With this being the last newsletter of 2010, I'd like to take this opportunity to extend a giant "Thank You" to all those I've worked with and who have supported me through the years. I am also grateful for all the new opportunities that have opened up to me in 2010 and given me the chance to meet so many new and interesting people. I hope you and your families have a happy, healthy and safe holiday season.

Jennifer

December Workshops
Detailed Agenda and a Special Guest

As we are wrapping up preparations for our 4th year of December Workshops, I am pleased to announce the addition of a guest speaker to our roster.

Janet Jackson, better known as "GIS Janet" to readers of GeoWorld, Professional Surveyor and CE News through her monthly Intersect columns, will be joining us in Raleigh and Statesville this year. Janet will be making a short presentation in the morning session and will be sitting in on other Esri and GIS presentations. Carlson's recent association with Esri has me playing catch up in learning about GIS and how it can be used by those of us who have lived in the CAD-based surveying, engineering and construction worlds for so long. I hope to learn a lot about GIS from Janet and will introduce her to Carlson as we strive to take advantage of the Esri and Carlson Software partnership.

As she introduces all of us to GIS, I've asked Janet to try to address, briefly, three questions:

Why do surveyors, engineers and construction professionals need to know about GIS? And, how can it help us?
When an RFP (Request for Proposal) has a "GIS Component" requiring a GIS deliverable, what does that mean and what should we look for?
As surveyors, engineers and contractors using Carlson Software, what are some fairly easy "value-added" services we could offer to existing and potential clients to generate new business?

The cost for this 1-day workshop is $99. Lunch will be provided and NC licensed professional surveyors and engineers will receive 8 PDH credits for attending.

Tuesday, Dec 14th in Wilmington NC
Find out more here or click here to register

Wednesday, Dec 15th in Raleigh NC
Find out more here or click here to register

Thursday, Dec 16th in Statesville NC
Find out more here or click here to register

Like in years past, we will have a morning session for everyone and then two afternoon sessions where attendees can choose from 3 different topics.

This year's Morning Session will cover:

IntelliCAD Overview
AutoCAD/IntelliCAD Tips & Tricks
Getting Started with CAD Standards
Getting Started with GIS - Janet Jackson
Future Direction of Carlson Hardware and Software Solutions

For the first afternoon session, attendees can choose between:

Carlson Fundamentals - Deed Processing, Working with Points, Field to Finish, Surface Modeling & Site Grading, RoadNet, Hydrology preview, Finding and Using Freely Available GIS Data in North Carolina.
Seamless Civil Data Conversion - No Problem! - This session will show how Carlson's seamless data conversion enables users to go back and forth from Land Desktop, Civil 3D and other software packages. If your concern is in continuing to take good care of your clients and keeping the lines of communication open, you'll see that this is actually no concern at all.
Carlson Point Cloud 2011 - For those who have seen this product in the past, you'll be impressed with all the improvements in 2011. This session will present many of the new & improved routines in Carlson's Point Cloud 2011 including how to clean a cloud to remove cars and other physical features so as to make it smaller and easier to work with, how to get volumes for a stock pile, how to use Carlson Field to Finish for symbols and breaklines from the cloud and how to generate a surface and contours in your CAD file.

For the second afternoon session, attendees can choose between:

Demonstration of Carlson's All-In-One Surveyor+ GPS & Data Collector - See this office and (weather-permitting) field demonstration of Carlson's new Surveyor+ GPS System. This equipment provides a dual frequency RTK GNSS receiver and field controller and comes loaded with Carlson SurvCE. This system is versatile with Network RTK, Base/Rover RTK and static capabilities. It's also flexible and works with almost every brand of total station and robotic instrumentation. This demonstration will include Carlson's Field to Finish feature.

Collecting Survey Data for Direct Import into Esri - In this session you will learn how to export a GIS feature/attribute structure from a client's Esri GIS, use SurvCE or SurvPC to collect additional survey-grade data to that schema, and then write it back to ArcGIS in a single seamless workflow.

Carlson 2011 Updates and Advanced Design and Grading - In this session you will learn many of the new features in Carlson's 2011 product offerings for surface modeling, grading and Hydrology. One of the most exciting features is Carlson's ability to make edits to contours and apply the changes back to the underlying TIN

surface file. Updates to Carlson's Civil & Hydrology packages (including design criteria for NCDOT, City of Greensboro and others) will be covered.

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Carlson 2011 Release and Special Pricing

Carlson Software released the 2011 version of their products in September. If you are current on Carlson's Maintenance program, you've likely already received your new software and serial number. If not, you can use this link to look up your 2011 serial number. The Survey and TakeOff programs with embedded AutoCAD will be released later this year or early 2011.

Some of the most exciting new features in the newest release involve the interoperability between Carlson and Esri's GIS products. Also, for road design, there are new tools for rehab work. A full list of the new features can be found here.

Use this link to download Carlson Civil Suite, Point Clouds and TakeOff 2011. This downloaded version includes IntelliCAD or can be installed on top of any AutoCAD-based programs 2000-2011.

For a 30-day trial, download the program from the link above and then email me at ContactUs@thatcadgirl.com to request a trial serial number.

Special Pricing - Good Through December 31, 2010
(Normal Retail pricing shown in parentheses)

Carlson Survey + Carlson Civil 2011 $1,495 ($3,000)
Carlson Point Cloud 2011 $ 3,495 ($5,000)
Carlson TakeOff 2011 with IntelliCAD $ 6,885 ($9,000)
Carlson Takeoff T3 with embedded AutoCAD $ 6,885 ($9,000)
Carlson Survey 2011 with IntelliCAD $ 750 ($1,500) - Must provide an active and valid SurvCE serial number.
Carlson Civil Suite 2011 $ 2,625 ($3,500)
Carlson Point Cloud Complete 2011 $6,375 ($8,500)
(Includes Point Cloud and Civil Suite 2011)
Carlson Point Cloud $3,495 ($5,000)
Carlson Survey 2011 $1,195 ($1,500)
Carlson Civil 2011 $1,195 ($1,500)
Carlson Hydrology 2011 $795 ($1,000)
Carlson GIS 2011 $795 ($1,000)
Carlson TakeOff 2011 $7,650 ($9,000)

You can add Network installation and Annual Maintenance to any of these products for an additional 10% of Retail (10% for Network plus 10% for Maintenance).

Visit our Carlson Software Support page to see 5 minute videos of many of the most popular features of Carlson Civil Suite.

For a comprehensive outline of the Carlson Software pricing structure, please refer to this new page on our website:
What You Need to Know About Purchasing Carlson Software.

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Check Out Professional Surveyor Magazine's December Issue

A couple of months ago after posting a response on the surveying discussion group www.BeerLeg.com, the editor of Professional Surveyor magazine, Jim Fleming, asked if I'd be interested in writing a bi-monthly CAD tips and tricks article for the magazine. Of course I was excited to be given the opportunity and immediately took him up on the offer. The 1st installment of my Picks and Clicks can be seen in the December issue of the magazine.

Those of you in the US and Canadian residents who are members of the ACLS can subscribe to Professional Surveyor for free. Others in Canada can subscribe for only $20 USD per year. For you bi-linguists out there, Professional Surveyor has also recently launched a Spanish language version of their magazine.

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January 2011 Classes

Continuing another trend started last year, I will be holding two 1-day, hands on training classes in January 2011. These classes CAN BE USED for 2010 PDH credit.

Monday, January 24 - Overview of Carlson Survey 2011
Topics include: working with points, field to finish, raw file editor and surfaces
Tuesday, January 25 - Surface Modeling with Carlson
Topics include: Intro to existing surfaces, using Field to Finish to build your surface, intro to proposed surfaces

The cost for each day is $149 for 8 hours PDH credit and lunch is included. Seats are very limited - So call 919.417.8351 to Register!

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Need a Reasonably Priced CAD Alternative?

The buzz and interest in IntelliCAD as a viable alternative to AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD or other AutoCAD-based programs is growing.

For those who are unfamiliar with IntelliCAD, it can be considered a practical clone of AutoCAD that reads and writes DWG files from version 2010 back to R11 and DXF files back to R2.5. Since IntelliCAD can only be purchased when combined with another program, Carlson GIS with IntelliCAD provides a very low cost alternative ($795) for many companies needing to extend their CAD budget. Beyond the CAD functionality, Carlson GIS has additional tools that extend your capabilities well beyond those of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. Some of the additional tools available in Carlson GIS are:

Drawing Cleanup - Various cleanup tools including the ability to convert ellipses and splines to polylines, flatten extruded entities, ability to convert Land Desktop points and contours to basic IntelliCAD/AutoCAD entities, reduce polyline vertices, and many more tools.
Ability to import and export LandXML files
Ability to work with survey points
Ability to use LISP routines and XREFs
Ability to work with Z values and 3 dimensions
Ability to work with GIS and Image files such as shape files and Mr. SID images

Since its 2010 release, all Carlson Software desktop products have shipped with IntelliCAD 6. The 2011 version, released in September, ships with both IntelliCAD 6.6 and a beta version of IntelliCAD 7. Since Carlson includes this alternative CAD engine for FREE, thus saving the $4,000-$5,000 cost to purchase a companion AutoCAD, we've been willing to overlook and find work-arounds for some of the shortcomings in IntelliCAD 6.

The AutoCAD features that have been most missed in IntelliCAD 6.6 are irregular (non-rectangular) viewports and a dockable dialog box for Object Properties. Additionally, IntelliCAD's graphics have been a little slow and the plot dialog box has been frustrating in its inability to remember settings from one plot to another although many of the plotting issues have been corrected in the latest updates.

These missing features and shortcomings have largely been addressed in the new IntelliCAD 7 although it's not quite ready for prime time. You can read more about IntelliCAD here: IntelliCAD with Carlson Software

Also, these are a couple years old, but here is my take on whether it's Time for IntelliCAD? and then a little More About IntelliCAD.

See below for a couple of screen shots of the new IntelliCAD 7.0.

Selecting Properties from Short-Cut Menu in IntelliCAD 7.0

Options for Docked Properties Dialog in IntelliCAD 7.0

Docked & Auto-Hide Tool Palette in IntelliCAD 7.0

Docked Properties Dialog in IntelliCAD 7.0

Call us at (919) 417-8351 or email us to find out about a trial or purchase of Carlson GIS with IntelliCAD.

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City of Greensboro NC Hydrology Rainfall Data

Carlson Software is dedicated to incorporating as many standard design files from as many municipalities as possible into their software programs. After the City of Greensbor NC started implementing Carlson Civil Suite this fall, we realized they have specific rainfall data they like to use for pipe design and gutter spread analysis.

For those of you using Carlson's Hydrology software and working with the City of Greensboro, you can download the Greensboro-specific Rainfall Library here. The "Greensboro1" rainfall event should be used to calculate pipe flows and "Greensboro2" is for gutter spread.

If you are interested in having Carlson develop a rainfall library specific to your region or incorporating other design criteria to use for your projects, please contact me at ContactUs@thatcadgirl.com.

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AutoCAD/GIS Tip

For more than a year now Esri has offered a FREE GIS Starter Kit for Carlson Software users who are using IntelliCAD. If you have not yet taken advantage of this offer, you can learn more here.

So, to complement the offer, I wanted to also point out another free utility from Esri to assist in the interoperability between ArcGIS and AutoCAD-based programs. Esri's ArcGIS for AutoCAD can be downloaded here.

From Esri:

ArcGIS for AutoCAD is a free, downloadable plug-in application for AutoCAD that provides improved interoperability between AutoCAD and ArcGIS. Within the AutoCAD environment, you gain easy access to enterprise GIS maps hosted by ArcGIS Server.

In addition, ArcGIS for AutoCAD gives you the ability to prepare CAD data for use with the ArcGIS system while leveraging your existing CAD standards.

Use ArcGIS for AutoCAD to:

Streamline information sharing between GIS and CAD groups.

View live, rich cartographic GIS maps in AutoCAD.

Include the results of GIS analysis in AutoCAD designs.

Create, manipulate, and define how CAD data is organized and attributed as GIS content so it can be used in ArcGIS Desktop or AutoCAD.

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Carlson Tip of the Month

Instead of a single command, this month's Tip encompasses a collection of commands that allow you to "Tag" or "Un-Tag" Non-Surface Points and other Entities.

In the Survey or Civil programs, you can find these commands under Surface → Non-Surface Points/Entities.

What does "non-surface" mean? And why do you need it?

On the Selection tab of Carlson's Triangulate and Contour dialog, you are able to specify one or more types of CAD entities to use when creating a surface model. The entity types accepted by the command are: CAD Points, 2D Polylines, Carlson Points, Inserts, Elevation Text, Lines, 3D Polylines, 3D Faces and Spot/Bottom Elevation Inserts.

Continuing in the Triangulate and Contour command, after specifying the entity types to include, you are prompted to "Select the points and Breaklines to Triangulate". Whether the elevation of the entity is good or bad, all entities of the specified type(s) will be used to generate the surface. One exception to this rule exists for entities with a 0 elevation. There is an additional option on the Triangulate tab allowing you to "Ignore Zero Elevations".

Problems can occur because the program cannot distinguish between entities having a good surface elevation from those with a bad surface elevation. To ensure that only good surface entities are included, you would typically put the entities with bad surface elevations on separate layers so they can be frozen prior to selecting surface data. For instance, although property corner points have a "good" elevation, I do not want to use those points when generating my surface model. So, I must assign those points to a separate layer that can be frozen prior to selecting points for the surface.

The two commands shown above, "Tag Non-Surface Entities" and "Tag Non-Surface Points", allow you to select points, polylines or other entities and "Tag" them as Non-Surface entities. This means that, even if selected during the Triangulate command, these points or entities will be ignored. The "Tag Non-Surface..." commands make it unnecessary to put non-surface entities on a separate layer for the sole purpose of excluding them from a surface.

The "Un-Tag..." commands can be used to allow previously "Tagged" entities to be included when generating the surface.

The "Report..." commands prompt you to select entities and will then report the number, type and location of Non-Surface entities.

Another consequence of tagging non-surface entities in Carlson Software is that, after tagging, the 3D Viewer Window and ShrinkWrap Entities commands will ignore the Tagged entities even if they are included in the selection set.

In addition to the method described above, you can also use Carlson's Field to Finish to Tag Non-Surface Points. When using Field to Finish to perform this task, the Non-Surface Tag will be applied to all points having the specified description. This can be both a benefit and a drawback.

So, use Field to Finish? Or manually set Non-Surface points?

The answer to this can vary from office to office, from field crew to field crew and even from field code to field code...

To determine the right answer to this question, the following question must be asked of every field code description: "Do most points having this description have a good surface elevation?".

If the answer to this is "Yes", then you should NOT enable "Non-Surface" for this description in Field to Finish. If you then come across one or more points that should be Non-Surface, Tag them manually through the Surface → Non-Surface Points/Entities menu.

If the answer is "No", then enable the "Non-Surface" setting for this description. If you then come across one or more points that need to be included in the surface, Un-Tag them manually through the Surface → Non-Surface Points/Entities menu.

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Times are tough again this year but I'm asking for your holiday support once more on behalf of the USO of RDU. Even though the USO is best known for the Bob Hope overseas shows for the troops, the USO provides a valuable service right here in North Carolina.

I have been a volunteer at the USO Center at RDU Airport for almost 4 years and it's an awesome, rewarding experience. Our mission, from the USO of RDU website:

Today, as our predecessors have done since 1941 and our colleagues do in over 145 centers around the world, we continue to serve and support North Carolina's military - active, National Guard, reserve and retired � and their families.

Whether at deployments, homecomings, Honor Support Team activations, airport lounges, Smiles over Miles, United Through Reading and numerous other programs and services, our nearly 700 volunteers statewide and our small professional staff serve over 222,000 patrons annually - leading the way to enrich the lives of America's military in the Carolinas.

For the 2nd year in a row, Archer Western Contractors has come through to provide the facilities and furnishings for a 2nd temporary USO center in Terminal 2 that will remain open through the holidays. Their generosity allows us to have a center in both terminals where traveling soldiers and their families can relax with big screen TVs, recliners, wireless internet, food, drinks and children's play area. You can read more about the temporary center here.

If you're interested in becoming a volunteer or simply learning more about this wonderful organization, visit the USO of NC's website here.

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