As a current Autodesk subscription customer, I received this message in my Inbox yesterday:

The link to find out more takes you here: Frequently Asked Questions about the Autodesk Upgrade Policy

I think we all saw this coming but now that it’s upon us, it’s time to make sure our software licensing ducks are in a row.

Our September newsletter has been posted… Read it here: September 2012 Newsletter

Congratulations to Keith Garrison who won the software giveaway at the NC Surveyors Conference and to Xan Holland who won at the SC Education Conference and Trade Show.

We had a CAD Test with 25 questions for attendees to test their wits and the first person to get 100% or the high score won a free copy of Carlson Survey 2012 with IntelliCAD. Keith got a high score of 88% in Greensboro and Xan tied with Greg Flowe at 84% in Columbia. Xan and Greg went through two rounds of tie-breakers before Xan was declared the winner.

Look for our booth at the SC Engineering & Surveying Conference in June 2012 to test your CAD skills!

Last fall I was interviewed by Penelope Grenoble for an article in an upcoming issue of Grading and Excavation Contractor magazine. The article has been published in the January-February 2012 issue and can be found online here: Lean and Mean: Training in Tight Times

For those who are interested, it looks like they also offer a free subscription to their print magazine to qualified readers.

This blog is in the process of being transferred to www.ThatCADGirl.com.  Please join us there.

Or maybe I should say, “We’re now on Facebook… again”! Kudos to those few people who stumbled onto the Facebook account I played around with and forgot to delete months ago, but a new That CAD Girl Facebook page has now been launched.

I plan to use Facebook as the primary method of keeping everyone up to date on the latest events & training classes and news about Carlson and Autodesk software releases. Hope to see you there!

We are finally able to announce our end of year workshops for 2011. With the weather problems we encountered last year we decided to hold the events in the western end of North Carolina in November and toward the coast in December.

The cost to attend each event is $99 and lunch is included. See below for early bird registration details for each event. NC Licensed Surveyors and Engineers will receive 8 PDH credits and all attendees will receive a certificate confirming their attendance. We will have door prizes, software giveaways and special software or hardware pricing that is available the day of the show only.

We will be in Statesville on Tuesday, November 15^th and Asheville on Thursday November 17^th. Early bird registration is $89 through September 30^th.

We will be in Wilmington on Tuesday, December 13^th and Raleigh on Thursday December 15^th. Early bird registration is $89 through October 31^st.

You will be able to choose the sessions you wish to attend. This year’s sessions include:

• GIS from A to Z and Responding to GIS-related RFPs
  presented by Janet Jackson (GIS Janet) of Intersect
• Overview of Carlson Takeoff & Preparing Machine Control Data
  presented by Todd Carlson of Carlson Software
• Intro to SurvNet & Least Squares
  presented by Donnie Stallings, the original developer of the product
• CAD Standards Roundtable & Discussion
  presented by Jennifer DiBona, That CAD Girl
• CAD Tips & Tricks and hints for sharing data with others
  presented by Jennifer DiBona, That CAD Girl
• Overview of Carlson Software 2012 (Survey, Civil, Hydro, GIS, Point Clouds)
  presented by Scott Griffin of Carlson Software
• Field to Finish with Carlson Survey & SurvCE and the Surveyor+ GPS System
  presented by Butch Herter of Carlson Software and Jeremy Taylor
• Preview of future Carlson hardware
  presented by Butch Herter of Carlson Software and Jeremy Taylor
• Road Design and Site Design with Carlson Civil & Hydrology
  presented by Scott Griffin of Carlson Software

Note that all classes are not scheduled at all events and locations. See each workshop announcement for specifics. Seats are limited so register online, call 919.417.8351 or email us to register.

I’m happy to announce that Jeremy Taylor, PLS of Taylor Land Consultants has agreed to start helping me out with Carlson Software, data collector, GPS and other hardware sales. I asked him if he’d mind pitching his voice higher as he answered the phone:

Having never been a practicing land surveyor, I have not been able to promote or discuss Carlson’s stable of data collection software or hardware as well as I’d like. I have hoped to find someone who knew the products well and could present them well, but was not a salesman. I think Jeremy will be the perfect fit.

He is very well-known and just as well-respected here in the Raleigh NC area and, I believe, will be a great resource for all of us. Like me, Jeremy is a fan of Carlson’s offerings but is more concerned with providing the right solution for our customers rather than simply trying to sell the latest and greatest piece of equipment. Please take a moment to read Jeremy’s Bio here.

If you have questions on SurvCE, Carlson Survey, data collectors or GPS equipment, please feel free to contact Jeremy at (919) 335-3444 or email him at [email protected]. Going forward I think you can expect to see more of a focus on these products including special pricing and field demonstrations.

This is a good article about Bruce Carlson and where Carlson Software is planning to go in the future…

Independence All the Way

I’ve recently started using a very cool feature in Carlson Software. The bad thing… it was in the 2009 version and I didn’t even realize it!

I had no idea exporting our DWG files from IntelliCAD or AutoCAD out to Google Earth was so easy.

1. Download and install Google Earth. You can download it here: http://earth.google.com/
2. Open any one of your project DWG files that has been positioned at its correct state plane coordinate system.
3. In Carlson, go to Settings –> Drawing Setup and then select the correct Projection and correct Zone for the project site. If you’re not sure of the Projection, try using “State Plane 83”. This will work for most systems.
4. Next, go to File –> Polyline File –> Write Polyline File. When prompted for “Polyline File Format”, type “G” for Google. You will be prompted to specify a new filename and save location for a “Google Earth File to Write (.kml)”.
5. You will then be prompted to select the entities that are to be exported out to the .kml file and viewed in Google Earth. After selecting the entities, press Enter. For this exercise, we only want to see the drawing entities in 2D, so press “N” for “No” when prompted to “Use elevation from drawing in Google Earth [Yes/<No>]?”
6. Finally, you are then prompted “Would you like to display the file in Google Earth now [<Yes>/No]?”. Press “Y” for “Yes”. Google Earth should automatically launch and zoom into the project location.

In the example shown below and pointed out with arrows, notice how closely the new roads and designed turn lanes match up to the existing roadway. Also, you can see the designed graded slopes perfectly avoiding the tank that is to be preserved during construction.
Not too shabby…

This feature is available in all of the Carlson Desktop products: Carlson Civil, Survey, Hydrology, Construction and TakeOff.

Look for a future post on bringing Google Earth surface data into Carlson Software. Hint: It’s easy too!