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AEC From the Ground Up--New Tools for Civil Engineering
April 1, 2006 By: AIA ,H. Edward GoldbergObjects, 3D Help Increase Productivity for Land Development
Land development and transportation design are the bread-and-butter of the civil engineering segment of the AEC industry, especially with the current hot housing market and new federal road construction initiatives. Land development deals with projects as simple as a house lot to more-complex planned unit developments, shopping centers, industrial and commercial buildings. Transportation design covers roads and highways as well as the specialized field of rail and light rail. Several companies create products for this segment, but the main players are Autodesk, Bentley and Eagle Point. This article covers some of the civil engineering software options available.
ASE (Automation Software for Engineers)
ASE Civil 2006 design software focuses primarily on grading and paving design and production for subdivisions and commercial sites.
ASE's dynamic functionality creates only intelligent, customizable, extended AutoCAD primitives, blocks and polylines, according to the developer. Because ASE Civil creates and manages its own preferences and design data, the software realizes all of the benefits of AutoCAD's multiple document interface.
The core of ASE Civil's design engine is the Design Marker. This multiuse point object is the primary reference from which the rest of the parametric output is extrapolated. Design Markers store elevations at paving key points, paving feature definitions and constraint hierarchies. Marker constraints allow groups of markers to be handled as a single object or locked from editing altogether. Flow labels—objects that combine text and arrows—complement the Design Markers.
ASE Civil claims to be the only software that generates 3D road models without template design. The output can be very complex and show either datum or top surface output. Users can select curbing or pavement section specifications from a growing list of predefined assemblies for either local or divided roads.
Users can define selective or global pad adjustment parameters that can be applied to flat-land or hillside projects. Changes to the road design trigger immediate adjustments to the pad objects, forcing them to stay within a predefined vertical design envelope. Finished pad and finished floor labeling also are managed by ASE Civil.
If you're designing subdivisions, take a closer look at ASE Civil design software, available through Engineering Design Innovations (www.edi-innovations.com).
Autodesk
Autodesk Civil 3D 2007 is a civil engineering tool whose power lies in its dynamic engineering model. The model contains all core geometry and maintains intelligent relationships between design objects such as points, surfaces, parcels, roads and grading. Tables, object labels and various analysis displays derive from the model, so if any part of the model changes, all associated parts are updated. Ease of use comes through familiarity, and AutoCAD 2007 is at the heart of Autodesk Civil 3D 2007.
 Ease of use comes with familiarity, and AutoCAD 2007 is at the heart of Autodesk Civil 3D 2007. |
The latest edition of Civil 3D incorporates new survey functionality, expanded multiuser capabilities, production-drafting improvements and improved geospatial data interoperability.
Civil 3D 2007 can maintain drafting standards. Each object type includes user-defined settings that control layer, color, font, label content and so forth. Civil 3D comes with some style configurations (stored in a drawing template) and provides tools to edit existing styles or create new ones.
Because a tremendous amount of design and project data (such as alignments, profiles, parcels, points and surface models) exists in Land Desktop project format, Civil 3D 2007 easily imports and exports that format.
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About the Author: H. Edward Goldberg
