Eric D. Colburn, PLS

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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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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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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Visit the Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC)

Announcing the New Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC)!

I’m happy to announce today a new feature here on EricColburn.com being the Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC). This is an online Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) I’ve created for professional land surveyors, AutoCAD Civil 3D users, and designers. Using an advanced Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS), platform the Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center provides a reliable solution to support its users’ individual learning requirements.

The Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC) Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is an advanced system for delivering learning materials to students via the web. This learning center includes assessment, student tracking, collaboration, and communication tools. The PLSLC can be accessed online to support students’ learning 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This convenient and flexible site enables me to teach those who cannot regularly visit a campus, seminars, or events due to geographic or time restrictions, e.g. those on distance learning courses, doing evening classes, or workers studying part-time.

Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC) Benefits:

1. A reliable solution to support your individual learning requirements.
2. Includes assessment, student tracking, collaboration, and communication tools.
3. Can be accessed online to support your learning 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
4. Self-paced E-Learning that is convenient and flexible to use.

Right now there is only one online course available, C3D-101: AutoCAD Civil 3D Basic Units Settings, but I’m currently creating more online courses and will soon be adding them to the PLSLC. I will also be creating several free online PLS Learning Center courses which will allow you to experience the PLSLC E-Learning environment and community at no cost. Hopefully, these free courses will also be helpful to those of you out of work or on a tight budget.

Get a Course Accepted for Continuing Education and Save 25% Off Your Next Course Fee.

If you have taken a course and are successful at getting that Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC) Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) course accepted for your State’s mandatory Continuing Education (CE) requirements or Professional Development Hour (PDH ) certified, let me know and I’ll refund 25% off the fee for the next course you take (First come first serve.  Maximum of one 25% refund per approved course per person).

Instructors Wanted – Create, Share and Earn.

Also, if you are interested in becoming an instructor on the Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC) and create your own courses, then please contact me and we’ll discuss how we can work together and any possible revenue sharing. This could be a fantastic way for you to share your skills and knowledge with our professional land surveyor community.

Visit the Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC) Today.

You can visit the Professional Land Surveyor Learning Center (PLSLC) right now by clicking on the Learn page tab at the top of this site or by following this link »» http://ericcolburn.com/learn/

EricColburn.com The Professional Land Surveyor Source Turns Two!

Yesterday, it just occurred to me that this site, EricColburn.com the Professional Land Surveyor Source, has turned two. Well, it actually happened on last Saturday, and I really didn’t start writing regularly here until the first week of July, 2008, but you get my point. So I wanted to take a moment to recognize this anniversary, share with you what creating this website and writing this blog has meant to me, give you some shameless plugs and self-serving factoids, and talk about where I’d like to go from here.

The Terrible Two’s

I’ve said it before, but here’s a little back-story. Several years ago I’d read a story written by Walt Mossberg, the principal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, about blogging and it intrigued me. Because of the blinding lights of the boom-years and stupidly getting caught up in the rat race, I put off doing what I really wanted to do. Finally, in May of 2008, as the economy wound down, I made adjustments to the way I did business, happily got caught up on work, life became more manageable and I took the time to setup this blog!

It was slow to start, taking the time to find the right look and feel for my blog, but eventually everything clicked and over the last two years I’ve published 546 posts, not counting this one. On average, that’s about one post for every workday, which was a goal of mine. I’ve really enjoyed the writing and creating multi-media content, too, like my AutoCAD Civil 3D videos and the Professional Land Surveyor Podcast (more coming soon).

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Drawing Scale Settings

This is the fifth AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks expanding upon a previous article I wrote outlining the 5 AutoCAD Civil 3D Settings Professional Land Surveyors Need To Know.

The fifth of the five AutoCAD Civil 3D settings Professional Land Surveyors need to know was, “Drawing Scale Settings“, which is explained in today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks.

To be specific, this AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks shows you how to set the Model Space Drawing Scale. While easy to do, more than a few AutoCAD Civil 3D users, particularly if they’re new to AutoCAD or the newer interfaces, have asked me in frustration where one does this – I’ll show you two simple ways to set the Model Space Drawing Scale. Of course, you need to set the scale in Paper Space, too, but we’ll leave that for another day.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D Angle Format Settings

This is the fourth of five AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks expanding upon a previous article I wrote outlining the 5 AutoCAD Civil 3D Settings Professional Land Surveyors Need To Know.

The fourth of the five AutoCAD Civil 3D settings Professional Land Surveyors need to know was, “Angle Format Settings“, which is explained in today’s AutoCAD Civil 3D Surveying Quick Tips and Tricks.

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