New Release Introduces Productivity Pack 3 for Civil 3D 2016

For users of AutoCAD Civil 3D and the Infrastructure Design Suites, a new add-on, Productivity Pack 3, has just been released with updated usability features and enhancements including all-new workflows for survey and mapping professionals.

General improvements have been made in the areas of Civil 3D surfacing modeling, production drafting and reality capture. The software also includes a solution for traverse creation, editing, analysis and reporting to allow users to leverage alternative environments for processing field data.

(Image courtesy of Holman's of Nevada)

Specifically, the traverse creation and editing environment uses a combination of numeric and graphical interaction to enable surveyors to input deeds with 10-key numeric inputs and designers to create geometry within the same environment. This workflow, which is designed to help users create points and linear features in drawings, promises to replace previous tools including the COGO Editor from Productivity Pack 1. The drawing canvas also provides real-time feedback for users to track their work progress as they go. Additionally, a new Traverse Adjustment utility is capable of reading the geometry created in the Traverse Editor to automatically analyze, balance and generate reports.

The latest Productivity Pack release introduces a new way for non-programmers to create subassemblies for use in Civil 3D corridor models with the Subassembly Composer. Included with the new release is a new collection of subassemblies that can be used as-is or be adjusted based on specific project requirements.

Authoring tools for the Subassembly Composer include the former Project Kameleon, which provides pressure rating and gravity content to assist in parts design.

An overview of Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016 features. (Video courtesy of Holman's of Nevada.)

Although Autodesk released AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 in April, the company will continue to support Civil 3D 2016 with new features. These can be accessed either from the Autodesk Desktop Application or downloaded from an Autodesk Account. The company will also be releasing similar improvements for Civil 3D 2017, but details are as yet unavailable.

Simon Martin is a writer and industrial designer in New York City.