BIM on the Rocks

Little Dana, P.E. Does Volume Analysis and Uses Project Silverstar

My mini-me has made some progress in her road design from Point A to Point B. Watch Interactive Adventures in Civil Engineering: Episode 2 on YouTube, embedded below.

I mentioned that we’d be using five principles of BIM for Infrastructure during this fun little series. During the video, Dana uses the built-in design warnings when roughing-in a layout profile to take advantage of tools that help create a smarter design. She does grip editing of her profile to resolve some problems, taking advantage of faster changes. Tools like Volumes Dashboard and Project Silverstar (for cloud based profile optimization) give improved insight into existing conditions and reliable results with analysis and real time feedback for each design option.

You should visit the BIM for Infrastructure Screencasts to learn more about each principle. We composed these screencasts to give a “high level” view of how Civil 3D and the Infrastructure Design Suite fits into a BIM process. It’s the screencast you want to share with the Project Managers, Owners and other folks in your office who aren’t sure what BIM for Infrastructure means. You have to fill out a web form to get to the screencasts, but it will remember you so you shouldn’t have to fill it in more than once. Let me know what you think!

Learn more about the tools mentioned in Episode 2:

Project Silverstar (Profile Optimization) on Autodesk Labs

Project Silverstar Tutorial 1 (youtube)

Project Silverstar Tutorial 2 (youtube)

Volumes Dashboard

Solving Problems with a BIM for Infrastructure Process

On  Monday, I posted a little video asking you to Help Dana Design a Road from Point A to Point B. Once the video hits 500 views on youtube, I’ll create the follow up episodes where Dana solves her planning, design and construction problems with your help, so please share the link with your friends, your dog, your grandma and your dentist.

During the web series, we’ll apply five principles of a BIM for Infrastructure Process to help solve each problem.

1. Improved Insight
2. Smarter Designs
3. Faster Changes
4. Reliable Results
5. Better Visual Communication

You should visit the BIM for Infrastructure Screencasts to learn more about each principle. We composed these screencasts to give a “high level” view of how Civil 3D and the Infrastructure Design Suite fits into a BIM process. It’s the screencast you want to share with the Project Managers, Owners and other folks in your office who aren’t sure what BIM for Infrastructure means. You have to fill out a web form to get to the screencasts, but it will remember you so you shouldn’t have to fill it in more than once. Let me know what you think!

Further reading: BIM for Infrastructure from Buildipedia

Help Dana Design a Road from Point A to Point B

You know you’ve always wanted to tell me what to do! Here is your chance.

This short video introduces a design scenario that I will work through over the next few weeks. I need to get a road from Point A to Point B!

The first exercise is to work through some early designs to make a decision- do I design a road that goes over the hills or around the hills?

Interactive Adventures in Civil Engineering with Dana, PE: Episode 1

Post your comments here or on youtube and I will get Episode 2 posted on Friday.

You might want to check out information about Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler and Project Silverstar to help you decide what my next step should be.

Conceptual Design for Transportation with Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler (youtube)

Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler vBook Tutorials

Project Silverstar (Profile Optimization) on Autodesk Labs

Project Silverstar Tutorial 1 (youtube)

Project Silverstar Tutorial 2 (youtube)

Volumes Dashboard Extension for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012

Every Thursday morning, I have a meeting with Dave Simeone, Nick Zeeben and other team members that prefer to remain anonymous. Here is a picture of Dave as he reminds me that I still have not talked about the Volumes Dashboard Extension which is available on the Autodesk Subscription Center. If I don’t get this posted soon, he’s going to unleash his pet fisher cat on me.

Volumes Dashboard gives you tools to aggregate the results of multiple volume calculations. For example, let’s say I have a road design. I have an existing ground surface and a proposed ground surface that is linked to the road corridor. My road is broken into three phases and I’d like to know the total cut/fill as well as the cut/fill for each individual phase.

Using the dashboard, I create a volume surface and assign boundaries for each phase. As I work through iterations that affect the proposed surface, such as a profile adjustment, I can see the effect in real time on the dashboard. I can also create reports at any time.

I created a video introduction to how this tool works. I posted it to youtube (embedded below). I will make it available for download shortly- typepad doesn’t seem to want to let me upload it right this second.

MassDOT Civil 3D Standards Posted

A few months ago, I posted that MassDOT Requires Submittals in Civil 3D Starting 1-1-2012.

MassDOT has now posted their Civil 3D template, assemblies, survey guidelines and other CAD standards to their website.

I had a quick look at the styles in the template. Here is a capture of some of the alignment styles that they’ve built. I am thinking back to my days doing consulting work and I’m a bit jealous. It’s great to have a starting point to match submittal requirements.

There is also a nice library of prebuild road assemblies.

In addition to MassDOT, you should also check out the information about other DOTs that are allowing or requiring Civil 3D. We’ve created some landing pages to help users locate important news, templates, design standards, screencasts and more.

Florida DOT (FDOT) Autodesk News

Wisconsin DOT (WisDOT) Autodesk News

Caltrans Autodesk News

Get Recognized as a Leader in Transforming the World’s Infrastructure

www.infrastructure-excellence.com is hosting the inaugural competition showcasing Excellence in Infrastructure. The winners will be given over $25,000 in prizes by our generous competition sponsors. The competition is open to everyone in the Infrastructure industry to highlight the best projects done in 2011/2012.

We are looking for the best usage of technology to plan, design, build or manage Infrastructure projects.  Project types may include, but are not limited to: Transportation (roads and highways, rail, airports, bridges…), Land development (commercial sites, subdivisions, public parks and recreation…), Urban planning, Water related (distribution, water resources, dams and levees, wastewater), and Energy (electric and gas distribution, electric transmission and substation design).

Entries will be judged on project complexity, innovative use of technology, sustainability, and a clear articulation of the benefits of model-based workflows including, integrated analysis, visualization and simulation techniques.

From the submitted entries a panel of expert judges will select three winners. Winners will have the opportunity to be recognized at Autodesk University 2012 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Submit your projects for consideration from Thursday December 1, 2011 to Thursday, May 31, 2012.

Cumulative Hatch Area and Stormwater Management Plans

I’m working on that Master Planned Community again. This time, my colleague Brian and I are designing some green Best Management Practices for a townhouse/condo courtyard.

This is just a quick tip that is useful in a variety of circumstances. Whenever you need a cumulative area of something, create hatches. Then, pick each of the hatches. The property window will give you the cumulative area.

There are quite a few ways to tackle the study of “areas”. I like parcels and catchment objects for many things, but sometimes you just want a quick benchmark. If your hatch is associated with its boundary, this area will be dynamic if you adjust the boundary.

What are some of your best workflows for figuring out different cover types for stormwater management analysis?

AU Virtual is Free to Everyone…Including This Crazy Infrastructure Modeler Class. #AU2011

Autodesk University Virtual is open! I mentioned the Certification Classes the other day. Many more are becoming available.

Visit Autodesk University Virtual to Register and View Classes Today!

I’ve been posting on and off about Infrastructure Modeler. I have gotten quite a few comments asking how to import 3D content into the program. Where do you find buildings? Street furniture? Playground equipment? Houses? Dog dishes? Dinosaurs eating people?

My friend Lynda and her partner in mayhem, Neil Brooker, have recorded a virtual class focused on 3D content for Infrastructure Modeler.

Lynda created a video that gives you a taste of what you will see during Be a Hit: Work on your A.I.M. with Autodesk® Infrastructure Modeler 2012

Once you recover from watching that promo, here are just a few others you might be interested in:

CI6641
What's New in AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2012? with Josh Coombs
CI4760
I’m a Civil Engineer: Why Should I Care About GIS? with Rick Ellis

CI4340
Tales from the Road: Five Years of Corridor Modeling Lessons Learned with David Zavislan

CI5283
BIM for Infrastructure: Show Me the Money! with Dan Philbrick

CI5356
It's About Time: Migrating from AutoCAD® Land Desktop to AutoCAD Civil 3D® with Jerry Bartells

Attention Civil 3D (and related) Bloggers and Tweeters! Add Yourself to the List!

I’ve tried keeping a master list of Civil 3D related bloggers and tweeters with limited success. New blogs and twitter accounts appear daily and contact information changes rapidly.

I’m taking a new approach. I’ve created a Google Spreadsheet were you can add yourself.

Adding yourself to this list will help me follow your blog/twitter account, invite you to special events where possible, and link to your brilliant insights.

Civil 3D (and related) Social Media Users (Ed. Note 11-9-11: I’ve locked down the spreadsheet for now. Terrific success! I will post links shortly and reopen the spreadsheet periodically for updates.)

Anyone who blogs or tweets about Civil 3D, Map 3D, Infrastructure Modeler, civil engineering, surveying, urban planning, stormwater management or anything related is welcome to add themselves to the list. You don’t have to talk about software.

Trying Different Streetscapes in a Master Planned Community (and some #AU2011 classes)

Our Master Planned Community continues to evolve. One thing that Arnab and I have been working on (well, let’s be honest, Arnab does the work and I mostly just talk) is an neighborhood of medium density residential.

Something that has been very valuable in Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler has been the ability to try different road cross sections and see how they “feel”. What does our streetscape look like? What is the scale of a two land road versus a four lane road? Does it seem like a human would be comfortable crossing the street? What happens to the intersection?

While we aren’t at the point of doing a true traffic analysis just yet (we are doing one, though, and I will share the information once we are finished), this exercise made me think of the Road Diet video from Streetfilms. From the accompanying blog post “What’s a road diet? Quite simply, traffic-calming expert Dan Burden told Streetfilms, “A road diet is anytime you take any lane out of a road.”

Moving Beyond the Automobile: Road Diets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

I can drag and drop different road styles from the built-in catalog and see what happens when I make my four lane road with treed boulevard into…

A two lane road.

And now what if I make both intersecting roads four lanes?

What a powerful way to visually work through your options to check for how it feels and how it scales. You can sit down with the stakeholders and try things out, then do your more detailed designs, analysis and eventually design on the winning combination.

There have been a few comments on previous posts about the building models. In today’s example, the building models are adapted from something in the Revit Architecture tutorials. You could use many formats of 3D models of houses or buildings that are similar to what might be on your site. If you don’t have access to a good match, or you simply aren’t ready for that level of detail, Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler has some tools to help you sketch in buildings of the right size to act as conceptual placeholders.

Here is an example in the northern portion of the community where I might want to try out a building footprint.

If you’d like to get some more ideas of how to use Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler, you should check out the classes at Autodesk University this month. Don’t forget that most Autodesk University lectures are recorded and will be available online after the event.

GS4570
Be a Hit: Work on your A.I.M. with Autodesk® Infrastructure Modeler 2012
Lynda Sharkey
Virtual
November 29, 2011

CI4018
AIM at Perfection: Create Conceptual Designs Faster with Autodesk® Infrastructure Modeler 2012
Scott Kent
Lecture
December 01, 2011 1:00PM

CI5669-L
Autodesk® Infrastructure Modeler (AIM) for Success
Keith Warren
Hands-On Lab
December 01, 2011 5:00PM

GS4396
Geometry On Demand: Tap into the Power of 2.5D Data with Autodesk® LandXplorer®, Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler, and Autodesk 3ds Max®
Dan Campbell
Lecture
November 29, 2011 10:00AM

GS4630-L
Infrastructure Conceptual Design with the New Autodesk® Infrastructure Modeler 2012
Christopher Andrews
Hands-On Lab
November 30, 2011 10:00AM