The recent Autodesk Civil 3D 2023.2.1 Update is generally all about a Civil 3D implementation of the latest and greatest Autodesk Desktop Connector 16.0.0.1902 Update. This latest Civil 3D Update does include some other fixes to some annoying Civil 3D 2023.2 Update issues even if we do not choose to employ the Autodesk Cloud Collaboration capabilities in Civil 3D.
Desktop Connector 16.0.0.1902 Update
“We don’t use the Autodesk Cloud solutions. We don’t employ the Autodesk Desktop Connector. Can we ignore this Civil 3D Update?”
Probably not. There are also core Civil 3D 2023.2 Update fixes included.
In any case, there are good Civil 3D project management reasons to install the Autodesk Desktop Connector (ADC) even if we do not want to employ the Autodesk Docs or Autodesk Drive cloud storage solutions for our Civil 3D project(s).
The ADC gives us handy access to the Reference Explorer tool which works well to display and help us identify and sort out the many potential reference structures in any Civil 3D drawing.
See the Civil 3D Reference Replacement and Tools post and videos for more Reference Explorer and Data Shortcut Managed (DSM) tool details.
You may also want to check out the Civil 3D Managed Data Reference Replacement post and video to understand the power and practical value of Data Reference replacement in our Civil 3D projects.
Take this year’s earlier Civil 3D 2023.1 Update…
Autodesk Cloud Sheet Set Manager
Like the earlier Civil 3D 2023.1 Update the Civil 3D 2023.2.1 Update is Collaboration focused but not altogether Cloud centric.
See The Civil 3D 2023.1 Summer Update post for more about that.
Autodesk Civil 3D 2023.2.1 Update
Since this new Civil 3D Update is about the Collaboration for Civil 3D workflow improvements a short video demo might be useful.
Collaboration for Civil 3D Workflow Overview
Autodesk’s John Sayre covers the Collaboration for Civil 3D essential benefits and workflows in this video.
These latest Civil 3D and Desktop Connector Updates do include significant and self-evident performance and ease of use improvements to the Collaboration for Civil 3D production environment.
See the Autodesk Civil 3D 2023.2.1 Update News
See the Autodesk Desktop Connector 16.0 News.
You probably want to carefully review the ADC 16.0 changes in behavior in the Release Notes section in the Autodesk Desktop Connector help files in some detail.
See our handy Autodesk Online Help page for the on-line help link for the ADC.
The new version of the ADC is definitely not the old version of the ADC.
Case in point.
We must uninstall any previous version of the Desktop Connector to install the new version.
The current ADC 16.0 only fully supports Civil 3D 2023.
However, the new ADC 16.0 currently does not yet fully support the older releases of Civil 3D.
We can probably expect Civil 3D Updates to support the ADC 16.0 and the updated Civil 3D 2023.2 object model changes in the near future.
Install Details
The Autodesk Civil 3D 2023.2.1 Update is available via the Autodesk Desktop Connector app or via download from the Autodesk subscription site.
The update requires access to the original install resources.
The Civil 3D 2023.2 Update should be installed prior to the 2023.2.1 Update.
The upgraded Collaboration for Civil 3D 2023 functionally requires the most recent version of the Autodesk Desktop Connector (16.0.0.1902).
It is also recommended that you install the AutoCAD 2023.1.2 update.
Framework for Civil 3D Support
The current Civil 3D 2023.2 Update builds of the Framework for Civil 3D appear to run without any issues in this latest Civil 3D 2023.2.1 Update.
The Liberty to Make Civil 3D Work
Get the Framework for Civil 3D