Civil 3D

We have some Windows 7, 64-bit systems running Nvidia FX580 display adapters with Civil 3D 2011 and Land Desktop 2009. Almost immediately, complaints started rolling in about raster images not being clipped by polygonal viewports.

I figured out that if we disabled hardware acceleration (using the 3DCONFIG command inside of AutoCAD), it solved the problem. But this seemed like a workaround at best. Further searching led me to recently released Nvidia "AutoCAD Performance" drivers for 2011.

The Release Notes did confirm that this issue was fixed with version 18.1.4 of this driver - which I confirmed myself after installing the driver.  Read more »

Steve Johnson over at blog nauseam is reporting that Raster Design 2011 appears to be set to ship on July 20, 2010, some four months after AutoCAD 2011 started shipping. The Raster Design 2011 Object Enabler was released about a month ago.

Click here to view Steve's post for more information, including a link to a PDF with even more data on ARD2011.

Is this affecting you? Have you needed Raster Design and/or the Object Enabler? Has this prevented you from upgrading your AutoCAD, AutoCAD Map, or Civil 3D?

The Raster Design Object Enabler for the 2011 versions of AutoCAD, AutoCAD Map, Civil 3D, and other AutoCAD based applications is now available. Click the link below.

Raster Design 2011 Object Enabler | Readme File

Be sure and grab the correct version for your O/S (32-bit vs. 64-bit). Read more »

If you have Civil 3D 2011 and need to import raster images like MrSid and ECW format (who doesn't?), then you will need the Raster Design Object Enabler since there is no Raster Design 2011 yet. But wait, there is no Raster Design Object Enabler for 2011 either. Oops.

Fortunately, someone figured out how to hack the 2010 RD Object Enabler so that it will work with Civil 3D 2011, and the resident MAP guru, Murph himself, posted the solution over a month ago (AutoCAD Map 2011 needs this hack too...). Since the 2010 version works for 2011, I'm not sure why Autodesk has not written an installer for it. IMO, support for these image types should be built into Civil 3D and Map anyway.

I do not have any information on when to expect a 2011 version of Raster Design or the RD Object Enabler.

UPDATE (31 JUN 2010): The Raster Design 2011 Object Enabler has been released. Read more »

Autodesk has extended their assistance program until January 2011.

The Autodesk Assistance Program provides FREE 2011 version software, online and classroom training, software certification, and discounts on retail versions of software. Click on the link below for important DETAILS.

Autodesk assistance program

 Read more »

If you are a Civil 3D user and you are trying to create a SHP file using the MapExport command, it may fail depending on the entity types you are trying to export. As I found over at the Paving the Way blog, this is a bug in Civil 3D.

To fix this, you need to download a new [.ini] file as instructed in this Autodesk KB article (TS1108047)

I have been working with the Civil 3D 2010 API in visual lisp recently, and I thought I would share an example of working with an alignment object. This example has plenty of comments, but basically it shows you how to find a point near the alignment based on a station and offset. Then it does the opposite and shows you how to determine the station and offset, given a point. For clarity, I have left out most of the error checking. Read more »

Peter Funk from Autodesk commented in this thread earlier this month that Civil 3D 2010 would run on Windows 7.

The list of Autodesk applications that are supported on Windows 7 was recently updated to reflect this: http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS14053691

Update 2 for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 is out. You can find it using the link below.

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=DL13921667

This update fixes over 40 issues, and it contains all the previous fixes from C3D update 1, AutoCAD update 1, and Map update 1. As always, be careful with any new software patches on production machines. A similar update is out for AutoCAD Civil 2010 also. Read more »

Both Autodesk and Solidworks Several companies are offering incentives to the unemployed engineering community.

Solidworks, through their SolidWorks Engineering Stimulus Package, is offering free 3D CAD software, free training materials, free certification, and job leads to unemployed US and Canada residents.

Autodesk, through their Autodesk Assistance Program, is offering free software licenses, free online training, reduced-cost classroom training, and discounts on certification. This offer is good until December 31, 2009.

Bentley has a similar program including software and training.

On a related note, Engineered Efficiency, Inc, is offering free Civil 3D training to "those who have recently lost their jobs".

If you know of any other resources, please add a comment. Read more »