Considering the Move to Civil 3D
This will be the first of two articles covering things to review and plan for before making the leap from your current design process into the implementation of AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2015. In this first article we will look at the investigation and planning stages.
The Concept
Whether you are looking to upgrade an existing installation or are planning to make the switch from one of the other Civil/Surveying CAD platforms will determine you direction.
Upgrading your existing installations may seem to be fairly straightforward, but there are still questions that may need to be answered prior to implementing the upgrade.
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We will discuss both of these options in this article and hopefully will provide some ideas and perhaps a different perspective.
The Plan for a Plan
“Failing to plan is planning to fail” has been proven true all too many times by companies making changes to the core of their business practice. Any engineering firm can tell you that CAD is one of the core functions of their firm, even those that still see CAD as nothing more than a “digital drafting board.”
Simply making a decision to change design platforms without doing your homework can have disastrous results. A few things to think about (and hopefully plan for) follows.
Training (for upgrades). Will you be providing training to your staff to ensure they can take advantage of the advanced features of the software without requiring your technicians to wade through the software and discover on their own the new features and processes that are available? While some, or possibly most, of your technicians already have a solid grasp of the software if you are upgrading from a previous release, there are still things to think about. Allowing your techs to wade through the fog may result in them finding a method of doing something that may not be the most effective, or possibly even prevent or restrict the design from being used in another process that can save time later in the design process.
Training (for new software). I have personally seen this scenario too many times: a company will invest thousands of dollars in new CAD software, install it on the user’s systems, and that is the end of the conversion. Then they wonder why production comes to a halt. Each CAD system is different and most of them have specific procedures the user needs to know in order to acquire the desired outcome. Even if there are people who have used the software before, that does not necessarily mean that they have used this particular release. Developing or finding a training program is paramount to having a successful launch when changing CAD platforms. Your local Autodesk Training Center (ATC) or vendor should be able to guide you in finding what you need. Today, there are many instructors who will even develop a custom training curriculum tailored to your company’s specifics to ensure the training your techs receive is focused on making your team as productive as possible. If your firm never does surveying, for example, there is little they need to know about using the surveying tools beyond a basic understanding.
Hardware. Are your existing systems capable of running the new version? This is yet another area that can come back and bite you if you haven’t done your homework. With the advances in the software comes the need for advanced system requirements. You cannot buy a typical computer off the shelf and expect it to perform optimally when running your CAD software and any additional programs such as email or MS Office. Have your IT department go to the Autodesk website and download the Hardware Guide to make sure your video cards can run Civil 3D and that your system has enough RAM to allow the software to run efficiently. A bare minimum of 16GB RAM is standard, but with the price of the additional 16GB in each system, you will see that cost return a higher production level providing a quicker break-even on your ROI.
Getting (Most) Everyone on Board
Now that you have a plan, you need to find an evangelist or two among those who make the decision. If that is you, then you need to start looking for some support from the “rank and file” along with the decision makers.
Failure to find these people may possibly doom your conversion from the start. Remember, most people do not like change!
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This may be a mix of playing politics, using your networking prowess, or a combination of both. You may even need to call in a few favors to get your proposal in front of the “Board.”
Remember, the more people who look favorably on your proposal, the better position you will be in when it comes time to talk dollars and sense. “If we are spending this much, doesn’t it make sense to upgrade the hardware and implement a training program of some type?”
Hunting the Sacred Cows
One of the biggest hurdles you will undoubtedly face is overcoming the invisible herd of “Sacred Cows” that are scattered throughout your company. They may be little blips, or some major obstacles, and not all of them will need to be addressed.
Finding and then categorizing them into three classifications will make your conversion to Civil 3D much easier in the long run.
So what is a “Sacred Cow” anyway? Let’s take our favorite, long-time senior designer “Sam” as an example.
Now Sam has been with the company for a few years and is one of the most productive members on the team. Chances are pretty good that he has his own methods of doing things. He provides great looking plans and is fast at producing them, but when you have to hand those files off to a junior designer or CAD tech, it always seems to take much longer to get seemingly minor changes done. This would be a red flag to an experienced Sacred Cow Hunter. You may want to sit down and watch how Sam does things and probably pick up some tips that can (and probably should) be shared with other members on the team.
Now that you have seen Sam in action, you find he is doing things that may not be the most efficient method of producing plans, or the methods he is using are actually allowing more room for errors. Let’s say that Sam prefers to create each drawing as a standalone file. You may know the type—never uses xrefs or data shortcuts, and each drawing seems to be many times larger than you would expect in terms of size and the amount of data that is being shown onscreen when plotted.
After watching Sam for a while, you notice that he will open one drawing and then use the Copy/Paste routine to copy data from one file into a second file instead of “xref’ing” the original file into his drawing. This could be because he doesn’t want to deal with all the xref layers or he wants to place the data into a different position in his new drawing. This approach can be a recipe for disaster when working with Civil 3D because first, the program uses a coordinate system, and second, what happens when the original design is modified? Does Sam know about the changes and does he remember every drawing into which he had copied that data? Does he have the time to go through each of those drawings and update them with the new data?
This is one sacred cow extreme that you will need to find and exterminate early on if you want your conversion to be successful. I know it may sound farfetched, but I have actually seen companies that still use this approach, and they continue to wonder why it takes so long to implement revisions to a project planset.
Planning Your Process
Now that you have received the go ahead to develop a plan for converting everyone, or even a small pilot team, over to Civil 3D, it is time to start planning the installation, roll-out, file management, styles and standards development, and getting your “power users” on board early.
Whenever I do a companywide conversion, I like to meet with the users in the office and spend a few minutes with each to try and determine their level of expertise and basic CAD knowledge and also to see who would be the most likely candidates for the Power User Team.
I prefer to create a team of strong users with good interpersonal skills to aid in directing the development of the company styles and standards that will be created during and prior to roll out.
Meet with your IT department to discuss which type of installation works best for your company size (and network infrastructure). If you have 50 CAD technicians and engineers using the network and your network is still on outdated equipment, chances are you will not want to use a networked licensing approach due to issues with licenses not being available or multiple downtime issues with the network.
Does your IT department have a plan to do a “silent” installation on the systems or will they be going to each and every system to install from a network image?
Are you going to create the installation image and then let IT do what they are best at? Or do you work for a firm that thinks, “It’s just software, so IT can handle everything.” This can lead to a massive headache down the road due to not being able to manage what people are using with respect to styles, standards, and even templates and custom LISP and VB routines.
When it comes to network storage and access of the files, templates, and standards that the entire company will be using, I like to create a three-stage approach on the company server. You will have one directory structure that contains everything users will need to perform their daily tasks including any custom styles, templates, block libraries, fonts, plotters, and plot styles.
I usually name the top-level directory CAD Standards and use this directory structure to build the default profile that will be included in the software roll-out. Then I copy that entire directory structure into another area of the server that is restricted to access only by the CAD Manager and IT. This will become the ‘Staging” area. This directory and all subdirectories will get copied to the CAD Standards directory tree overwriting everything every evening.
Finally, I create a third directory that I like to call my development area. This directory will contain anything that is in various stages of development and testing prior to being copied over to the Staging directory for propagation. Prior to moving any new item over to the staging area, I will develop the instructions for use of that item and have it scheduled to be emailed to the users the morning after the update has been copied.
I like to create a network location that contains all adopted styles, standards, templates, routines—essentially anything that can and will be used by more than one person. That directory tree is made available to the entire staff. And then once everything is in place, I create a clone of that directory and all subdirectories and copy that to another place on the server that is protected so that only a minimum number of people have read/write access to. This way, it provides you with a testing area for development of routines or standards before providing access to the general design group. Then set up a plan with the IT department to copy the files from your Staging directory structure to your Production Directory folder every night to clean up things that people may have modified during the day.
If you have a small office and have everyone running standalone installations, you can still redirect most of the settings in the program through the use of an Enterprise CUI and leave them areas that they can still customize. However, I have found that if you provide your users with an avenue to submit their personal programs or methodologies, and give them credit when you publish their idea or program, it will go a long way in improving the working atmosphere of the company (and hopefully keep everyone from tagging you with the label CAD Czar).
Conclusion
That about wraps up the preparation aspect of implementing Civil 3D 2015 for a standalone installation or a network licensed platform. Hopefully this has provided you with some things to review and discuss with your IT department before making the leap into Civil 3D 2015. Watch for the second part of this topic when we dive into the actual deployment strategies that are available and some of the issues I have encountered over the years.
Mark Hultgren is a Senior Civil Designer/CAD Manager for Ryken Engineering and Land Surveying, Autodesk Developer Network member for the past 14 years, and an Autodesk Certified Civil professional. He currently provides training, system configuration, and standards development for the three-office firm located in central Iowa. He has 33 years experience in Civil, Structural, and Survey drafting and design including 13 years as an instructor. He has attended Autodesk University 13 times and presented both live and virtual sessions. As an author, he has written several books on Label Styles, Civil 3D Expressions, and Style Standardization published through Amazon.com. The past 19 years have been focused on teaching standard development and implementation strategies for city/county agencies and engineering firms. Mark enjoys getting his students to think outside the box. He proudly bears the title of “Sacred Cow Hunter” from years of modifying workflows for efficiency.
