Autodesk released the a new product called Autodesk 360 Infrastructure Modeler today. I’ve got to say I’m extremely disappointed in what Autodesk is providing for Civil Infrastructure users. I see lots of great BIM features for other disciplines, but when it comes to site design there doesn’t seem to be any movement towards improving the work flow.
Infrastructure Modeler 2013 is essentially being moved to the cloud to allow collaboration in the conceptual phase of a project. But who is asking for a conceptual tool? Is it you? Do we really need another way to create an alignment? Is pushing and pulling a point on the roadway the way you want to do design?
I want your feedback! Am I wrong? Is this what you are asking Autodesk to develop? You’d rather have a conceptual design tool that brings in data from Map 3D and then use an entire new tool set to create alignments, profiles, and corridors? I don’t get the AIM product or why it’s needed. It feels like it should be an added feature set in Map 3D or an improvement in Civil 3D for corridor generation at the time of alignment creation.
You’d rather Autodesk provide valuable resources to a conceptual design tool rather then having Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis integrated into the product?
I just don’t get it. Please tell me why you are excited about this offering for the Civil Infrastructure users.
4 comments:
Let's see - I wasn't asking for the online component - the "360" part. Sharing the concepts online will be nice if it can handle the size of the model. What the 360 part does it allow people in different geographic locations collaborate on the model so I could see where a select few could benefit from that. I am using AIM as a Google Earth replacement to make videos. The ability to handle large surfaces and imagery is the feature AIM has that beats Civil 3D. I am not sure incorporating the two would be helpful. However, allowing them to communicate freely back and forth directly would be great. If it was really "BIM" then AIM could read the Civil 3D Project directly without the import/export process. Though the 2013 IMX is WAY better than the 2012 IMX. I am not sure the overhead of having all the AIM "stuff" in Civil 3D would be worth it.
I may be wrong, but I'm kind of guessing that Infrastructure Modeler is the beginning of the successor to Civil3D - a new UI that would be more model/graphic oriented that would down the road end up generating plans. I say that because I remember that Civil3d in its first renditions was not useful for more than creating conceptual design - it took a couple years before they got the features to carry concept to final plan. The way it has come about and quickly moved to the cloud seems to be to be competing with Siteops a bit - except that it's really just visual from what I can gather, it's not actually performing the kind of calculations that siteops is.
I think the previous "poster" is correct. From what I've heard, Autodesk committing about 4 times as many developers to AIM as they are Civil 3D. For Civil 3D users (like myself), this sounds like a bad thing since there are a number of features that could use improvement within Civil 3D (especially 2013). However, I think this signals that AIM may eventually replace Civil 3D as a fully functional design tool. You're correct in saying that Autodesk must bring in the Civil community into the BIM world. We need a model based design tool, but Civil 3D is not the answer. Civil 3D is on a CAD platform. From what I understand, it will never be able to support a true model-based design environment. Just look at how Civil 3D handles surfaces and how AIM handles surfaces. AIM runs circles around the CAD platform because it has a completely different engine. I'm excited to see how AIM develops because I desperately want to enter the BIM world and I think that AIM may finally be the ticket.
I think the previous "poster" is correct. From what I've heard, Autodesk committing about 4 times as many developers to AIM as they are Civil 3D. For Civil 3D users (like myself), this sounds like a bad thing since there are a number of features that could use improvement within Civil 3D (especially 2013). However, I think this signals that AIM may eventually replace Civil 3D as a fully functional design tool. You're correct in saying that Autodesk must bring in the Civil community into the BIM world. We need a model based design tool, but Civil 3D is not the answer. Civil 3D is on a CAD platform. From what I understand, it will never be able to support a true model-based design environment. Just look at how Civil 3D handles surfaces and how AIM handles surfaces. AIM runs circles around the CAD platform because it has a completely different engine. I'm excited to see how AIM develops because I desperately want to enter the BIM world and I think that AIM may finally be the ticket.
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