Eric D. Colburn, PLS

Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News-LandARCH 2011 Add-on Released For AutoCAD And Bricscad Pro

Developer GlobalCAD announces the latest update to its integrated solution for landscape designers and architects.

Online PR News – 31-August-2010 – Surrey, United Kingdom (20 August 2010) – Developer GlobalCAD announces the latest update to its integrated solution for landscape designers and architects.

GlobalCAD has released LandARCH 2011, its flagship product, boasting compatibility with all AutoCAD-based software and now Bricscad Pro.

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Eagle Point Surveyors' Companion For Civil 3D Overview Professional Land Surveyor Video

Here’s a quick video overview of the features, functions, and command set for Eagle Point Surveyors’ Companion For Civil 3D.

At this point I don’t know too much about Eagle Point Surveyors’ Companion For Civil 3D, so this video is sort of an unpacking and peek into this software package.

Already, I’ve quickly used the List Points and Unused Points reports, which are very handy. This, and everything else I’ve seen, makes me very excited to put Eagle Point Surveyors’ Companion For Civil 3D into action.

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Survey Database Point Groups-AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 Professional Land Surveyor Video

In this installment of my Professional Land Surveyor Video series, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 for Land Surveyors: Survey Database Point Groups, I will show you how to:

1. Create Survey Database Point Groups.
2. Select Survey Database Points to populate your Survey Database Point Groups.
3. Use Survey Database Point Groups to filter points you insert into and remove from your AutoCAD Civil 3D drawings.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D With Two Drawings Open

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I will show you Using Layer Source From Other DWGs When Creating Styles. This technique helps you speed up the creation of AutoCAD Civil 3D Styles by using already created layers from your other AutoCAD Civil 3D drawings and templates.

The Problem:

You are creating new styles in an AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing or template and in doing so you want to speed up the process of assigning Layers to the new point style; let’s say for display, for example. If the layer is not already in your AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing or template you have to create that layer (and its settings), which is either cumbersome through the Style Editor, or you need to exit the Style Editor to do it using the Layer Manager.

Either way, it requires a certain amount of manual input and risks inconsistencies between drawings and templates.

Two things we’re trying to accomplish are:

1. Work faster by select an existing Layer from another AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing or template to use in creating Styles.
2. Maintain Layer consistency.

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Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News: AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 Survey and API Hotfix

Autodesk has announced an update / hotfix for it’s AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 product line. According to Autodesk, this update / hotfix address the following:

In a continued effort to improve, we are releasing this hotfix for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 that addresses a number of survey, and some addition non-survey related issues.

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In this installment of my Professional Land Surveyor Video series, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 for Land Surveyors: Create a Surface From a Point Group, I will show you how to:

1. Create a Point Group specifically for project surface points.
2. Create a Surface.
3. Use the Point Group to define the Surface.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks: How To Setup and Use Surface Styles To Edit Surfaces Efficiently

In today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks I will show you How To Setup and Use Surface Styles To Edit Surfaces Efficiently. This technique increases your CAD drafting and AutoCAD Civil 3D Surface creation and editing productivity by employing proper template setup and reducing switching between Toolspace Tabs and drilling down through what can be a rabbit-hole of options and settings AutoCAD Civil 3D uses to do the voodoo that it do.

This really leads to an important note: The overall techniques and processes that I’m showing you here are specific to setting up Surface Styles in your AutoCAD Civil 3D Templates so that you can Edit Surfaces Efficiently, but if you concentrate on the bigger picture, that of setting up your AutoCAD Civil 3D Templates with preset Styles to increase your productivity, then this is really what this post (and more to come) is all about. In fact, using the techniques that I describe below is really just one small part of a mindset and process which will allow you to take many small efficiencies and accumulate them into big increases in productivity, efficiency, and profit.

Two things we’re trying to accomplish are:

1. Have a preset Surface Style setup for editing AutoCAD Civil 3D Surfaces in your Template Drawing so that you only have to do this step once, saving you time from this point out.
2. Speed up the AutoCAD Civil 3D Surface editing process, reducing the need to switch back and forth between Prospector Tabs, find an appropriate Surface Style, and then drill down to switch on the Surface Style Components you’d use for surface edits, like Points, Triangles, and Border, for instance.

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Professional Land Surveyor Forum

Last night I posted on the Professional Land Surveyor Forum a discussion topic, “Are AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 Label Style Layers Not Working?” Here is what I posted there:

Is anyone else having this problem? I’m now using AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011, and when I set a layer in any Label Style the label, when created, does take on the attributes of that layer, but does not reside on the layer specified in the Label Style. It looks to me like the overrides are not fully functioning.

I bring this up for three reasons:

1. I’m looking for an answer.
2. I’m curious as to how many people this is happening to, besides me.
3. I want you to be aware of this before you create a ton of labels and then have to manually select them all and switch them to the layer you wanted them on to begin with.

Follow this Professional Land Surveyor Forum »» Are AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 Label Style Layers Not Working?

I first noticed this earlier this week when I was creating a whole bunch of General Note Labels and General Line Labels. After the labels where created, and I was selecting labels to be on/off and/or thaw/freeze in different viewpots in paperspace, I noticed that when I turned the layers off, or froze them, nothing was happening.

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New Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC) Course: AutoCAD Civil 3D Basic Units Settings

New Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC) Course: AutoCAD Civil 3D Basic Units Settings

Yesterday I announced the new online Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC) I’ve created for professional land surveyors, AutoCAD Civil 3D users, and designers.

Today I want to let you know about the first available course called AutoCAD Civil 3D Basic Units Settings. Here’s a little information about this online course:

C3D-101: AutoCAD Civil 3D Basic Units Settings

This course discusses the processes and procedures to setup your AutoCAD Civil 3D drawing Basic Unit Settings to eliminate mistakes due to inappropriate and inconsistent settings.

Specific AutoCAD Civil 3D Basic Units Settings covered in this course are:

1. Units and Zone Settings.
2. Survey Database and Survey Database Zone Settings.
3. LandXML Data Imperial Units Settings.
4. Angle Format Settings.
5. Drawing Scale Settings.

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials. This course cost $19.00.

For full access to this course you’ll need to take a minute to create a new account for yourself on the Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC) if it is your first time.

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The Professional Land Surveyor Podcast (PLSP)

Shownotes – Episode 2
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