Boo! Now, we can run Civil 3D projects in the cloud. That’s spooky. The scary news arrives just in time for Halloween. To some folks out there in Civil 3D Land, this event will be a bit unnerving. We’ll get over it.
Autodesk released the latest Civil 3D 2020.2 Update. The focus of Update 2 is Autodesk Collaboration for Civil 3D with a pointed focus on BIM 360 has a new cloud-based, working environment for Civil 3D.
On Nov 2, 2020 Autodesk released a new build of the Civil 3D 2020.2 Update. If you installed the previous version 13.2.1748.0 Civil 3D 2020.2 Update, it must be uninstalled before this newer 13.2.1758.0 Civil 3D 2020.2 Update build can be installed. The top of the Framework for Civil 3D 2020.2 Updates post contains hints on the Civil 3D Update the Update mechanics in Windows 10.
The build of the Subassembly Composer is also updated.
Clouds in My Civil 3D Coffee
While I hear that it isn’t exactly a rock classic, the Autodesk rollout video playlist speaks volumes…
BIM 360 Design Collaboration in Civil 3D 2020.2
All the necessary Civil 3D production project support is built in with XREFs (external drawing files), IREFs (Image references), and project DREF (Data References and Data References) support. Note that Survey Db support is not included in this initial release. The basic management tools to do the daily file management grunt work are included inside the Civil 3D Ribbon interface. Heck. Even the Civil 3D Toolspace knows and shows.
You’ve have been practicing with Shared Views in BIM 360? Best not avoid this step towards BIM 360 adoption or adaption. See the BIM 360 Tools page for the video help.
Good Morning Vietnam
It’s been suggested here for over a year that you clean up your DREF act, do the due diligence for TREFs (Reference Templates), and get a handle around improving your production environment Civil 3D Project Templates.
If you’ve done the ditch digging foundation work, you may get to reap the rewards.
You do the PDCA (Plan Do Check Act). You have an executable plan.
They don’t and the odds are they won’t.
The Framework for Civil 3D for 2020.2
We’ll release new Release 8 and Release 7 builds for the Framework for Civil 3D 2020.2 in a few days. We will tweak and fix a couple of minor fixit issues in the recent 2020.1 Update products which on first blush run great. We have years of practice. As we always do, we will test in the final public release of any Civil 3D new release or update.
We do the work in the Framework for Civil 3D, so you don’t have to.
Autodesk Civil 3D 2020.2 Update
Read the Autodesk Civil 3D 2020.2 Update Release Notes
Autodesk Collaboration for Civil 3D
Collaborate on data shortcut projects in BIM 360 using the Autodesk Collaboration for Civil 3D entitlement.
Subscribers to BIM 360 Design will receive an entitlement to Autodesk Collaboration for Civil 3D, which allows project teams to collaborate on Civil 3D data shortcut projects in BIM 360.
Autodesk Civil 3D 2020.2 provides support for Autodesk Collaboration for Civil 3D, including automatic file locking and unlocking for the documents in the BIM 360 project. To work in a BIM 360 project, you can use the same workflows in Civil 3D that you use to work locally or on a LAN, but instead of saving documents locally, you'll use a Desktop Connector-enabled connected drive to work with the documents in BIM 360.
Share documents in BIM 360
- Access your BIM 360 accounts and projects directly in Autodesk Civil 3D 2020.2 using a Desktop Connector-enabled drive.
- Save and upload Civil 3D drawings to BIM 360 to share with project team members.
- Use automatic file locking capabilities to avoid editing conflicts. A document is automatically locked when you open it so only you can edit it, and it is automatically unlocked when you close it.
Collaborate on data shortcut projects in BIM 360
- Use familiar commands and workflows to create and work with data shortcut projects in BIM 360.
- Check for updates of referenced files in the current drawing by using the Check Reference Status command.
Access documents in your BIM 360 projects from the updated Start tab
- Use the new BIM 360 page on the Start tab in Civil 3D to access the documents in your BIM 360 projects.
- Access recently-used documents on the Recent page.
Roadway Design Standards
The following new design standards files based on the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) 2018 design standards are included in Autodesk Civil 3D 2020.2:
- C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\C3D 2020\enu\data\Corridor Design Standards\Imperial\_Autodesk Civil 3D Imperial (2018) Roadway Design Standards.xml
- C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\C3D 2020\enu\data\Corridor Design Standards\Metric\_Autodesk Civil 3D Metric (2018) Roadway Design Standards.xml
Civil 3D 2020.2 Fixes
Corridors
- Fixed an issue in which corridor point labels were not created correctly for data referenced corridors.
- To display the correct label content for a data referenced corridor, apply the corridor assembly to all of the stations to be labeled in the data shortcut source drawing. Apply the assembly at the same stations as the sample lines that are created on the data referenced corridor. You can apply the assembly to additional stations using the EditCorrRegionFreq command. After applying the assembly to the stations in the source drawing and the data shortcut references are synchronized, the labels on the data referenced corridors will update with the correct values.
Data Shortcuts
- Fixed an issue in which you could not upload drawings and their references if the drawings contained nested xrefs or data shortcut references.
- Fixed an issue that caused a delay to occur in some circumstances when creating data shortcuts.
ESRI ArcGIS Data Workflows
- Fixed an issue in the German version of Civil 3D in which the Save Back button was not displayed correctly.
- Updated two warning messages for clarity.
- Fixed an issue in which an empty dialog box opened when a layer with an empty portal URL was selected to import.
- Fixed an issue in which the automatic configuration settings for using a proxy server to access the internet prevented the Autodesk Connector for ArcGIS, Save Back, and Publish to ArcGIS commands from running as expected.
Miscellaneous
- Fixed an issue in which Civil 3D would close unexpectedly when running a command if the STARTUP system variable was set to 2.
- Fixed an issue in which drawings that contained xrefs from Civil 3D releases prior to 2018 were unintentionally upgraded when uploaded to BIM 360.
- Fixed an issue in which an expression in a child label style's Rotation Angle field was removed after applying a reference template.
Object Enabler
- Fixed an issue in which an AutoCAD block could not be inserted into a drawing when using AutoCAD with the Civil 3D Object Enabler or when running Civil 3D as AutoCAD.
Pipe Networks
- Fixed an issue in which specifying a Runoff Coefficient of 1.0 would prevent a gravity network analysis from completing successfully.
- Fixed an issue in which structures created with Inventor and the Infrastructure Parts Editor did not appear correctly in profile views when the structure style used the Display as Boundary option on the Profile tab.
- Fixed an issue where the style, rules, and other settings could not be changed in a parts list for the null structure.
- Fixed an issue in which grip editing a pipe would disconnect it from an attached structure.
Pressure Networks
- Fixed an issue in which fitting and appurtenance labels showed question marks for the station value if < none > was specified for the label’s reference alignment.
Surfaces
- Fixed an issue in which a surface was displayed as filled when the surface style was set to display only the border and the View Style setting was set to Shaded.
Make Civil 3D Work
Get the Framework for Civil 3D Release 8
Speaking of spooky and more than a bit disturbing…
The content of this post is revised from the original posting. For reasons unknown, Google search engine analytics or the Google human censors systematically removed the original post from all search results including direct searches on the entire blog post title. Someone apparently found my irreverent humor that began the original post unacceptable.