The Coronavirus crisis is upon us all. Autodesk officially announced temporary free access to Autodesk Cloud Collaboration Products and some delays and changes to future billing and licensing policies in an effort to somewhat mitigate their customer issues during the crisis. The Autodesk details and official links to more information are listed and linked below.
You have employees who work in US States that are in various state declared lock downs scenarios – Employees may be forced to work from home. The Autodesk BIM 360 Docs and Civil 3D in BIM 360 Design may help staff continue to work from home remotely.
Understanding the operational and functional differences between the two Autodesk cloud applications for civil organizations can be significant to your on-going productivity. To employ:
- BIM 360 Docs - you do not need to upgrade to Civil 3D 2020.2+
All recent versions of all Autodesk software are easier to employ in BIM 360 Docs. - Civil 3D for BIM 360 Design - you are required to employ Civil 3D 2020.3+ and the latest version of the Autodesk Connector.
This functional cloud-based production environment allows your Civil 3D projects to function acceptably without major issues. There are some current easily surmountable limitations for Survey in Civil 3D functionality.
BIM 360 Docs
See our BIM 360 Tools video section for a host of videos and links on this topic from some of the best Civil 3D experts around. Here’s a good high level and features and benefits video about BIM 360 Docs.
BIM 360 Docs Explained
When Docs is employed as a document management environment, production published (deliverable) results from everyone with access can be shared with both internal and external folks in a common managed document environment.
- The BIM 360 Docs interface tools, Issue tracking, and Markup functionality are easy to learn, implement, and employ
- The Microsoft Office 365 integration in BIM 360 Docs is sound and well-tested in many on-going AEC projects
- The support for common document file types and integrations for the same is deep
- There are excellent free on-line training resources available
Civil 3D Collaboration in BIM 360 Design
BIM 360 Design for Civil 3D is all about managed and operational Civil 3D projects in the cloud.
It is important to recognize that BIM 360 Design is first a document management application. This does make the functionality of Civil 3D production projects slightly different.
Sound Civil 3D production skills continue to work with little to no significant training issues beyond the basics covered in many free online training resources. See the video playlist below.
See our series of posts on successful Civil 3D 2020 Upgrade, Update and implementation for BIM 360 Design in the links collected in the Civil 3D in BIM 360 Project Maintenance post. Recognize that well- structured projects with managed resources built with Civil 3D Project Templates are easier to port and maintain.
See our BIM 360 Tools video section. The BIM 360 Design for Civil 3D Basics of what you need to know is covered below.
You can employ the playlist in the video control to play any of the many available videos.
The Collaboration for Civil 3D Playlist
A basic walk through video of the Civil 3D in BIM 360 Design essential setup and workflows
Civil 3D in BIM 360 Design Workflows
Beyond the Basics
Prepare and upgrade a working Civil 3D project with the Batch Save Utility. A slightly revised structure with cleaned DREF and TREF references can reduce significantly the time required to get a project operating effectively in BIM 360 Design.
See the posts collected in the Civil 3D in BIM 360 Project Maintenance post.
See the recent series on Civil 3D Dependencies and References listed in the Civil 3D Design and Data References post.
Register and get free access to deeper and organized Documentation and Help in our Members section.
The Autodesk Cloud and the Framework for Civil 3D
Projects built with Framework for Civil 3D Templates, Styles, and the many other supplied Civil 3D production resources function well in BIM 360 without changes.
Your project data and on-going work can be easily migrated to the Framework for Civil 3D production environment.
If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask.
We are the Masters of Civil 3D Upgrades and Updates for good reason.
The common Batch Save scripts and other upgrade resources are already supplied in the recent release of The Civil 3D 2020.3 Framework Release.
These supplied tools can allow you to also migrate projects and all drawings to the Framework’s Managed System for Civil 3D faster and easier than ever before.
Autodesk Civil 3D 2021 Upgrade Protection
OMG! Autodesk Civil 3D 2021 is also on the way. Let’s make this simple…
We already guarantee that a Framework for Civil 3D product for one release of Civil 3D will upgrade to the next Release and every Update. This demonstrably works for our civil engineering, survey, and public agency customers large to small.
If you purchase a new copy or upgrade to any latest flavor of Jump Kit Release 8 for Civil 3D 2020 between March 10, 2020 and the official Jump Kit Release 8 for Civil 3D 2021 release date, we’ll give you a free Upgrade to that flavor of Jump Kit Release 8 for Civil 3D 2021 when that product is available.
Calls us for remote and affordable Civil 3D Implementation Services and other special service offers for selected customers during the crisis.
1-800-584-1506
Autodesk Official Announcements and Information
From the official press announcement on March 17, 2020 by Andrew Anagnost, Autodesk’s president and chief executive officer. Read the full press release.
“To better support customers facing this new reality, Autodesk is announcing a temporary Extended Access Program for several of our flagship cloud collaboration products.
Let me be clear: we’re not introducing this program to convert customers into paying users. Our goal, instead, is to get a program up and running as quickly as possible to provide customers increased flexibility in what’s become a challenging work environment.
Here’s how the program will work:
- Beginning in the next several days, customers can get free access to select Autodesk products and services.
- Products and services will include BIM 360 Docs, BIM 360 Design, Fusion 360, Fusion Team, AutoCAD Web and Mobile, and Shotgun – all for commercial use.
- Customers can take advantage of this program by visiting Autodesk.com and following the steps they’d normally take to sign up for an Autodesk product trial on our website.
We know this will be an imperfect experience in some ways but, as stated earlier, our goal is to give customers access to this program as quickly as possible. Leveraging our existing product trial experience on Autodesk.com is the most effective way to do this. - Customers can take advantage of the Extended Access Program until May 31, 2020. However, we will continue to evaluate a potential expansion of this program as the needs of our customers warrant.”
Visit the Autodesk COVID-19 Autodesk Resource Center for details and updated instructions.
Autodesk will host a working remotely Answer Day on March 24, 2020.
Business Issues
From the above COVID-19 Autodesk Resource Center page:
Autodesk is committed to minimizing disruption to your business, and currently, these events are not impacting our uptime or our global R&D efforts. We are undertaking some changes to make doing business with us easier.
- To better support customers facing this new reality, Autodesk is announcing a temporary Extended Access Program for several of our flagship cloud collaboration products. More information coming soon.
- We realize these extraordinary times may create cashflow constraints on many of you. To offer some relief, we will extend contract payment terms to 60 days for all customers and partners, for new orders and renewals placed directly with Autodesk now through August 7, 2020.
- We will extend the ability to purchase new multi-user subscription plans to August 7, 2020, and move their retirement to August 7, 2021. While we communicated that we would begin transitioning customers to named users starting May 7, 2020, we do not want to introduce a change at a time when business-as-usual is hard enough. See New Effective Dates below.
New Effective Dates
- August 7, 2020 – Multi-user trade-in available at first renewal for multi-user subscriptions and network maintenance seats
- August 7, 2020 – New multi-user subscriptions no longer for sale
- August 7, 2021 – Multi-user subscriptions retire and can no longer be renewed
Innovation Beyond the Civil 3D Code
Get the Framework for Civil 3D