AU paper on Parcels

Doing some parcels again after two years so reviewing Dana paper from AU to get up to speed again
http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=event_class&session_id=7392&jid=610991

Adding Geotagged photos to Google Earth

Been looking for an app to add geotagged photo references into civi3d, I want to add the location, direction and name of shot recorded with the procamera app on my iphone to the plans for site process reports. I found this one but its in German. http://www.contelos.de/toolsforgis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXXAhKLLaG4&feature​=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL475BD43308E6F6E4

It looks like it does a nice job of placing a marker direction triangle and name in the youtube video. I am trying to find out if guys do an English version and if it will work in New Zealand.

In the interim I will continue to use the free app Geosetter to get and image of the shot directions

Then export from Geosetter to a Google Earth .kmz to get an image with the photo names.
 

Note you can just email someone the .kmz file you have created and if they have Google Earth loaded and double click on the file, Google Earth is opened and markers with thumb nails images are available. Seeing most people still like to use to old school hard copies I just paste everything into a word document for them.

(for Mac there is HoudahGeo that pastes into GE in one step)

Practical Earthwork Book

I was looking into some earthworks compaction issues that other day and found this book on google books Earthworks:a guide by N A Trenter which was helpful. I see on the ICE virtual library you can get a pdf copy for 50GPD and a revised issue is due for publication at the end of the year.

Custom Pipe Rules Part 2

I have finally been able to get my custom pipe rules updated to 2012 with the help of Augusto Goncalves from Autodesk ADN an have been playing around with in proving them. Traditionally they just asked for the lid level and invert levels in and out as you set you pipes out in layout mode. I thought it would be cool to

• ask for the grade of the pipe and calculate the next invert automatically
• prompt for a length for the pipe so the pipe can be rounded it to a practical length. I guess this could be updated to multiplies of available pipe lengths set under the rule
• Put in a number of temporary rays at user defined degrees of turn off the previous pipe set under the rule to allow one to snap too a bit like the pressure pipe feature in 2013.

Still some bugs to iron out but here is a video clip

Mathcad vs Smath (Freeware/DonationWare) for Retaining Wall Design

Been having to dust up on my structural engineering skills lately in designing a couple of retaining walls back in 2003 I use to use Mathcad 2000  to do my structural calculations as you could type and calculate at the same time and layout your engineering calculation as you would traditionally by hand.

However having moved company since then I no longer have access to Mathcad licence. A quick Google search turned up Smath a Freeware alternative to Mathcad. Smath is very similar to Mathcad and easy to pickup. The drawing draw leaves something to be desired but I have Civil3d for that.

Tieback Wall Design in Smath

Historical Mathcad Wall design

Creating Symbolic Link to Network Drive for xref and Dropbox

Working with one of our guys who is based remotely and just works from his local machine. To share data we are pushing it and pulling it down from dropbox. To get the xref path names the same I have setup a symbolic link to map a folder from my local machine to a network folder as per the post here

Run it to a couple of issues in setting it up
1. You have to run the command prompt as administrator by right clicking the shortcut to launch the prompt and selecting run as administrator.
2. You do not create the folders first as the mlink command does that for you and push up an error if the folder is already there.
mklink C:\Data\ \\FP-SBS2K3\Data\Dropbox\ /d
I should probably be using relative pathing for the xrefs and that would avoid the issue.

Update: To remove a link without deleting your folders use rmdir

Update2: Had to set up some new links and if there is a space in the folder path name an error is given put quotation marks around the path in this case.

mklink E:\Dropbox\Civil3d\ "\\STATION10\Server Data\F-Drive\Civil3d\" /d
mklink E:\Dropbox\LDD-DATA\ "\\STATION10\Server Data\F-Drive\LDD-DATA\" /d

Couple of Video Series on VB.net and C#

There are a couple of good programming introduce video series for those interested

http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Visual-Basic-Development-for-Absolute-Beginners

http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/C-Sharp-Fundamentals-Development-for-Absolute-Beginners

also check out the getting started guide at the swamp where I picked up the links from

http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=32381.0

Updating IDE from Visual Studio 2008 to 2010

Finally getting around to updating my IDE (integrated development environment) from Visual Studio 2008 to 2010 and was getting the following error on netloading my dll

The error occurs because I had changed the .net runtime version down to v2.0.50727 in the “acad.exe.config” file to work with the 2008 IDE. To make Civil3d work with the 2010
IDE you have to change it back to v4.0.

Isaac Rodriguez explains the process here

It’s Official I am off to AU this year

Been off the radar recently finishing off a job, but had confirmation last week that the paper I submitted for AU has been accepted this year so its off to Las Vegas in November.

It will be great to meet with people that I have corresponded with over the last 5 or 6 years since picking up CIvil3d if attending and see what the atmosphere is like with 1000’s of CAD users in the one place.

Here is a summary of my paper

General Class Information

Class Title Help Urban Infill Subdivision - Lot grading on restricted and steep terrain

Class Description Help With the restricted supply of urban land and increasing cost, developers are using land for subdivision that was once considered unsuitable, leading to smaller more complex projects on restricted footprints. In this class we will look at numerous case studies of grading small lots involving the use Civil3d since 2007 and grading, corridor and pipe objects. We will review one persons workflow for getting the job done when Civil3d is pushed to the extreme.

Class Type Help Lecture

Audience Level of Expertise Help Intermediate

Content Type

Advanced Training, Case Studies

Target Audience Help

This class intended for the end user working by themselves or in a small team working mostly on small projects. To assist in developing strategy's to achieve lot grading successfully on smaller complex projects with limited time and budgets.

Audience Type Help

End User

Key Learning Objective 1

Identify key site features and Civil3d objects required to model those features

Key Learning Objective 2

Be able to applied grading and corridor objects to generate complex finished surfaces

Key Learning Objective 3

Structure small projects efficiently to limit software issues

Key Learning Objective 4

Be able to export grading feature data in a user friendly format for site

Class Details

Audience Industry Segment Civil Infrastructure Audience Occupation/Profession Civil engineering technician, Civil engineer, Civil Engineering management, Drafter, Landscape architects / urban planner, Other engineer, Quantity Surveyors & Estimator Primary Track Help Civil Infrastructure Secondary Track Help Construction Primary Autodesk Software Help AutoCAD Civil 3D Additional Autodesk Software Help AutoCAD What else would you like to tell us about either your class proposal or speakers that might influence us to choose your class? (e.g., past AU class of which you are proud, project you are currently working on) This paper this an extension of the paper I presented in New Zealand which I published on my blog here http://c3dxtreme.blogspot.co.nz/2011/05/urban-infill-subdivision-lot-grading-on.html which continues to be one of my most popular blog postings

Class Speaker

Name	Email	Participant Role
Justin Ralston	ralstogj@gmail.com	Speaker

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