Forgive Me If the Civil 3D Framework is Scary

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I do videos and blog posts on a lot of topics inside of Civil 3D. Some folks complain that I don’t do basic how tos. Thank God. There are other folks out there in Civil 3D Land that are really good at that. We feature many of those Civil 3D how to videos by the best experts on our curated video pages. Tell me…

Who doesn’t like New Tips or Tricks for Civil 3D?

An Essence of Creative Innovation is Surprise

Nope. I cannot take credit for that true and thoughtful statement above.

I do like to remind us all that Magic Button Lust is a common technological vice.
This a temptation the software vendors love to pander.
Our real problem is not the temptation, but our self-disciplined response to temptation.

I try focus on the productive and more complex workflows. The CAD and user management of all of that. The neuroscience says that the most substantive training content for adults is written, visual, and auditory all at once. Hence, I stopped the eye-candy picture blog posts, and do the posts and videos in series. The problem is that as the learner and content consumer, we have to be willing to go through the process. We must participate with our brain engaged.

Civil 3D is Not a Spectator Sport

A regional company CAD Manager and ten-year Civil 3D user called the other day. He stumbled onto this website. He remarked that he was amazed at the website videos. That comment was kind. He claimed the videos made Civil 3D look easy to use. Say what? That took me a minute to process.

The Castle of Chaos

Historically, it makes sense that many civil engineering firms and organizations got Civil 3D customized to get their work out the door. In a developmental sense, they focus on publishing Civil 3D Styles and the collected Civil 3D Templates to do that. The method most often replicates old school CAD workflows and production processes. For all the best reasons, we recreate what we know how to do.

No one can, or should, argue that this doesn’t work to initially get work out the door.

The trouble is there’s more to our project workday than that.

 

The Power of Choice

If we have well-executed tools crafted to the way the software works, Civil 3D is easier. It is certainly easier to learn complex software when you get workable and presentable results. I recognize from the frequency of these phone calls from skilled users that this in not always a common experience.

A video made with the integrated Framework for Civil 3D resources, simply demonstrates that more than getting a project published is possible. Civil 3D customization and production implementation is not only about replication, standardization, and consistent deliverables.

The Camera Obscura

OK. I could not resit the reference to a significant historical drafting technique. It makes a point. I continue to argue that the next level of Civil 3D productivity is sometimes hidden or obscured by our initial success at man-handling the Civil 3D Diva to deliver the performance that we want.

If you’ve managed to do that Style and Template work for your firm, you deserve a hearty slap on the back and a raise. Then you get to live with it and inside the ditch you dug. The on-going maintenance is a pain which, as far as I can tell, few folks are really grateful for. Why not remove that as much as is possible?

Civil 3D User Empowerment

The productive goal and work is about user empowerment via an integrated system of Style tools, resources, and model-based workflows that allow us all to make better survey and civil design decisions faster.

That is easy to say, but difficult to build into anything - never mind an affordable whole product.

The continuous development of the Framework for Civil 3D is what we do. We’ve worked for lots of varied Civil 3D customers for many years. That focus shows in the Framework’s nuanced details and production results. Like the man said - Check out the Blog Videos.

Civil Engineers and Surveyors need to get real work done and not customize software.

Our goal is to allow our customers to focus on the survey and civil engineering professional work that matters.

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