Back to the Future in Civil 3D 2020

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Got Mr Fusion. Are you ready to travel? Did you blow dry this morning?
To quote the Bay Area 80’s jazz funk by Huey Lewis and the News from Back in Time

“All I wanted to do, was play my guitar and sing”

Geez. I hate to admit that I almost bit off more than I could chew this spring. I set out the clean up the humongous Style Tool collections in two Releases of the Framework for Civil 3D for Pipes and Pressure Pipe and/or Conduit Systems. Yes, folks. It is pretty easy to employ single-line Pipe Styles and block-based vault symbols to document many typical infrastructure pipe and/or conduit systems in Civil 3D with Pressure Pipes. KISS.

See the Civil 3D 2020 Release 8 Framework Products post and the Release 8 Details page.
See the Civil 3D 2020 Release 7 Framework post and the Release 7 Details page.

A wimpy apology to the traffic signal design and diagram folks, I couldn’t face doing the Style Tools for you all this time around, but you will catch the drift…I hope. A Traffic Signal and Street Lighting Systems AddOn is on my wish list. If you have symbols and annotative details you want that we don’t deliver, I’d love to hear from you. Help make the Framework better.

Silly me. At the same time this spring, I somehow managed to write a comprehensive series of in-depth posts on Civil 3D Style Maintenance and Improvement. Customers asked. What can I say? I call that beast the Style Maintenance Handbook. Register. Everything you ever wanted to know about viable Style management and maintenance systems in Civil 3D but were afraid to ask.

Have fun. Toast your brain on the essential need for a Known Good and a Template Target or two. I make no apologies for the new language required to talk about new innovative ways to do the work.

Style Tool Civil 3D Release Transparency

All these new and improved Jump Kit and InstantOn desktop Style Tool resources also work all the way back to the Civil 3D 2018.3 build of the Framework. All the latest Crossing craziness is supported and in detail. Yes, we tested them too. This turned out to be upwards of 1200+ new Label Style Tools alone. Yucky poo. Thankfully, this is work you never have to do.

Sing it together…

It is Easier to Edit than Create

Yes. If you are an existing customer, you can buy the prior release upgrade to Release 8 or Release 7 of Jump Kit for Civil 3D 2020. The resources supplied will allow you upgrade whatever Style Tools you need into your existing templates and project drawings even in older releases of Civil 3D.
See the Civil 3D Pipe Dreams post for the arcane Autodesk details of how and why this works.

Adaptive Layer Standards

Many organizations become Framework for Civil 3D customers because they need to Civil 3D to work well in production. We all know this is tougher, more expensive, and more of a hassle to do than it appears. The Framework is an affordable managed system that demonstrably works in demanding Civil 3D environments.

For many customers the competitive project need to be able to publish and produce crafted deliverables in different CAD Standards is an every-day reality. Some folks not so much until the next job totally depends on the ability to produce work in a required standard specification. You know the drill.

“Dave? Can our Civil 3D templates do that?”

I’ll forgo the video on the Framework’s built in support for both STB and CTB publishing. See the InstantOn Miracle video here. Yes. We done that magic for a long time now. People say it works.

I can’t resist this short mind blowing video that demo’s the Framework’s powerful and built-in Adaptive Layer Standards. Now you can actually cope with clients (and pesky project managers) who change their minds mid-stream. Imagine that.

 

Adaptive Layer Standards Unleased

Left unsaid is that the Layer Standard(s) we are talking about is totally up to you or not. The not is more likely than most of us want to admit. The Framework’s managed system and integrated Spreadsheet Tools take the competitive, customization gloves off. Take that, you soulless plan checkers.

Can you feel it?

Honestly, the Framework’s NCS support is employed every day in every US State (and elsewhere) as a standard of consistent compliancy to build standards from. Visit our much-visited Open Standards Downloads page.

Back to the Future in Civil 3D

Imagine starting a project drawing from a Civil 3D template that only contains your STB or CTB publish choice, your basic Layer, Block, and other CAD Standards, and the only essential Civil 3D Standard Styles. Sounds like a blast from the past to me.

Can you feel it?
It’s the Power of Love.

What’s not to love about a Root Template like that?

No more of that One Template to Rule Them epic fantasy crud.

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

Join the TREF Revolution

Time to trade in that ring for mortal men that corrupts the thinking and the spirit and adopt the Reference Template Tool (TREF) technology. The TREF won’t solve all your Style management problems. TREF tech simply allows us the manage the end results much better.

 

The Civil 3D TREF Made Simple

If you have a classic Civil 3D Template target that works, you are good to go with a simple TREF implementation. Everyone who employs Civil 3D today has one of those.
You can and should test this basic implementation in a copy of a recent Civil 3D project of your own.

The latest and greatest Framework for Release 8 and Release 7 ship with Civil 3D projects in both STB and CTB that employ this basic single file TREF method. This allows you to easily delete unwanted Styles from the Style collections in InstantOn and get instant project-based feedback. Can you feel it?

The latest Framework for Civil 3D 2020 supports and includes built-in multiple file TREF resources and the essential resource structure to manage and improve them. Imagine that.

I need to do an Adaptive Building Blocks video to talk more about scary stuff.

Can you feel it?
It’s the Power of Love.

Back to the Future was the smash summer movie hit 33 years ago.
Power of Love was the number one single probably thanks to way too much MTV video airtime.
Me? I still prefer my jazz funk from Tower of Power who still simply own it. Can you feel it?

Release the Power Beyond the Code
Get the Framework for Civil 3D Release 8

 

Reference Template TREF Posts Series

Civil 3D Reference Template Target Method

  • Reference Template Target nuances and those Other Important Style Maintenance Tools in Civil 3D from the Style Improvement Handbook.

Civil 3D Reference Templates Made Easy

  • A step-by-step how to on Reference Template (TREF) implementation in a working project - with video.

Back to the Future in Civil 3D 2020

  • The power of Adaptive Standards coupled with Reference Templates (TREF) and managed Style libraries in Civil 3D - with video.

Civil 3D 2020 TREF Root Template

  • The simple step-by-step nuance of Root Template construction for use with Reference Templates (TREF) in Civil 3D - with video.

Together We Do Work to Improve Civil 3D

  • A simple workflow to tweak Linetype Layer assignments with Layer States in Civil 3D