Civil 3D 2010 – Download and install (Standalone)

I got to work this morning and did my daily check of emails and then onto my Autodesk subscription site to see if anything is new. finally, my Civil 3D 2010 download was there. So, I thought a quick blurb on the install would be in order. If you are not on subscription, then you will have to wait until your box(es) arrive.

So, first of all, the file sizes of the downloads are pretty menacing! Civil 3D 2010 is broken down into two self-executing files:

  • AutoCAD_Civil_3D_2010_English_WIN_32bit.part1.exe = 3,906,250 KB
  • AutoCAD_Civil_3D_2010_English_WIN_32bit.part2.rar = 675,180 KB

There is also a Vault specifically for Civil 3D 2010 available for download. If you are using Vault, MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING THE ONE DESIGNED FOR CIVIL 3D!!

I would also highly recommend using the Download Manager that Autodesk provides. If you network crashes in the middle of the download, you simply reconnect to the subscription site and it will pick up form where you got dropped. Without this, you will feel the pain of starting the download all over again. To download the two files above, it took about 1.5 hours – YMMV depending on your internet connection.

Double-click on the ….part1 file and now wait while it crunches and decompresses the install. For this part, mine took about 20 minutes.

Now you are at the main install screen. You can install standalone, create deployments, install utilities and read documentation. I’m going to install as a standalone. Note: I have an install of Civil 3D 2007 AND 2009 on my machine already (why not 2008? – we decided as a company to to an ‘every other year’ install. so my users won’t see 2010 until 2011 – company policy enacted)

So after I click on the Install, I am now asked to select the products I want to install. Since we are not a Vault shop, I disabled the Vault client.

Clicking on Next shows you a summary screen of what you have already selected and gives you the opportunity to change any items that are not correct.

Clicking on Next takes you to the User screen. Here you enter in your product code and Product Key. The Product key is a new addition to 2010. Someone else might blog on this , but I am thinking that it is a a checksum to make 100% sure that your license is valid.

Clicking on Next takes you to the main install screen. Here, you might as well go to lunch or do something else because your computer will not be usable during that time due to the large amount of memory taken for the install (at least that is the case with me). It installs Visual C++, Resign Review 2010 (another blog post at a later time), DirectX, Visual Basic Power Packs, Civil 3D 2010, and Language Packs. Time for this part was about 55 minutes.

Finally! after all of this the installer is done and you must restart your computer.

So to recap:

  • Download from Autodesk Subscription = 90 minutes
  • Decompression of files = 20 minutes
  • Actual install of Civil 3D 2010 and associated files = 55 minutes
  • Reboot computer = 2 minutes

Grand total of 2 hours, 47 minutes. And we haven’t even gotten into the customization part yet – perhaps another blog.

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