|
|
In This Issue
|
Carlson Civil Suite $2,125
Includes Carlson Civil, Survey, Hydrology & GIS with IntelliCAD |
Autodesk's "Simplified Upgrade Pricing"
How will it affect you? |
Everything You Need to Know About Surface Modeling
Upcoming Hands On Training with That CAD Girl |
Student Version of Carlson Software is Now Available
Only $99 per year |
Carlson In The Classroom
It's easy (and cheap!) to get Carlson in your classroom computer lab
Look for "Train the Trainer" events in your area! |
Surveying & Engineering Tip of the Month
DWG is Not Enough - Why you should use LandXML to back up your data |
The "Not-Really-About-CAD" - CAD Tip of the Month
www.yousendit.com |
| Eagle Point Software: Going, Going, Gone... |
| Need a reasonably priced alternative to AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT? |
| Why You Should Consider Online Training |
|
| Carlson Civil Suite $2,125 |
** Updated 2/10/2010 **
Carlson Software has started their Recovery Special allowing us to offer Civil Suite for the special price of $2,125.
You can add Network installation to the Civil Suite for an additional $350 and can add the Annual Maintenance for $350.
Visit our Carlson Software Resources page to see 5 minute videos of many of the most popular features of Carlson Civil Suite.
For a comprehensive outline of the Carlson Software pricing structure, please refer to this new page on our website:
What You Need to Know About Purchasing Carlson Software.
|
| Return to Top |
|
| Autodesk's "Simplified Upgrade Pricing" |
Starting on March 16, 2010, Autodesk is putting a new pricing structure for upgrades into place. They call it "Simplified Upgrade Pricing". It lives up to its name - it's simple and uncomplicated. However, for those who have chosen NOT to participate in Autodesk's Subscription program, it means a BIG change in how you manage your office software.
To the best of my ability, I've outlined below what this might mean for your organization. However, please contact your Autodesk reseller to confirm pricing and other details specific to you.
The good news is that, whether you are 2 or 3 releases behind (2010 is the current version, 2007 is considered to be 3 versions behind), the price to upgrade to the newest version will be the same - 50% of the cost of a new license of that program.
But, that's also the bad news. If you drop Subscription and fall behind the current version, you must pay 50% of the cost of a new license of that program in order to get the current version.
Also, if you are more than 3 versions behind, there will no longer be an upgrade path to get to the current version. You must purchase a new copy of the program, at full price, to get the current version.
What does this mean for those holding 2007 licenses? You only have until March 15, 2010 to upgrade that to 2010; otherwise, you must purchase a brand new seat in order to get the current version. Refer to Item #9 here to read more.
If you have 2008 or 2009 licenses and, after March 15, 2010, decide you need to upgrade to 2010, you must pay 50% of the cost of a new license to get the current version.
In my opinion, this is Autodesk's way of encouraging their customers to get (and remain) on the Subscription program. If you maintain an active Subscription, the new pricing is irrelevant.
I've listed some approximate pricing for comparison purposes:
| Program | New Seat | Subscription
(per year) |
| AutoCAD | $4,000 | $450 |
| AutoCAD Map | $5,000 | $600 |
| Civil 3D | $8,000 | $1,000 |
For a more detailed pricing matrix, see this chart.
Read more about Autodesk's Simplified Upgrade Pricing here. Again, active and current subscription customers are NOT affected by this change.
In light of these upcoming changes, I've decided to resurrect a poll I posted this time last year: |
|
|
| Return to Top |
|
| Everything You Need to Know About Surface Modeling |
The hands-on training session we held earlier this month was a hit! So, we plan to hold a few more in 2010.
On Wednesday and Thursday, March 24 & 25, we will hold a 2-day training class covering Surface Modeling with Carlson Software.
This class will start with an introductory lesson on existing ground surface modeling and will then move to proposed surface modeling techniques including modeling for site and subdivision design, ponds, retaining walls and multi-level building pads. A thorough working knowledge of IntelliCAD or AutoCAD is considered a pre-requisite for this class.
This event will be held at the Hampton Inn on Hampton Woods Lane in Cary, NC. The cost for this 2-day session is $249. Lunch will be provided and NC licensed Land Surveyors and Engineers will receive 12 PDH credit hours for attending.
Please call us at 919-417-8351 to register by phone. Registration for this session is limited to 10 people.
|
| Return to Top |
|
| Student Version of Carlson Software |
Answering a need that's been out there for some time, Carlson has recently announced the availability of a "Student Version" of their products.
From the announcement in the American Surveyor magazine:
Carlson Software is offering civil engineering, land surveying and mining students the option of purchasing their own software on which to learn and work at home for $99 for a full academic year. This program is available for fulltime students.
The software that Carlson is offering for this program includes the following:
- Carlson Civil Suite - Carlson Survey, Carlson Civil, Carlson Hydrology and Carlson GIS in one powerful package.
- Carlson Survey - now with C&G Survey included is the ultimate office survey software
- Carlson Takeoff - provides fast and accurate CAD-based estimating, plus essential quantity and quality controls
- Carlson Mining - the software choice of the U.S. coal mining industry in Underground, Surface and Geology modules
To apply for your Student Version of Carlson Software, you must complete this application and submit it online. Lauren Brown, the Academics Coordinator for Carlson Software, will contact you to complete your purchase.
|
| Return to Top |
|
Carlson in the Classroom
|
Did you know that there are almost 200 colleges and universities currently participating in Carlson's Academics Program?
Carlson works simply and simply works - making it the ideal CAD-based software program to learn while in school. Why spend time fighting the peculiarities of a software program when Carlson, rightly, allows students to concentrate on learning the concepts essential to their chosen Surveying, Engineering, Construction or Mining fields?
Learning to use Carlson Software helps improve students' chances to get jobs after graduation and makes it possible for them to complete projects on their own both during school and after. Because Carlson includes a FREE copy of IntelliCAD with every Carlson license, learning institutions can also use Carlson with IntelliCAD for basic CAD training in other programs such as general design, architectural & mechanical design and many others.
For an annual fee of $650, Carlson Software provides unlimited desktop licensing to qualified colleges and universities. Carlson Software with IntelliCAD allows institutions to stay within their budget while still providing their technical students with the tools they need to be competent and competitive in the marketplace.
Interested in receiving your first year for FREE?
Contact Lauren Brown, Carlson's Academic Coordinator, at 606.564.5028 and let her know you heard about this offer from "That CAD Girl".
That CAD Girl is working with Carlson to schedule "Train the Trainer" events for the Summer of 2010. These hands-on, multi-day training events will assist classroom instructors with development of lesson plans and exercises. Events are tentatively being planned for Eastern Tennessee, Ohio, Florida and Oregon. Please contact us at 919.417.8351 or jennifer@thatcadgirl.com to request additional locales.
|
| Return to Top |
|
| Surveying & Engineering Tip of the Month |
The ability to import and export to LandXML has been around for quite awhile, but I still get a lot of curious looks when I mention it in my training classes. So, what is it? And why should you be using it?
Why Should We Be Using It?
We've all become accustomed to saving archive copies of our drawings for various purposes but saving the corresponding project data is often overlooked. Retrieving the drawing file may allow you to recover proposed contours and profile grid, but the underlying "surface" is lost unless the project data was also archived. Also, without a tool such as LandXML it's nearly impossible to convert and share data between two different civil/survey packages without a lot of work re-creating that data.
The easiest way to convert, transfer and archive data created in Carlson Software, Land Desktop, Civil 3D, Eagle Point, TerraModel and, I'm sure, other programs is to use the Import from LandXML and Export to LandXML functions found in these programs. Additionally, many machine control systems allow you to import LandXML files.
My recommendation is that ALL civil and survey data should be archived - progress, submittal and final archive - using LandXML. Using LandXML you are able to archive the following types of data: points, point groups, surfaces, horizontal alignments, profiles, cross-sections and pipe runs. Note that one type of data that is currently not supported in XML files is typical cross-sections or template files.
But, What Is LandXML?
LandXML refers to a file format (.xml) containing data created in a civil/survey program.
The way I like to explain it is that we use XML files in the same way we used to rely on DXF files. They're mostly outdated now, but DXF files are a generic file format that, for example, we used to convert MicroStation DGN files to AutoCAD DWG files. At that time, AutoCAD couldn't read DGN files and Microstation couldn't read DWG files; but both could read DXF files. So, we had to convert our drawing files to the generic DXF format that could then be read into the other program.
Similarly, Carlson Software, Land Desktop, Civil 3D and the other programs create their own unique files for civil/survey project data such as points, point groups, surfaces, centerlines, profiles, etc. When we have to pass that data onto someone using a different civil/survey program - it's a nightmare!
That's where LandXML files prove their value.
Exporting your civil/survey data to an XML file breaks it all down into, basically, a text file. Specifically, it's an HTML file that can be viewed through a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. For instance, when a surface model (TIN) is exported to XML, the X, Y, Z values of each point on the TIN is assigned a number, and then each "face" (triangle) of the TIN is defined by specifying the 3 corners. See the example below:
To download the actual XML file used to create the sample above, click here.
Another benefit of using LandXML to transfer or archive project data is that some or all of your project data can be saved in a single XML file. This is valuable because exporting ALL of the data for a project can create a massive XML file.
Even if you archive your project data in its native format, you should consider additional archiving in XML format. No one knows what kind of data files we'll be using 10 or 20 years down the road so saving your data in such a generic, text-based format such as XML files allows for easier retrieval down the road.
|
| Return to Top |
|
| The "Not-Really-About-CAD" - CAD Tip of the Month |
Technically, it's not CAD-related, but it'll help CAD users... so that counts!
There is a web service called You Send It, www.yousendit.com, that I've come to rely on heavily and wanted to share with everyone.
You Send It allows you to easily transfer files that are too big to send (or that you would prefer NOT to send) via email. The FREE, web-accessible version of You Send It allows you to send a single file up to 100 MB in size without even creating an account. See the image below to see how easy it is to send a file from their homepage:
When you send files using You Send It, the recipient receives an email with a link allowing them to download the file from You Send It's server. It's very neat and clean - I've been using it for over a year to send the videos of my online training sessions to those I've trained. These files are upwards of 200 MB each.
Because I use it so much, I have signed up for the $9.99 per month service so I can get a few more options such as sending files up to 2 GB, the ability to upload more than one file (even an entire folder) at a time and the ability to set an "expiration date" for downloads.
For information about their other accounts, CLICK HERE.
|
| Return to Top |
|
| Eagle Point Software: Going, Going, Gone... |
Following Autodesk's lead in retiring Land Desktop, Eagle Point Software has recently announced the end of their civil-survey product line.
Carlson Software is now the only reasonably priced software solution that offers a complete surveying & design solution and that won't cost you thousands of dollars every year to stay current. Visit www.thatcadgirl.com to learn more or download our mailer inviting Eagle Point customers to see what Carlson Software has to offer.
Click on picture for a larger view
|
Carlson is offering special pricing to Eagle Point customers to help them migrate over to a similar Carlson program or programs. That CAD Girl is also offering one hour of FREE, customized, online training for all purchases of Carlson products.
|
| Return to Top |
|
| Need a reasonably priced alternative to AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT? |
Call us at (919) 417-8351 or email us to find out about a trial or purchase of Carlson GIS with IntelliCAD.
The IntelliCAD engine is a practical clone of AutoCAD and will read and write DWG files from all the way back to R11 and DXF back to R2.5 and up to Release 2009 (2010 coming soon). Pairing IntelliCAD with the Carlson GIS extends your capabilities beyond what AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT provide because it includes the following tools:
- Drawing Cleanup - Various cleanup tools including the ability to convert ellipses and splines to polylines, flatten extruded entities, ability to convert Land Desktop points and contours to basic IntelliCAD/AutoCAD entities, reduce polyline vertices, and many more tools.
- Ability to import and export LandXML files
- Ability to work with survey points
- Ability to use LISP routines and XREFs
- Ability to work with Z values and 3 dimensions
- Ability to work with GIS and Image files such as shape files and Mr. SID images
|
| Read more about IntelliCAD here and see a 5 minute overview here. |
| Return to Top |
|
| Why You Should Consider Online Training |
Have a last-minute training request? Don't have time for travel?
Online training is quickly becoming the most popular form of training that we offer. Why? One reason is the immediate nature of it. Assume you are working on a project and just can't get your profiles to draw the way you need them to. In many cases we can schedule an online training class with only a few hours' notice.
And, like all other training, this training will be customized and personalized to you, your office and your project. Check out our list of AutoCAD classes , list of Carlson Software classes or list of Land Desktop/Civil Design classes for training ideas. Custom Training can be developed for any, all or a combination of the classes listed.
Additionally, if you find yourself having problems or not able to work your way through a specific project, we can customize your training to walk through the project, start to finish, in order to get it completed.
If you'd like to speak to one of our online training customers to hear how well it has worked for them, please contact us and we will make those arrangements.
Click here for more reasons you should consider online training.
|
| Return to Top |
|
|
