This year's version of our Workshops expand to cover various aspects of the relationship between Carlson Software, ESRI and IntelliCAD.

This is a full-day session of presentations and demonstrations. Cost is $99 and lunch is included. NC licensed engineers and surveyors will receive 7.5 hours of PDH credit.

Note: Our advertisement in the Tarheel Surveyor had the dates for Raleigh and Statesville reversed

Download Dec 8, 2009 - Raleigh, NC Announcement
Register for the Raleigh event here

Download Dec 9, 2009 - Statesville, NC Announcement
Register for the Statesville event here

Bruce Carlson, founder and President, and Scott Griffin, National Civil Sales Director, will make presentations on behalf of Carlson Software.

Donny Sosa, Surveying Industry Specialist, will make presentations on behalf of ESRI.

Felicia Provencal, cad-specialist extraordinaire representing Pro CADD Hawai'i and Carlson Connection, will cover various BIM, GIS, Surveying & Engineering topics.

Other sessions and topics will include:

BIM and GIS in the Surveying, Civil Engineering and Construction Industries
Getting the most from the FREE copies of IntelliCAD and ArcView that come with Carlson Software
Making money in GIS for land surveyors and civil engineers
What's New with Carlson Software 2010
Surface Modeling with Carlson Software

Donny Sosa, Survey Industry Specialist for ESRI, describes his presentation this way:

Too often, land surveyors store, manage, and deliver their project data using outdated procedures and technology including spreadsheets, word processors, and even fax machines to name a few.

As many surveyors continue to seek out new work by diversifying, offering GIS as a service can increase your company's competitive advantage while embarking on new opportunities. Implementing your survey data into a GIS can yield significant advantages for your company (internal and external) and your clients. This presentation will discuss the following topics:
Definition of a GIS in your terms (survey terminology)

How to use GIS to manage your project data

GIS deliverables - how to communicate and get involved with the GIS community

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Carlson CAD Standards - Hot New Feature in Carlson 2010

One of the hottest new features coming in Carlson 2010 is the CAD Standards feature.

This new feature is built around a database that is independent of any single drawing and offers a simplified user environment for defining, managing and drawing in accordance with predefined CAD standards. To help you get started, a default set of standards for the Surveying and Civil disciplines (based on the US National CAD Standards) is included in the 2010 release.

I will be presenting a one-hour Webinar for Carlson on Thursday, October 8th introducing this powerful new feature. Read more and sign up here.

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Free Carlson Software Training with Software Purchase

Through the end of 2009, That CAD Girl is offering an hour of FREE online training with your purchase of Carlson Software.

This hour of training can be done in one session or broken down into two 1/2-hour sessions. Offering this hour is very helpful to the new Carlson user in getting oriented to the software and being able to get a little help figuring out the basic functionality of Carlson Software.

Training with That CAD Girl can be planned around our data-sets or customized to your specific project or office settings. Click here to find out why our training is the most valuable in the industry.

Call us at 919.417.8351 or Email Us for special software pricing.

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Drop Civil 3D Subscription... Lose Land Desktop?
How Changes to Autodesk Subscription Might Affect You

Drop Civil 3D Subscription... Lose Land Desktop? The answer to this question is... Maybe. Since the 2010 release of their products, Autodesk has made some changes to their upgrade policies in general and clarified their position with regard to Civil 3D Subscription in particular.

I know a lot of current Civil 3D Subscription customers who never took Civil 3D out of the box and, instead, have just continued to use the Land Desktop/Civil Design Companion that came with Civil 3D through the 2009 release. What many people do not realize is that your continued ability to use earlier versions of the software (including the Land Desktop/Civil Design Companion products) is dependent on keeping your Civil 3D Subscription current. So, now that Civil 3D 2010 no longer includes Land Desktop/Civil Design Companion, what are your options if you choose to drop Subscription?

With everyone in our industry being hit with the challenges of the economic downturn, this question is an important one. Because I was getting conflicting answers from Autodesk resellers, I posted this question to Autodesk's Civil 3D Discussion Group last month. Rather than repeat the discussion here, I would ask that you follow this link and read the thread for yourself to determine how these changes may affect you.

Also, Autodesk has announced Simplified Upgrade Pricing which is effective as of March 16, 2010.

According to Autodesk, if you are not on Subscription:

After March 15, 2010, your upgrade from any of the three previous software releases will cost 50 percent of the price of a new license, no matter which release you own.

As stated above, the Simplified Upgrade Pricing plan only applies to upgrades from the previous 3 versions of the software. Upgrading from an earlier version will now require you to pay the full price of a new seat.

Again, this is a policy change that can directly affect our bottom line. Autodesk has some pricing specials going on between now and 3/16/2010 to give you an opportunity to upgrade prior to the pricing changes.

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Carlson Software User Group - Coming January 2010

In January 2010 we are launching a monthly Carlson Software User Group in the Raleigh area of North Carolina.

The intent is to hold a 2-hour meeting each month with a 1-hour demonstration/presentation either by special guests or members. NC licensed civil engineers and land surveyors will receive an hour of PDH credit for the training. We will try to alternate each month having a survey-centric presentation one month and engineering-centric the next.

We'd like to hear your feedback and recommendations. It's a Users' Group - so the Users should have a lot of say in the content. Please complete this short survey to tell us a little about what you'd like to see. Whether you're in the Raleigh area or not, this information can be fed to others and can be used to initiate User Groups in other areas of the country.

Click here to complete the survey

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Bentley Wants You to "Be Employable"

Bentley Systems, developer of Microstation, has recently launched their "Be Employable" initiative.

According to Bentley:

Be Employable provides outplaced infrastructure professionals with no-charge access to Bentley software and training. It also provides online tools to help users develop their own personal learning needs, and the necessary Learning Units to help workers maintain professional qualifications.

It's been a long time since I've used Microstation, but I was intrigued enough by this offer that I wanted to pass it along. You can read more about it here.

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Carlson VS Civil 3D - Revisited

Almost two years ago I posted this bit of commentary on my website: Why I Chose Carlson Over Civil 3D. In the past month or so, the debate was taken up on Autodesk's Civil 3D Discussion Group with accusations of "rigging" a Civil 3D vs Carlson shootout and also when someone linked to my announcement that Dewberry had chosen Carlson Software over Civil 3D.

This is a valuable and important conversation for many of us in the land surveying and civil engineering fields today and I'm happy to have the discussion. I have thought a lot about which software is best for me and my customers but am happy to have a debate and welcome opposing arguments. Civil 3D may one day be the answer and, if there are people who believe it already IS, I want to know why.

To the best of my ability, I have added links to the various discussion threads in chronological order at my website for anyone who is interested in following the debate and discussion. Click here for links and back-story.

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Lunch & Learn Fridays
Carlson Software & IntelliCAD/AutoCAD Topics

These interactive, online sessions will last approximately 1 hour. NC licensed engineers and surveyors who complete the follow-up quiz will receive 1 hour of PDH credit. Cost for each is $20. Follow links below to sign up or search by date on our Training Calendar.

Using Fields & Tables

Profiles & Cross Sections with Carlson Software

Using Model Space & Paper Space

Preparing DWG Files For Surface Modeling Or Machine Control

Working with the CUI Editor & Creating Custom Commands

Designing Retaining Walls And Multi-Level Building Pads

Tips & Tricks for Recovering Corrupt Drawings

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Carlson Software Tip - Field to Finish Coding

Carlson's Field to Finish feature is fairly simple, but sometimes having an extra guide comes in handy. Click here for a helpful document.

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AutoCAD Tip - Annotative Text & Multi-Leaders

Annotative Text and Multi-Leaders are some of the handiest features to be introduced in AutoCAD in the last few years. However, they can be frustrating as well. Click here for documentation of these features.

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