Busy fo' Shizzle

The weeks leading up to vacation were so mellow, I got spoiled. Seems like 10million things have been hitting all at once. I'm training a really cool group of guys in Chicago how to make pretty surfaces in Civil 3D. They are awesome, quick learners and total smart-asses - MY FAVORITE!

I'm just finished training some government employees base ACAD in preparation for a move to Civil 3D. That went well, but I find it difficult to teach base Autocad these days. I totally forget that you have to actually be taught how to make a new layer. Civil 3D has me spoiled. And panning and zooming with the mouse? To me it is part of my repertoire of involuntary movements like breathing or making a martini. Others have to be shown, I guess. Weird.

In other news, I'm teaching at AUGI CAD Camp on October 14th in Chicago. Totally STOKED! I'll be doing two classes, "Corridors 101: Assemblies, Targets and Frequencies Exposed!" and "No Voodoo Required – Data Shortcuts and X-Refs with Cross-Section Sheets." Robert Green will be there. Hopefully he's up for autographing my CAD Managers book.

Speaking of October, we also have some user groups happening in Wisconsin. I'll be presenting my little paper on how to export data between Eagle Point and Civil 3D, and esteemed colleague Russ will talking about cross sections.

In Madison:
Thurs. October 2nd
11:30am - 1:30pm
Quality Inn & Suites
2969 Cahill Main
Fitchburg, WI


In Milwaukee:
Thurs. October 9th
11:30am - 1:30pm
MasterGraphics - Waukesha

Register by going here: http://www.masterg.com/events/civil-infrastructure-events

Hope to see you at one of the many events around the midwest!

I'm Back!

Had a great vay-cay.

Want to see all my photos? Go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/surpriseladylou/Prague2008

However, here is an interesting tidbit:

Does this logo

look familiar to anyone?

Eagle Point to Civil 3D

This might end up being my last post before I head off on holiday next week - but then again I've got a 9+ hour flight on which I might end up creating all kinds of content.

Enjoy the following document which describes how to export a LandXML file from Eagle Point and what to do with it once it is in Civil 3D.

Exporting from Eagle Point into Civil 3D Using LandXML

Peace out.

Base AutoCAD Information

The following information applies to base Autocad 2009 users only. However, whenever there are changes to base Autocad, the updates make their way into Civil 3D more often than not.

AutoCAD 2009 Subscription Tools

Autodesk has released a Bonus Pack filled with goodies from the AUGI wishlist. These enhancements and goodies are available to current subscription customers using base AutoCAD 2009.

So what’s in it?

• Consolidated Inquiry tools. With one command, MEASUREGEOM, you can get distance, area, volume, angle or radius.


• Additional tools in PEDIT and SPLINEDIT. You now can convert a spline to a polyline and reverse the direction of a polyline with this tool.


• Rotate a Viewport and View together. There is a new system variable, VPROTATEASSOC. When the variable is set to 1, rotating the viewport brings the view with it.


• Updates to PURGE command. You can use the new tool to purge empty text boxes and zero-length geometry.
  

Download them from the Autodesk Subscription Center. Login is required. If you are not sure how to log in, contact your CAD manager or I.T. contact to see if a subscription account has been set up for you.

Base AutoCAD 2009 Service Pack

Autodesk has released the first product update (service pack) for the AutoCAD 2009 and AutoCAD LT 2009 products. Updates have been made in the following feature areas:

• 3D Visual Styles


• Annotation Scaling


• External References (xref) palette


• Raster Images


• Partial Open


• Plot


• Properties Palette


• Hatch


• Remote text (rtext)
  

This update includes a wide range of general updates, including fixes to Attributes, Blocks, Hatch Boundaries, and many other functional areas. In total, more than 100 improvements are included in this product update.

Anyone can download this update from Autodesk’s website.

A Good Friday Photo

A photo of my co-workers from techcamp.
They were definitely taking charge...of the free beer.