That CAD Girl is working with Carlson Software and Advance Acceptance to offer special, low rate financing through 8/31/2015.
Rates of 0%, 1.99% and 2.99% are available for new software purchases and for Carlson BRx5 GNSS Receivers. Minimum purchase is $5000.
A few other details apply – call or email to find out more or click here to download the promotional brochure.
With the end of perpetual licensing for some/most Autodesk products coming on January 16, 2016, Autodesk is running a few promotions to encourage current users to embrace the switch.
Click here for Autodesk’s Buyer’s Guide or email me to request access to the recording of my recent webinar with an Autodesk reseller and Carlson Software programmers explaining how these changes may affect us going forward.
You will want to touch base with your local Autodesk reseller or, if you don’t currently work with anyone, email me for a recommendation…
Some of the promotions include:
If you missed this presentation, you can watch it here
I’m very pleased to announce that Bruce Carlson, President of Carlson Software, will be presenting an encore of his Intro to Precision 3d Culverts webinar for me on Tuesday March 31st.
Even though he’d barely finished the first webinar and I was asking him to do another one, Bruce was excited and ready for the next one! He emailed:
Perfect—I kicked myself after yesterday’s webinar for not showing multiple barrels, which shows solid cutting into the headwalls instantaneously and is very impressive, searing in the memory when people see it (since pipes cut in and re-size accurately to smaller pipes). I won’t leave that one out on March 31st.
This is a bonus to my regular monthly webinars and no previous purchase is required… It’s open to all and you can register here: Register Now! for Precision 3d Culverts Webinar with Bruce Carlson
Also, don’t forget that Carlson will be hosting their User Conference at the end of April. You can learn more by following this link. I’ll be presenting 3 training sessions and I hope to see you all there!
From the 3/15/2015 press release:
Just released, Carlson’s revolutionary Precision 3D Design-Culverts software is an easy-to-use program for designing stormwater-related systems.
Much more than just a visualization tool, the software utilizes the newest technologies to allow drag and drop options for strategically placing pipes and culverts and for selecting headwalls and endwalls from an ever-growing list of manufacturers. It enables the sizing of culverts and delineation of drainage areas, plus tracking of runoff from surface models.
“You can place and also easily move culverts and headwalls to new locations with full dtm restoration,” says Bruce Carlson, president of Carlson Software. “Engineers will get instant feedback to changes to their on-screen design.”
Once a digital terrain model from CAD, Google Earth, or other source is imported, the on-screen image accurately reflects the materials represented, such as roadways, embankments, rocks, fields, etc.
Other innovations in the software include the ability to:
- Grade surfaces for both upstream and downstream designs;
- Delineate drainage and ponding areas;
- Determine peak flow automatically from CN and C factors and terrain;
- Size culverts and place at low points;
- Choose from multiple barrel options;
- Output PDF reports for any selected culvert pipes having flow and headwater across multiple storm events; and
- Use for retention pond design and pond dewatering.
Carlson Precision 3D Design-Culverts is made to integrate easily into Carlson engineering software, Carlson Civil and Carlson Hydrology. It is also made to work with AutoCAD® and MicroStation® software applications.
I’ve just updated my list of Upcoming Webinars for the next few months. There are several new and reconfigured sessions and I’ve got Mark Long, Carlson’s Hydrology expert, on board to show a lot of the design capabilities in Carlson Hydrology in March. Mark’s the best and I think you’ll get a lot out of his training.
A couple other classes are on the list because you asked for them! They’re narrowly focused classes on very specific topics: Carlson Annotation, Surfaces and Breaklines and Working with Paper Space, Sheet Set Manager and Creating Custom Title Blocks. You’ll have ample opportunity to ask questions and start using what you learn right away!
Here’s the link to pre-register and, if you’re not eligible to attend for free, here is the link where you can purchase a year’s access to the webinars.
It’s trade show season again and I am happy to get the chance to go visit old friends and meet new ones over the next few months…
Next one upcoming is the SAMSOG Technical Seminar in Atlanta later this week. I appreciate the opportunity to present my classes to this group for the first time and I understand it’s going to be quite a crowd; but they take walk-ins on the day of the event. I’ll be covering Tips & Tricks in CAD and Carlson and an Introduction to Field to Finish.
Next will be the NJ SurvCon in Atlantic City which starts on 2/4. I think this is my third year and I really enjoy seeing everyone although they all tell me I talk funny! Again, it’s Tips & Tricks but I’ll also be presenting How to Take a Project from Field to Finish with Carlson Survey.
February 11th thru 13th I’ll be in Columbus, Ohio for the 40th Anniversary of PLSO’s Annual Conference. I’ll be in the exhibit hall for most of the time but on Friday will be teaching CAD & Carlson Tips & Tricks. Make sure you visit my booth and see how your CAD skills match up to surveyors in other states!
And, lastly (I think), I’ll be in Murfreesboro TN at the TAPS 47th Annual Meeting & Exhibition from March 12-14. I’ll be in the exhibit hall most of the time but will also be teaching Field to Finish for Survey and GIS Collection from a GIS Dummy on Thursday March 12th.
It’s not a trade show but don’t forget Carlson’s 2015 User Conference at the end of April. I’ll definitely be there since it’s practically in the backyard of my hometown in Kentucky.
Looking forward to seeing everyone!
I’m a few days late in posting this but Carlson has announced their end-of-year CAD pricing specials for 2014.
So, what’s on the shelf? For desktop software we have specials on:
All software purchases include 12 months of access to my live, interactive webinars. These are exclusive training sessions that are not publicly posted online and I’m currently scheduling approximately 3-4 hours per month on various topics. This is my way to help as many of my customers as possible use your software and keep it from becoming shelf-ware!
But, that’s not all!
I also have additional discounts on new purchases of Carlson Survey, Civil, Hydrology, GIS, Takeoff Suite, Construction, CADNet, Trench & GeoTech with Maintenance. These links go to my online store where you can see my standard discounts but I’m not allowed to advertise the super-duper special pricing. You’ll have to email me or Request A Custom Proposal to find out details…
Both Carlson’s specials and the ones I’m running on my own will expire on 12/31/2014…
A CAD/Carlson Software buddy – Dent Cermak – passed along a response from FEMA to questions regarding the features available on FIRM maps. The FEMA rep recommended using National Flood Hazard Layer data to view flood data overlays on aerial, street and other imagery. The NFHL data is available via an online viewer here: http://fema.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=cbe088e7c8704464aa0fc34eb99e7f30.
Another way to access the NFHL data is to download it as a KMZ file that can be opened in Google Earth: https://hazards.fema.gov/femaportal/wps/portal/NFHLWMSkmzdownload.
So, I thought this was pretty cool and when I asked for Dent’s permission to share on my website, he passed along a couple more .kmz files that were even more cool! These are courtesy of Ladd Nelson at Carlson Software.
If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, you only have to double-click to open these files in Google Earth.
KMZ file with US State Plane NAD83 Zones overlay – ZIP file
KMZ file with UTM Zones overlay – ZIP file
Problem: You’re running Carlson Software and need a new computer… What do you need and how much do you need to spend?
The shortest answer is to follow this link to Carlson’s website: Carlson Software System Requirements
The short answer, if you’re running one of Carlson Software’s programs with embedded AutoCAD/OEM or on top of a full AutoCAD, is to follow Autodesk’s system recommendations/requirements for the platform. The Carlson part that runs on top has a relatively light footprint compared to the AutoCAD underneath, so you’ll need to make sure your new computer can run the AutoCAD-engine and the rest will be fine.
Carlson running on top of IntelliCAD also has a pretty light footprint compared to anything developed by Autodesk. Unless your drawings are loaded with a lot of layout tabs and viewports, there’s a very good chance an off-the-shelf computer from Best Buy or Wal-Mart will be sufficient.
Since I’m a self-described hardware “dummy” and that’s not the most technical answer, I asked Leonid Entov, the Assistant Director of Office Software Development at Carlson Software, for a better, layman’s-terms answer:
In one sentence, I would summarize recommended computer as i7 processor, discrete graphics (not integrated), preferably Nvidia chip since we seen more of driver issues with ATI/AMD and 8 gb of RAM (Windows tends to eat too much of 4gb these days). You do not have to go to gaming computers, something like this would be possible to find in $700+ range in laptops.
Since there are too many CPUs on the market, this site helps to compare individual CPUs : http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
Thanks Leonid!
And I can’t post this without reminding everyone that Carlson’s tech support team is great and will be happy to answer any specific questions you have. Their tech support is free, all the time, whether you’re using a 30-day trial or if you’ve already purchased and whether you’re using the most current version of the software or one that’s 10 years old.
It’s workshop and PDH time again!
We’re mostly following the same calendar as last year with a 1/2 day in Asheville and 2 full days in Statesville and Raleigh. Each event includes drinks, snacks, lunch, door prizes/giveaways and “day-of-show” pricing for Carlson Software including new seats and maintenance renewals.
Register for the Statesville events by Sept 30th or for the Raleigh events by Oct 31st for early registration discounts. Late fees will be applied to registrations within one week of each event.
Carlson Software Workshop in Asheville NC, Monday Nov 17th
View Announcement – Register Now!
Statesville Workshop for Surveyors and Contractors, Tuesday Nov 18th
View Announcement – Register Now!
Statesville Workshop for Engineers and Designers, Wednesday Nov 19th
View Announcement – Register Now!
Raleigh Workshop for Surveyors and Contractors, Tuesday Dec 9th
View Announcement – Register Now!
Raleigh Workshop for Engineers and Designers, Wednesday Dec 10th
View Announcement – Register Now!
If you’ve recently switched from an AutoCAD-based program to Carlson with IntelliCAD, one thing you may miss is having the ability to virtually “plot” your drawings to PDF, DWF, JPG and PNG files instead of to paper. This functionality is not included in IntelliCAD and, from what I understand, including it would have significantly increased the price of each license so the developers decided to leave it out and allow users to purchase add-on programs if needed the functionality.
So, if you need to print to one of these formats, how can you do it?
If you primarily need to create PDF files and don’t mind spending some kinda-big bucks, you can purchase a program such as Adobe Acrobat. Acrobat is a standalone program but it also installs as a virtual printer into Windows-based programs like Carlson, AutoCAD and even Microsoft Windows and Outlook.
If you need to print to PDF, you could save some money and consider other after-market programs such as CutePDF or PDF995 (or many others) that essentially serve the same purpose – installing as a PDF printer into Windows-based programs. Most of these programs have a free version but there’s usually a catch such as a watermark on each PDF that says something like, “This document printed with …”. If you purchase one of their other products, the watermark goes away. I currently use Adobe Acrobat but used Win2PDF for years.
If you need to print to PDF but also to other formats such as PNG, JPG and TIF, you may want to take a look at PDF Creator from SourceForge. I know this is the utility recommended by several of the tech support team at Carlson but I haven’t used it myself.
I am not sure if the other programs that I listed above (PDF995, CutePDF and Win2PDF) allow you to “print” to formats other than PDF and I can’t tell from their websites but, if anyone knows and wouldn’t mind passing that information along to me, I’ll update this post with the additional information.
As mentioned above, having these PDF-creating programs installed like a printer directly in your Carlson programs makes them very convenient and handy – but there is most likely a cost associated with them all.
My final recommendation is free, but a little less convenient – it’s Autodesk’s DWG TrueView (this link changes all the time – apologies in advance). It’s free, but it allows you to use all the virtual printers included in AutoCAD such as DWGtoPDF, DWGtoJPG, DWGtoPNG and DWF ePlot. In addition, TrueView also includes the oh-so-cool DWG TrueConvert program that enables you to convert one or more DWG files from any version to pretty much any other version. The downside to using this program is that it’s a standalone program so you must save your drawing and then open again in TrueView in order to plot.
Happy Plotting!
