They say everyone wants an AutoCAD Civil 3D built their way. Mostly, I believe civil engineers and surveyors really need their expensive Autodesk code to work and produce work that is acceptable to them and those that they deliver too. If that’s the goal of your AutoCAD Civil 3D customization, we can work with that.
We build and maintain the most downloaded, most used, and perhaps deepest customization of AutoCAD Civil 3D on the planet. In effect, Jump Kit is the AutoCAD Civil 3D US Country Kit. Find out why. We’ve been at this for longer than anyone else. It shows. Our products deliver results in real world civil engineering and survey projects every day. Our products are...
Robust and Feature Rich
This thing we do isn’t really just a productive, useful, and national standards compliant customization of AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016 and AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015. Ok. It is. More is built-in ByDesign. We continuously work at the platform, our customization engine behind, so you don’t have to. The products produced from the engine get better. Your Upgrades are easier. Life is good.
The platform behind our Production Solution products for Civil 3D is actually a practical customization engine to help you build and systematically maintain AutoCAD Civil 3D your way. People ask,
“How do I do that?”
People First
OK. You need a one or two intelligent Microsoft Office capable and web aware interns.
No. Do not employ CAD staff at this stage. They have personal “ownership” issues, over-educated options, and user preconceptions that will get in the way of the initial list making work at hand.
God forbid, you assign the work to your best people or a CAD Manager. What a waste.
Keep them working.
It helps if the people have OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Kidding aside, you can work with the “detail” orientated.
If they are good at Excel (it helps to understand “string” formulas) and code modern websites for fun or marginal profit all the better.
You’re an engineer or surveyor. You can watch them use Excel and tell in probably a minute or less if they have a reasonable level of spreadsheet skill.
In the interview ask them to describe their personal use of “web frameworks” and “CSS skills”. Have them show you a working site on their phone and discuss the details. Odds are you will understand little or nothing about what they are talking about. Great. You may learn new interesting things.
You are looking for visual graphic skills, data display, and an eye for the specifics of detail.
List Building
Their initial work will be producing detailed lists of things to be matched to other detailed lists of things. This process isn’t rocket science except for the sad fact is some people won’t do the detailed and at times tedious work that’s needed. We tend do a few and then move one to the more exciting stuff.
The little foxes in the field spoil the crop.
“What about their AutoCAD and AutoCAD Civil 3D Skills?
Isn’t that part of the opportunity you intend to give them? We can help…for free. Tons of great on-line video training here.
Honestly, only basic ACAD skills are required. Can you open a drawing? Can you get a listing of core AutoCAD tables? Can you Copy Paste from the ACAD command line and a few key AutoCAD and Civil 3D dialog boxes? Can you run an AutoCAD script file at the command line?
AutoCAD Essentials First
You need a list (INSERT ?) of the AutoCAD blocks you employ in your current deliverables. Pull the list from more than one plan set. Use our supplied Spreadsheet tools and extract the blocks (a WBLOCK script) into a folder or a collection of folders. Build a match list of your symbol (block) names with the supplied Symbol Set names. Then again you could see this detailed post with the written directions.
If you want to modify the Layer System that underlies your templates you need a big list of all the Keys in your potential layer names. Our Spreadsheet tools provide you an easy to use translator table. You need a Keys match list.
Oh. It does help to own a Jump Kit so you don’t have to build the Spreadsheet Tools yourself. It’s a small price to pay for the…
The Liberty to Work in Civil 3D
Did I forget mention this? With Jump Kit, you’ll also be ready to go right to work in AutoCAD Civil 3D. Project conversions from your existing templates are not even a big deal. You are customizing your publication template(s). Right?
Become a Member of cadpilot.com. Gain FREE access to multiple Civil3D video training series, Civil 3D tutorials, and to lots more organized and in-depth AutoCAD Civil 3D help. Detailed Civil 3D Customization help is included. Imagine that. Register here.