Most of us in Civil 3D Land are fans and daily users of Autodesk Civil 3D. We all can guess, based on history and leaks in the Autodesk cistern, that we’ll be seeing the latest and greatest release of Autodesk Civil 3D 2021 any day now. The specifics of the new release may not knock your socks off. Many of us have other concerns at the moment. The odds are very good you will benefit from the release and the Updates of older Civil 3D releases that will sooner or later come along for the ride.
Sadly, too many make far too much of a big deal about Civil 3D Upgrades and Updates. Too often we neglect to proactively manage those processes. This is a bit like speeding by the Stop Ahead sign. Just saying. If you don’t use and understand the Civil 3D Batch Save Utility, you are working way too hard at the other things. Current projects always rule. That’s the exact point that I make here. You catch the drift.
Autodesk Tools the Work Together
We can expect a bunch of interoperability improvements in the 2021 release cycle.
Check out the video playlist for the release of the latest much more Civilized Revit 2021.
We can probably expect incremental and substantive improvements from the Autodesk and ESRI joint development effort and the Autodesk Connector for ArcInfo.
Speaking of Connectors
You don’t have to read tea leaves or coffee grounds to guess that Civil 3D for BIM 360 Design interop will be the big public thing in Civil 3D 2021. More of us are working remotely. There will certainly be new and improved Civil 3D interop capabilities for Infraworks 2021. These were announced in public Autodesk futures posts in the winter.
Dynamo for Civil 3D 2021 Playlist
Dynamo for Civil 3D, and the Dynamo for AutoCAD that comes along for the ride, include capabilities we should not sneeze at. Can you quickly reengineer the same old LISP into a Dynamo More? Just saying.
Remember that most of those familiar (or unfamiliar) Civil 3D Toolbox Reports produce powerful Excel sheet output that can easily feed this new Dynamo Beast of Burden.
The recent Civil 3D 2020 Update 3 release of the Dynamo Player makes Dynamo much more user friendly already. My guess is we’ll perhaps see a public commercial marketplace for Dynamo for Civil 3D scripts in the coming months.
Drop me an email if you are interested. Why?
Dynamo Scripts Are Content Not Software
Is good functional Content something that’s free? Heck no.
How we pay for content is often well disguised these days, as we all come to discover.
I’m certainly biased.
The Framework for Civil 3D is pure content. No Code. No mandatory software upgrades.
Call the Framework for Civil 3D a form of Netflix for Civil 3D? Well, not really.
The Framework for Civil 3D is probably technically closer to the Bootstrap for Civil 3D than a content marketplace like Netflix, Facebook, Google, or the other social media whatevers.
Truth be told, MoreCompetency, Inc is a self-publishing content enterprise. In the context of self-publishing content creators. we do better than most. No - you won’t find us on Amazon. Silly me.
The Framework Spreadsheet Tools Are Content Not Software
A potential Framework for Civil 3D customer called me the other day to ask about the Framework for Civil 3D Spreadsheet Tools. The Framework includes a bunch of Spreadsheet Tools. Here’s the current basic list:
- Layer Standards Tools
There are more than a few of these in multiple Layer Standards versions in both STB and CTB formats - Civil 3D Codes Tool
Build, Manage, Filter Design and Survey Point Codes for use in DescKeySets and Figure Dbs - Description Key Set Tool
Build, Manage, Filter Design and Survey DescKeySets - Figure Db Tool
Build, Manage, Filter Design and Survey Figure Dbs - Subassembly Codes Tool
Build, Manage, Filter Design subassembly and PKT point content - Survey Query Tool
Build, Manage, Filter Design and Survey query content - Legends and Lists
- Symbols Maintenance Tool
- Symbol Exchange Tool
- Linetype Standards Tool
It can be easily argued that the Framework for Civil 3D Spreadsheet Tools are more than worth the current price of the Jump Kit product all by themselves. Many customers can and do apply and employ these tools to their existing personalized customization of Civil 3D.
The Framework Spreadsheet Tools Are More Than Templates
The customer somehow got the false impression that the Framework for Civil 3D Spreadsheet Tools were empty Excel templates.
The Spreadsheet Tools are not empty Excel Spreadsheets with a few cell formulas.
It is true that most of the Spreadsheet Tools do include starter Excel template type Sheets.
Most contain lots of powerful Excel cell formula content tweaked to help make it easier to system manage Civil 3D parts and pieces in detail.
The Spreadsheet Tools do help manage and integrate all the many resources that Civil 3D requires.
The Spreadsheet Tools functionally contain lots and lots of already integrated content resources.
In other words, users can choose what content to employ without the burden of creating systems and resources from scratch. Content rocks!
The Framework Spreadsheet Tools Futures
The upcoming Release 8 of the Framework for Civil 3D will include substantial integrated content additions to the Civil 3D Codes Tool, Description Ket Set Tool, and the Figure Db Tool. These new resources will functionally integrate the powerful, new content already delivered.
The Power Law Principals apply to the effort and the expected results.
We already recently released substantial additions to the Civil 3D Code Tool.
See the Better Civil 3D Codes to Cry For post for the list of details.
We added over 3600+ Design and Survey Codes to the existing 1500+ supplied Survey Codes with in-depth Key-based support. If you can survey or design it in Civil 3D you can annotate more easily with the Framework for Civil 3D resources.
Autodesk Civil 3D 2021 Upgrade Protection
Those of us in Civil 3D Land will have to wait a bit longer for Autodesk Civil 3D 2021 and that separate list of new features added to the above.
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.
Content to Make Civil 3D Work
Get the Framework for Civil 3D Release 8