Eric D. Colburn, PLS

Professional Land Surveyor News

Professional Land Surveyor News: Autodesk Announces AutoCAD for Mac and AutoCAD WS App for iPad and iPhone

SAN RAFAEL, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK), a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, announced AutoCAD for Mac software. This version of AutoCAD, one of the most widely used software for professional design and engineering, runs natively on Mac OS X and will increase choice of hardware for millions of users around the world. Autodesk also announced the AutoCAD WS mobile application, a new app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch that will allow users to edit and share their AutoCAD designs in the field.

“Apple is thrilled that Autodesk is bringing AutoCAD back to the Mac and we think it’s the perfect combination for millions of design and engineering professionals”

“The release of AutoCAD for Mac marks the return of professional design and engineering software to the Mac platform and an important convergence of power and design. Over 5000 customers have helped develop this product through our beta program and they are delighted to have the choice of a native Mac version of AutoCAD,” said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president, Autodesk Platform Solutions and Emerging Business. “The combination of this new version of AutoCAD and the extension of AutoCAD to iPad, iPhone and iPod touch is a big step in Autodesk’s efforts to accelerate design and make design more accessible for an ever-greater number of people so they can shape the world around them.”

“Apple is thrilled that Autodesk is bringing AutoCAD back to the Mac and we think it’s the perfect combination for millions of design and engineering professionals,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The AutoCAD WS app is a bold new idea, a mobile version of industry-leading design software for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, the world’s most innovative mobile devices.”

AutoCAD for Mac Built for Mac OS X Read the rest of this entry →

Professional Land Surveyor Links This Week:

• 
  Surveying: It’s official: Mt. Rainier is still as tall as we thought | KOMO News |

  komonews.com — An expedition used new GPS technology to fine-tune measurements of our area’s largest mountain and confirmed Mt. Rainier is indeed 14,411 feet tall. more…

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  Surveying: High cost in land survey to blame for farmers’ poverty

  thecitizen.co.tz — Tanzania News: By Anthony Kayanda, Kigoma High cost in land survey has been termed as an impediment to farmers’ economic development in the country. Speaking during a meeting with agricultural stakeholders in Kigoma on Thursday, the chairman of Kanyovu Cooperative Union of coffee farmers from Kigoma and Kasulu districts, Mr Yahaya Mahwisa, said most farmers in the country could not afford the cost and are therefore left out from the current means of raising capital. more…

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  Other: GIS, RPLS, geospatial, land surveying, profession | GPS World

  gpsworld.com — This is a question that has been tossed around a lot in the past few years. I hear it both from GIS folks and from land surveyors. Are you a professional? What constitutes a professional? Do you refer to yourself as a professional? If so, why? more…

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  AutoCAD: AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 for Land Surveyors: Curve Calculator

  youtube.com — This video shows how to find and use the Curve Calculator in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 and is brought to you by http://www.EricColburn.com Professional Land Surveyor Source. more…

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  News: The Government’s New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS – TIME

  time.com — A controversial ruling could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell more…

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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.

Watch the video after the jump Read the rest of this entry →

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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Professional Land Surveyor Links This Week:

Surveying: New surveying business finds perfect niche near courthouse

wpcva.com – The Aaron A. Dooley Land Surveying office in Rustburg has found the perfect home in the old drugstore building across from Campbell County Court House. “I thought it would do well in Rustburg since it’s close to where everybody comes for building permits or looking for plats at the court house. It seemed like a good location for a surveyor,” Dooley explained about his decision to set up in the county seat in February 2010 more…

Surveying: In the Know: Many Naples area roads named for land surveyors » Naples Daily News

naplesnews.com – Q: Who is Thomasson Drive named after? I was told that it was named after Ed Thomasson, a surveyor, from whom I bought the house I used to live in. more…

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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

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 3.1 is Available for Download

Autodesk has released its AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 3.1. This update fixes or addresses a variety of issues discovered by customers and by Autodesk’s internal testing team.

Read the “Read Me” File, it’s recommended and helpful, too

The updates and fixes are too numerous to list here, but if you follow the link below and look at the Read Me file, you can investigate the issues Autodesk has resolved with AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 that may have been causing you problems.

As recommended by Autodesk, you should also read the ENTIRE Read Me file to understand the installation and use of this update before you apply the update to your AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 product.

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PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY

In this week’s Professional Land Surveyor Survey, I’m asking the question:

Does AutoCAD Civil 3D Require Too Much Setup?

I’ve been working on updating my existing AutoCAD Civil 3D templates and creating a few new ones, which got me to thinking about whether or not setting up AutoCAD Civil 3D for land surveying requires just too much setup.

Then, I was talking with a few other AutoCAD Civil 3D users about this topic that happened to be working on their templates and they had definitive answers to this question, to say the least.

Maybe this is just coming from the land surveying perspective, although much of AutoCAD Civil 3D functionality requires the setup of numerous settings, it just seems to me that the surveying side of the software and technology requires more. Maybe even too much!

What do you think?

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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.

Watch the video after the jump Read the rest of this entry →