Infraworks 2018 July Update

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Autodesk released the first update to the 2018 release of Infraworks aptly named Infraworks 2018.1. The download update is available to subscription customers via the Autodesk Desktop App. As per the #Infraworks norm the update is actually a full replacement of an installed Infraworks 2018.

Your older cloud models will require and upgrade after the install. Mine actually required two of those in the last week. There were post release cloud server tweaks.

Infraworks 2018.1 Arrives with a Significant Other

After the Infraworks 2018.1 install is complete the Infrastructure Parts Editor Extension will also be available for install. Note that extension is the long-awaited project Kameleon upgrade/update to the Civil 3D Parts Editor. This is a new application independent Infrastructure Part Editor. This is a catalog editor for the data behind based on Autodesk Inventor parametric shapes. Yes. These days Infraworks and even Inventor updates matter to Civil 3D users. Get used to it.

Autodesk first started showing the new Infraworks release almost a month ago and many parts and pieces much earlier than that. Here’s the 2018,1 What’s New webinar.

Infraworks 2018.1 Update

As of the day of this post the Infraworks help files discuss the Infrastructure Parts Editor tool, but the current Civil 3D 2018 help file still does not. The message? The AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018.1 update will be in Autodesk’s 3rd quarter (Aug-Oct) just like last year.

Do 2 Infraworks Updates = 1 Civil 3D Update?

The follow up in-depth Feature Extraction in Infraworks 2018.1 webinar video is available here. The latest list of new Infraworks features are always listed on What’s New in Infraworks in the on-line help. There are a considerable number of civil design improvements not covered in much depth in the video, The 2018.1 civil design details are available in a bit more detail via the link.

You might want to check out the recent Civil Survey Drone on to Forge Ahead post that covers some of the new Infraworks 2018.1 and related reality capture software benefits in interesting specifics. That  post will save you a good bit of digging around if you want to know what Autodesk is up too.

Get Ready for the Infrastructure Parts Editor

Are there going to be new more useful parts catalogs for the new Infrastructure Parts Editor?

Yes and no. Thankfully or sadly, depending on your perspective, the data structure of the new catalogs is different than the older Civil 3D ones. The current Infraworks 2018.1 versions of the supplied catalog resources are obviously based on the previously Imperial and Metric libraries with some important (and often requested) added Assemblies and Parts.

It’s About Time

Yes. Assemblies does mean that well-matched separate Parts can be put and employed together. At least from my perspective that’s great news for a reason you may not expect. In the future, there will be a formal data method to bridge between different types of systems aka kinds of pipe, types of connections, etc.

There is an extension available for Autodesk Inventor (Infrastructure Parts Shape Utilities) that will allows you to create and publish Parts and Assemblies in Inventor for use in Infraworks and (so they say) Civil 3D in the near future.

No. Only the upcoming release of Civil 3D 2018.1 will tell us whether migration of old to new Parts will be handled in and by Civil 3D. Seems to me that a Civil 3D Parts list will get to be more interesting, but what do I know.

If you customize the Infrastructure Parts Editor catalogs your changes can be saved to either or both Civil 3D and Infraworks formats. The Infrastructure Parts Editor on-line help includes some basic how to videos.

Recognize that the Infrastructure Parts Editor is essentially a database manager for the parametric data behind in a catalog. The parametrics of the Parts and Assemblies are defined in Inventor.

The Freedom to Work in Civil 3D

To really use any of this cool tech in AutoCAD Civil 3D you soon discover you need robust Civil 3D Templates, Styles, and Sets to handle all of this for both the Civil 3D production design environment and all the many forms of publication you must produce. Here’s a hint…

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