Last week I posted about Best Fit Alignments and Profiles in Civil 3D. Autodesk Labs also upped the game at least for "vertical alignment optimization".
Autodesk Labs released a cloud based application for 64-bit AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 called Silverstar.
See a FAST Silverstar Demo on YouTube
Project Silverstar for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 is a free technology preview that provides cloud-based optimization for vertical road alignments. Only the Existing Ground (EG) centerline is needed for input. For greater accuracy of volume computations, centerline offsets can also be submitted.
Project Silverstar uses a new numerical cloud algorithm that uses modern mathematical optimization techniques to find optimal profiles for given horizontal alignments. Results are sent back to the user after being generated in the Autodesk Cloud. The results can be imported directly in to AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 via ASCII files or LandXML.
This Autodesk lab test will run until Aug 1, 2012 according to the website and the data is valid even after the project ends.