Autodesk quietly released the Autodesk Civil 3D 2024.1 Update late last week. If you employ Civil 3D 2024 and you install the latest Windows Updates, the AutoCAD 2024.1 Update, the Map 3D 2024.04 Toolset Update and this recent Civil 3D 2024.1 Update, you should notice daily Civil 3D performance improvements even if none of the many other Civil 3D 2024.1 Update Enhancements and Fixes float your boat.
My friends, there is a lot of connected Autodesk code attached to this little ol’ Civil 3D Update. That only partially explains the length of this post and why the Cadpilot News feed overflows at the moment.
Autodesk Civil 3D 2024.1 Update
The Civil 3D 2024.1 Update certainly took longer than usual to arrive this year.
We might assume Autodesk performed some important work under the hood. Sort of a Labor Day labor of love, if you catch the drift.
We already mentioned the core AutoCAD performance and graphic engine improvements which we can all cheer about some more. Hoorah.
Civil 3D Backwards Compatibility
Separate AutoCAD 2023.1.4 and Civil 3D 2023.3 Updates were released at the same time as Civil 3D 2024.1.
Civil 3D 2022.2.5 and Civil 3D 2021.3.6 Updates were released a couple of days later.
All of these Civil 3D Updates maintain the functional backwards compatibility of the Civil 3D Object Model between these releases.
The Civil 3D 2024 Update 1 includes a raft of significant and listed Enhancements and some really important Fixes.
See the Autodesk Civil 3D 2024.1 Update News post for both lists and the official details.
Ready or Not
As pointed out in the recent Get the Gear Up for Civil 3D 2024.1 post, we have a bunch of routine install setup work to perform before we pull the trigger on the Civil 3D 2024.1 Update.
See the CadPilot News posts:
A note about the…
Civil 3D 2024 Extensions
If your daily production workflows are dependent on any of the various and common Civil 3D Extensions or Civil 3D Plug Ins, you can probably hold your breath and wait for them. We can reasonably expect the release of most of them real soon now. The core 2024 Extensions are now available.
As of this posting date the following Civil 3D 2024 Extensions were released:
- PPK Survey Extension 2024
- SHP Import Export Utility 2024
- Coordinates Transformation Tool 2024
- Geotechnical Modeler Extension 2024
See the News links above for the Civil 3D Extension details and Release Notes.
See the recent Civil 3D Drawing Transformation Tools post for more about why the Coordinates Transformation Tools may matter to you.
Mission Critical Civil 3D Tools
Project Explorer (PE) is now included automatically in the Civil 3D install and this Update includes new Subassembly tab functionality and reporting within the PE.
Grading Optimization (GO) is installed separately. GO is not updated in the Civil 3D 2024.1 Update. Mind you, the GO for Civil 3D 2024 is much improved already.
Dynamo was updated to the most recent Dynamo 2.18 core. As I recall there are nice Dynamo Player fixes in there. The port of the Civil3DToolKit nodes and functionality is not included in the Civil 3D 2024.1 Update and remains an ongoing work in progress.
Civil 3D 2024.1 Enhancements
The best enhancement to Civil 3D 2024 is, of course, the Framework for Civil 3D.
Our early testing appears to show that the current Templates Only 8 2024 and Jump Kit 8 2024 product builds run fine in Civil 3D 2024.1.
Yeah. We been at this a while.
Our Framework for Civil 3D 2024.1 product builds are under construction and should hit the street real soon now. Stay tuned.
The Civil 3D 2024.1 Update is a major update to Civil 3D that includes significant enhancements. Some of these tweaks should produce some significant Civil 3D training video fodder in the coming months.
AutoCAD Performance
The earlier AutoCAD 2024.1 Update Released post comments on the raw AutoCAD 2024.1 performance improvements on file Opens and related XREF resolutions improvements.
Bet you enjoy that. I do.
The AutoCAD handling of graphics in coordinate systems and with lots of text annotation should be helpful for most civil engineering and survey people in Civil 3D Land.
Loads of a large Reference Template (TREF) and multiple TREF stacks is better in Civil 3D 2024.1.
Hoorah and worth the price of installation.
Civil 3D Batch Save Utility processing of complex Civil 3D project drawings is quicker. This is also true for the Batch Save in the Civil 3D 2023.3 Update with that latest AutoCAD Update installed.
Corridor Workflows
Significant improvements to the creation, edit, and maintenance of Corridor Transitions. The Update includes new Transition Tolerance Gap property (makes Corridor Frequency issues less painful) and the ability to Copy and Paste Transitions.
The Transition Set (TSET) got easier to build, edit and maintain. TSETs got easier to copy around and reuse. Corridor Transitions matters a lot if we cannot employ targets on the subs.
Surface Workflows
New Civil 3D typed commands to add common data to Surface definitions directly from the command line. Finally, simple Civil 3D Wish List fixes to a dumb repetitive Civil 3D Surface construction problem that has been around since the dark ages. Where have you been all my life?
Project Explorer
A new Subassembly tab in Project Explorer with improved edit and reporting support for subassemblies. The PE already improved Subassembly property visualization in Civil 3D. The new PE functionality helps when we have a sea of subs to grind through and adjust. Corridor construction geeks should love this one.
Subassembly Workflows
Most of these interface improvements are buried in the Toolspace Prospector right click menus. That makes these new goodies all a bit easy to miss and overlook. The new (but old) exposed stock .Net subs that are now exposed as Other Subassemblies in the Prospector tree is a Godsend.
- Directly import Subassembly Composer PKT files by Right Click in the Prospector
- New Right Click menus support to Create New subassembly instances or Change Subassembly PKT references in the Subassembly collection in the Propector tab
- A new Other Subassemblies node in the Subassemblies collection in the in the Propector tab that displays the Civil 3D stock .Net based code subassemblies.
- A new Subassembly tab in Project Explorer with improved edit and reporting support for subassemblies. Commented on this one above. Love it and use it. The PE Rocks.
- Improved Event Viewer support for Subassembly warning messages during Corridor creation and rebuilds. For Corridor geeks this removes an annoying feedback loop we mostly have learned to live with.
InfoDrainage Interoperability
A notable enhancement not mentioned in the official Autodesk Civil 3D help files is the improved integration with the InfoDrainage Ultimate 2024.1 Update. The Civil 3D Pipe and Structure data now goes over and back. InfoDrainage 2024.1 produces Property Set details in Civil 3D and the matching of parts between the apps is much improved.
Gravity Networks
- Pipes can now connect to Structures in other gravity Pipe Networks. Dooh.
- There are new Text For Each Label Style components for Profile View Band Labels for Structures. This also supports staggered Labels in the Band which makes me shudder at the thought.
- There are new Text For Each Label Style components to add Property Set data for connected Pipes and Pressure Pipes in Structure Labels. This is necessary for InfoDrainage data integrations and labeling of the same in Civil 3D.
Pressure Networks
Significant improvements to Pressure Pipe Run editing and stability that includes:
- The capability to move and rotate pressure pipe runs using the AutoCAD MOVE and ROTATE commands without detaching from their underlying pipe run alignments
- Automatically swap between a tee and a wye Fittings if the Parts are available in the Network Parts List
- The reference alignment of the adjacent pipe is now automatically used when adding new parts to a pipe run.
Improved support for Connected Pressure Pipe annotation that includes:
- Label and stagger the data for connected Pressure Pipes in the Profile View Band labels for Fittings and Appurtenances.
- Add Property Set data for connected Pipes and Pressure Pipes in Fitting and Appurtenance Labels
ArcGIS Workflows
A new capability to modify and update AutoCAD objects and save back the changes to ArcGIS. Move AutoCAD points, polylines, and polygons to an ArcGIS layer and then save back the newly added objects.
Improved support for arcs:
- Arcs on a polyline layer stored in ArcGIS are imported into Civil 3D as true arcs for all supported features.
- You can move new AutoCAD or Civil entities with arc segments to imported ArcGIS layers in Civil 3D and save them back to ArcGIS with the arcs kept instead of tessellated.
- You can refresh ArcGIS layers with arcs and preserve the arcs.
Improved the performance of refresh updates from ArcGIS and save back changes to ArcGIS.
- ArcGIS domain values are now imported as a List type property set rather than as a read-only string type so that you can update the domain value list from both Civil 3D and ArcGIS and keep it synchronized when refreshing and saving back.
- The default feature type to be imported into ArcGIS for each layer is now cached after it is specified, so the next time the layer is imported in the same session it can be imported with the latest feature type that was specified.
- The layers are shown in alphabetical order in the Autodesk Connector for ArcGIS so that you can find a specific layer more easily.
Rail Workflows
Ability to add Cant specific properties to spiral and tangents segments in a Rail Alignment.
Fixes
A huge list of official fixes for almost every Civil 3D Feature and the directly related apps. My Fav Fixes may not be yours. Just sayin’.
See the Autodesk Civil 3D 2024.1 Update News post for the details.
The Best Update for Civil 3D 2024?
Get the Framework for Civil 3D