Are you ready for 2012

Can you believe that the 2012 products are just around the corner? And even thou we are still on a "hush hush" from Autodesk regarding the specifics of the new features or even the exact release date (even thou I'm staring right at it) I can tell you that they have done a great job incorporating many of the top requests you've all been asking for. Yes there are some great new features coming our way and if you're one of those who likes to upgrade every other release and are still in 2010 you really should start building a rollout plan now.

Also if you've never been to or its been a while since you've gone through formal training you definitely should include that in your planning. As I tell everyone, Civil 3d is a great program and anyone can click buttons and make stuff appear on the screen but you won't have well built, stable files nor will you be able to take full advantage of the software without someone showing you the proper workflow. Civil 3d is NOT a program you can or should teach yourself on your lunch hour, well maybe you could but it will take a long time to ramp up to where you need to be and you won't learn the best practice workflows of the software. I'm not trying to preach or sell you anything. I just know from experience Civil 3d can be a beast but with proper guidance it will be the greatest civil design program you will ever use.

Stay tuned. As soon as Autodesk releases the discussion ban from me I will be showcasing new feature tips and demos here so check back soon, check back often.

Enjoy my latest tip provided below.

Rotating North

Personally, I enjoy Civil 3d's "north is always up" environment but I have received the question from some of you old-schoolers that REALLY want to rotate the environment so that north is something other than up. If you're of the same mind then this one is for you.

To rotate your north direction:
First make sure you have assigned a coordinate system to your drawing (do this ALWAYS). You can do this by  activating the SETTINGS tab on your Toolspace, right-click on your drawing name and select "Edit Drawing Settings" (I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory).

After you've completed this and have returned to your drawing workspace.
type NORTH and press Enter.

A dialog box indicating that a geographic location already exists in the drawing.

Select "Edit the geographic location".

The next dialog box that will appear will have many options including the one to change the North direct by either typing in an angle or selecting it within the drawing. When you are finished and return to your workspace you will then see that your view cube now points north to the angle you have specified. Make sure you set your UCS and create some of your favorite named views to make it easy to navigate.