UPCOMING WEBCAST AND EVENTS

I have finally returned back to posting lol. Sorry I’ve been gone for so long. It’s been a crazy few months for me. I’m with a new firm now as their CAD/BIM Manager. I’m really excited about where this company is headed. Anyways, I thought I would help everyone by share some important events coming up in the next 3 months. On a quick note, I cant believe I hit the 1/2 million view mark on my blog. Thanks everyone. 

Webcast Events:

CadSoft Consulting - Civil 3D for Surveyors – September 25th
MicroCAD Training & Consulting – Infrast. Design Suite - Sept 26th
ATG USA - Working With InfraWorks 360 – September 30th
Imaginit - Move To BIM – September 30th
Pacific CAD - Cloud Services – October 3rd
CAD Technology Center–InfraWorks & C3D Collaboration – Oct. 7th
CADLearning - CADLearning User Basics – October 7th
CAD Masters - InfraWorks 360 & Swept Path Analysis – October 8th
Eagle Point - Pinnacle Series – October 8th
Hagerman & Company - BIM for Infrastructure – October 14th.
Ideate - Getting Started With BIM – October 14th
CAD Technology Center - Civil 3D to 3ds Max Design –October 16th
CADSoft Consulting – Transportation Design Seminar – October 16th
CAD Technology Center - Converting GIS to CAD – October 21st
Ideate - InfraWorks 360 – October 21st
CAD-1 - Civil Chat – October 28th
CAD-1 - Why Use AutoCAD Map 3D? – October 30th
CAD-1 -Grading With Feature Lines in Civil 3D – November 20th
CADD Microsystems - Autodesk Infrastructure Solutions – Nov. 20th
CADD Microsystems – Civil 3D for Land Desktop User – Nov.  20th
CADD Microsystems - Transitioning to Civil 3D – November 20th
Imaginit - Online Civil User Group – November 21st
CAD Microsystems - AutoCAD 2015 Tips & Tricks – November 25th
Ascent - Creating Coverages With InfraWorks – December 10th

Texas Events

Enceptia - Autodesk Building Design Seminar – Austin / Sept. 30th
Total CAD Systems - Latest BIM Solution – Houston / October 30th
Imaginit - Dallas BIM Forum – Dallas / October 9th-10th
D3 Technology - Cloud Technology – Dallas / December 17th
Civil 3D Fundamentals (3 days) – Austin / December 13th-16th

Other Events

Imaginit – UNM BimSmart 2014 Summit – Albuquerque, NM/ Sept. 26h
CADapult Software Solutions - Civil 3D Workshop

AU 2014 – December 2nd-4th

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 Performance Tips

Good afternoon everyone. I hope everyone is enjoying their week. It’s been crazy at work, at our main office, with remodeling on going. Our main conference room was enlarge because it was unable to handle the large project meetings we were having. In addition, we had several offices get a new paint job, new carpeting and tiles. On top of that, some bldg roof maintenance to fix some leaks. Anyways, I can’t wait till it’s all done.

Well it’s been roughly a month since we first starting using C3D 2015 for production. Though most of the new features in C3D were basically in the AutoCAD platform, overall I was happy with the new version. Our only issue with C3D 2015 is that it’s sluggish at time. Most of us have been experiencing lag time and freezing with 10 mb-60 mb drawing that contain 2-4 xref’s and data shortcuts. On top if that , it’s seems to struggle at time with drawing that contains large amount of hatching such as landscape and hardscape plans.  After spending about a week trying to zone in on the performance problems, and then finding a fix or work around, here is what I have come up with. Hopefully these performance tips will help some of you, that may be experiencing the same issues.

• Update your video card drive. Don’t go thru the Windows Control Panel, but actually go to the video card company website such as Nvidia.
• Turn off your graphic performance tool. This can be found in the Options. System Tab. Not once, have I notice any improvement with this feature turned on. Most employees inform me that it works better when its turned off. I also agree.
• In Options, Selection Tab, Preview section, uncheck all the preview options such as the selection preview and command preview.
• If you are not using the cloud, log off the Autodesk 360 account.
• In Options, Plot and Publish Tab, uncheck background Plotting and Publishing
• Don't have all your tool palettes and dialog boxes always open such having layer manager, properties, sheet set manager, and xref manager. When I am working, I rarely have more then one dialog box open.
• cleanout or reset your drawing annotation scale list. You don't need 20-50 different annotation scales.
• In Windows Task Manager end process for WSCommCntr.exe, raysta_3dmax2015_63server, and Aec32bitAppServer57exe (and AcSettingSync.exe if you are not using the cloud)
• make sure your antivirus software is not scanning your Autodesk programs and drawing files.
• Last but not least, make your windows paging file larger. If you have 8 gb of memory, then change your windows paging file to at least 16,000 mb up to 24,000 mb. If this is your work computer, I  would ask your IT Dept first, before performing this task.

Anyways, thanks for checking out my website. Have a great weekend everyone. :)

Hello AutoCAD Civil 2015 Part 1

Good morning everyone. Man it’s been a long while since my last post. Business is booming in Texas, so I have been extremely busy at work. Anyways I would like to provide you a short teaser introduction to the long awaited AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015.  I have listed below some of the key features that has been added to AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015
New Features:

• New File Tab Dashboard for opening drawings.
• Integration of Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2014 Productivity Pack 1, which includes create solids of pipe networks in section views, Autodesk Vault support for pressure pipes networks, and the new Export Civil 3D drawings commands.
• Advancement to Corridor modeling and features.
• New design criteria files based on Policy on Geometric Design of Highway and Streets, 6th Add., 2011 published by ASSHTO.
• Profile advancements such as more options for free vertical curves.
• Staggered corridor point code labels in section views are now available.
• Ability to export data to KML and KMZ formats
• Advancement to Subassembly Composer such as new Offset Geometry tool for adding positive and negative offsets to open or close shapes, input/output parameters for applying superelevations to a subassembly.
• The new AutoCAD point cloud object provides improved 3D navigation and visual fidelity and support for legacy point cloud file formats  (.ISD files)
• New Geolocation tools have been added to the contextual ribbon.

The file tab dashboard is one of the new addition to Civil 3D interface. For those that use AutoCAD 360 web, it’s somewhat similar to that dashboard. In this dashboard, you can access recent drawings that have been opened.

The second, eye popping new features is the dark display for the color scheme. As a default C3D 2015 is set to the new Dark color scheme. You can easily change it back to the traditional light theme display in the Display tab of the Options display dialog box.

The workspace tools and features at the bottom have a new look. You can easily turn off and on features such as quick properties, grid, gizmo, and snap mode  by selecting the last icon the left and checking the features you want on or off. 

The Autodesk 360 ribbon has a new look with the addition of the AutoCAD 360 Web access tool.

The Autodesk Recap button has been added to the Insert ribbon. In addition, the ribbon has a slightly new look.

The Export Civil 3D Drawing tool that was part of the C3d 2014 productivity package is now incorporated into the Output ribbon.

You can find the Export to KML tool in the Toolspace,  Tool tab.

The View ribbon has a new look to it.

Corridor enhancements such as frequency settings along curves can be set by increments, by curvature, or both. This will come in very handy.

The new Geolocation contextual ribbon has been added once you log into your Autodesk 360 account. I really like this feature. 
Anyways these are just a new features that has been added to the new AutoCAD Civil 3D. I expect the software to be release to the public in 3-5 weeks. Stay tune to part 2 for a more in depth discussion about the new tools and features.