Civl 3D 2012 - Help is on the way!

Continuing with my updates on New Features in Civil 3d 2012 I wanted to introduce you all to a new resource that has been added to the software.

The new "Help" tab.

This is a great addition to the software for everyone from the "new user" down to the "old pro". It's your one stop shop for all things civil. In here you will find things like "What's New" video's, "Learning path" where you can pick up new tricks. "Developer Resources" where you can learn how to customize your software. "User Groups which will take you to AUGI (Autodesk User Group International). And my favorite, "Task Workflows" where you can not only learn how to use the tools but you will learn Best Practises, Drawing Structure, in what order to do things. Not to mention direct access to "Disscusion groups", "Customer Involvement" and "Product feedback".

I know it will be hard to abandon that long list of favorites in you Internet explorer that you dig through everytime you need an answer but I think you'll manage.

Civil 3d 2012 in Style

Anyone who has used Civil 3d for any length of time knows that it is heavily Style driven. You should also know that it is vital to have a template containing all of your Styles to make your workflow easier. However, sometimes we still have a need to share styles, either with each other or from drawing to drawing. Prior to the 2012 release of Civil 3D, this was not an easy process.

Traditionally, we could drag-n-drop one style at a time or we could insert one drawing into another to gain access to its styles. Or if you are a hardcore user you may have known that in Civil 3D 2011 there was a system variable you could type called
AECCIMPORTSTYLES
and its brother
AECCIMPORTSTYLESANDSETTINGS,
but these were not very user friendly. They were command line driven and you would have to know the exact name and path of the file you were trying to steal from. Civil 3d 2012 has resolved this issue. On the MANAGE tab of your ribbon we now have a couple of new buttons: "Import Styles" and "Purge Styles" (yes, I said Purge styles).

This new dialog driven feature is very user friendly and make sharing Styles quick and easy. You can select one or several Styles, entire categories of Styles, or the entire drawing and quickly drop them right into you current file. It will even allow you (or prompt you) with an option to overwrite existing Styles if you happen to have Styles with duplicate names.

With the Purge Styles option you can quickly view a list of unused Styles within you current drawing and then select the items to purge and then easily remove them from your files. yes, working with Styles just got a lot easier.

Civil 3d 2012 will be released into the wild shortly so everyone hold on tight, we have a lot of other new tools and enhancements we will be showcasing for you so check back soon.