Back to Basics…

Hello everybody, at this time I would like to share with you one of my passions… Because not everything can be about work, let me tell you a little bit about me, as a profession I’m a Geological Engineer, probably you don’t know but as Geologist one of our dreams is to see and be at The Grand Canyon… Why???... First of all, beside the fact that it is Spectacular, Amazing and Totally Awesome. The Canyon is the Biggest Stratigraphic Column in the world, what makes it so incredible it's the geological history of its formation, and the geomorphology of the area… So now you know a little more about me and what I love… Hope that you will enjoy the pictures at the South Rim as much as I do… from AU 2008 at Las Vegas and until the next time…

Good things to know!!!

Hi everybody.... I don't know if this has happened to you or not, but sometimes navigating Autodesk web page is not a happy day on the park... it has so much important information that is really easy to get out of track, lost, and frustrated if you couldn't find what you were looking for...
... I came across with this page that actually guides you through different steps and phases, depending on your interest and level of experience. Also if you are looking for new information to improve yours skills... well here you can find it all...

So go ahead, take your time and see for yourself all the effort and information that Autodesk has put together and that is available to us... Don't be afraid... The Technology is moving to the future and we are moving alone with it... Let's experience it before it's real!!!

Civil 3D 2009 Certification Exams... Why to get Certified???

Hi everyone... At this time I would like to talk about Certification...
Autodesk Certification can help you succeed in your design career - providing benefits to both you and your employer. A reliable validation of your skills and knowledge, Autodesk Certification can lead to accelerated professional development, improved productivity, and enhanced credibility in your field.
The Autodesk Certified credential signifies the experience and expertise of design professionals around the world. Certifications are available for many Autodesk products, including AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD Civil 3D, Revit Architecture, and AutoCAD Architecture software applications.
Certification Benefits
In addition to improving your skill set, earning Autodesk Certification provides the following advantages and benefits:
• Enhanced Skills and Recognition - Autodesk Certification provides validation of your skills and knowledge along with industry recognition of your achievements.
• Electronic Certificate - Once certified, you receive access to an electronic certificate suitable for printing and framing. You may reprint this certificate as often as you like. Your certificate is available anytime through your Autodesk Online system profile.
• Certification Logo - After passing the certification exam, you receive the official Autodesk Certification logo for use on business cards, résumés, and letterhead, identifying you as Autodesk Certified. Your logo kit is available through your Autodesk Online system profile.

• Immediate Diagnostic Feedback - Whether or not you pass the exam, you receive immediate feedback on areas to improve your Autodesk application skills. Your score report with feedback is available at any time through your Autodesk Online system profile. http://autodesk.starttest.com/.
• Listing on Autodesk in the Certified Users Database - Once certified, you can choose to have your contact information and certifications listed in Autodesk’s publically available database. This is an excellent way to immediately demonstrate your certification status to prospective employers.

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 Certification Guide

Autodesk Authorized Certification Center Search

... So what are you waiting for??... Lest do it!!!...

AutoCAD Civil SP1!!!

Hello everyone!... In a continuing effort to provide high quality products, Autodesk has released AutoCAD Civil 2009 Update 1, which fixes or addresses a variety of issues discovered by customers and by Autodesk's internal testing team.
Before applying this update, make sure that any customizations made to the user profile (such as, customizations made to the support file search paths, print file customizations, printer support file paths, redirections, custom template settings, and so on) are exported to a secure location, then imported and reapplied after the update has been successfully installed.
Also... Autodesk released the AutoCAD Civil 2009 Object Enabler; it is a 32-bit freeware application that allows object data created in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009, AutoCAD Civil 2009, AutoCAD Land Desktop Companion 2009, or AutoCAD Land Desktop 2009 to be accessed outside of those environments. This Object Enabler can only be applied to 32-bit applications in a 32-bit Operating System environment.
As part of the Product Update 1, Autodesk has also decided to make updates to the Object Enabler. The most significant change is that this Object Enabler will now detect and install onto NavisWorks 2009 applications and Impression 2009.
If you are encountering crashes opening drawings from previous versions of Civil products you may need the AutoCAD Civil 2009 Object Enabler Mentor Grid Coordinate System Files. These files will allow the Object Enabler to open previous version drawing files that have a coordinate system assigned to them.
... Please remember to refer first to the README file for installation...

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 SP1!!!!

Hi everyone.... This is a good news to all of us, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 SP1 is available for customers download, same as AutoCAD Land Desktop Companion 2009 and AutoCAD Land Desktop 2009, these Updates fixes or addresses a variety of issues discovered by customers and by Autodesk's internal testing team.
Please before applying this service pack, make sure that any customizations made to your user profile (such as, customizations made to the support file search paths, print file customizations, printer support file paths, redirections, custom template settings, and so on) are exported to a secure location, then imported and reapplied after the service pack has been successfully installed and please do not forget to refers for installation to the README file first.

How can I improve the performance of my machine working with Civil 3D 2009!!!

Hello everybody… I’m pretty sure that you came across to this situation before… Why is my computer so slow???... Well, here's a couple of suggestions that probably will help you to improved the performance of your machine…
The first one will be… go to Options… on the Display Tab, under Window Elements, uncheck the ToolTips option, in this way you will not have them displayed every time that you go over a toolbar.On the Selection Tab, under Selection Preview, uncheck the option When no command is active, doing this the software will not highlight every element when you are moving your crosshair over the objects on your drawing. Now on the Open and Save Tab, under File Safety Precautions, uncheck the Automatic save option… I know you're probably thinking … “NO, I CAN’T DO THAT, SHE IS CRAZY”…. Well, I guess that if you are afraid to do it, you could set it up to a big number like every 60 mins, what happen is actually the software manage to do the auto save when another command is running, if your drawing is to big this could crash your application.Another tip: In the new 2009 software, Autodesk has incorporated the Quick Properties option under the Status Bar, this option is really useful, because it allow us to display the properties of an object like: type, color, layer, linetype, and others when you select or get on top of the object. Unfortunately this is a dynamic tool that uses some memory because it is constantly looking for information, my recommendation is to turn it off.And last but not least, for those of us that like to work with the Layer Properties Manager opened, I don’t know if you have noticed that in 2009 there is not an Apply or OK button anymore, what this means is that actually the Layer Manager is Dynamic, every change that you make will take place automatically, so if you are no using it, it is better to keep it closed , because if it’s always open it’s going to check the layers to see if something have changed and this will slow down your computer a lot… Hopefully this suggestions will help you!!!

How you can create your own commands!!!

Hi everybody.... I don't know if this has happened to you already, sometimes you have the need to call a particular command, using the command line more than once or something happens and you start looking up in your notes how is this command called?... Where do I put it? Well, this video could help you resolve that problem and also give you an idea of how you could customize your User Interface... Enjoy the video! ... How you can create your own commands

Really Important News!!!

Hi everyone... As problably you had heard, yes it is true, AutoCAD Land Desktop is going to be Discontinued...

Due to the decreasing demand for AutoCAD Land Desktop software and the increasing use of AutoCAD Civil 3D software in production, AutoCAD Land Desktop 2009 and AutoCAD Civil 3D - Land Desktop Companion 2009 software will be the final releases of the Land Desktop product.
But customers with current subscription will continue to receive subscription benefits to support legacy workflows for AutoCAD Land Desktop-based projects, AutoCAD Civil 3D software subscription customers can download AutoCAD Civil 3D - Land Desktop Companion via Subscription Center. This will include:

- Land Desktop Companion 2009

- Land Desktop Companion 2008

- Land Desktop Companion 2006 and 2007
And the Land Desktop Companion product will no longer be included in the AutoCAD Civil 3D software box.

But not everything sounds that bad, Autodesk is coming out with another software which is a Light version of AutoCAD Civil 3D and it will be called AutoCAD Civil, this version will be available later on this year. OK, What does this mean to all of us???. Here is a comparison table between both softwares, so you could have an idea of what is coming soon... I'm really excited to see Autodesk new babe and what this new solution can do for us...

Civil 3D 2009 stuff... Just in case... Good to know!!!

Hello everyone.... As usual, I'm always trying to help you with the little issues that you probably can run into. At this time I would like to give you a heads up about two things that I found and they call my attention...

The First one is that on the Inquiry Command toolbar for Civil 3D 2008 and 2009 you will find that if you call it from the Map menus (MapClassic and Map3DGoespatial) some of the commands that this toolbar has will not work, so to fix it is really simple, go to the Customize User Interface (CUI) and just copy and paste the macros from the Civil Source...

The Second of them, is a little marker that looks like a flower that probably you have seen in your drawings, that rescale by itself every time that you do a zoom... if you have seen it, yes it can make you crazy... This little marker is called Geographic Marker and what happen is that by default Civil 3D 2009 has it setup to be in your drawing once you assign Coordinate System to it... How can you make it disappear? simple, just type GEOMARKERVISIBILITY on your command line and change the value for <0>...

Controls the visibility of geographic markers.
(0) Geographic marker is not visible
(1) Geographic marker is visible

Draw Order Toolbar Problem in Land and Land Companion 2009!!!

Hi everybody!!!... At this time I would like to let you know about a little problem with the macros on the Draw Order toolbar of AutoCAD Land Desktop and AutoCAD Land Desktop Companion 2009, so here it is a video that will help you fix it. Just in case that you are not able to see the macros really clear, here are the steps for you to follow...

Type CUI on your command line and click enter... the Customize User Interface will open, once in there you will look for your draw order commands and fix the macros one by one... please replace what is in everyone of them for these...
Bring to Front = ^C^C^P(ai_draworder"_f")^P
Sent to Back = ^C^C^P(ai_draworder"_b")^P
Bring Above Objects = ^C^C^P(ai_draworder"_a")^P
Sent Under Objects = ^C^C^P(ai_draworder"_u")^P

What is going on...!!!

Hello everybody… for those of you that don’t know we have a couple of events going on that probably you will be interested on… AUGI (Autodesk User Group International) has organized the AUGI CAD Camp Since 2004. AUGI CAD Camp has brought its unique learning and networking events to nearly 80 cities in the US, Canada, and other countries for all these years. In 2008, AUGI CAD Camp will be on the road again in 40 North American cities and 15 international cities. It is a complete day full of fun and knowledgeable courses, so don’t miss the opportunity to go and learn on Thursday, May 29, 2008. To register make sure you use the Promotional Code DDS. AUGI CAD Camp - Miami …
And for those interested in Revit Architecture you can register for the June 13, 2008 event at: REVIT 2009 Workshop; This 1 ½ day workshop is designed to familiarize you with the Building Information Modeling features of the software. Get up and running with this introductory workshop that will get you going with the latest version of Atodesk's BIM Flagship Application. If you’re looking to do more with your projects in less time, don’t miss our hands-on Revit Architecture Workshop with Autodesk Certified Implementation Experts from Digital Drafting Systems… Don’t miss these opportunities to go and learn...

Google Earth and Civil 3D 2009... Good to know!!!

Hello everybody... For all of us that love to use Google Earth to download and load information back and forth; last week working on a demo, I found out that Civil 3D 2008 and 2009 do not work well with the latest Beta version of Google Earth (4.3.7204 Beta) that you can download for free, please be aware of this because it can make you crazy... your software becames really slow and in the end it hang up the application.... to avoid this I will recommend downloading and installing the last official version of Google Earth (4.2.0205) that actually works really good and very important if the application asks you to do an update say no ;) ... remember... Do what you like... Like what you do...

A little bit of Fun!!!...

Hello everybody.... Because not everything can be related just with work... this is something extra just for fun... enjoy the video created by Alan Becker, Animator Vs Animation...

Sneak peack about what is new in Civil 3D 2009!!!

Hi everybody... This is a presentation from Dominick Gallegos at Autodesk World Press Days 2008 in San Francisco, he is the Civil 3D Technical Marketing Manager of Autodesk for the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) team; demonstrated the latest 2009 versions of AutoCAD Civil 3D.

Recovering a drawing using the Map query build in Civil 3D!!!

Hello everybody!... Sometimes it is not possible to open a drawing because it is corrupt. In that case, you might attempt to recover the drawing using the RECOVER command, or by inserting it into another drawing using the INSERT command. However, when these methods are unsuccessful, you need another way to recover the drawing. So at this time I'm going to show you how you can use the Map Query functionality build in Civil 3D and LDT...

Autodesk Launches New Solutions for Building Information Modeling...!!!

Hello everybody... Good News!!!... Today Autodesk did a World Press Day event, where they announced updates to its comprehensive software solutions for building information modeling (BIM) including Revit Architecture, Revit Structure, Revit MEP, AutoCAD Civil 3D, and Autodesk NavisWorks. BIM is an integrated workflow built on coordinated, reliable information about a project from design through construction and into operations. By adopting BIM, architects, engineers, contractors and owners can easily create coordinated, digital design information and documentation; use that information to accurately predict performance, appearance and cost; and reliably deliver the project faster, more economically and with reduced environmental impact.
Autodesk is continually working to provide our customers with technology that guide them to achieve the competitive advantage and design innovation. Autodesk’s 3D modeling technologies are helping customers understand and improve the performance and operation of their designs before they are built.

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 enables the benefits of BIM for civil engineering, from surveying and design through to documentation submittal and the delivery of 3D models for GPS machine control during construction. Important new functions in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 include:
• A comprehensive stormwater hydraulics and hydrology solution for storm sewer design, watershed analysis, detention pond modeling, and culvert analysis.
• Complete survey functionality that allows users to directly import raw data; edit survey observations; and create points, figures, and surfaces that are directly integrated into the model to support the design process.
• Criteria-based road design that ensures local design requirements such as stopping and passing sight and headlight distances are being met.
• Easy to implement solution for sharing model data across project teams using standard AutoCAD xrefs and intelligent Civil 3D data shortcuts (without requiring Autodesk Vault).
... We are looking forward to see what this amazing solution can do for us now...

Changing Coordinate Systems with Map in Civil 3D!

Hi everybody... This time I would like to share with you how you can Transform from one Coordinate System to another using the Map 3D functionality build in Civil 3D and LDT.

Plant Production Tool and Map Books!!!

Hi everybody... Last Friday Jan 4, I saw a really interesting webcast that Autodesk had for Civil 3D where Lucy Kuhns and Jerry Bartels did an excellent presentation about how the Plant Production Tool and the Map Books functionality that are built in Civil 3D 2008 could help you to improve your efficiency and productivity when you are creating a large set of sheets... so in case that you missed it, the section is recorded and abeilable for review...

Working with Survey Database…

Hi everybody… Happy New year to all of you!!!
Check this out…probably some of you had come across these questions; Can I change my working folder?? (and when I talk about working folder I mean the C:\Civil 3D Projects, where all my Survey Data is stored by default) and also How could I standardize my Survey User Settings so I don’t need to do it every time that I create a new one??... Well, here are some tips….
New survey databases automatically save to the current working folder (in the prospector tab, given that you are working on your Master View, right click on 'projects' and select 'set working folder').

And browse for your new location that can be on your same computer or in a special place on your network.

The only survey databases you can open are the ones located immediately under the current working folder.
Also you can set your Survey Database Settings on the same location …
First create a Survey Database with your common settings, like Units, Precision, Measurement Corrections, etc. Then inside the Survey Database Settings window, click on the disk to export these setting to a file and select the location to save this file that probably you would like to name with your company name as a suggestion (I will recommend you to use the same location for everything like your working folder and in there you can include your Figure Prefix Database too, in this way you will have all your settings located on the same folder… but that is up to you…)
After you have done that go to your Survey User Settings and under Survey Database Defaults you can change the Survey database settings path to your new location and set the Survey Database Setting to the one that you just created… you also can do the same for your Figure Defaults just remember that your Figure style is associated with your Template… when you finish click OK… Now the next time you will create a new Survey Database it will be created with all your new settings…