Have you actually TRIED Vault?

OK, enough with the FUD. Vault is not going to kill you. It is not going to drive you out of business. It is not going to make your users rethink their entire view of the world. It will make you think some. It will make your users think some. It will make your data more secure, and allow you to use C3D data in ways that you cannot do with any other solution. So, with that said, here's my skinny on Vault as it is today. All of my comments are based on using Vault in a real team environment, not the one-person shop all by themselves. That situation gets its own rules. Want to argue with me about something here? Fine, please comment! But you better have at least installed it on more than your local machine using the defaults. Don't bring the weak sauce.

1. Install Vault to a server. If you don't have a server, get one. Don't play games with your data. It doesn't have to be the only thing on that server, but it sure helps. If you use SBE and the Outlook Contact Manager, get another box to put your Vault on. It won't kill you, a new W2003 server is less than ONE seat of C3D. You don't know what's involved? Let us solve that problem for you.
2. Upgrade from the MSDE to 2005 Express. I'm giving away the farm here, but the whole stupid argument about 10 users and connections, etc are all irrelevant when you use 2005 Express. The upgrade path can be found by downloading the FULL install of Vault 5 from your subscription site. You're on subscription, right? Dig into the files, and you'll find a folder for the upgrade. Do it. Breathe. Relax. Get on with your life. Quit worrying about stupid stuff.
3. Put your shared working folder BACK to the directory you already use for your projects. Force the issue. Don't let users control this, it will not end well for you. By using the shared working folder approach, you allow non-Vault dwg consumers to actually do something with your data. Hot sports opinion for the day: Using a local working folder is dumb. You were using network data in LDT or whatever else you had, use it now. The speed difference is NOT going to make a significant change in your life.
4. Don't backup the Vault. Not like you do now at least. Back it up manually, once a week, once a month, whenever lets you sleep better. Backup your working folder, not your Vault. This allows you to use the data backup plan you have in place (you do have one, right?) with all the standard software that's out there, and you don't have to shut down the server to do it. Oh, and yes, the backup plans for the Actual Vault are completely asinine. Someone at Autodesk needs a smack to the back of the head for that one. Ever heard of an all-nighter, fellas?
5. Train your people! This isn't rocket science, and it's not even as complicated as all the FUD-mongers in the newsgroups want it to be. Develop a workflow. Document it. Give it out. Put it in a flowchart diagram and stick it on the wall behind your users' monitors. Don't understand the workflow? Get some training yourself! The cost of a day or two of training is nothing compared to the headaches of struggling through it by yourself or with the reseller that knows less than you do. Hell, he or she probably doesn't even read my blog, you already know more than them. (That's a joke, get it?)

All right, the five Vault Rules according to James. I might expand them. I might not. Comment below. If you really want to get into it, call me, I'm always willing to talk shop. nine seven two nine eight nine one one two two. But don't call during the Sopranos, OK? See you soon. Or not.

Test message

Testing a message sent from e-mail. Maybe if this works I'll post more often. Don't count on it though.

Bugs are part of the deal...

Update: The full text of Eric's article (btw, he's talking about Vault in case you're looking for relevance. Not neccesarily the verison of Vault we're looking at, but its parent I believe.) An interesting article in the Guardian today, via slashdot. If you're not reading slashdot, you should be just to keep up with what else is happening in the world. /. isn't perfect, but it's a decent barometer of good stuff from all corners of the tech game. So, Eric Sink writes in his article that bugs are just part of the game, and that each bug goes through a review matrix, informally or more formally.

1) How bad is its impact? (Severity)

2) How often does it happen? (Frequency)

3) How much effort is required to fix it? (Cost)

4) What is the risk of fixing it? (Risk)

For all of the posters in the Adesk newsgroups that think software should ship without bugs, take a few minutes and read the article. Learn a little bit more abuot the process, and you might appreciate what Dan et al go through during the process. Or maybe you won't, and just don't care. Either way, it's a good read.

Now, with all that said, I sure wish the damned pan-unselect issue would be fixed.

It's Complete...and Vault Part II This Friday!

OK, I think I've managed to move all of this over to the new format. If I missed or lost an image you love, let me know. In the meantime, until I get it all done, be sure to come to this Friday's webcast for more information about Vault in C3D. It's not that scary, but from the amount of FUD floating around the newsgroups, you'd think we were all being asked to do engineering in parsecs. Oh, and check out Danny Counts' posts (#1 & #2) on the workflow with Vault. It's not quite the flow I use, but it's a good explanation of what's happening.

The Old Stuff

I told you I wouldn't post that often. I remain true to my word. I'm editing the full site, so give me some slack if I botch it. In an effort to make life easier, I've switched to the blog format you all know and love. I'm going to keep the old stuff handy, but we'll try this for now. 5/4/06 Training, training, training. You can't get enough of it. There was a post in the Adesk C3D Newsgroup this morning that ended"Training classes are expensive." I had to refute this statement, and will repeat my argument here.

Your time is worth something! Let's assume your time is worth $75 an hour (pretty low for most designers, EITs and PEs I know) and that a class for C3D costs $990. I can almost guarantee that you'll spend way more than 13 hours digging in Help Files and reading newsgroups posts trying to learn what would be covered in a three day Essentials class. You're wasting your money if you don't get training. Worse, you're wasting your precious time. Training isn't expensive, NOT getting training will be.

So, with that in mind (you didn't think I did all that build-up for nothing, did you?) Engineered Efficiency wants to help you reduce the time and money in getting your team up to speed.

We're offering C3D Essentials training classes in the Dallas area June 6th through 8th. This hands-on introductory class will cover Styles; Points; Parcels; Surfaces; Alignments; Profiles; Grading; Pipes; Corridors and Sections; and Project Management. Cost is $990, and includes Courseware. Click the links to e-mail for more information or sign-up. Chicago is almost full, and Dallas is just opening, so get in touch today!

Update: We're looking for a class location in the Pacific Northwest. Weigh in with your thoughts here! Demand creates supply!

We'll announce more classes soon, both here and at the Engineered Efficiency website, but drop me a line if there's something you'd really like to see. If you're not in the Chicago or Dallas area, let me know that too! We're always willing to travel to teach classes on demand.

4/30/06 I haven't died, the opposite in fact. My second daughter was born on April 26th (a day after my birthday, how cool is that?) and we've been adjusting. I should be back at work this week with more to share as more and more clients get their C3D 2007 shipments. 4/19/06 I'm honored and pleased to announce that Nick Zeeben, one of the premier Application Engineers in the Civil 3D world has joined Engineered Efficiency's team. We absolutely look forward to what he can bring to our firm, as well as to getting him out across the continent to teach and consult with our clients. As 2007 ships, the calendar for training and implementation consulting is filling in fast. Contact me today to see how Engineered Efficiency can help your firm transition to C3D with minimal fuss, and how you can look good doing it. Bootcamp was great. Thanks to all of you that said hello and introduced yourselves. Thank you to all of the great AEs that were in the room I was proctoring. I had a great time, and hoped you learned something to make your trip to Dallas worthwhile. And thank you to all the great Autodesk folks that finally got to see my town instead of me seeing theirs. So what's on today's agenda? One little dialog box in the install wizard! This threw me when I saw it at Bootcamp, but is really VERY cool. As part of beta testing, we never saw the full installer. I finally got to check out the full version, and this little checkbox at the bottom is magic. This is something that many Cad Managers I know have been doing manually. It creates a new profile and essentially runs C3D as vanilla Acad. Handy as all get out, and built right into the installer now! The technical blogs are filling up with good tips and tricks, be sure to check them out. 4/2/06 It's late, I've gotSopranos on the DVR, and work to do afterwards. This will be a brief one. Bootcamp folks, keep reading, free stuff ahead! (Bootcamp is for the resellers only, don't bother trying to sign up.) w.

Corridors are now just a "Surface from Corridor" Operation. This is HUGE. You can now create the corridor surface and build right on it. Could you do it before? Yes. Was it very flexible? NO! If you don't see why this is a huge change, that's OK. Not many people dug far enough into the process to have it bite them, but I did. Trust me, this is a real case of the Manchester team pulling through for their users.

3/24/06 If you missed the Dan and Dave show today, watch this site for the archive. They ran through a ton of great new features in 2007, and I think there's something there for everyone. In the meantime, visit Angel's blog for his quick take summary. He must have been typing notes as he watched. Good job, Angel

I've had a couple of e-mails asking when I'd have more tutorial-style posts. At this time, I think Angel, Melanie, Jason, Scott, and the rest of the reseller AEs out there are doing a great job of it. With that said, when something catches my eye that I think a bunch of people will trip on, I'll talk about it. Hence the dialog at the right.

If you look closely, (OK, not too close, the stupid thing is circled in red,) you'll notice that there's a change here. In 2007, C3D Labels are no longer being marked using Point styles, but Marker styles! I went round and round with this earlier today, trying to figure out why my change in the Settings-Point Styles branch wasn't do a dang thing. It's not the end of the world, but if you have a bunch of labels built already, you'll want to run through your dwt and verify you still get what you want.

Oh, and don't use Standard like I'm showing here. Standard is use in a whole host of places, and if you make it big enough to see in your labels, those other places don't quite like they should. Trust me onthis.

3/22/06 Hello to all the international visitors! I'm really geeking out on a new stat showing me where folks are visiting from. If you're the visitor from Beirut, please drop me an e-mail. I have in-laws there, and think it's great you're stumbled across my site.

You know, sometimes it's the silly things that makeyou want to give it all up and open a hotdog stand downtown somewhere. Let the Great Ketchup Debate be the most complicated thing you deal with all day. So, just in case you care, the issue of selected items becoming UNselected when you pan off the screen? That's still not fixed. There are days when Adesk just makes me want to pull my hair out. I do a really nice pan and select erase, but only the last five items get erased because of this bug that's been out there since Realtime Pan first showed up.

Come on San Rafael. Fix the stupid stuff before you put in more bells and whistles? Please?

Oh, and the answer to the debate is that a great hotdog gets mustard, relish, onions if you're married, and that's about it. Ketchup is for French fries. Chili if it's winter and I'm at home.

3/20/06 I think some of my neighbors are considering an Ark. My local (really local!) weatherman tells me we've had 2+ inches in the last two days.

Anyway, I've been trading some e-mails and IMs with folks about registering for the Friday Webcasts. Autodesk has an internal mailing list that actually sends out meeting requests with login and call-in information. If you'd like your name on that list, send me an e-mail with WEBCAST as the subject. Include the e-mail address you want subscribed!

3/16/06 I'll be filling in for part of the Dan and Dave show tomorrow! The basics of Styles, what they're about and how to manage them. If you're still a bit confused by styles, please attend and bring your questions. And if I can get Dave distracted, maybe we'll show something completely different...

Viva Las Vegas...sort of. I've been to Vegas a half-dozen times now, and I just don't like the place. I stay up too late, eat too much, drink too much, and the lack of any moisture in the air makes me feel like I'm a shedding snake. All that said, it's been a great trip, and I've met some wonderful people in the Reseller and Autodesk family. The growth potential for C3D is unreal, and these folks are going to push it every bit of the way. And what can you say about Carol Bartz that hasn't been said? She's an incredible woman, leader, and innovator. I attended a Thank You reception for her last night and you could tell the genuine love, humility and admiration both from and for Ms. Bartz.

Carl Bass will do an excellent job as CEO, but we will miss her none the less.

And yes, I know that's an old article on Ms. Bartz, but I think it's a great piece, so leave me alone about it.

3/8/06 Fine, so I'm a blogger. Just don't get used to frequent posts, there might be some gaps. Like the one in my office slab this week as they repair a leak in the plumbing. Don't ask. It's not pretty.

Scott's blog post this week is great. 2007 has moved many of the ExpressTools into the main program, and he details them out. He's on vacation and still has time and energy to post some good stuff. Thanks, Scott.

Both Mark Scacco and I will be in Vegas next week. If you're going to be there too, we'd love to talk. Please contact me and let's sit down to discuss how we can help you and your clients. Engineered Efficiency and L.A. Cad are partnering to provide a one-day Residential Grading class in Orange county in April. You can register here. If you are part of a reseller and would like to partner with us on something similar, please let me know.

3/1/06 I'm not a blogger, but I play one on TV. I will try not to turn this into a tips and tricks page, but today is a big day.Since it's time to come in like a lion, Autodesk announced their new products today. Among them, Autodesk Civil 3D 2007. Here's my 20,000' take from the past few months of actual testing and use.

File has added an Import... This lets you bring in the usual data sources, as well as more LDT data than ever before (pipe runs!) Import LandXML has moved here from the General menu, so don't forget that.

General has added a few things. Note the addition of the Toolbox, this is a magic addition to Toolspace. It can be used for a myriad of things, but I've already experimented with placing VBA in there. I know CUI has been improved, but I still think this will be my VBA storage location of choice. Oh and Inquiry finally wandered over from LDT, with a new bag of tricks and a modeless palette.

Points have only slightly changed within the program, but there's a nifty routine to update them to a surface. Guess I can throw that VBA away now...And in spite of some comments on other sites, I don't think you can rotate points graphically like structures. At least I can't, might be user error.

Surfaces have been retooled under the hood andare generally faster. Additionally, corridor surfaces are now stored as part of the Surfaces collection and are connected. No more LandXML shuffle to keep a corridor and proposed surface tied together.

Parcels have added individual segment labeling and tables. Still no sub-parcels, but there's always 2008, right?

Grading has been dramatically improved from top to bottom. Grade to Surface is working better, and doesn't throw out the No Solution Found message every other attempt. Grading tools have been brought from LDT, and generally expanded. You can do more with a 3dpolyline and other features than you really should. Seriously, do NOT use the parcels in the plat to grade. Trust me on this, it's a bad idea.

Alignments have added umpteen more spiral combinations, and work better with reverse curves. Nothing too dramatic that I've spent time on.

Profiles have added a QuickProfile like we've all been looking for. These profiles can be made from a myriad of objects and update just like standard profile views should. They're not persistent when you save, so pay attention!

Corridors will knock your socks off: individual section editing, grip editing of regions, better surface modeling and more subassemblies than I know what to do with. Additionally, surfaces that are live, reactive, and usable in other operations.

I've not been in Sections much, look for more information to come...

Pipes is my baby. Network from Objects, Alignment from Network, Pipes Rules,Interference Checks, the bells and whistles. I really think we've reached the tipping point on this, and if you've been holding out for better pipe routines, it's time to look again. Still no hydraulics for design, but that's OK in my book, that's what engineers are for.

Yes, that's a Survey Menu over there. Fieldbook imports, figures, data protection, the works. And just in case you really need it, a full blown Astronomic calculator.

Oh, and don't forget labeling, my other favorite thing in the world...reference objects anyone? Adding a profile elevation to a label view? Or using math in your labels? There is some very cool stuff going on here. I almost didn't mention Vault. Vault is the project management tool we've been requesting. It definitely falls into the category of be careful what you wish for, but it's definitely a robust tool. More to come on that, but if you know anyone on the mechanical side, ask them about it. It's going to be really freaking cool.

And Styles! Yes, you can now overwrite styles with drag and drop between drawings. Can you say standards? There's some serious power here CMs.

There's so much in 2007, it's going to take some time to digest it all. Let Engineered Efficiency help you do it. Call or e-mail us today to schedule a conversation about how we can help you implement C3D into your workflow.

All right, now hit the links page. All the blogs will have something on this today or tomorrow, and more information is always better.

2/23/06 Home again, home again, jiggety jig. Can you tell I have an (almost) three year old?

Anyway, his brush with fame inspiring him to greater things, Jason Hickey joins the blog world today. Bookmark his site and visit often, he still has the rookie fervorfor updating.

2/21/06 Greetings from Kansas City!

An interesting series of questions popped up in the Adesk newsgroups today, all related to compatibility and versions. While Jason Hickey and Nick Zeeben (Two of the best AEs I know!) were able to help the guy out, I was surprised and frustrated that the questions even made it that far. Please, if your reseller leaves you out in the cold after you sign the check, find a new one. With C3D you're paying for a subscription that includes a basic level of support. Yes, you need training (and we'd be happy to provide it!) but you also deserve some decent customer service too.

OK, rant mode off, time to dig into some other C3D issues! Good night!

And by the way, Scott and Angel both have new posts. Go check their blogs.

2/20/06 It's another Monday, and no gnus is good gnus. For those of you that care, I was at the USMNT 4-0 shellacking of Guatemala in a World Cup warm-up yesterday. I'm working on some material this week that will come down the pipe at a later date.

It's almost May...those of you that have been in this rodeo a few years know what that means. Have you scheduled your training yet? Let EE help you make the most of the software you've already paid for!

2/13/06 It's still Monday, right? Click here to download an AVI (13.5MB) of a HEC-RAS routine that is under development. This is NOT the final version. Please feel free to e-mail me with questions or comments. I expect a full version will be available in approximately 30 days, with pricing still to be set. Thanks for checking it out.

And since I was playing with VBA, I posted up some little snippets that I use all the time. These are free for use, but I'd appreciate an e-mail if you use them. I'd REALLY appreciate an e-mail if you improve on them. I'm a hack, I admit it.2/13/06 OK, the dumb FrontPage theme is gone. We're going for sparse and fast. I'm still working on the AVI...come back tonight! And our new survey is online finally! Please take a moment and tell us a bit more about the work you do. Your answers really will matter....2/12/06 1and1 was making me nuts. Yes, it's FrontPage. Yes, I'm better at C3D than at building web pages. Really. I promise. Anyway, more to come as soon as they turn the stupid links on.2/9/06 Do you work with floodplains? And Civil3D? Check back on Monday, I'll be posting an AVI you need to see...

2/7/06 I've added a new survey, and a few more links to good blogs. Holy cow, I'm going in circles trying to fix this stupid thing. The whole site's going under the knife this weekend. Stupid 1and1.

1/30/06 I'm in Manchester this week, along with guys like Joe Hedrick, Danny Counts, and Jon Rizzo. Take that for what it's worth.

1/??/06 What is this? This my c3d site. I might start a blog at some point, but I'm changing jobs, so for now, I'll just add some links. The survey is still open (ever met a survey that couldn't use a few more data points?) but I've started a link list.

Another Test post

Just a quick test to see if I am actually happy with the template.

Purely a test to see if I got it working.

Creating an Easy Inverse Between Points Button

Every time I go to visit someone who is thinking about Civil 3D, just when things are going really well and the engineers/designers are TOTALLY excited to try Civil 3D, the bring in the "guy". You know this guy- head of the survey department, or lead surveyor or chief survey draftsmen or whatever. He is a great guy- loves his kids, plays church league baseball, camping and maybe takes time off to hunt each fall. But today, this guy's job is to make me SQUIRM by asking me questions about Civil 3D that are important to his department. Since I am not a surveyor, I can not always answer the questions- and I do have an excellent survey specialist, JR, that I can call on to talk to "the guy", but that doesn't help me in the "Make the Civil3Diva Jump over a Flaming Level Rod" gauntlet that I have to run RIGHT THEN. One of the questions that the guy asks me EVERY TIME is- "Can Civil 3D Inverse Between Points". Since my previous response of grinning, giggling and batting my eyelashes did not get them the answers they required, I sought out a solution. YES! Civil 3D CAN inverse between points and much more. Let me preface this by saying that I am a customization moron. I was strictly an "Out of the Box" Gal for many years. When people mentioned custom toolbars, lisps, macros, scripts, whatever, I turned my ears off and kept clicking. So if I can handle this- you can too! These steps will take you through making two Inverse Between Points buttons for a toolpalette. If you aren't familiar with toolpalettes, they are SO EASY it hurts. There is a pdf paper in the Files Area of the Cadapult_Civil YahooGroup that you can download that will take you throught making a custom toolpalette. You have to be a Cadapult_Civil Member to get that paper, but everyone is welcome to join. You just need a yahoo login. In that same Files Area of the Cadapult_Civil Yahoo Group, there is also a more detailed paper that takes you through making an Inverse Between Points Button. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cadapult_civil The long way--- Use the “Line and Arc” Inquiry Command While active in this command, use the “Point Number” Transparent Command so that it prompts you to type in a starting and ending point number. (Alternatively, you can use the "Point Object" Transparent Command to physically pick a point) Type in your two point numbers, and rock-n-roll. TOO MANY STEPS? Darn right. Here is how to make it REALLY short. Make a toolpalette button with the following macro ^C^C^C^P_CgList p '_PN Or, if you want to physically choose the two points instead of typing in their numbers, use this one: ^C^C^C^P_CgList p '_Po

Surface Area Table

Here is a procedure to help you make a surface contour table style that will produce a listing of contour areas and volumes. This works best on volume surfaces. The screen captures are directly from Civil 3D 2007, but the process should be the same in 2006. As always, please let me know if I missed something or if this is not what gets the job done. I have a simple surface that represents a pond.

Go into the Toolspace>Settings Tab and make a new Surface Table Style under Contour.

Bring in your table.

Note that the table is blank right now. Any time you do a surface analysis, you have to “crunch” the numbers for the table to populate with data about that specific surface. “Crunch” the surface under the analysis tab.

Note that technically speaking, the area and volumes listed are for each range of elevation, i.e. the area between elevation 1 and 2 for example. If that doesn’t get you what you need, you can make ranges like 10 to 10.000001

Also, you can make an object style that shows off the analysis we just did. I won’t capture that here, but if you are familiar with surface styles, it isn’t hard at all. Alternatively, you can do an elevation banding style and elevation area table to get the job done.

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Get to Know the General

When people are just getting started with Civil 3D, they often are confused. The menus are short compared to Land Desktop and they just can't find stuff. So here is someone that can help! General Toolspace at your command! You can find General Toolspace under General>Show Toolspace The Toolspace has two tabs: PROSPECTOR- He's always looking for your Civil 3D Gems! The Prospector tab is a Window's Explorer type interface that keeps all of your Civil 3D Objects (gems) close at hand. It is similar to terrain model explorer from Land Desktop- only it is the EVERYTHING explorer. From the Prospector you can edit object properties, creat new properties, and many more tasks. When in doubt, right click on something in Prospector! SETTINGS- How do you make those Civil 3D Gems Shine?! Every diamond needs a nice setting. Every Civil 3D object needs a STYLE and LABEL STYLES. The Settings Tab stores all of your Civil 3D Styles- aka "How Things Look, How things are Labeled, How Commands Run" and other goodies like Pipe Catalogs, etc. This tab is what your Civil 3D.dwt brings in. If you don't start from a template, it would be like presenting your fiancee with a gold ore and a raw diamond. The material is there, but it looks like a pile of rocks instead of an engagement ring.