Creating Alignments With the .NET API

This post is about creating alignments with the API. I’ve decided I suck at getting code to show up correctly in Blogger, so I’m going to use pictures from now on for the code.

The first example creates an alignment from a polyline.

The code gets the default settings and then creates an alignment from the polyline. It also checks to see if the alignment name already exists. If it does exist then it appends a number behind it, just like Civil 3D does.

I’m going to call my AlignmentNameExists my secret sauce, so I’m not going to share it. It should be easy to figure out, just go through all of the alignments in the drawing and see if it exists. If you are for sure the name doesn’t already exist you can skip the code.

I was going to go through some of the other options, but noticed I don’t have any code handy for the other methods. They should be fairly easy to figure out since they follow the same pattern as the code above.

AutoTurn

It looks like Transoft has released an update to their software for AutoCAD 2014 products. Their press release is below:

Transoft Solutions, developers of productivity enhancing software for the transportation engineering community, has just released version 8.2 for AutoTURN and AutoTURN Pro 3D, the world’s leading vehicle swept path software.

The newest version of AutoTURN includes compatibility with Autodesk® AutoCAD® 2014, Microsoft® Windows® 8 and Server 2012 along with an impressive list of updates to the vehicle libraries. Along with updates to design vehicles in AASHTO 2013, Caltrans 2012, Florida PPM 2013 and Wisconsin DOT, Transoft engineers added functionality for our overseas clients as well. The Israel Department of Transportation contacted Transoft regarding several of their unique vehicle needs. The engineers extracted the key specifications for the Israeli vehicles and they are now part of the AutoTURN 8.2 software package.

In direct response to customer requests, AutoTURN 8.2 also features the capability to automatically share standardized load and sight line specifications between different workstations in a network installation. Christian Milne, Software Development Manager for Transoft Solutions says, “We strive to take our clients’ requests and put them into action. The vehicle libraries within AutoTURN have always reflected the needs of the transportation and engineering industry and the latest version of the software continues that tradition.”

To get more information on AutoTURN 8.2 or to sign up for a free demo please visit: www.transoftsolutions.com

Bloat

I’ve spent the past two days dealing with Autodesk’s bloat. Well actually it’s been the past six years since I’ve been using Civil 3D. With a new release the bloat doesn’t appear to be a topic Autodesk feels it’s worth dealing with. I guess for 2014 it continues with the monstrous 12 GB download for the Infrastructure Design Suite which turns into a rather large expanded file size, of which I haven’t figured out how big it is. For I’m still waiting for the install file to download after 8 plus hours. I’ve heard rumors just to install the package it tops out at over 45 GB of hard drive space required. Only want to install Civil 3D and another item and not the rest of the package? Well you’re out of luck since you have to endure downloading, unzipping everything, and then choosing what you want to install. I’m fairly certain I’ll never have a need to install plane Jane AutoCAD when I have Civil 3D and Map 3D installed.

I recently was programming the creation of an AutoCAD table and adding blocks to the table in a drawing. In order to separate my software development from my drafting work I utilize Virtual Machines with a reduced amount of RAM available. Still a healthy 3 GB, but not necessarily enough for Visual Studio and AutoCAD Civil 3D to coexist on such a machine. I run out of memory when modifying the cell height of the table, which promptly crashes AutoCAD Civil 3D.

Now you might think it’s a huge file that I’m using that causes the program to crash. Well it’s not. It’s an empty out of the box Civil 3D Imperial template with nothing else in the drawing until I create the table. Not quite sure what’s using up all of the memory. Now I thought it might be my program, except before loading it AutoCAD Civil 3D is already using 200 MB from opening the program.

Bad things start to happen when a computer starts to run out of RAM. I know I’ve lived the past six years of living through it.