Learning Civil 3D

School:
I went to Louisville Technical Institute out of High School and completed a double Associates Degree in Architectural and Mechanical Design Drafting. I started on AutoCAD ver. 9 and switched to ver. 10 the 1st quarter.  I went to University of Louisville after that however did not finish as I moved to San Antonio found my wife and havent made time to finish my Degree.  I’ve taken several programming classes and taught myself Autolisp and VB (to some extent) and thus customize / optimize CAD as much as I’m able.

Work:
I began working in the Civil Engineering Field in 1994 hand drafting and moved to CAD within 6 months.  (Drafting aesthetics are so difficult for the computer only generation it seems, board drafting should always be part of the curriculum / learning experience.)  I’ve bounced around to several firms until I ended up in San Antonio where I’ve worked at the same firm since 1998.

Training:
I learned Softdesk on the job and like out of the box AutoCAD began customizing it to do more than what it was programmed for.  From my 1st week on the job I realized I wanted to be an office CAD Manager someday.  Why? Because  I enjoy learning new things, troubleshooting problems, and teaching others ‘how to fish’. So hopefully this blog serves as a futher extension of that over time and pays forward all the things I’ve been taught over the years by others.

Transition:
I experienced the transition of going from board drafting to CAD in the past and know the difficulty people find in change.  Now I’m finding (at least in my office) that transition pain again moving from 2D to 3D.  When managment plays a dual role in running the company and using CAD asking them to learn something new on top of that is painful.  So I’ve been tinkering in Civil 3D off and on for the last year or so, but never really had opportunity to activly use it on a daily basis or had a pilot project to dedicate it to.  However, since the economy has slowed things down I’ve had more time to develop styles and setup C3D so I can use it for projects rather than just plinking around with tutorials and commands.  So if you have any suggestions on workflow, setting up styles and layers I’m interested.