Forrest Gump was a Good Movie

"Yes, Mom if everyone else was jumping off the cliff I would also" and with that said I'm going to go along with the marketing blitz and mention that Autodesk announced that AutoCAD 2010 has been released. Not quite sure what released means since you can't yet purchase the program. I guess it means that the masses can learn what's in the 2010 version without worrying about a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

I'm not sure but the blurb in the press release regarding Civil 3D looks like a typo. I'm thinking it should read AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 AutoCAD Civil 2010, it looks like the marketing folks are even confused on the versions of the program.

"AutoCAD Civil 2010 AutoCAD Civil 2010 adds a variety of feature enhancements that help civil engineering technicians, drafters, and surveyors complete projects faster including a streamlined user interface, a more complete field to finish surveying workflow, and roadway intersection modeling."

I have seen AutoCAD 2010, but haven't seen much of Civil 3D 2010. The roadway intersection modeling looks intriguing though.

Since I do a lot of posts regarding VBA, it's interesting to see that the AutoCAD product won't be shipped with VBA installed. VBA will be available as a download though. I'm don't know if Civil 3D will be shipped the same way.

The parametric tools look promising and I've done a little experimenting with them. I think they may be helpful in revising a portion of roadway, but probably wouldn't work very well to add them to a whole subdivision. Well I guess I should explain what parametric tools are. It's kind of like partbuilder with an easier user interface, just kind of kidding. You are able to have AutoCAD constrain objects to one another. For instance you can make a an arc portion of a polyline remain tangent to the next line portion of the polyline. The images below show two polylines that have parameters applied. Grip editing the top polylines top rightmost grip will adjust the parts of the polyline and the lower polyline.

Before

After:

To quote Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."