After several years of the same format for our end of year workshops, we’ve changed it up a bit this year.

For the first time, we will have one full day in both Statesville and Raleigh NC dedicated to Surveying and GIS topics and an additional day focusing on Civil and Hydrology topics. Each day will also include a unique presentation of the popular CAD Tips & Tricks session that, hopefully, sends everyone home with something they can use the next day.

In addition, we’re conducting 1/2-day events in Wilmington and Hendersonville (Asheville area) covering a variety of topics.

Each full-day class will give NC licensed surveyors and engineers 8 PDH credits and the 1/2 day events are eligible for 4 PDH credits. All events include lunch, software pricing specials and giveaways.

November 11th, Hendersonville NC – $49 for 4 PDH credits
Download Hendersonville (Asheville) Announcement Here
Register for Hendersonville (Asheville) Workshop Here

November 12th, Survey & GIS Workshop, Statesville NC – $99 for 8 PDH credits
Download Statesville Survey/GIS Announcement Here
Register for Statesville Survey/GIS Workshop Here

November 13th, Civil & Hydrology Workshop, Statesville NC – $99 for 8 PDH credits
Download Statesville Civil/Hydro Announcement Here
Register for Statesville Civil/Hydro Workshop Here

December 9th, Wilmington NC – $49 for 4 PDH credits
Download Wilmington Announcement Here
Register for Wilmington Workshop Here

December 11th, Survey & GIS Workshop, Raleigh NC – $99 for 8 PDH credits
($89 registration thru 10/31/2013)
Download Raleigh Survey/GIS Announcement Here
Register for Raleigh Survey/GIS Workshop Here

December 12th, Civil & Hydrology Workshop, Raleigh NC – $99 for 8 PDH credits
($89 registration thru 10/31/2013)
Download Raleigh Civil/Hydro Announcement Here
Register for Raleigh Civil/Hydro Workshop Here

A colleague pointed me to this post on the CADTechs group on LinkedIn:

Autodesk today said it would discontinue the ability to purchase software upgrades on February 1, 2015

Greater Raleigh AE firm looking for CAD talent. C3D 2012 Drafter for machine modeling, site survey, construction and engineering projects.

Carlson experience is a plus and Microstation/Geopak a double plus. Our ideal candidate will be able to learn new software quickly, have a good understanding of survey mapping and site civil design. For consideration, Drafter must be willing to take the lead, work on computer all day, have a stellar attitude, able to pass drug screening and have a good driving record.

Please forward resume to [email protected] or fax to 919-297-0090

Click here for the September 2013 issue of my newsletter…

I’m a bit late pointing this out, but here’s my latest Picks ‘N’ Clicks article for Professional Surveyor Magazine

CAD Tips & Tricks

Atkinson Engineers in Harris County Texas is looking for an experienced civil CAD operator… proficiency with Carlson Civil Software is preferred.

Click here for a complete job description

Qualified individuals should email your resume to Neil Atkinson at [email protected].

Carlson released the 2014 version of their desktop products today. This includes: Civil Suite, Civil, Survey, Hydrology, GIS, Takeoff Suite, Construction, Point Cloud, Geology, Surface/Underground Mining and Natural Regrade.

The 2014 embedded-AutoCAD versions of Takeoff Suite and Survey have not yet been released.

Carlson Desktop products include IntelliCAD 7.2b and can run on top of full AutoCAD-based products versions 2004-2014. This includes AutoCAD, Map, Land Desktop and Civil 3d. Also, anyone using the FREE IntelliCAD that comes with Carlson is still eligible for a FREE GIS Starter Kit from Esri which includes ArcMap. [This offer ended on 12/31/2013]

You can download Carlson 2014 here.

View the “Survey and Civil – What’s new in 2014” webinar here

If you are using 2013 and are current on your annual maintenance contract, you can click here to look up your new 2014 serial number online. You will need to enter your contact information and your 2013 serial number in order to generate the 2014 serial number. You can find your serial number by opening Carlson Software and going to Help > About Carlson Software > Change Registration.

If you have trouble finding your serial number or would like to know the cost to upgrade any product to 2014, please email me with your request.

Click here for the full list of improvements in Carlson 2014

As we’re all getting ready for the release of Carlson’s 2014 desktop products, Carlson Software has scheduled a series of 5 lunchtime webinars to introduce new features and enhancements. See below for details and registration links:

Carlson Survey and Civil 2014
Wednesday, July 24th – presented by Scott Griffin, Director of Sales

Carlson Construction 2014
Wednesday, July 31st – presented by Todd Carlson, Takeoff Product Manager

Carlson Hydrology 2014 and all new Carlson Trench
Wednesday, August 7th – Mark Long, Developer, & Todd Carlson

Carlson Mining 2014
Wednesday, August 14th – Grant Wenker, Director, Mining Division

All new CADnet
Wednesday, August 21st – Jim Carlson, Regional Sales Director

All new GeoTech
Wednesday, August 28th – Dave Sanford, Regional Sales Director

Todd Carlson helped me out with a demonstration of Carlson Takeoff a couple months ago and the company we were presenting to was looking for some particular features in a mass haul analysis routine. They had looked at several other programs as well as Takeoff and had yet to find a solution to their particular issue.

Fast-forward about a month and Todd followed up to let us know that the new functionality had been incorporated into the software and would be available in Carlson Civil and Carlson Construction/Takeoff 2014. This is a perfect illustration of how responsive Carlson is to their customers (or even prospects, in this case).

I asked Todd to write up a little preview of the new Mass Haul Analysis routine we’ll see in Carlson 2014:

Mass Haul Analysis in a nutshell:
Mass Haul Analysis determines the volume and haul distance for groups of net cut and net fill station ranges along a road. The program calculates the optimized cut to fill movements so that the total volume-distance moved is minimized.

New Feature:
When dealing with multiple external hauls, users can now input the distance (and a “road conditions” factor) a borrow pit or dump pile is from its entry station. The program will then use this information when minimizing earth movement along the road.

For example, as shown in the first graphic below, an image of the area was inserted into the drawing from Google Earth or the Esri Mapping Service. CAD polylines were sketched along the travel paths from multiple pit locations to the project site.

Then, purely based off stationing, borrow pit (A) may be closer to a fill area than borrow pit (B). However, if the distance from borrow pit (B) to its entry station is closer than borrow pit (A)’s, the program may determine to use (B) as the borrow pit over (A) to optimize the earth movement.

Learn more about Carlson Civil and Carlson Takeoff

From Carlson’s website:

Featuring hundreds of additions and improvements, Carlson SurvCE 3.0 supports the widest range of popular and new release RTK GPS and conventional/robotic total stations of any other data collection software on the market.

SurvCE 3.0 has been released and is now ready for download. Constantly being upgraded, SurvCE features an optional icon-based interface and new Cloud-based messaging, file transfer, NGS monument recall, simplified stakeout methods and powerful GPS measurement averaging and blunder detection in the field (with accuracies in-between RTK and post-processing).

The Carlson SurvCE 3.0 upgrade is offered for just $150 for Carlson customers already using SurvCE 2.0 and above. The price to purchase SurvCE remains the same as it has since 2007.

Literally 100s of enhancements have been built into SurvCE 3.0.

Click here for SurvCE 3.0 Features

Click here for SurvCE 3.0 Screen Shots

Click here for SurvCE 3.0 System Requirements

Click here for SurvCE 3.0 Supported Hardware

Click here to purchase and also, sign up here for our newsletters to be notified of upcoming hardware and software special discounts!