Friday I posted the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 system requirements as detailed by Autodesk. However, today I’m going to cover what workstation components provide the most benefit for your budget dollars and what kind of configuration is ideal for running the new Civil 3D release.
First of all, there is a huge change in Civil 3D 2011 that has the most dramatic affect on your workstation build: it is now offered as a  64-bit native program. What does this mean for you? You can now utilize more than just 3 GB of …

In either AutoCAD Civil 3D or Map 3D, we often find ourselves designing a set of plans or planning a utility layout with aerial photography in the background. Most designers will do most of their drafting with the image either unloaded or turn off the layer it is on as this reduces the amount of processing time for simple actions such as panning and zooming. There is a small “flaw” with the default settings that many people have run into with an aerial or any background image,which I’ll be getting …

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is one of the most used terms in design and construction over the past few years, and for good reason. BIM allows architects and engineers to deliver more accurate plans and contractors to have better construction management. Also of note, many people are coining different terms for what is essentially still BIM such as Visual Design and Construction (VDC), 4-D Design, and even 5-D Design.
Regardless of what you call it, if you haven’t begun implementing BIM at your firm then you shouldn’t wait any longer. …