to give users access to Subscription Center and manage their access permissions

How to add people to Subscription Center who can help manage your Autodesk Subscription Account

Tip Of The Week

Good afternoon everyone. Well I have decided to try my best to post once a week now with a tip of the week. Hopefully these tips will come in handy for you. Ok today’s tip of the day deals with pipe networks.
Problem: When I swap a pipe or structure, the description name displays as the part family name and not the part list description name.

 

Solution: Open your Toolspace. Then select the Settings Tab. Right click on Pipe Networks and select Edit Feature Settings. The Edit Feature Settings dialog box will appear. Expand the Pipe Network Defaults. Change “Use Size Name From Part List As Description” option to YES. Then click APPLY and OK.

Now you can swap any pipe or structure and it will change the description to the Part List Name. Notice below that my sewer manhole description now matches my part list description name.

 

Webcast and Virtual Events Coming Up

Good morning everyone. Autodesk is hosting a live virtual even “Take Better Advantage of BIM” on September 7th. I think it would be a great opportunity for those that have not purchased the design suite yet. The virtual event will have several webcasts using Map 3D and Civil 3D and other design software part of the Infrastructure Design Suite. Anyways, I have posted the Autodesk website link to register for the event. Enjoy

Take Better Advantage of BIM

On a side note, I am looking forward to the AUGI CAD Camp coming to the Dallas area. I have posted a link below for those interested in registering for the AUGI CAD Camp within your area.

Autodesk AUGI CAD Camp

 

In addition, I have posted a link to Eagle Point’s Pinnacle Series for Civil Engineering webcast on August 30th. This is some very interesting and cool stuff.

Pinnacle Series

 

 

 

On top of that, here is IMAGINIT’s live webcast for this week. The webcast Data Management Choices for Civil Engineers will be tomorrow. See link below for further information and registration.

Data Management Choices for Civil Engineers

 

CAD Pilot is also hosting a webinar on August 31st on The New Jump 4 AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012. See link below for more information and registration.

The New Jump 4 AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012

August Knowledge Base

Good morning everyone.Hopefully everyone has a great weekend. I have been extremely busy lately. I’m currently training myself on Inventor Fusion, Project River Analysis, Autodesk 3ds Max Design, Map 3D 2012, Navisworks Simulate and SSA. Anyways, here is Autodesk knowledge base issues for August. Enjoy.

How to remove all Autodesk products from a Windows system

AutoCAD crashing due to non-certified NVIDIA graphics driver in Windows XP

2012: Cascading Sequences for Autodesk Products

Autodesk Subscription Glossary of Terminology

2012: Installing Autodesk products and suites (video)

Understanding Cascade Licensing for Autodesk Products

Understanding Previous Version support for Autodesk Suite products

Understanding Previous Version support for Autodesk Point products

Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012 and AutoCAD Utility Design 2012

Good afternoon everyone. Well today I was invited by Autodesk to watch a webinar on their new release of Infrastructure Modeler 2012 and AutoCAD Utility Design 2012. The infrastructure Modeler 2012 is designed to help engineering and architecture firms create, evaluate, and communicate infrastructure proposals. I have to say that this software is simply amazing. The ability to easily add data, features and models was incredible. I have posted below the news that Autodesk posted today about their new infrastructure design software. In addition, I have posted some screen shots of the webinar and Autodesk links to the software. Enjoy
Infrastructure Modeler 2012
AutoCAD Utility Design 2012
“Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012 and AutoCAD Utility Design 2012 Complement Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2012 to Support Plan, Design, Build, Manage Workflow

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Aug. 9, 2011— Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), a world leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, today announced Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012 software for conceptual design and AutoCAD Utility Design 2012 software for electric utility design, two new additions to the Autodesk Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Infrastructure portfolio for planning, designing, building, and managing more sustainable infrastructure. These new products complement the Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suite 2012, to help industry professionals increase efficiency and remove waste from their processes.
Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012 is conceptual design software that helps GIS, planning, and civil engineering professionals evaluate future infrastructure in the context of what already exists by quickly creating, evaluating and communicating project proposals. AutoCAD Utility Design 2012 is model-based design software that helps deliver the power of BIM to utility designers and engineers, so they can design, analyze, and deliver more productive and consistent electric distribution designs.
“Engineers and owners developing infrastructure projects are facing unprecedented challenges—lower project funding, design complexity, economic uncertainty and public resistance to major infrastructure projects. Expanding our Building Information Modeling solutions for infrastructure can help our customers in transportation, water, energy, and land development segments to overcome these challenges—saving time and money and improving margins on projects,” said Paul McRoberts, vice president, infrastructure product line group, AEC solutions, Autodesk.

Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012
Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012 is a conceptual design software solution for infrastructure that helps industry professionals quickly develop convincing project proposals for faster stakeholder buy-in and more confident decision making. Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler helps users to create models that represent the natural and built environment; evaluate multiple conceptual designs for projects all in one model; and communicate visually rich proposals to stakeholders.
“With Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler, we were able to utilize preliminary design data and create and analyze a significant project presentation for a large hillside master plan project proposal in only two hours. That same process would have taken us two weeks or more using traditional practices,” said Keith Warren, BIM / Virtual design technology Manager at VTN Consulting, a full-service engineering, planning, GIS, and BIM firm providing quality services to public and private sectors.
AutoCAD Utility Design 2012
AutoCAD Utility Design software is a model-based design solution for electric utility distribution networks that combines design and documentation with standards-driven workflows and analysis. AutoCAD Utility Design allows utility designers and engineers to design more productively; analyze and optimize network performance and reliability; and deliver more consistent and coordinated construction documentation—all in a familiar AutoCAD environment. The rich information in the model can also be connected to enterprise systems, including GIS, ERP and EAM (enterprise asset management) to support field and asset management activity.
“When you factor in populating multiple systems and applications, and printing and distributing designs manually, it used to take days to complete even simple projects. With Utility Design we automated our time-consuming procedures – completing certain tasks 15 times faster with fewer data errors and higher-quality designs. Since we now create a complete model during the design process, our next step is to consolidate this design model data with other records to improve planning and reporting,” said Ray Pearce, GIS Project Manager, Anchorage Municipal Light & Power.  
Availability
English language versions of Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler 2012 and AutoCAD Utility Design 2012 are available now. For more information, please go to www.autodesk.com/infrastructure-modeler or www.autodesk.com/autocadutilitydesign.

About Autodesk BIM Solutions
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an intelligent model–based process that provides insight for creating and managing building and infrastructure projects faster, more economically, and with less environmental impact. Autodesk BIM solutions for building and infrastructure lifecycles are based on intelligent models created with Autodesk Revit and AutoCAD Civil 3D software. Helping to expand the benefits of BIM is a powerful set of complementary solutions for visualizing and simulating projects virtually, documentation and professional drafting, and data management and collaboration. The Autodesk Building Design and Autodesk Infrastructure Design Suites offer a comprehensive set of tools to support BIM workflows in a single, cost-effective package.”

 

July’s Knowledge Base

Good morning everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. I want to congratulate the USA women's soccer team for getting the silver at the world cup. Wow that was such an exciting game. Anyways, I am currently working on roughing out the edges for my city user group meeting over roundabouts. I will be presenting in Dallas on the 27th and in Fort Worth on the 28th. Wish me luck. Anyways, here are few of the knowledge base issue posted by Autodesk. Enjoy.

Clean installation of AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2009

Operating System Compatibility for AutoCAD Civil 3D

Crash when customizing Quick Properties in AutoCAD 2012

Exporting to a Shapefile

Checking out and editing a FDO feature

Performance issues with AutoCAD 2012

Convert AutoCAD Points to AutoCAD® Civil 3D

Cannot run Civil 3D report

New Civil 3D Subassembly Composer 212 Coming Soon

Good afternoon everyone. I just wanted to let everyone know that Autodesk will be releasing the new Subassembly Composer sometime later this week. I just finished watching a live presentation by Peter Funk and Dana Probert and it was amazing. I have posted a few screen shots below for yall to see. The Subassembly Composer will be compatible with C3D 2011 & 2012. This new feature will allow you to create custom subassemblies to aid in your design. Stay tuned for more post this week. Enjoy.