Moving from Land Desktop to Civil 3D

The following sections describe some of the important benefits you’ll realize by moving from Land Desktop to Civil 3D.

Dynamic Model-Based Design Projects created with Civil 3D use a dynamic engineering model that links design and production drafting. As a result, a change to one part of the design propagates throughout the entire project, greatly reducing drafting errors as well as the time it takes to implement design changes and evaluate multiple design scenarios.

Better Control of Standards Civil 3D allows you to easily deploy and automatically enforce organizational standards for design data by employing style features that are built directly into drawing templates (*.dwt files). A variety of drawing templates with predefined styles come with Civil 3D.

Cutting Edge Technology The technology platform on which Land Desktop is designed has evolved to its limit. Civil 3D was built from the ground up to be completely integrated with AutoCAD. It is designed to support all types of civil engineering projects, from site design and local roads, to major highways and interchanges, and utilizes three-dimensional, dynamic, model-based design technology. This advanced technology provides you with a whole new set of tools and workflows that will let you create and evaluate designs faster and more precisely.

Increase Design Alternatives The Civil 3D dynamic engineering model lets you explore conceptual proposals and complete final designs faster than in Land Desktop.

Create Plan and Profile Sheets Faster Civil 3D provides an environment where drafting is derived directly from the model using display styles. The style-based environment helps to ensure that objects and annotation in the drawing conform to production standards. Civil 3D also provides civil/survey-specific drafting tools and advanced drafting features, such as the new plan production tools for roadway sheet generation.

Dynamically Link Designs with Production Drafting Civil 3D dynamically links drafting elements, such as alignment or parcel labels and tables, with the engineering model so that a change to any part of the model produces updated annotation automatically. These intelligent labels and tables also reflect any changes in the drawing scale and view orientation.

Advanced Data Sharing and Project Management Civil 3D has scalable, multi-user data sharing and project management functionality that includes the use of AutoCAD xrefs, data shortcuts, and project management support based on Autodesk® Vault. These features help small and large project teams complete projects more quickly and with less risk of errors. Multiple people in different departments can
access survey observations, points, surfaces, alignments, profiles, corridor models, and pipe networks  simultaneously. You can share an alignment across multiple drawings—while each drawing has different annotation and object appearance. If the master alignment changes, the alignment in all your secondary drawings is updated automatically. There is no need to re-create any drafting—plan and profile remain in sync. By using one or more of these features, everyone on the team can work on files simultaneously, and be assured that everyone is using the most up-to-date project data.

Data Compatibility You can use Civil 3D to work with any DWG™ drawing files, read and write MicroStation® DGN drawing files, and import and export Land Desktop project data. Civil 3D also works with LandXML data and GIS data formats, including ARC/INFO® coverages and Export (E00), ArcView® Shape, and more, allowing you to do conceptual studies using free or low cost data from various sources. You can also use Civil 3D to export model graphics and metadata for use outside of Civil 3D. Using Civil 3D, you can export model elements, such as parcels, pipes, and alignments, to SDF format for use in GIS applications, such as AutoCAD® Map 3D, Autodesk MapGuide® Enterprise, or Autodesk® Topobase™ software. Civil 3D also supports interfacing with the industry-leading data collectors from companies such as Leica, Trimble, and Carlson.

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