Civil 3D Trials and Suffering

The common comment we get from new Templates Only and Jump Kit Framework for Civil 3D product customers is
“I wish I’d found you sooner.”

That’s very kind. We never intend to hide.

Almost no one looks for options until the pain, for whatever reasons, comes to their attention. Even then, life remains a struggle. Most of us try to fix our problems with what we have in front of us. That makes sense.

This is sort of like the old joke about men never stopping to ask for directions.

Speaking of Directions

Let me tell you the story about my first trip to Fenway Park in Boston in a VW bus full of little league kids. We drove around and around the famous stadium (that everyone could see out the windows) until the fourth inning.
If you’ve ever tried to park at Fenway, you’ll just nod and laugh.
Trust me.
The directions I received at the local gas stations in Boston Southy were not delivered in English.

Bushel Baskets

How bad can that be?

The people of Israel had to wander around in the Sinai for forty years until the stubborn ones all died off. Ouch. We could argue they initially asked the wrong people for directions too. Ok. Maybe God spoke to them in a thick Southy dialect of ancient Hebrew.

We Moderns fare no better. We sent a man to the moon over 50 years ago. We didn’t manage to figure out how to put functional wheels on suitcases until about maybe 30 years ago. My early wheeled one worked fine until the airlines reduced the size of airplane overheads to be more efficient. Say What?

The solution to this major physical and logistical problem didn’t come out of copious research at Cal Tech, MIT, NASA, or DARPA for that matter. Today I’m sure that someone(s) from the Harvard Business School MBA program claims credit for the invention of wheeled suitcases on Facebook.

Somewhere out there there’s an upcoming robotic AI suitcase that will follow me around.
There’ll be an app for that.

It is a rule.
Experts must make life more complicated.
“Honey, can you please plug in the suitcase to your laptop?” Geez.
Will this new Chinese-built suitcase drone find a way to eat my website?

Nah.
It only wants my contact list and permission to use the laptop camera or better yet complete access my cell phone. Oh, Goody Goody.
The new handy suitcase AI wants me to scan a QR Code in the online manual, so we get our free battery charger in 6-8 weeks.

“Nothing Important is Obvious Until Afterwards”

I first had to memorize the  quote above in like 4^th year Latin. Sorry. I can’t recall the Roman writer who said it - which tells you something. I picture faithful, but frozen, wooly Irish monks copying this phrase onto sheepskins for five hundred years. Their brave work led to the Enlightenment for obvious reasons. These days Yogi Berra probably gets the credit for the quote in the New York Times. These days I cannot be a fat lady unless you all want me to be.

Most of our customers are successful engineers. They believe they can engineer anything better than anyone else. Comes with the territory. These days most our new customers are not new to Civil 3D. The folks have employed Civil 3D for years. Most have multiple seats of the software. Most already have developed internal Civil 3D customized solutions. Some paid handsomely for that. All already have their own Civil 3D Template(s) and Civil 3D Style library collections.

This begs the question, “What do they need our products for?”

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Tiny Tim’s meme can be the theme song that becomes an all too common approach to Civil 3D implementation. These folks laugh when I ask them to sing along to that famous ukulele music from the time of Woodstock. The vision of the ukulele chorus of my son, my daughter, and my grandkids (all together now) learning the song on the instrument just resonates for me. Somewhere over the rainbow, it comes together… over me.

None of these professionals want to talk about how much they spent on all their previous trial and error. I get it. They don’t know and they really don’t want to know. Me too.

Lots of folks are not Framework for Civil 3D customers because of all of that. Comes with the territory.

The Framework for Civil 3D is Optionality

“Where are the wheels for my Civil 3D?”

Clearly, Civil 3D takes a great deal of tinkering to function productively for most Civil 3D users.
Civil 3D is a complex and potentially fragile piece of software.
As model-based software that employs abstracted named Styles and collected Sets of these Styles, successful production work and execution depends on planning and a serious degree of consistency of resources.
We learn this the hard way like we once upon a time huffed our family’s wheel-less suitcases around airports and train stations on our family vacations.

Funny thing is, I talked about the Civil 3D complexity and management problems back in the first Civil 3D beta. This didn’t make me a lot of friends. Silly me, I became one of the first, and today, certainly one of the most persistent, long-term Civil 3D tinkerers.

The Civil 3D Wheeled Suitcase

I am proud to be a player that fiddles and picks.
I’ve done many iterations of the Civil 3D wheeled suitcase. At times I iterate so much in so many Civil 3D releases I get the shakes.

The Framework for Civil 3D is an important idea based on demonstrable historic principles.

Better options can and will produce more payback and better results.

This is the Way the Best of the World Works

I advance these Civil 3D stranger things – That self-imposed affordable, doable, and adaptive options are the most vital product requirements. Those things create real value over the long haul for those that do the work. Those that don’t and won’t, find it hard to see them. The good news and bad news come with the territory.

People are more creative and productive when they have tools and resources with options and viable choices, they can tinker with themselves. Participation in the development process matters. With the many Jump Kit resources people are able to change a little and produce a lot more bang for the buck.

The latest versions of the Framework for Civil 3D cover all the resource details in new adaptive and integrated ways.

Make Civil 3D Work Better
Get the Framework for Civil 3D

 

How to See and Get More in Civil 3D Posts