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Technology
Driving Into 3D
Model-based Design Hits Road
(enr.construction.com - 9/20/04 issue)
By Tom
Sawyer
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| (Image
courtesy of Autodesk) |
Like continental drift, some fundamental
shifts come gradually. The expanding use of three-dimensional,
intelligent, model-based design is an example. Autodesk’s
Civil 3D 2005 is its newest wrinkle.
“I can’t think of a
more significant effort at Autodesk since we came out with
Inventor several years ago,” says Steve Guttman, Autodesk’s
Infrastructure Solutions Division’s director of product
management. Civil 3D creates intelligent relationships between
objects so design changes are dynamically updated whenever
a related element is changed. Entire corridors can readjust
with a mouse click. The software is built on AutoCAD and uses
its standard menu and toolbar features.
The San Rafael, Calif.-based company
is making a glacially paced release. The pre-release version
was tested by hundreds of users for the last year. The “first
commercial version,” was announced on Aug. 27, although
the product will only be available in China until Oct. 22.
But users still are taking notice.
“It deserves a real look. It deserves
a real test in every engineer’s office,” says James
Wedding, information technology manager at Jones & Boyd
Inc., a survey and civil engineering firm in Dallas, Texas.
Wedding has tested it and predicts the next generation of
engineers will be all over 3D. He likens this release to a
promising new baby and says it is not reasonable to compare
it to older Autodesk products. “This is ready to be viewed
by the public,” he says. “There are some big things
missing, but it is good enough for guys to be using in production.”
One feature touted by Guttman
is “round-trip data exchange” to let projects move
in and out of AutoCAD and land development products. “Seamless
transition” is there to help firms start bringing 3D
into their workflow but let them shift to traditional tools
at will. Seats start at $6,000.
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