Autodesk was kind enough in the Civil 3D 2020 release (and all AutoCAD 2020 based products) to recognize One Drive, Drop Box, Box, and Azure clouds file locations that are exposed in your Windows Profile in the File Open boxes. Based on what cloud apps you have installed, the Places list in AutoCAD file selection dialog boxes now includes these services. Needless-to-say, the Autodesk Cloud Services support is included.
Smoke Gets in My Eyes
Some days you must spin the Platters… The most memorable Oh ever sung and rung.
One of the common user complaints about Civil 3D is the repetitive way you must crawl around the file system to find and get resources. This is certainly one of my pet peeves. This generated a popular set of posts and videos that I’ll get to in a bit. Civil 3D has a lot of potential resources. Back in the day, we called the default install’s resource structure…
Down the Rabbit Hole
The reference to Lewis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland still seems appropriate. For new and inexperienced AutoCAD users the Rabbit Hole is bewildering. The multiple rabbit holes for Civil 3D are worse. Do I get an Amen?
Autodesk continues to exacerbate the problem as new software features, tools, and resource pools are added to Civil 3D. Dynamo in Civil 3D 2020 poses some interesting new project file management challenges for example. At some point I’ll do a post. Meanwhile…
Don’t hold your breath. There is apparently no improved software management setting solution for the many Open dialog boxes in sight.
Thankfully, Autodesk stopped moving around the key resources to load Civil 3D successfully releases ago. They handle the important ones from an AutoCAD/Windows Profile…Well, mostly.
Survey in Civil 3D is a red-haired stepchild after all and it still runs on its own Settings.
Hopefully, you save and manage your typical .user_set files from a common shared location(s).
Why do we still need a Civil 3D setup training video just to make things work well and perform consistently? Ah. Because we do.
Many Civil 3D Open locations default to the classic what folder you visited last or else a specific tool-based location. Nothing confusing or maddening about that? We have to handle, manage, and organize the locations of files on our own.
Shared Expectations
You, the Civil 3D user, and the OS are supposed to standardize all of this from Autodesk’s perspective. We are free to make a genuine mess of things in our projects. Smart folks employ one or more Civil 3D Project Templates to get a grip on the problem. The links to a series with videos on Project Start Up can be found here.
It is assumed but left unsaid that there are a set of basic Windows Explorer skills that every Civil 3D user has. All the people who work with you understand the Windows tools available in the Open box and the differences between them…Right? This video uses a Survey Queries resource location as an example.
Solutions to Manage Open Clicks in Civil 3D
It seems appropriate to review these Windows Open box essentials. I ready said that some of these you can, and should, build into your Civil 3D Project Template(s).
The Framework for Civil 3D’s managed system and structure intentionally supports both generally shared Civil 3D resource implementations and project-specific resources. Some customers even mix and match both forms of resource management depending on the project need. That’s a Civil 3D user higher level skill thing.
We document all of this - even how to systematically maintain and upgrade Civil 3D projects. Who knew?
What Do You Know?
Inspiration arises from afar.
Someone who doesn’t employ the Framework for Civil 3D templates and Civil 3D style libraries emailed me that our on-line help and documented management approach made their company Civil 3D implementation easier. Glad to be of help. Thanks.
You can Register and see all that detail, help and support here for free.
See the Install videos page and the Shared Resources for Civil 3D resource location directions.
We Adapt or We Work Too Hard
The Framework for Civil 3D is available in both Release 8 (NCS 6.0 compliant by default) and the older Release 7 (NCS 5.0+ compliant by default) versions for multiple releases of Civil 3D. Both of our Releases include the resources and tools to support the Adaptive Layer Standards.
Release 8 includes our Adaptive Building Block libraries and more resources not included in Release 7.
Two Releases of the Framework for the Price of One
Buy a Jump Kit for 2019 in Release 8 or Release 7 before our new Framework for Civil 3D 2020 products ship and receive a free upgrade to a Jump Kit 2020.
Unleash the Innovation Beyond the Code
Get the Framework for Civil 3D Release 8