How NOT to Demo Civil 3D 2008

I conducted my first demo using the new software this week. The group was really excited. One engineer even joked to the project manager, "Stop drooling, Ed!" Moments like that I am so proud of the work I do, when we lowly AE's can actually get engineers and drafters fired up about what they do - and even more amazing - eager to change years of inefficient processes.

When the project manager said, "If this thing makes nice P&P sheets, I'm gunna jump across this table and kiss you!" I said, "It does, but I'm engaged."

The hitch in my giddyup was how I had Civil 3D running. I installed it to my 120 gig external USB drive (which I fondly call the "sock drive" because I protect it by placing it in an old sock). It worked very well except when it came to importing points via the survey database. Slow as molasses in January. I ended up aborting the import and just bringing in the dataset via TXT file. In my defense, I was going to uninstall l it an reinstall it to C prior to the demo. My hubby-to-be advised me not to mess with it so close to go time. He's a programmer and a database guru for PeopleSoft - so I took his advice.

Other than the minor glitch things went very well. I've got a follow-up demo of the survey functionality today!