AutoCAD Civil 3D – customised for South Africa

Autodesk has localised its AutoCAD Civil 3D software for the South African market, overcoming incompatibility between SA and international coordinate systems.

AutoCAD Civil 3D provides civil engineers, designers, surveyors and drafters with one comprehensive product for the design, drafting and management of a wide range of civil engineering project types, including site development, subdivision design, local road rehabilitation and highway design.

The software’s industry-proven, dynamic engineering model intelligently links design and production drafting, greatly reducing the time it takes to implement design changes and evaluate multiple ‘what-if’ scenarios.

In the past, global coordinate systems in internationally developed software, like AutoCAD, forced SA users to either manually correct hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of survey points during a single project or to settle for incorrectly located terrain maps.

The customisation of Civil 3D, undertaken by an experienced South African civil engineer, includes provision of a local coordinate system as well as a wide array of local standards.

Using an industry-proven, dynamic model, Civil 3D maintains intelligent object relationships in design and production drafting: a change made in one place instantly updates an entire project, helping users complete projects faster, smarter and more accurately.

“Civil engineering is notorious for its use of specialist analysis packages,” says Autodesk application engineer, Linda Sangweni. “The result is tedious exporting and importing of data, time-consuming translations and greater potential for error.

“With Civil 3D, civil engineering, survey and drafting professionals have the flexibility to work on any project without needing to become experts in multiple niche products. With a single solution in place, users can minimise data translation, reduce training and support costs and simplify management of licences and subscription renewals.”

The localised version of Civil 3D is being piloted by several South African civil engineering firms and will be launched following completion of final testing.

Watch upcoming issues of Infrastructure News for reports on the use of AutoCAD Civil 3D in South African projects. To book your place at the software launch in mid-2007, contact Dale Welch on 011 805 1555, or dalew@worldsview.co.za.

Autodesk frames global vision for design software industry

Autodesk’s new strategic direction, announced recently by president and chief executive officer Carl Bass, articulates the company’s vision of a fundamental transformation in the design process to encompass performance, aesthetics and user experience.

Global pressures – from a boom in worldwide infrastructure to the necessity for sustainable design – are raising the stakes for success for design related companies, compelling them to innovate in order to remain competitive and profitable.

As a result, Autodesk customers are rethinking the design process in order to understand the information implied by the geometry of a drawing, namely the function of a design, and the user’s likely experience of the design.

In order to experience ideas before they are real, companies must envisage not only how an idea will look, but also how it will work in the real world.

Autodesk is equipping customers to do exactly that with advanced 3D design technologies for the creation of fully functional dynamic models, which in turn allow companies to visualise, simulate and analyse the real-world performance of concepts.

This integrated environment allows users not only to see but to also ‘experience’ their ideas before they actually create anything, enabling them to take proactive steps to change designs and uphold sustainable design principles.

By making changes early in the development process, companies reap the benefits of design innovation – namely, cost-effectiveness, efficiency, faster time to market, better quality and performance – that add up to competitive advantage in a fast-changing global economy.

Autodesk intends to help companies redefine design processes to spur innovation and achieve competitive advantage. With state-of-the-art 2D and 3D design technologies, it plans to empower customers in diverse industries around the world to experience, change and improve their ideas early in the design process, and save time and money, improve quality and increase innovation.

In civil engineering, the company helps engineers experience their ideas before they’re real by providing the 2D and 3D dynamic modelling tools to help civil engineers evaluate multiple ‘what if’ scenarios quickly, and link the engineering design process to production drafting to greatly reduce the time it takes to implement design changes.

“In a world where globalisation is constantly expanding the range of choices available to consumers, great design has become a way to stand out from the crowd,” says Bass. “Fortunately for Autodesk, there’s never been a better time to be a leader in the design software category. Autodesk is on a mission to democratise this powerful ability to experience ideas before they’re real, with 2D and 3D design tools that help customers of all sizes, locations and sectors to maximise the power of design innovation.”

Raising the bar in project

Research into global best practice in infrastructure project execution is essential in helping South Africa accelerate delivery of key infrastructure and development projects, which are aimed at stimulating economic growth.

That’s according to Errol Ashwell, managing director of design software specialist, Autodesk Africa. “We’re at a turning point in our economy and it would be a disaster if inefficient project execution were allowed to impede South Africa’s growth.”

The local public and private sectors can take a lesson from major infrastructural developments in other parts of the world.

The Public Works Department (PWD) of the Ministry of Development of the Sultanate of Brunei is, for example, standardising all public building design, construction and management processes, enabling it to increase delivery speed, decrease costs, increase productivity and enhance the overall quality of public building construction across the country.

A crucial component of the project will be the first public sector national-level deployment of building information modelling (BIM) capabilities in the region, which will enable 400 architects, engineers and builders from the ministry’s public works department to work on a single, integrated digital platform.

One hundred and fifty seats of the Revit Architecture platform for BIM are being implemented, while AutoCAD Civil 3D software will deliver maximum accuracy and project acceleration in civil engineering works.

The project raises the bar on the standard of quality of the public buildings and other infrastructure in the region, improving efficiency of future developments with regard to quality, cost, speed of delivery and productivity.