So I have some news....

You may have picked up on the signals....

But here is the full story

The Player to be Named Later

101 Uses for a Dual Core Processor

You may be aware that som Autodesk applications don't currently take advantage of a dual core processor. (Check the Autodesk website for details on what applications may take advantage of one)

I just got my new machine last week, and I must say it is awesome.

My corridors do build faster than they did on my slower machine, but since right now I am experiementing with building one monster corridor for the whole site (I have not yet made my final decision about whether or not this is a good idea) even a fast build is at least 3-5 minutes when you have 60+ baselines.

So a few times a day when I rebuild the whole thing, I can take advantage of my second "core" in a variety of ways.

Here are some recent favorites:

1- Exercise Videos- Play your DVDs on your second monitor and get toned and fit while your corridor knits. I also moved my weights into the home office so I could get in a few sets during hang time.

2- Civil Engineering Community Site- you thought I was kidding about a Civil 3D MySpace? Autodesk has moved the discussions groups and a whole heap of other goodies like shared VBA, templates, etc. You can also make a Profile where you list your fave Civil 3D commands, your love of gadgets and your IM handle. You can leave endorsements (cough- comments) and add people to your network (cough- friends). I've already spent hours in here trying to see what those folks from the DG actually look like. http://civilcommunity.autodesk.com/

3- Blog- No need to know anything or have anything important to say. Just sign up for a blog and start waxing poetic on any subject you feel you want to talk about. Like puppies, butterflies or Civil Engineering software.

4- ITunes- Who needed money this month for rent? Certainly not me since I downloaded about $400 worth of songs I really needed. And now no rude musical hiccups because it has a whole processor to itself!

5- Gtalk or other IM- being as my first email account was in 1994 and that was on Georgia Tech's Unix monster, I missed the middle school IM craze. I still need the IM to english dictionary for things like "YT" and "TTYL", but somehow I have managed to while away many a corridor building hour yammering about nothing in particular and sharing links to good YouTube clips .

I am sure I will discover more as time goes on.... send in your suggestions!

Civil 3D 101 and Map 101 Classes at Cadapult in Newark, DE

Cadapult, Ltd. is offering the following classes at our Newark, DE training Lab.

(Cadapult is convenient to the greater Philadelphia or Baltimore Areas, including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania)


2- Day CIVIL 3D 101
November 13 + 14
Download Agenda and sign up form here

2- Day MAP 3D 101
October 30 + 31
Download Agenda and sign up form here


For more details, more classes and more information, check out the Cadapult Training Calendar

Flexible Terrain with Optional Flowers

No this isn't some custom birthday cake gone bad...

I have been so busy lately with work, I have neglected my motherly duty of making homemade playdough. So today, I make a month's worth.

Panorama and I then went to work shaping the world. We started with the usual- cookie cutter butterflies, kitties and elephants. Then we moved into the doughball genre- snowmen and the like.

Then, I left to answer the phone, and when I came back she had created this. I think she had originally intended it to be an example of a road corridor, but it quickly turned into more of a river.

FATAL ERROR OF THE DAY: Pipe Structures

I need your help.

I keep getting these Fatal Errors while using Civil 3D 2007 SP1A with Pipe Networks.

FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x001c Exception at f0ec880h

FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x001c Exception at effc880h

FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x001c Exception at f0ac880h

FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x001c Exception at ef0c880h

Here is the scenario: I lay out a quick storm pipe network. Then I realize that I chose headwalls instead of catchbasins. So I go back through to replace them and I get crashmagic land. I can get it to repeat, I can document it.

But Autodesk can't. I sent them my drawing and my how to, and they can't get it to repeat.

So, I ask you, faithful reader. If you get either of these fatal errors in a similar situation, please let me know so that I can get you in touch with the right people at Autodesk so that we can get this one fixed.

The good news is- I documented another fatal error this week that they were able to repeat and a fix is on the way.

FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x0004 Exception at 64555170h

This one occurs when you are using the Connect to Part tool and accidentally try to connect a part to itself. So for now, be careful when using that tool.

OK, SO WHY do we NEVER migrate parcels?

I had a break in the excruciating emotional minutiae that is my life the past few weeks, so I was able to throw together a quick appeal to ALL Civil 3D users out there who have fallen into the temptation of migrating parcels from Land Desktop, importing parcels from LandXML or creating parcels from closed polylines.

I need to get off my duff and post a "Fundamentals of Topology" which may demystify some of this... but until then...

Read my article at Civil3d.com on this subject.

Parcel Migration and Parcel Import- Don't Let them Bite You

DO NOT MIGRATE PARCELS FROM LAND DESKTOP

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

DO NOT MIGRATE PARCELS FROM LAND DESKTOP INTO CIVIL 3D.

I don't have the energy to explain right now. Just don't do it. Ever.


Here is why:

Parcel Migration and Parcel Import- Don't Let them Bite You

Autodesk Collision Tour September 19 Philadelphia

Autodesk Infrastructure Collison Tour

Coming to a city near you... I'll be in Philadelphia to check out Pete Kelsey's presentation, and possibly New York to sit in on Geospatial as well.

Come on up and say Hello!!

Agenda
8:30 a.m - 9:00 a.m.
Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 a.m.- 10:15 a.m.
Welcome and General Session

Keynote Speaker: Chris Bradshaw, V.P., AutodeskChris will help you learn more about Autodesk's integrated infrastructure solutions and how your organization can connect GIS and CAD data, systems and tasks. He'll explain how new technologies like dynamic modeling save you money and time and how open systems help you to connect your existing data formats and applications to other legacy systems. He will also discuss how industry trends like open source software will change the way you work.

Chris will help you learn more about Autodesk's integrated infrastructure solutions and how your organization can connect GIS and CAD data, systems and tasks. He'll explain how new technologies like dynamic modeling save you money and time and how open systems help you to connect your existing data formats and applications to other legacy systems. He will also discuss how industry trends like open source software will change the way you work.

10:15 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Break

10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Breakout Sessions:

GIS Professionals
See the latest geospatial software featuring CAD and GIS interoperability using a central database. Discover the geospatial features that mapping technicians require -- polygon overlay, table editing, and more -- plus multi-user editing, direct access to live data sources, and even map publishing on both web-based and mobile devices. Hosted by:Pete SouthwoodGeospatial Technical SpecialistAutodesk, Inc.

Civil Engineering
See the civil engineering design software that delivers proven power and outstanding interoperability to complete transportation, site, sewer, storm drain, and subdivision projects with production plans produced directly from a dynamic engineering model. Hosted by:Pete KelseyISD Technical EvangelistAutodesk, Inc.

12:00 p.m.- 1:00 p.m. Learning Lab

Civil 3D Companion: MySpace for CAD Nerds

It is hard enough to meet new people these days, let alone while you are glued to your seat exploring and learning Civil 3D.

There is a new service out there to match people who are looking for fellow Civil3Disciples to bounce ideas off, collaborate with, play LAN Ghost Recon and meet up for anime marathons.

Think of it as Friendster, only Geekster.

I have found a few listings of interested from this brand new Civil3D Companion service. "Seeking to Align you on the Correct Site"

ASSEMBLY SEEKING BASELINE

5'9"ish Mechanically inclined but Civil just the same.

I am looking for someone to steer me down the right path- both horizontally and vertically. If you have tight curves and varying grades you could help set my targets. I'm working through a transition right now, so I need someone patient who can watch me build and extract volumes of good material from me.

Likes: daylighting, VBA
Dislikes: Incomplete profiles, Subassemblies created from polylines, AutoLISP, HTML
Other interests: Partsbuilder, Vault

READY FOR A UNION

5'10" Long blonde hair. Degreed engineer, Obsessive topologist.
Hobbies: Crosswords, jigsaw puzzles, quilting, puns, screen capturing

Seeking IM buddies for late night chats, inside jokes, metes and bounds, and blogging banter.

I want friends that see beyond my normal function and take advantage of my hidden talents. I am more than just what my default label might lead you to believe. If you want a report on all of your areas, I don't mind doing the calculations for you.

I might be senstive, but respect my rules and I will pay off huge in the long run.

Candidates must be able to produce a span label on the first try.

Likes: Civil 3D, Lots lines perpendicular to the ROW
Pet Peeves: Overlapping Edges, Sleep, Fatal Errors, Hex Dumps, Fatal Errors, Feature lines reacting with site geometry, BUG REPORTS
Fears: The PE Exam
Other interests: None

ALL AROUND ROCKSTAR

Approx 6', (6'1" in Cape and Tights).

I'd like to find some like minded folks to chill with while rockin' out and hecklin' at AU.

Start in the beginning and just download all of your information on me, I will carry you through the whole deal. We'll process the real world together and make any adjustments you need to make life easier. Let's divide and conquer, get things aligned and take a look at what is going on below the surface.

Likes: Telling it like it is, getting the job done, finding a solution
Dislikes: Span Labels, Desc Key disappearance
Other interests: DG

Civil 3Delicious: Piping Hot Pulled Pork Pot

It's been a little while since I have had a chance to cook. Busy with Panorama, Civil 3D and life in general.

Mr. P. and I drove all night Wednesday and arrived the the grocery store at 3PM Thursday famished. We swore we would never go hungry again!

So I loaded up on things that I could make ahead and munch on all weekend.

This weekend's projects was pipes, as you may gather from Nick and my posts at www.Civil3D.com.

So as I sketched, imported, exported and generally piped my brains out, I would occasionally find my way into the kitchen and make a sandwich.

To learn more about my weekend piping adventures moving designs in and out of excel, check out my article Inverts Inverts Everywhere

This is a recipe even a frat house could pull off. A real man's meal.

PIPING HOT PULLED PORK POT

1 Cheap Pork Roast (like a shoulder). Fatty is OK!
1/2 cup-ish of soy sauce
1 tsp-ish of chopped garlic
1 cup +/- white wine or apple juice or white grape juice
2 cups +/- water
Salt, Pepper, Seasoned Salt, spices to taste
1 medium to large sized bottle of BBQ Sauce
hamburger or sandwich rolls

Sprinkle roast with salt, pepper, etc. Put in crockpot. Add soy sauce and garlic. Add wine/juice. Add additional water to come close to covering the roast.

Cook in crockpot on low for approximately 8 hours, or until pork is done and shreds easily with a fork.

Remove pork from pot, shred with a fork.

Pour liquid from pot into a large bowl.

Put pork back in pot. Add BBQ sauce. Use cooking liquid from the large bowl to thin the BBQ sauce as desired. Discard extra liquid.

Cook a few more minutes in crockpot unitl BBQ sauce is warmed up.

Make sandwiches for days.

Rejected names for CAD and Coffee

Just a reminder about the CAD and Coffee at Cadapult this Tuesday, 8:30AM

Topic:
A section of the Civil 3D 2007 for Stormwater Management Tasks presentation that I will be giving at Autodesk University

For signup info check out
CAD and Coffee August 22

For fun, here are a list of names that were rejected for the CAD and Coffee. Let me know what you think- and if you have any additional ideas:

CADfiends and Caffeine
ICE'd Tea
Modern Model Mornings
Breakfast Epiphanies
Brunch with the Stars
Green Eggs and CAD
Once upon a CAD
CAD omlette
Big Bowl O’ CAD
Top O’ the CAD to ya!
CADamuffins
Model Based Muffins
Cuppa CAD
CADabreakfast
CAD: Ain’t just for breakfast anymore
CAD coffee caucus
Picks, clicks, swizzle sticks
Model-Based Design and Donuts
Wakeup to CAD
Coffee CAD Click
Breakfast Tricks






And for the Buildingly Inclined:
BIMs and Beans
Fill it to the BIM
Raisin BIM

Sunday Morning Book Shopping

Mr. Probert is studying for the P.E.

This morning he handed me a list of resource books he needed. He hates this stuff. I, on the other hand, live for that satisfying crackle noise of a new hardback. Or better yet, pondering the mysterious life of a used book- who owned it? Did they love it? Did they read it in the bathtub?

So it was a perfect opportunity to stock up on some of the books I had lingering in my amazon shopping cart.

Here is a list of books that will be showing up on my doorstep in 3-5 business days.

Nothing gives me the warm fuzzies more than coming home to a nice heavy box of books on the doorstep.

Surveying & Layout Fundamentals for Construction (DVD)
I am feeling the need for a refresher, and this DVD comes highly rated. My layout experience is limited to one hideously cold autumn in Edmonton with the world's coolest party chief, Cam F. and his sidekick Brad. Brad and I fought like brother and sister, and I never could get the rod level. Lesson learned: Party Chiefs can read lips through the sight, so keep the cursing INSIDE your head.

Civil PE Sample Examination
More ways to ruin a perfectly good weekend. It will be my turn in April.

Six-minute Solutions For Civil PE Exam Geotechnical Problems (Civil Engineering)
Seeing Mr. P's geotech study sheet inspired me to do a LL test on some playdough Panorama had laying around. I am still trying to figure out how I can run a triax on it. I spent the better part of the Fall of 1998 pounding proctors so just seeing the density curve still makes my hand hurt.

Six-Minute Solutions for Civil PE Exam Problems: Water Resources
Weirs, channels, swales, retention, yadayada- it all boils down to ditches and puddles.

And to cap it off, my recent obsession with the "perfect" surface led me to these choices:

Topographic Surveying (Technical Engineering and Design Guides As Adapted from the Us Army Corps of Engineers)

Topographic Surveying and Geodetic Control Basics Manual Cd [CD] [Software]

Topographic manual [Unknown Binding]

Modern Topographic Drawing

Civil 3D: Are you thinking the right way to make the best of it?

You may have experimented with Civil 3D and found it frustrating.

Perhaps you encountered a steep learning curve yet didn't quite see the payoff.

If you are considering Civil 3D, or are having trouble getting into the groove, check out the article I wrote for www.Civil3D.com last week: Rethinking Your Approach: Stone Sculpture vs. Clay Model

Many of us, especially those who have been around since manual drafting was phased out, approach our designs like we would a stone sculpture: Don't start drafting until the design is straightened out. Each chisel stroke is permanent and difficult to fix.



Where Civil 3D really works best when you approach it like shaping clay- build your model, backup, build again, experiment, iterate, iterate.



Which paradigm are you in? Read the article and find out.

Farewell to Nova Scotia

It has been a long time since I have been somewhere that was so peaceful and lovely. The southeastern corner of Nova Scotia is amazingly quiet and quite untouched.

Most of the time, we were the only ones on the beach. The water was colder than Delaware, but not intolerable.



There was one beach that had extremely shallow water that extended very far out, so the water there was warm and we could explore the whole bay floor.

The company was fabulous, too. Mr. Probert's family has the house on the water, and cousins, uncles and aunts from Toronto, England, and Arizona came out for a bit of a reunion.

I mentioned before that most of the family there were either engineers or work in the construction industry, so no family get together is complete without a tour of the local infrastructure.

We were saved from a visit to the sewage treatment plant by the presence of a wind farm near Pubnico. The wind farm was one part beautiful, one part awe inspiring, and one part weird as hell.

Being the nerds that we are, we clocked one revolution, wrote down the measurements of the blades, and took bets on velocity at the tip.

Then, we went back to the beach house and calc'ed it out.

Brother-in-law won. But I was pretty close.

Rainy days and quiet evenings were filled with Su Duko, crosswords, all too serious games of Whist, and for me, corridor modeling. I also brought a few back issues of POB, Urban Land, and the ASLA magazine which were passed around with great enthusiasm.

We managed to limit the NDP vs. Bush Redneck debates over dinner to one per evening by keeping the sherry glasses full, and at least once I purposely dropped a plate in the kitchen as a diversion when the subject of socialized medicine came up.

Before the final run to the border, I picked up a few things that are just better in Canada- yogurt, Mars Bars, Kinder Surprise, Fuzzy Peach, Toonies, good cheer, friendly smiles and a few lungfulls of sweet northern air.

I shall return, there is no doubt.

Farewell to Nova Scotia, you sea-bound coast
Let your mountains dark and dreary be
For when I am far away on the briny ocean tossed
Will you ever heave a sigh and a wish for me?

More...Create a Table of X,Y,Z Coordinates from an Alignment: Method 1

As I mentioned in my post If it quacks like a duck, anything from propector that looks like a spreadsheet can be pasted into excel for further reporting, and "prettification".

But an under-used tool, in my opinion, is the AutoCAD table. I will be using the AutoCAD table hard core in some of my SWM papers and presentations, and many other applications. They support simple formulas, can be used with attribute extraction and much more.

I also use a method similar to this for some more detailed parcel analysis and breakdowns, so use your imagination.





Make additional columns to show whatever you want, in this case I added some stationing.



There are some neat Excel commands like CONCATENATE that can help you do things like specific station formatting.


In AutoCAD/Civil3D, paste special.


Choose AutoCAD Entities from the paste special dialog box.

These tables can be edited, added to, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Create a Table of X,Y,Z Coordinates from an Alignment: Method 1

The question came up on the Civil 3D discussion group today:

If I have an alignment
and a Surface

Can I make a table that pulls out the X, Y and Z at each station?

Here is one method- I am still working on another one, because you will see there are two minor annoyances.

1) Create a Surface Profile from your Alignment. You won't have to do anything with this, Civil 3D just has to think about your surface with respect to your alignment.


2) Points>Create Points. Use the Measure Alignment Option. Choose your sampled profile for the elevations. Follow the command prompts.


3) Make a Point Table style that shows Point Number, Northing, Easting, Elevation


4) Make a Point Table


Annoyance #1
Points from a surface, unlike surface labels, are not instantly dynamic to the surface. Moving the point or changing the surface will not immediately update it. If your surface did change, you could always Points>Edit>Elevation from Surface. Once you do that, your points will update and your table will, too.

Annoyance #2
Points can't have references, so I can't (at press time) figure out a way to get the Alignment Station in the Point Table. It would be easy enough to just remember that Point Number 1 = Station 1+00, etc. but that bugs me. You could also name each point in the name column of the Prospector with its station, which is what I show below. If there were only a handful of stations, this is what I would do.


There are a few other things we can mess with here- involving excel, an autocad table, an empty roll of toilet paper and a small amount of nitroglycerin, so I will post an update later today. This one is better than Su Doku.

To Rock... or Not To Rock

You may also have heard of a little blog called www.Civil3D.com

Apparently, the guys over there are having trouble keeping their feet off the furniture and their drinks on coasters, so they are seeking a bit of a Diva touch.

I have been invited to contribute content to Civil3D.com.

In all honesty, I was quite dumbstruck when "the" James Wedding invited me to join Civil3D.com as a contributor- I mean, little ol' me?

So....

Should this Hermit Crab switch to a roomier shell?

Should I keep Civil 3D Rocks alive? or just move all of my content over to Civil3D.com?

Tell me what you think.

This reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite films of all time Drop Dead Gorgeous

"...Mom always says, 'Don't ever eat nothin' that can carry its house around with it. Who knows the last time it's been cleaned..."

HEC RAS tools for Civil 3D

You might have read or seen that I am doing a flood plain and river class at Autodesk University.

As part of that class, I will be showing a little program that automates the export of river sections from a Civil 3D river alignment to HEC RAS, as well as importing the RAS analysis data back in.

I beta tested this program a few weeks ago and found it to be easy to use and did a great job of getting data back and forth without leaving the Civil 3D environment for the export/import. Of course, I still had to to the analysis in HEC RAS.

There is a trial version available, and I would love to get some more real world feedback on the program before I show it during my AU presentation.

So if you use Civil 3D or even Land Desktop (and are willing to try that unused Civil 3D seat!) follow this link to download the trial version.

EE RAS TOOLS

CAD and Coffee at Cadapult August 22

For those of you who live/work nearby,

CAD and Coffee Event at Cadapult, Ltd. in Newark, DE on
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
8:30AM to 11:30AM
No Charge
http://www.cadapult.net/company/newsevents.htm
RSVP to (800) 332-9961

Speaker: Dana Breig Probert

Agenda:

A section of the Civil 3D 2007 for Stormwater Management Tasks presentation that I will be giving at Autodesk University

1) Creating and Analyzing a Surface to delineate your subcatchments
2) Creating parcel styles and leveraging parcel labels and tables to assist in determining Subcatchment Areas, Soil Types, Cover Types, and performing calculations.

Also:
§ Discussion of the Civil 3D Certified User Class Curriculum and Examination
§ As well as AutoCAD Certified User and Certified Expert Curricula and Examinations and Autodesk University
§ Your questions and answers
You may have heard rumblings about Autodesk finally offering Examinations so that you can prove your skills in AutoCAD and Civil 3D. We’ll talk about these exams after the main presentation.

**This will be a monthly event!! Location and Agenda will vary- so stay tuned!**

Notes from Nova Scotia

The beauty of a socialist country is that every library in every small town has wireless. The librarians here seem not to know what to do with me, but eventually we figure it out and I get a password. It is wonderful to look out at the bay and keep in touch with life back home.

The trip was great- 13 hours from Millsboro to Bar Harbor, a quick but expensive ferry ride, then a scenic jaunt up the Lighthouse Scenic Highway to Mr. P's uncles house right on the water.

We have already had a conversation about GIS- Aunt and Uncle are a retired Planner and Engineer respectively and they occupy themselves in the winter on volunteer municipal support missions, most recently to Cameroon, where Uncle and his $100 handheld GPS are singlehandedly mapping the country. So I am here at the library seeing if I can't get him a dataset or two.

Lobster is on the agenda for tomorrow as the British contingency arrives this evening.

See you around the corridor...