It’s the Summer Solstice Day for 2023. Yeah. This is a matter of perspective. In the northern hemisphere it is the longest day of the year. In the southern hemisphere it is the shortest. That’s the long and short of our planet’s axial tilt. Eheh.
To celebrate the solstice Autodesk released in recent days several significant product Updates for multiple releases of Autodesk Civil 3D.
In Civil 3D Land this set of Updates also comes around once or twice a year. Yep. That too depends on our perspective.
We call them…
The Backwards Compatibility Updates for Civil 3D
Notice the Autodesk carefully never officially calls their Civil 3D Updates that.
“We don’t want to scare anyone, do we?”
To maintain that useful Civil 3D feature called backwards compatibility, Autodesk must release Civil 3D Object Model improvements for their officially supported releases of Civil 3D. Yes. That means our Civil 3D 2022 or Civil 3D 2023 will not be the same after we install these Updates.
This is good news. This does mean that our Civil 3D 2022 and/or Civil 3D 2023 will now include some stuff from Civil 3D 2024 and the upcoming Civil 3D 2024.1 Update. Yes. Really.
There are indeed important business decision mechanics involved in a proactive and adaptive approach to Civil 3D Upgrades.
See the recent Our Civil 3D Upgrade Odds post.
The Latest Civil 3D Product Updates
Civil 3D 2021.3.5
This is a fairly substantial Civil 3D Object Model Update. Note that this 2021 Update surprisingly does not require the depth of updated DLL coverage as the others Updates. Civil 3D 2021 cannot do a number of interface things that newer Civil 3D releases can do.
See the Autodesk Civil 3D 2021.3.5 Update news page for the official details.
Civil 3D 2022.2.4
This is a fairly substantial Civil 3D Object Model Update. Note that this 2022 Update somewhat surprisingly does not require the depth of updated DLL coverage as the 2023 Update. Civil 3D 2022 cannot do a number of new and important interface things that Civil 3D 2023 and Civil 3D 2024 can do.
See the Autodesk Civil 3D 2022.2.4 Update news page for the official details.
Civil 3D 2023.2.3
This is a larger and much more substantial Civil 3D Object Model Update required to better support Civil 3D 2023 changes that were further improved in the Civil 3D 2024 release and required by the upcoming Civil 3D 2024.1 Update.
See the Autodesk Civil 3D 2023.2.3 Update news page for the official details.
Civil 3D 2024.0.1
This really is a small but important Security patch for Civil 3D 2024. This is not to be confused with the forthcoming Civil 3D 2024.1 Update.
See the Autodesk Civil 3D 2024.0.1 Update news page for the official details.
Better InfoDrainage Ultimate and Civil 3D Interoperability
Autodesk Innovyze released an important 2024 release Update to InfoDrainage Ultimate late last week.
This major InfoDrainage Ultimate 2024 Update focuses on significant Civil 3D interoperability improvements.
Civil 3D users will note the addition of many common features from Civil 3D now supported in InfoDrainage Ulitimate.
InfoDrainage Ultimate 2024 supports some familiar Civil 3D properties and Civil 3D 2024 supports native InfoDrainage properties via Property Sets.
See the InfoDrainage Ultimate 2024.1 Update news page for details.
Visit the InfoDrainage What’s New page for details and video help.
Enhancements
Hydraulic Grade Line (HGL)
- This is a graphical representation of the pressure and gravitational potential energy of water flowing through the drainage system. HGL shows the energy level of the water as it flows through pipes, channels, or other conduits. Allows the visualization of the change in energy due to pipe friction and changes in elevation.
Energy Grade Line (EGL)
- This depicts the total energy available to the water, which includes the energy related to water velocity in addition to what is reflected in the HGL.
Part-family Awareness
- Enabled Users to specify the materials for pipes and structures/manholes directly within your project. Pipes and manholes are fundamental components of any drainage system and the materials used for these elements can significantly influence the construction cost as well as the durability under various constraints (for example, shallow pipes).
Improved Mapping When Roundtripping with Civil 3D
- Enabled Users to preserve the pipe/structure part-family when round tripping with Civil 3D. Previously, the drainage network would be categorized in the mapping process based on size, now with the improvements introduced, the mapping logic would categorize the pipes and structures based on size and material.
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