Autodesk Water System Civil 3D User Manual

Autodesk®
Civil 3D®

CAD Manager’s Guide

Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2007 software is a powerful,
mature, civil engineering application designed to
significantly increase productivity, save time, and
decrease costs. It uses an industry-proven
dynamic engineering model that maintains
intelligent object relationships, so a change made
in one place instantly updates your entire project
to help you work faster and more accurately.

This document is designed for CAD and IT
Managers responsible for deploying Autodesk Civil
3D in their organizations. For the existing

®

Autodesk

Land Desktop customers, there are a
number of new technologies introduced in
Autodesk Civil 3D. With these new technologies,
there are likely to be questions on how best to
prepare for using them in a production
environment. This document identifies those areas
of consideration, and provides some guidance for
your decision making process, as well as where to
find additional information.

www.autodesk.com/civil3d

AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE

Contents

Chapter 1: Autodesk Civil Technology Overview.......................................................... 3

Civil 3D and Land Desktop Compared.......................................................................... 3

The Importance of Civil 3D for Design Staff.................................................................. 4

Chapter 2: Deployment Considerations and Options................................................... 6

Installation Issues......................................................................................................... 6

Single-Site and Multisite Issues.................................................................................... 7

Installation Options: Network or Stand-Alone License Models ..................................... 8

Chapter 3: Civil 3D Configuration and Content Management .................................... 12

An Introduction to Styles............................................................................................. 12

Developing Styles....................................................................................................... 13

Managing Styles and Templates................................................................................. 14

Chapter 4: Multiuser Considerations............................................................................ 16

Managing Data with Civil 3D....................................................................................... 16

Sharing Civil 3D Data with AutoCAD and Land Desktop Users.................................. 21

Chapter 5: Training Considerations ............................................................................. 23

Developing a Plan to Address Required Skills............................................................ 23

Selecting a Consultant................................................................................................24

Finding Help ...............................................................................................................24

Chapter 6: Pilot Project Strategies ............................................................................... 26

Selecting a Pilot Project.............................................................................................. 26

Pilot Project Training and Knowledge Disbursement.................................................. 26

Metrics of Your Pilot Project ....................................................................................... 27

Chapter 7: Deployment Strategies for Civil 3D 2007................................................... 28

Deployment Considerations........................................................................................ 28

Outside Assistance..................................................................................................... 30

Chapter 8: Support Resources...................................................................................... 31

Free Support Resources............................................................................................. 31

Fee-Based Support Resources .................................................................................. 32

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AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE

Chapter 1: Autodesk Civil Technology
Overview

Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2007 software is a powerful, mature, civil engineering application
designed to significantly increase productivity, save time, and decrease costs. It uses an
industry-proven dynamic engineering model that maintains intelligent object relationships,
so a change made in one place instantly updates your entire project to help you work
faster and more accurately.

Civil 3D and Land Desktop Compared

If you’ve never seen or tried Civil 3D, your first questions might be, Why bother? Isn’t Civil
3D just the “next version” of Autodesk® Land Desktop software? If not, how is it different
from Land Desktop?

Land Desktop (and its predecessors) has been the workhorse civil engineerin g design and
drafting application for engineering designs for more than a decade. And althoug h it was
an integral part of countless numbers of successful projects, it had reached the limits of
what it could do based on the technical foundation on which it was built. Therefore,
Autodesk decided to create a new model-based tool for design professionals.

Unlike previous technology from Autodesk, Bentley, EaglePoint, and others, Civil 3D was
built from the ground up as a model-based, multiuser production tool that can help users
overcome the technical and industry challenges that most organizations face. These
challenges include the following:

• Synchronizing design elements and labels across many pages and among many
users

• The time-consuming task of revising designs and drafting

• Constant industry pressure to do more work with less staff

• Competition with other firms for the best people

• Lack of integration of engineering design applications and drafting tools for

creating final construction plan sets

Dynamic Model and Automated Annotation: As a project moves through the design
process, certain adjustments may be required that affect related elements in the project.
For example, if after designing a subdivision road, you determine that a fill slope
encroaches on a wetland area, you may need to adjust the horizontal and vertical
alignments to limit the affect on the wetlands. Using traditional software, this change
would require several tedious rework steps: erase original design; create new design;
draft new design; review for impact on wetlands; repeat as needed until design criteria are
satisfied.

Dynamically linked models in Civil 3D greatly reduce the time required to accomplish
these tasks. Civil 3D lets you create dynamically linked models of your project element
and annotation. In the simplest terms, dynamically linked models are related entities in a
drawing that automatically update when changes are made to one of the entities. These
entities include drawing objects that constitute the model itself (such as digital terrain
models, alignments, and corridors) and the annotation or labels associated with the
objects. The appearance and behavior of these objects and labels are controlled by

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AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE

styles. Through styles, Civil 3D gives users great flexibility in the presentation of design
elements.

The Importance of Civil 3D for Design Staff

The Civil 3D application was created for both drafters and designers. Although Civil 3D is
valuable as a drafting tool, the greatest benefit is achieved when it is used as an
integrated part of the design process from which the final drafting can be extracted.

Civil 3D for Engineers

One of the challenges that engineers face during the initial design process is evaluating
several possible design configurations and selecting the best solution. Often time and
budget constraints limit the engineer’s ability to examine multiple design options, resulting
in a “good-enough” design. Because of its powerful design tools, dynamically linked
model, and easy-to-use interface, Civil 3D lets the engineer examine many possible
solutions and select the best, resulting in better overall designs. In addition, the nature of
the dynamic model means that design elements are always synchronized, eliminating
costly errors before they even happen. Simply put, Civil 3D helps engineers create better
designs in less time with fewer errors.

Another huge challenge is the effort involved in revising designs. Again, the dynamic
model makes the engineer’s tasks easier. Changes to one component of the model are
automatically reflected in associated elements, accelerating the process and reducing the
chances for error. For example, after the initial layout of an alignment, the alignment may
need to be moved. Because of the dynamic link between the alignment and its labels,
graphical changes to the alignment (for example, by grip edit) result in immediate changes
to the station and geometry point labels. There is no need to redefine and relabel the
alignment. Both are done automatically.

Civil 3D for Drafters

The purpose of a set of construction plans is to convey the engineering design intent to
jurisdictional authorities and the contractor so the project can be approved and built. It is
the drafter’s job to create a set of plans that achieves these objectives. Civil 3D object and
label styles make the drafter’s tasks much easier.

First, object styles provide a simple yet powerful method for creating design elements that
look the way they should, adhering to an organization’s standards. Elements of the design
object are automatically set to the correct linetype, color, layer reference, and so forth.
Changes to the design are immediately reflected in the object’s appearance. For example,
various styles for surface objects can be created and used to change the display of the
existing ground at various stages of the project. For presenting the topographic survey,
the surface contours may be presented as heavy, continuous lines. As an underlay to the
proposed grading design, those same surface contours can be shown as light, dashed
lines. It’s easy to achieve this effect simply by changing the surface style applied to the
surface object.

Second, label styles make the labeling and annotation of design elements much easier
than in the past. Simply create label styles to match your organization’s standards. When
design elements change, the labels update automatically. For example, if a surface is
modified, all contour and spot elevation labels automatically update to reflect the changes.
In addition, all labels on associated design elements, such as profiles and cross sections,
also update automatically. This functionality is the same for all design elements: points,

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AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE

surfaces, grading, parcels, alignments, profiles, sample lines and cross sections, pipe
networks, and corridors.

Civil 3D for Your Entire Organization

In addition to these significant benefits for engineers and drafters, Civil 3D is important to
the entire organization, addressing other areas of concern in the industry:

Owners, principals, and managers:

• Get more work done with fewer resources

o Save time across the board as a result of synchronized design data and

drawings

• Minimize cycle time to integrate design iterations

o Make even late-stage revisions quickly and easily
o Minimize schedule delays, and keep projects profitable

• Correct the balance of time spent on projects

o Minimize need for dedicated drafting support staff

• Prepare for emerging trends such as GPS machine guidance

o Gain all the benefits of 3D modeling
o Generate 3D models automatically, requiring no additional time

CAD managers and IT personnel:

• Use a powerful standards implementation and enforcement tool

o Easily deploy updated organization standards via styles and templates
o Use styles to make it easier to do things right than to do things wrong

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AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE

Chapter 2: Deployment
Considerations and Options

Installation Issues

This chapter covers planning issues related to the deployment of Autodesk Civil 3D
software. Issues to consider include what software needs to be installed, how the
installation will be performed (network deployment or individual machines), and who will
perform the installation (you or an outside consultant).

Software to Be Installed

The first consideration is to determine what software to install. In the civil/survey sector,
software could include the following:

®

• Autodesk Civil 3D/Autodesk
Carlson Connect)

• Autodesk Vault and Autodesk Vault Explorer

• Autodesk® Land Desktop Companion/Survey Extensions (Trimble Link, Leica X-

Change, Carlson Connect)

Survey add-ons (Trimble® Link, Leica® X-Change,

• Autodesk® Civil Design Companion

®

• Autodesk

• Autodesk service packs, updates, and fixes

• Third-party applications that run on top of Civil 3D or Land Desktop

• Autodesk

• Autodesk Express Tools

New Autodesk Civil 3D users may want to install Land Desktop Companion, Civil Design
Companion, or both. These applications can be installed in a manner similar to that used
for Autodesk Civil 3D, either stand-alone or as a network deployment.

Once you have determined what to install, document the order in which the software
needs to be installed. Be sure to document any patches, service packs, or fixes installed.
Finally, document what machines the software will be installed on. This documentation
helps you determine hardware requirements in the next section.

Autodesk Civil 3D includes a Network Installation wizard. This wizard enables you to
create either a multiseat stand-alone or network deployment file so you can push the
installation to the workstations rather than use the installation CD at each machine. This
wizard drastically reduces installation time if you need to install on multiple machines.
Network installations provide many benefits, especially for large deployments, including
the following:

Raster Design

®

DWF™ Viewer; DWG TrueView™

• Flexibility in how the application is delivered to the workstations (either “pushed”
from the server or “pulled” by the workstation)

• Standardization of the initial application settings, such as user interface and
support path configuration

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AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE

• The addition of user-defined or third-party add-ons

In addition to the benefits at the time of initial deployment, network installations make it
easy to add updates, service packs, and extensions to the original image when creating
new deployments.

It is important to note that you can also use the Network Installation wizard to create
installation images for use in stand-alone installations. This is called a multiseat stand­alone deployment. In these environments, the client workstations won’t use the license
manager but can still take advantage of the benefits listed previously.

IT Coordination

After you have determined what software to install, and which machines that software will
be installed on, you need to coordinate the installation with your IT department (if this
involves personnel other than yourself). Items to consider include the following:

• What operating system are you using on the client and server? Only Microsoft

®

Windows

systems are supported (Novell®, Unix®, and Linux® systems are not

®

supported).

• Who will perform the installation? The CAD manager or the IT department?

• Who will authorize the software (obtain licenses, activate software, and so forth)?

• Who will download and install updates and service packs?

• Do you have administrator access to the workstations?

• Do you have administrator access to the server?

®

• Can you reboot the server (if installing FLEXlm

license management software)?

• When will the installation take place? After hours? On weekends?

• How long will the installation take?

• Will the software be installed in stages or simultaneously to all users?

• What must happen before the installation? Hardware upgrades, new computers,

and so forth?

• Do you have antivirus software? Can you temporarily disable it?

• Has your key data been backed up, and risk to data minimized?

Single-Site and Multisite Issues

Your organization may have multiple locations where Civil 3D is to be used. There are
generally no problems with this type of configuration, unless you have specific needs,
such as employees from multiple offices working on the same project at the same time. A
multisite configuration may experience poor system performance, legal issues, or both,
relating to which license structure you choose. Whether you have a single site, multiple
individual sites, or multiple sites that act as one, you need to consider the following:

• Will you share licenses between sites?

• Do you have enough licenses to meet all users’ needs in all offices?

• Do you require licensing reporting (SAMreport)?

• Do you want to create license restrictions?

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AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE

• How reliable is the connection to the license server? On the local area network
(LAN)? On the wide area network (WAN)?

• Do you need the ability to check out licenses from the license pool?

• What kind of network hardware do client workstations encounter when

communicating with the server? Certain ports have to be opened by the network
administrator for FLEXlm software to work.

• What is your WAN uptime?

The answers to these questions help determine what FLEXlm tools to install and use for
training. Answers also help determine any hardware upgrades that may be required. You
also need to examine how you would like to share data.

• Do multiple people need simultaneous live connections to the project data?

• If so, how fast and reliable is the network connection?

• Dropped packets of data can cause irrecoverable model files. Are you

experiencing anything like this with any other appl ication?

The answers here also help determine hardware requirements.

Installation Options: Network or Stand-Alone License
Models

The next installation consideration is licensing. If your or ganization has stand-alone
licenses, you need to authorize each workstation individually. You also need a unique
license for each workstation running Civil 3D. If you have multiseat stand-alone lice nses,
the products can be installed via a network deployment using a single seria l number. The
first time the application is run, it is authorized via the Internet. If no Internet connection is
available, the software must be authorized manually. This step takes extra time, so be
sure to plan for it. Although installed via the network, multiseat stand-alone installations
share the same licensing characteristics as single-seat installations in that each
workstation installation requires a license.

Network licenses enable your organization to “pool” licenses, making them available to
workstations upon request. Each workstation has Civil 3D installed, but the software
functions only after a valid license has been obtained from the license server. The concept
behind floating licenses is that not all users are using Civil 3D simultaneously, and
therefore every workstation does not need its own license all the time (which is what
happens in single- and multiseat stand-alone installations). By pooling licenses, your
organization can purchase only the number of licenses needed. If the need for more
licenses later arises (for example, if employees are added to your organization), they can
be purchased and easily added to the license pool.

If using network licensing, you have a few more considerations and options than in the
stand-alone configurations. First, you need to schedule the installation of FLEXlm on the
license server. If you are already using FLEXlm for license management, determine the
version and upgrade the software if necessary. When scheduling the installation or
upgrade, be sure that you have administrator rights to the server, and verify that you can
reboot the server. You should also determine whether your organization requires FLEXlm
reporting tools. Finally, obtain a license file from your reseller or from the Autodesk
Business Center. This step requires the server name and MAC address of the license
server.

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AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE

Also determine which licensing server option best suits your organization’s needs—single
server, distributed server, or redundant server. For more information about these servers,
see the next section.

Stand-Alone License Options

Stand-alone installations are those that are licensed for use of the application loc ally on
the workstation. There are two ways to deploy Civil 3D for a stand-alone installati on:
single-seat stand-alone (commonly referred to simply as stand-alone) and multiseat
stand-alone.

Single-Seat Stand-Alone: This is the simplest installation. Simply install the software on
the workstation using the installation discs. The discs come with a serial number that is
used to authorize the application either automatically online or via the Autodesk Business
Center. Use this option for small deployments of five or fewer users.

Multiseat Stand-Alone: This stand-alone installation makes deployment easier by
enabling you to create an installation image on a network server one time and the n install
the application on the workstations from the image. The advantages over the single-seat
option are that you do not need the physical discs. Users in your organization can install
the software themselves by clicking the deployment shortcut on the server. In addition,
you can use a single serial number for all deployments. This deployment method is best
for situations with many mobile users who are disconnected from your organization’s
network for extended periods of time and or with remote computers (desktop or laptop)
that have limited or no Internet connectivity.

Contact the Autodesk Business Center or your reseller to have them issue a multiseat
serial number. This method of deployment is similar to a licensed deployment but does
not require a continuous connection to the license manager (see below), and it does
require a separate license for each workstation.

Network License Options

In a stand-alone deployment, each installed instance of Civil 3D requires a license for the
application to run. Network installations pool licenses on a license server and distribute
them on an as-needed basis to the workstations on the network. Therefore, each
workstation does not have its own license, but rather requests one when a user launches
Civil 3D. If a license is available, one is issued. If not, the user must wait until a license
becomes available. Civil 3D uses FLEXlm to manage licenses, which must be installe d
before Civil 3D will function on the workstations.

Single Server: With the single-server model, license management takes place on one
server. The license file is created and resides on that server, which represents the total
number of licenses available.

For most firms this is the recommended configuration.

The single-server model has the following characteristics:

• Easy to install

• Requires the least amount of maintenance.

• Requires only one server

• Can be used across WAN (assuming reliable WAN connection)

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AUTODESK CIVIL 3D CAD MANAGER’S GUIDE

• No built-in redundancy (This limitation can be overcome by having another
server, even the CAD manager’s workstation, set up as a license manager and
have the workstations look to it as the secondary server. This is done more or
less automatically in the distributed server model.)

Distributed Server: With the distributed server model, the Network License Manager is
distributed across more than one server. To create a distributed server pool, you must
install the Network License Manager on each server that is part of the distributed server
network. At a minimum, you must install the Network License Manager on each server
that you want to manage licenses.

When Civil 3D is deployed to the workstation, the server installation a dds a new
environment variable on each workstation that identifies the license server that the client
communicates with to obtain a network license. This environment variable includes a
pointer to each of the distributed servers on the network.

The distributed server model requires a unique license file for each server.

This configuration is commonly used in larger organizations with multiple offices,
segmented networks, or both.

The distributed server model has the following characteristics:

• Easy to install

• Requires more maintenance compared to single server

• Requires at least two servers with different license files

• Can be used across WAN (assuming reliable WAN connection)

• Flexible in configuration: automatically establishes search paths on workstations

for primary and secondary license servers

• Allows sharing of licenses among offices or departments

• Some built-in redundancy with workstations looking for prim ary and secondary

license servers

Redundant Server: With the redundant server model, you must use at least three servers
to authenticate a single license file. One server acts as the master, while the other two
provide backup if the primary server fails. Using this configuration, the system continues
to monitor and issue licenses as long as at least two servers are functional.

For organizations that cannot afford for their CAD systems to be down for any length of
time (even a few minutes), the redundant server model provides uninterrupted license
management in the event of a primary server failure.

However, there are easier ways to provide server backup and redundancy using the other
two configuration models. Work with your reseller or independent CAD consultant to
review these other methods.

The redundant model is not recommended for most customers.

The redundant server model has the following characteristics:

• Built in fault-tolerant redundancy: if the primary license server fails, the others
automatically assume license management duties

• Works only with Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2003 Server

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