Out here in Civil 3D Land there’s an intriguing notion about Civil 3D Templates, Civil 3D Styles, and Civil 3D resources development.
One side of the Autodesk Civil 3D development coin claims we must all do the complex customization work to create exactly what we need to get our work done and deliver our published work as expeditiously as possible.
The other side of the Civil 3D development coin declares that much of the nuanced customization detail appears to be only a matter of preference.
Some of us might ask, “Who’s preferences are we talking about?”
We might call this contradiction the…
Is it Worth it in Civil 3D Paradox
The Is it Worth it Paradox demands some careful consideration. The coin flip is hardly a toss-up.
We trust that if you’ve employed Civil 3D for even a short while these software customization motivations and/or rationalizations are somewhat apparent to you?
If we've employed Civil 3D for a while, we soon recognize these software customization issues come around again and again.
The nature of a paradox means the entire thing is a bit nonsensical, contrary, and can be confusing to the unwary.
For Civil 3D development that means it is easy to feel like Marty McFly in Back to the Future.
Let’s remember that famous movie line from Doc Brown,
“Be very careful to try not to date your mother before you are born.”
Fictional time travel paradoxes can be uncomfortable. They generate some comedic fun too.
Our paradox is not as much fun.
We could say that it can be downright painful.
Whether it be Heads or Tails
We Win and Lose
It takes a bit of Civil 3D experience to eventually recognize these apparently opposite choices are two sides of two separate and different coins. Huh? Say what?
We already said… The coin flip is hardly a toss-up.
In Civil 3D Land we flip both our copper pennies and our silver dollars.
One side of the Civil 3D development coin claims we must all do the complex customization work to create exactly what we need to get our work done and deliver our published work as expeditiously as possible.
We must deal with this Civil 3D internal development problem because Autodesk chooses to only provide the bare minimum level of generic Civil 3D Template, Civil 3D Style, and Civil 3D resources content with their software.
Most folks perceive this minimal level of Civil 3D Template, Style and resource customization support as something personal to them. Frankly, it does get pretty personal. Customization in Civil 3D is necessary to perform, produce, and deliver our project work.
It Gets Personal
Someone must own and perform the actual customization work.
That real world experience produces a ‘I must do this work’ mindset.
Put another way…
We must meet an internal level of perceived satisfaction to make Civil 3D productive.
A manufactured product like Jump Kit or Templates Only demonstrates this perspective is, at least partially, an illusion of our own making.
- We do understand that Civil 3D end users tend to focus on the exceptions.
- Project managers and product manufacturers tend to remain more mindful of the commonalities.
The important question remains:
Do we want to pay for the bulk of the customization work in dollars or in pennies?
The other side of the Civil 3D development coin declares that much of the nuanced customization detail appears to be only a matter of preference.
Plan Set deliverable production is driven by Industry standards, readability, and consistent and repeatable presentation. These factors are vital to our internal and external Q and A processes and workflows. The specific details do matter in our civil engineering and survey projects.
Our Plan Sets must communicate complex engineering and survey information to a lot of different people. Many of these people have divergent and growing information needs.
We must acquire the tools and skills to be flexible and adaptive.
To put it bluntly - Architects are not Plan Checkers nor are the City Planning Officials the General Contractors who perform the work we design.
Human beings tend to see the preferences of others as arbitrary.
We perceive our personal preferences as rational.
We tend to confuse perceived needs of others with that personal preference.
A favorite People Skills quote comes to mind:
We Know People Think Differently.
Do We Behave as if They Do?
It might be more pertinent to replace the Do in the sentence above with the word - Can.
Manufactured products like the Framework for Civil 3D’s Jump Kit or Templates Only demonstrate support for a high degree of flexible presentation and surprising levels of adaptability.
- We understand that Civil 3D end users tend to focus on the particulars.
- Project managers and manufacturers tend to remain mindful of the need for adaptability.
Here’s yet another interesting and paradoxical bit:
The more custom Civil 3D resources we have in hand…
the easier it is to be and become more flexible and adaptive.
Seems to me that the Most Important Question is:
Do we want to pay for that content in dollars or in pennies?
Just sayin’.
The Powers to Make Civil 3D Work
Get the Framework for Civil 3D