People ask, “Where is the AutoCAD Civil 3D Country Kit for the United States?”
Maybe it’s built into the software? Really? Sounds a lot like more email server doublespeak to me. One has to ask, “Don’t civil engineer and surveyor lives matter?”
Pssssst. Here’s the secret…
There is a US Country Kit for AutoCAD Civil 3D
Look no farther. You have arrived.
Welcome to the Managed Framework for Civil 3D.
Our Framework for Civil 3D products are the AutoCAD Civil 3D US Country Kit.
We support every release of AutoCAD Civil 3D you would want to use.
The latest Release of the Framework for Civil 3D will rock your socks off.
One of our oldest customers called me and said I should do the Paul Harvey thing. You know. Tell…
The Rest of the Story
Early versions on our product began as a joint project between myself and a few interested Autodesk Civil Resellers (many of whom considered me to be a Reseller competitor at the time). The project enjoyed the full support of the Autodesk Civil 3D development team.
Programmers do like it when people can actually use their code.
Back in the day we made Civil 3D look good.
Today, we make AutoCAD Civil 3D look and perform…Great.
Lofty Goals
The goal was to produce a framework - a generic core of US Imperial Civil 3D templates, Civil 3D styles, Civil 3D resource libraries, and training dataset that allow Civil 3D customers, Autodesk Resellers, Civil 3D consultants/application engineers, and even Autodesk Professional Services to easily produce customized solutions for AutoCAD Civil 3D.
Autodesk withdrew the bare bones support of the project after only one release for reasons rational people find to be a bit bizarre. Here’s how it was explained to me and others:
“Talking about the existing Autodesk project would confuse all Autodesk civil engineering and survey customers who might want to use AutoCAD Civil 3D.”
Huh?
You see “officially”, the project did not support the State of California DOT (Caltrans) specification.
Therefore, the product wasn’t a really a State Kit.
This was a big deal to the Autodesk DOT sales effort at the time.
Mind you, Autodesk named the project a State Kit when we all agreed in advance it wasn’t.
We started the project to build State Kits from it. Autodesk quit.
We parted ways. I had retained the development rights. Maybe that was the burr in their saddle. I doubt it. I don’t think Autodesk cares. Autodesk sells code. They are very good at that. Our product isn’t code. There's much more to real world productivity than that.
Autodesk has been true to their word. Autodesk staff NEVER talk about the product.
They never talk about the US County Kit for AutoCAD Civil 3D.
Kinda weird if you ask me…
The Little Engine That Could
We stick to the goal and deliver on the promise.
We gave away Free AutoCAD Civil 3D template downloads for many years.
Today, we give away a fully functional Templates Only for a ridiculous and nominal service charge.
“Is something wrong with it?”
Nothing. Templates Only is the real deal. People use it every day.
Lots of free Civil 3D training on the web uses it.
We do believe you need more to employ Civil 3D in production.
Any self-respecting Civil 3D organization can afford even our most popular product – Jump Kit.
In answer to the obvious question:
It’s in There
Unquestionably, our products are the most downloaded and perhaps the most employed AutoCAD Civil 3D product in history.
Our products are in use in every State and US Territory, many foreign countries including many metric standard ones. OK. Maybe we should do that. I’m told Variants are now the national standard in places. I kid you not.
How many civil engineers, surveyors, and government agencies use our Framework for Civil 3D products or their own customized versions of them? I can’t say. It’s a lot. People come back for updates. Grin.
We do make maitenance and release and project upgrades easy.
Strange thing is…
Odds are, even the Civil 3D stuff you use today may include renamed parts and pieces of this little project to make AutoCAD Civil 3D work.
Fine by me. It is easier to edit than to create. Enjoy! Get to Work.
Now you know the rest of the story.
A Higher Standard to Build On
Posts in the Framework for Civil 3D series
- Why the Framework is called the US Country Kit for AutoCAD Civil 3D
- Is the Framework a Customization? The Civil 3D Edge of Travelled Way
- Why the Framework is Civil 3D Innovation Beyond the Code
- Business Decision and the Civil 3D Painful Truths