Not all news here has to be about Civil 3D, right? Some of you use some of the functions in Map 3D as well – especially since it’s built right into Civil 3D. Well, here’s a bit of information that you may or may not know about Map 3D and some new (returned?) functionality for it. Follow the link for more information.

My dates get hazy in my head sometimes, but there was a time when Map 3D had some rudimentary civil tools built in – I could import points into Map 3D, create a surface from them, and perform some basic COGO calculations with them. In a really smooth move by Autodesk, they were taken out in either the 2006 or 2007 release – my good friend (and former coworker) Murph says that it was gone in the 2006 release, but I’m thinking it was 2007. All disagreement aside, the tools were taken out, much to the chagrin of many users. So I’m here bearing good news to Map 3D users – the tools are back – well, not the exact tools, but pretty darn similar ones! They are available to subscription users as a download, and can be found on your subscription site (obviously.)

So what prompted this post? A user on the discussion group this morning asked if the tools could be installed in Civil 3D since it runs on Map 3D. I didn’t post my first thought, but good ole’ Murph did…WHY?  Why would you want to install these tools in Civil 3D? You ALREADY HAVE THEM, and they work much better. So the quick and simple answer is a very emphatic “NO.”

I don’t keep up with the Map world as much as I used to, but I’ve heard rumblings that they’re doing pretty decent things. If you want to keep up with it, follow Murph – he’s got his ear closer to the ground than anyone I know over there.