What is Autocad Civil 3D?

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AutoCAD Civil 3D is a civil design application that represents a paradigm shift in the engineering industry's design approach. Previously, plan development was "drafter centric," using graphical data to define the design. With Civil 3D, an underlying design model drives the graphical data.

Approach to Civil Design Pre-AutoCAD Civil 3D

The general project flow in older versions of AutoCAD started with an engineer's design on paper. When the design was complete, the project would be passed to a drafter to draw the actual set of plans.

Civil 3D's "BIM" Approach

Civil 3D combines and blurs the roles of the engineer and drafter. Graphical and spreadsheet tools are used to build "real-world" models of the design, from which Civil 3D automatically creates the "drawn" plans. This approach is called Building Information Modeling (BIM).

Error Reduction

Civil 3D reduces errors for two primary reasons. When the plan model is updated, graphical references to the plan model change throughout the drawings, previously an error-prone process done by hand. Secondly, since the design model is "real-world," the software can alert the designer to problems such as pipe conflicts and insufficient drainage.

Plan Consistency

Since the final plan is generated by the underlying design model rather than being drawn by hand, it is far easier to make the plans consistent in appearance.

Drawbacks

As the software is highly automatic, yet imperfect (susceptible to "bugs"), a final, human quality assurance review is important.

Source:

"What Does BIM Mean for Civil Engineers?"; Adam Strafaci; October 2008

More Information:

AutoDesk's Civil 3D Information Page

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What is Autocad Civil 3D?

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