Autodesk University Extension!!!

Hello everyone, for those of you that don't know The Autodesk University (AU) conference held each year in Las Vegas is the world’s largest learning and networking event for Autodesk product users. But not everyone can travel to Las Vegas. So this year thanks to the economy, Autodesk is extending the benefits of AU by sharing classes and content from the event with Authorized Training Centers (ATC®). The result is a new worldwide initiative called Autodesk University Extension and Digital Drafting Systems is participating, we are the only ATC and Autodesk Authorized Reseller on South Florida doing it.
On December 4, 8, 9 & 10 of 2009, we are presenting an Autodesk University Extension event tailored to our community of users. This is a great new opportunity to upgrade your skills and connect with peers and experts without the cost of traveling to Las Vegas.
Our program is FREE and we invite you to join us.

Digital Drafting System’s and Autodesk University Extension Event combines expert-led class content from AU in Las Vegas with face-to-face interaction with our local instructors and other users...
* At our event, you will receive:
- FREE training, including 3 on-line live classes and 5 recorded classes at AU in Las Vegas (see program below)
- 90 days of FREE access to 350 classes recorded at AU, archived on AU Online, and available to you on-demand.
Plus, you may purchase additional training and certification at significant discounts:
- Twenty percent (20%) discount on Autodesk Official Training Guides - Autodesk publishes dozens of titles every year designed to help users at all levels of expertise improve their productivity with Autodesk software.
- Fifty percent (50%) discount on Autodesk Certification Exams (in participating countries) - The competition for the best jobs and projects is fierce. And the ability to demonstrate your expertise is crucial to your success. Validate your Autodesk skills with Autodesk Certification.

** And if you mention that you got to sing in for the link on this blog, we will give you the opportunity to take your certification exam for FREE**

Do not get left out just because you were not able to travel to AU in Las Vegas this year, please join us for 4 days of knowledge and fun.

Civil & Civil 3D 2010 SP2 OUT!!!!

In a continuing effort to provide high quality products, Autodesk has released AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 2, which fixes or addresses a variety of issues discovered by customers and by Autodesk's internal testing team.
Before applying this SP, 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.
AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 2
AutoCAD Civil 2010 Update 2
Also available and good to know too...
Scale List Cleanup Utility for AutoCAD 2010
Regapp ID Cleanup Utility for AutoCAD 2010

AutoCAD Civil & Civil 3D 2010 Update 1 IS OUT!!!

Hello everyone... In a continuing effort to provide high quality products, Autodesk has released AutoCAD Civil & AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 1, which fixes or addresses a variety of issues discovered by customers and by Autodesk's internal testing team.
Please 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 remember to refers to the README file prior installation...
- AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 1
- AutoCAD Civil 2010 Update 1

Google Earth & Civil 3D 2010 on Windows 7 64Bit OS...

Hi everyone… This is something that I was experiencing… But probably it could give you an idea about how to fix or work around some of your issues… I’m running Windows 7 64-Bit, and my Civil 3D 2010 was crashing every time that I was trying to publish or retrieve information from Google Earth, apparently was a none support OS conflict… Well as probably you know by now, Windows 7 and Windows Vista is all about permission, digging into the setting here at the office, we find out that you are able to run some of your software in a Compatibility Mode!!!!...
…After you install the software in your machine, the software create a shortcut on your desktop, if you selected and right click on it, you will find the properties on the new menu listed all the way down as a last option…. On the Application Properties window, you will find a Compatibility Tab, in here you allow the software to run as a compatibility mode in a different OS to the one that you are working on… Awesome!!!... This option will do the trick, just make sure you do it for Civil 3D 2010 and for Google Earth shortcuts… restart your machine… and now you should be ready to rock and roll….
Good Luck… Enjoy and have Fun…

Tricky Stuffs Running Raster Design on Civil 3D with a 64-Bit OS...

Hello everybody…. Well as usual I’m just trying to help…. I’m running Windows 7 64 Bit on my computer and I’m loving it!!!.... Why???.... Well where to start… First of all, I don’t need to deal with the 3GB switch anymore, and second of all I’m able to use more than 2GB of memory ram using my Civil 3D 2010 software, no more out of memory issue…
....Probably you came across with this before, and I’m letting you know because it happened to me, so here it’s a little trick for you to install your Raster Design 2009 and 2010 on your Civil 3D if you are running a 64 Bit OS…
As you should know by now, since 2009 we are able to install Civil 3D on a 64 Bit environment, but “Civil 3D is not a 64 Bit software yet”…. ???? … So how that one plays, well it allows you to install it, but it is installed as a 32 Bit, what this means to you is that you will end it up with two program files folders, the regular program files were all your 64 bit application will be installed and another one called Program Files (x86) were your others 32 bit applications like Civil 3D will be installed.
What happens is that when you are trying to install Raster Design it gives you an error message that said …

“No supported desktops for AutoCAD Raster Design 2009 or 2010 were found…
Please Exit and Install a supported desktop before proceeding”

This error message indicates that the installer was not able to find a 64 bit application.
To correct this issue, you need to redirect the installer to look for 32 bit applications on the 64 bit operating system... I know it sound really complicated, but it is not like that...

Here is what you will need to do:
a) Copy the entire contents of the installation disk to a folder on the hard drive.
b) In the root of this folder, locate the Setup.ini file and open it with Microsoft Notepad.
Under [SETUP], change the x64_IMAGE_PATH=x64 (Original Line), for x64_IMAGE_PATH=x86
c) Save and close the Setup.ini file.
In the root of this folder, run the Setup.exe file and now the installer will look in your 32 bit program files folder and will find yours 32 bit applications on your computer.

Important Civil Software Update 3 Now Available!!!

Hello everybody... Good news for all of us Update 3, better known as Service Pack (SP3) for AutoCAD Civil 2009, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 and AutoCAD Land Desktop Companion 2009 software are available for customer download. These are both general maintenance service packs. Please refer to the Readme files prior to applying SP3 for information on installation and resolved issues.
- Download this files now...

• AutoCAD Civil 2009
• AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009
• AutoCAD Land Desktop Companion 2009
• AutoCAD Land Desktop 2009

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 New Interface... How it looks and What I can do with it!!!

Hi everybody!!!... I saw last Friday March 27, a really good webcast hosted by Lucy Huhns (Autodesk Technical Specialist) with Jerry Bartels (Autodesk Technical Specialist) as a guest presenter, and they were talking and showing the New Interface of Civil 3D 2010, the presentation runs for an hours, but I can guarantee you that it's worth your time. As usual they did a great job, so just in case if you missed here it's a link to it, Introducing the New Interface in AutoCAD Civil 3D.

Also because we are talking about AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010, here is some important information about System Requirements:

32-bit Hardware and Software Requirements
- Operating Systems:
Windows® XP Home and Professional Edition SP2 or later
Microsoft® Windows Vista® SP1 or later including:
■ Windows Vista Enterprise
■ Windows Vista Business
■ Windows Vista Ultimate
■ Windows Vista Home Premium
- Browser Internet Explorer® 7.0 or later
- CPU type:
Windows XP - Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD
Athlon™ Dual Core processor, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
Windows Vista - Intel Pentium 4 or AMD
Athlon Dual Core processor, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
- Memory:

Windows XP - 2 GB RAM
Windows Vista - 2 GB RAM
- Display resolution 1024 x 768 with True Color
- Hard disk Installation 1 GB
- Pointing device MS-Mouse compliant
- 3D Modeling Additional Requirements:
■ Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor, 3.0 GHz or higher; or Intel or AMD Dual Core processor, 2.0 GHz or higher
■ 2 GB RAM or greater
■ 2 GB free hard disk space available not including installation
■ 1280 x 1024 32-bit color video display adapter (True Color) 128 MB or greater, Direct3D® capable workstation class graphics card
64-bit Hardware and Software Requirements
- Operating Systems:
Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition SP2 or later
Microsoft® Windows Vista® SP1 or later including:
■ Windows Vista Enterprise
■ Windows Vista Business
■ Windows Vista Ultimate
■ Windows Vista Home Premium
- Browser Internet Explorer 7.0 or later
- CPU type:
AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology
AMD Opteron™ with SSE2 technology
Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology
Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology
- Memory:
Windows XP - 2 GB RAM
Windows Vista - 2 GB RAM
- Display resolution 1024 x 768 with True Colorsystem and vice-versa.
- Hard disk Installation 1.5 GB
- Pointing device MS-Mouse compliant
- 3D Modeling Additional Requirements:
■ Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor, 3.0 GHz or higher; or Intel or AMD Dual Core processor, 2.0 GHz or higher
■ 2 GB RAM or greater
■ 2 GB free hard disk space available not including installation
■ 1280 x 1024 32-bit color video display adapter (True Color) 128 MB or greater, Direct3D® capable workstation class graphics card
Additional Hardware and Software Recommendations - 3D use Operating System
- 32 Bit
Windows XP Home and Professional SP2
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Home Premium
- 64-Bit
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP2 or later
Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit
Windows Vista Business 64-bit
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
- Processor:
Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD Athlon, 2.2 GHz or greater
Intel or AMD Dual Core processor, 1.6 GHz or greater
- RAM 2 GB (or greater)
- Graphics card:
1280 x 1024 32-bit color video display adapter (True Color); 128 MB or greater Direct3D capable workstation classgraphics card.
For Windows Vista, a Direct3D workstation class graphics card with 128 MB or greater is required; 1024 x 768 VGA with True Color (minimum)
- Hard disk 2 GB (in addition to the 1 GB or above required for installation)

... And probably you don't know, so I would like to invite you to the Civil Engineer Webcast Series website... were you can register for the upcoming webcast or review the old ones.

SP2.1 IS FINALLY OUT!!!

Hello everyone... after Autodesk recalled SP2 now SP2.1 is already out!!!... At this time I just wanted to let you know that Service Pack 2.1 for AutoCAD Civil 2009, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009, Land Desktop 2009 and Land Desktop Companion 2009 are already available for customer download...
In a continuing effort to provide high quality products, Autodesk has released Update 2.1 or better known as Service Pack 2.1, which fixes or addresses a variety of issues discovered by customers and by Autodesk's internal testing team.
Before applying these updates, please make sure that you refer to the README file first for installation and 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 update has been successfully installed.
A reboot will be required once the Update is successfully applied.