A BIM-less Design

I’m back from Autodesk University (AU) and starting on my first project in my return. It’s preparing a model for incorporation into a bid for survey work for a landfill project. To my delight the plans were prepared utilizing Civil 3D, unfortunately the model is rubbish for extracting the information I’m interested. Essentially the model is just for the showing the top layer of the landfill.

There’s no modeling for the various layers that will make up the impervious layer of the landfill. No swale object to determine the length required to construct and no easy way to determine the differentiation between the perforated pipe and non-perforated pipes. Definitely not a BIM model.

During AU I was fed a constant stream of quotes regarding innovation and disruptive technology. Here are some of the quotes:

Jeff Kowalski, Chief Technology Officer, Autodesk

“The sea of complexity has waves of disruption. We can ride even the biggest wave if we have the right mind set and toolset.”

Carl Bass, President and Chief Executive Officer, Autodesk

“Tools are what amplify our ability.”

“Use infinite computing to achieve optimal designs.”

“Our tools allow you to translate your ideas into a computable model so that you can test how your design reacts and interacts with the environment.”

I think my problem is that I’ve bought into all of the quotes. I want to ride the wave of disruption. I want my computer tools to amplify my ability to design and construct and I want to put my ideas into a computable model. Unfortunately the tools Autodesk have provided for the Civil industry have failed to deliver on the marketing. I can’t ride the wave, since the wave sets aren’t coming in.

While some Land Desktop (LDD) users have been reluctant to move to Civil 3D, they are missing out on a better version of Land Desktop. Essentially Civil 3D is just a better version of LDD. The alignments are editable, there are tools to do our labeling better. Unfortunately the output of our designs are the same. For instance for surfaces, the surface contours are still the main design interaction of designers rather than modeling the project and extracting the contours from the model. The surface is made up of feature lines instead of a clay layer, impervious manmade liner and gravel around the perforated pipes.

During AU I was a lab instructor for Navisworks for executive level users of the product. The architectural models that were being used looked awesome, a far cry from the Civil 3D  models I’ve created in the past. A non-corridor based model comes in as on big green blob. It’s hard to differentiate between the pavement, curb and gutter, landscaping and the like. In the project from above not even the rip rap protection at the bottom of the downslope is modeled. Mainly because it’s hard to model. The tools just aren’t in Civil 3D.

Maybe I should start a company to develop such a product. I have the ideas, but I guess I’m lacking the capital to take the ideas from concept to reality. Until then I’ll be working on improving my experience with the product through customization.

3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Pro

Today 3Dconnexion announce a new product called SpaceMouse Pro. The product fits in the same class of 3D mouse as the SpaceExplorer with some added improvements in ergonomics. The hand rest is full size and soft coated for comfort. The buttons for zoom have been rearranged and the keyboard keys for Esc, Shift, Enter and Ctrl have been made larger and at an easier reach to the hand on the 3D mouse. This should make it so you don’t have to use the keyboard as often with your left hand.

There are four buttons on the top are context sensitive to the open program (although I’m hoping they can be context sensitive to objects in Civil 3D). It also puts what the numbers do up on the monitor, so you know what each button does without looking down at the mouse. This lets you keep your eyes on the monitor while you design. The mouse still has the 3D Navigation with six degree of freedoms to allow easy navigation through a model. Another added benefit is new drivers with a virtual number pad. This allows you to keep your hands on your mice and enter numbers using the regular mouse.

For more information take a look at their website http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/spacemousepro.html, if you are at Autodesk University this year stop by their booth to test drive it in person.

Insert Drawing as Block

The way I’ve found to insert a drawing into another drawing as a block takes a surprisingly lot of code. This function I’ve created takes a file name, inserts a block and returns the ObjectId of the newly inserted block.

    Private Function InsertDwgAsBlock(ByVal fileName As String) As ObjectId
        Dim doc As Document = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument
        Dim db As Database = doc.Database

        Using tr As Transaction = db.TransactionManager.StartTransaction
            Dim blkTable As BlockTable = tr.GetObject(db.BlockTableId, OpenMode.ForRead)

            Dim blkTblRec As BlockTableRecord = blkTable(BlockTableRecord.ModelSpace).GetObject(OpenMode.ForWrite)
            Dim blkObjId As ObjectId
            Using dbInsert As New Database(False, True)
                dbInsert.ReadDwgFile(fileName, IO.FileShare.Read, True, "")
                blkObjId = db.Insert(Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(fileName), dbInsert, True)
            End Using

            Dim blkRef As New BlockReference(New Point3d(0, 0, 0), blkObjId)

            blkTblRec.AppendEntity(blkRef)
            tr.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(blkRef, True)
            tr.Commit()
            Return blkRef.ObjectId
        End Using
    End Function

The code doesn’t show how to get the filename, but there are plenty of examples on the internet to accomplish the task.

Civil 3D Wish List

Want to have a voice on what wishes Autodesk should work on in future versions of Civil 3D? Then check out the AUGI Wish list for Civil 3D. Let your voice be heard.

http://www.augi.com/wishlist

2d to 3d Polyline

If you’ve ever received contours from a third party source you may find them without elevation. Civil 3D does have a tool to add elevations to them, unfortunately it only lets you select one polyline at a time and then type in the elevation. If you download, or install the UKIE Country Kit, the command is located in the Toolbox of the kit after you install it. The command lets you use a fence to assign the elevations for a range of contours.

You can download the country kit from this link: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=16538092&linkID=9240698

There are also third party programs available if you don’t want to download the UKIE country kit.