SQOTD: Service Pack 2.1

Lou-
I read the readme for the service pack and I saw this:
Per AutoDesk:
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.

What is the best way to do this?

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Well - this is how I do backups...
Basically you’ll want to save your CUI file to a non-default location and export your profile somewhere too. To do all this:

1 - Go to: (this is the default location in Win XP)
C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD Civil 3d 2009\R17.2\enu

2- Copy the enu folder to a backup location.

3- You will also want to go into Civil 3D, go to Options and the Profile tab and export the your profile as an ARG file to a backup location.

Let me know if you need me to go into more detail on this. These should be “just in case” measures, as normally a service pack won’t blow anything away – but it never hurts to C.Y.A.

Hope this helps!

Aquatard

Let me paint you a little picture of my evening: ass planted in an innertube drifting down the lazy river in my leopard print bathing suit discussing Civil 3D with a very well respected client. Trying to have any sort of business decorum in this situation becomes increasingly difficult when said client drifts ahead of me and I do this sort of flail-paddle to catch back up.

Ain't conferences great?

Here I am at the WLIA annual conference. My co-worker Steve and I did a really fun presentation on a workflow getting Civil 3D data into 3ds Max then Combustion for some super-realistic renderings and animations. As soon as I get somewhere with decent bandwidth I'll post some of our output. It was an interesting learning experience, as I thought LandXML would be the key to our success. In fact it was not. I'll post our process and more soon!

Beer, Cheese and WisDOT

Fire up your laptop and don your cheese hat for the upcoming Autodesk webcast starring Eric Arneson of WisDOT. If you want to join me in a drinking game, every time you hear him say "photogrammetry" you hafta take a shot of Jagermeister.

Eric will be discussing:

• Surface and topography base map creation using photogrammetry data from MicroStation® DGN files
• Importing survey data
• Assigning field codes

Thursday, February 26, 2009
1:00 – 2:00 pm Central Standard Time
Register with Autodesk NOW!

Intersection Design 101

Hey guess what I've decided to give away? My exclusive Intersection Design tutorial thingy for Civil 3D 2009. Why? Because I love you...AND I think it would be good to understand these principals before the automated tools turn the corridor portions of your brain to mush. I'll try to post an example file soon.

Enjoy!

SQOTD: "My view is whacked"

This SQOTD is inspired by my buddy Rob C. who is a former co-worker and perpetual punk.

Q: All my layers are on, but I can't see all the objects I'm expecting to see in the drawing. It looks like I can only see zero-elevation stuff. What's up?

A: The fix - type PLAN at the command line. Then W for world. (If you are not a key-in person, go to View > 3D views > Plan > World). This will turn your UCS and your view to Top in relation to the world coordinate system.

When you are working in Civil 3D there are quite a few ways a person can accidentally whack out their view. In Civil 3D the most common culprit is jumping into View/Edit Corridor section view and for whatever reason C3D gets stuck in the temporary, unnamed UCS.

Another common culprit is accidentally using Shift-middle mouse wheel. Shift + select adds items to the selection set. Shift+middle mouse wheel gets you into 3D orbit mode. Your view is whacked, even if your coordinate system is still world.

So there you go: PLAN W
Memorize it.