Autodesk Civil 3D started out to establish a change in the civil engineering paradigm. First get the model and, most importantly, the data behind that model right. For practical purposes that word right means - suitable. From that suitable model we may automatically publish what we need to deliver in many forms.
It…
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Posted by
Tench Tilghman
Oct 01, 2026
Tags Civil 3D, Description Key, Description Key Set, figure, figure db, survey figure, survey db, points, survey point, COGO points, video
The title for this post sounds almost like a car finish product. Go on down to the box store and pick up some Surface Care today. Civil 3D Surface Care is in the aisle next to that beer sold by dem Artesians. You remember the Artesians? Don’t you? Ok. Maybe not. You should.
The Artesian tv spots were the best of the 80’s beer commercials. You have to wonder…
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Posted by
Tench Tilghman
Mar 26, 2019
Tags surface, DREF, landxml, survey landxml, points, COGO points, survey point, video, project template
A couple of months ago I received a surprising comment from a new Framework for Civil 3D customer. The firm is a pretty typical regional civil engineering and survey firm with multiple offices. They have a wide-ranging professional portfolio that seems to span a good number of common civil disciplines.
The folks in the AEC firm have been using Civil 3D since release 2012.…
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Posted by
Tench Tilghman
Aug 24, 2017
Tags Description Key Set, Description Key, figure prefix db, points, survey point, COGO points
In the last couple of weeks a recent and necessary security fix for the Microsoft Net Framework seems to have savaged the AutoCAD Civil 3D Survey Query Import and Export a file behaviors. Code that was stable and worked great for the last couple of years and multiple AutoCAD Civil 3D releases suddenly stopped working as advertised.
Odds are Autodesk will take a while to fix their now problematic…
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Posted by
Tench Tilghman
Dec 20, 2016
Tags points, survey point, COGO points, figure, survey db, video
Editable Digital Deliverable production for other CAD apps from AutoCAD Civil 3D is less of a pain today than in the past. However, it’s sad to say that all is not as it should be in Civil 3D Land. I suppose whether you believe the current behavior of the menu pick Export command (EXPORTC3DDRAWING) is buggy or a benefit depends on how you do things and what you are dealing with.…
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Posted by
Tench Tilghman
Jul 19, 2016
Tags export, COGO points, Point Style, survey point, DGN, surface