Using FDO in AutoCAD Map 2009 and above you can add transparency to an image.
http://www.AdvSurveying.com/video/map/Map2009RasterTransparency.mp4
Thanks to Greig Richardson for his blog post
Dec 082011
Nov 182011
We have been patiently waiting for a service pack for AutoCAD Civil 3d 2012 and it has arrived. Updates for AutoCAD and AutoCAD Map 3d are included.
Click HERE to visit the download page. Check out the README file to see what has been updated.
Problem:
I have DTEXT in a title block. I edit the text and it disappears. Regen gets it back but you cannot do anything with the text afterward.
Solution:
Change the TEXTED system variable to 1. This changes the editor to the old style editor. Wait for a service pack to fix this bug.
Run AUDIT on the drawing.
If the TEXTED variable is already set to 1 an AUDIT seemed to correct the problem if it persists.
Aug 172011
Just a quick reminder of a feature that has been available for a long time in AutoCAD Map 3d. You can apply a polygon label from object data. This movie file has the details.
Jun 202011
The SevenForums.com site has an excellent “How To” on Adding the Quick Launch folder to the Taskbar in Windows 7. You can pin applications to the Taskbar in Windows 7 but soon find the Taskbar cluttered and disorganized. Read on to see you can enable the Quick Launch folder in 2 easy steps.
I ran some tests on Civil 3d 2011. Here are the system configuration comparisons.
AST-2 Alienware M15x 6Gb RAM and Intel Core i7 Q 840 1.87Ghz
AST-3 Alienware M15x 8Gb RAM and Intel Core i7 Q 740 1.73Ghz
Passmark: AST-2 1467.5
Passmark: AST-3 1443.5
AST 2 had a 6-10% better performance in all categories except Large RAM was -31%
www.PassMark.com was used to benchmark the performance of both computers.
Now for the Civil 3D test results.
Apr 072011
Feel free to quote me.
For the long time users of Land Desktop and Civil 3d you have relied on a command to Add Vertices to 3d plines. Things have changed and you need to recalibrate your skills. After getting over my initial anger and frustration thinking I’ve lost functionality. I found a blog post by Scott McEachron that brought the “duh” back into my internal conversation.
Insert Elevation Point then use the Increment option.
Thanks Scott
Mar 242011
I am at the SPAR Conference in Houston this week. I thought you might like to hear some news about Revit 2012 and it’s support of Point Cloud data. Navisworks seems to be the preferred solution for the Construction market because it supports so many file formats as well as point cloud data. The link below is from a blog post on sparpointgroup.com.
Spar Point Group – Head in the Point Clouds – The impact of Revit 2012 accepting point clouds.
See the blog post regarding License Compliance and Software Asset Management on our Advanced Civil Technology blog. It is a must read for everyone using Autodesk software. There is a link to the Software Asset Management Toolkit which supercedes the Autodesk Asset Locator tool (a network sniffer that reports all installed Autodesk Software).
Advanced CAD Technology Blog
Digging into Civil 3D