Officially AutoCAD Civil 3D 2019 became Autodesk Civil 3D 2019 on its release day earlier this week. You might ask if the new Civil 3D 2019 is actually a Civil 3D 2018 Update? There is pretty much one Civil 3D for both 2018 and 2019 at this point. Hence I couldn’t resist the tongue and cheeky post title. If you’re looking for new Civil 3D specific software features in 2019, you won’t find many.
Autodesk says there is one. That’s a first.
Civil 3D 2019
In Civil 3D 2019 you can now create a fixed circular or fixed parabolic vertical curve by specifying a high or a low point. This is publically the only change in the Civil 3D object model.
Should I paraphrase Marty Feldman as Igor from Young Frankenstein?
Wish List? What Wish List?
At this point in Civil 3D 2019 we do get 2018 and 2019 interoperability except for the new high and low point vertical curves. Nonetheless, Civil 3D 2019 thinks it is different software from 2018 from our perspective.
Maybe Civil 3D 2019 is the new safe space for snowflakes. Nah. We all know the Civil 3D diva is complex, demanding, and so powerful that sometimes it hurts.
I know. It is a bit confusing that Civil 3D 2019 is now a platform that technically runs on the AutoCAD 2019 Map 3D Toolset.
Perhaps 2019 is a tacit admission that the civil engineering and survey space is more concerned with getting work out the door than fretting over implementing new software. Indeed. Civil 3D 2018 was a pretty significant uplift with many additional new tools and features crammed into the initial 2018 release and two major Updates.
Perhaps a lot of Civil 3D tweaking had to be done for the core AutoCAD 2019 new features which are as they say in marketing– compelling. The new Shared Views and the improved Drawing Compare tools seem to demo well.
Collaboration and Data Exchange Release
The Autodesk powers that be will certainly call this release an Interoperability and/or collaboration and data exchange release. Improved Corridors and Intersections from Infraworks models with component roads was clearly a must do. Kinda sexy too.
Read the official What’s New in Infraworks and Civil 3D post.
You really do want to pay some attention to the prep work required in Infraworks that can make the port process easier. Take the Autodesk suggestion to backup model your Infraworks 2018 models seriously. See the Infraworks Readme as a place to start.
Infrastructure Parts Editor
Autodesk also released the Infrastructure Parts Editor 2018.2 Update. This update notably synchs the new Parts Editor code in Civil 3D 2018.2. Even if you don’t plan to deploy Civil 3D 2019 right away, you probably want to do this Update. See this News item with links to the appropriate readme file.
Batch It
Hey! There’s a new tool for the CAD Managers amongst us. An improvement to the Bat Suit(e) if you like. Huh? The title of this section sounds like…
Sorry. I’m still a bit giddy from all the Autodesk 2019 installs.
There is a new Autodesk Batch Save Utility which probably exists as much to just to fix performance issue problems in drawings as anything else.
Because the new Batch Save Utility tools include a script call reference there are potentially some nifty maintenance tricks we could do with it. The command appears to support SCRIPTCALL and LISP so you can do a lot on a selection of DWT or DWG files.
More on and about the Autodesk Batch Save Utility later with some helpful instruction included. Like many new tools the tool should come with warnings and cautions.
Civil 3D 2019 and the Framework for Civil 3D
The current Release 7 for 2018 build of the Framework for Civil 3D runs great on Civil 3D 2019 based on our preliminary testing of the shipping build of Civil 3D 2019. You can try Templates Only for chump change.
At this point the Release 7 runs on a staggering number of supported releases of Civil 3D albeit with some differences in capabilities based on the Civil 3D release you want to run. We’ve released multiple AddOns recently. More Release 7 AddOns are on the way.
Get Back to Work
Our upcoming Release 8 will certainly include more than one groundbreaking and innovative reason to upgrade to the best Civil 3D Template and Civil 3D Styles solution on the planet.
See the earlier Release 8 futures post for some highlights.