Here is something serious to consider or maybe that is something to consider seriously? Here’s an intriguing notion about Civil 3D Templates, Civil 3D Styles, and other Civil 3D resources development concerns what we might want to call The Is It Worth it in Civil 3D Paradox.
One side of the Civil 3D development coin says we must all do the complex customization work to create exactly what we need to get our work done and published out the door expeditiously.
The other side of the coin says a lot of that nuanced customization detail appears to be only a matter of preference.
The Is It Worth it in Civil 3D Paradox
I trust these diverse Civil 3D customization motivations or rationalizations are clear to you?
A paradox means the entire thing is nonsensical, contrary, and a bit confusing to the unwary.
For Civil 3D development that means it is easy to feel like Marty McFly in Back to the Future.
Forgive me for a moment if I play the part of the early Doc Brown in the famous movie and recommend that we be careful to try not to date our mothers before we are born.
Fictional time travel paradoxes can be uncomfortable and so much comedic fun.
Ok. Obviously, the movie Marty never had Chuck Berry’s real world huge and fast hands.
That’s a slice of good, MeToo fiction in this case.
Heads and Tails We Win and Lose
It takes a bit of Civil 3D experience to eventually recognize these apparently opposite choices are two sides of two separate coins. Huh?
We flip both our pennies and our dollars.
One side of the Civil 3D development coin says we must all do the complex customization work to create exactly what we need to get our work done and published out the door expeditiously.
We must deal with this Civil 3D internal development problem because Autodesk choses to provide the absolute minimum level of generic Template, Style, and resources content with their software.
To be fair, Autodesk does sell to worldwide and disparate markets and supports a lot of versions of Civil 3D.
Most folks in Civil 3D Land perceive this minimum level of Civil 3D Template and Civil 3D Style customization and support as something personal to them. It is personal. Some customization in Civil 3D is necessary to do the project work. Someone must also own this work.
This reality produces a ‘We must do this work’ mindset. We must meet our internal levels of perceived satisfaction to make Civil 3D productive.
Products like the Framework for Civil 3D demonstrate this perspective is at least partially an illusion of our own manufacture.
We understand that customers and users tend to focus on exceptions and manufacturers and managers tend to remain mindful of the commonalities.
The important question is: Do we want to pay for this work in dollars or in pennies?
The other side of the coin says a lot of that nuanced customization detail appears to be only a matter of preference.
Plan set deliverable production is driven by Industry standards, readability, and consistent presentation. These factors do matter in the civil engineering and survey projects.
Our Plan Sets must communicate complex engineering and survey information to a lot of different people many with very divergent information needs. We must learn to be flexible and adaptive.
To put it bluntly - Architects are not Plan Checkers and Planning Officials are not General Contractors.
All human beings tend to see the preferences of others as arbitrary and our personal preferences as rational.
We also generally tend to confuse perceived needs of others with personal preference.
My favorite People Skills quote comes to mind:
We Know People Think Differently.
Do We Behave as if They Do?
To replace the first Do above with Can might be more pertinent for some.
Products like the Framework for Civil 3D demonstrate support for a high degree of flexible presentation and surprising levels of adaptability.
We understand that customers and users tend to focus on the particulars and manufacturers and managers tend to remain mindful of the adaptability.
Here’s an interesting and paradoxical bit:
The more custom Civil 3D resources we have in hand the easier it is to become more flexible and adaptive.
The important question is: Do we want to pay for that content in dollars or in pennies?
The Powers to Make Civil 3D Work
Get the Framework for Civil 3D