Autodesk released the Autodesk Content Catalog Extensions for Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D in late August without much marketing fanfare or hoopla. The Content Catalog Extensions help us manage and maintain our drawing model content and standards for the supported software in the Autodesk Docs and Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) environments.
Will the Content Catalog Extension for Civil 3D make waves out here in Civil 3D Land?
Probably not initially, but maybe in a while.
Autodesk Content Catalog
The Content Catalog Extension is a web-based, digital asset management system which leverages BIM data to connect all project stakeholders throughout the building lifecycle. That’s a mouthful.
Officially, the Content Catalogs for Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D support releases 2021-2025 in Autodesk Docs and Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC) environments.
The Content Catalog allows for the consistent, storage, management, and search for many common types of digit asset(s) collection(s) stored in many supported file types by employing both automatically generated tags based on folder storage locations and/or specific manually assigned tags.
This ability to search and categorize maintained digital assets by a database of tags is not something to simply ignore. I’m sure most CAD Managers who must maintain company standards would agree.
Another significant benefit is that the Content Catalog will also automatically handle the specific software version Upgrade and Updates for the supported file types.
Consider a future automatic Batch Save Utility maintenance for our company or organizational standardized Assembly Set libraries and/or Civil 3D Style libraries for example.
Content Management in the Autodesk Cloud
The Autodesk Content Catalog is the first Autodesk implementation of the previously acquired UNIFI Pro application from Unifilabs. Not all the features of the prior UNIFI Pro app are supported in this initial Autodesk version.
The Content Catalog for Revit Review
Content Catalog for Revit 2021-2025 versions offer robust support and integration. With the ability to host most file types, users can search across files and by default, the Content Catalog will populate content compatible with the connected project. Once found, users can insert supported content directly into the current model or drawing.
See the Release Notes.
Yes, the current Content Catalog support for Revit models is deeper than the current support for the AutoCAD based applications.
Content Catalog for AutoCAD and Civil 3D 2021-2015 supports flexible search options. The Extension currently supports basic INSERT options for DWG and DXF files. Most other file types can be hosted but will need to be downloaded locally in order to use in drawings.
See the Release Notes.
You can access the other videos in the Content Catalog playlist that demo the product capabilities by using the playlist control in the above videos or by visiting the Autodesk Building Solutions YouTube Channel.
By the way, if you downloaded the Autodesk Content Catalog Extensions when they were initially released on Aug 20, 2024, you should recognize that new builds with fixes were released on Aug 26, 2024.
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