All too often our human propensity to want to employ the AutoCAD tools we know tends to get in the way of productive work. People tend to think we use AutoCAD to draw pictures. But AutoCAD uses data to create pictures which is something entirely different. AutoCAD Civil 3D employs structured data to allow Civil 3D users to create representative, interactive models which is dissimilar yet again.
When we are trying to cook up a solution to a problem, our CAD tool user perspective can be a huge waste of thyme.
It’s Ugly But It Worked
Most of the time when you come up with a solution that works like this, it is a dead giveaway you didn’t see or know something important. If it’s ugly, the odds are you brought a sword to a gunfight. It is more likely that you used a hammer when a chisel would have accomplished more.
If you are an expert this can be just as true as it can be for the novice. I must remind myself of this all the time. We all get to eat crow, hold our nose, and pretend the dish tastes like chicken.
AutoCAD is Not a Database Engine
The most common problem I tend to see in CAD folk is a serious lack of data management skills. What should be done in a different software people try to get done in AutoCAD, Map 3D, or Civil 3D itself.
The Framework’s Spreadsheet Tools are make customizing AutoCAD Civil 3D more manageable. They make the impossible possible. Clearly all the magic isn’t accomplished inside AutoCAD Civil 3D. Register and find out what they do.
If you want to be more productive in the evolving world of model-based software, you must be more competent in Excel and understand the fundamentals of SQL and information data management. If you are afraid of an INNER JOIN or a Pivot Table, the work is going to get a lot more difficult in your data-centric future.