Murph has written an excellent post on creating contours from shape files with elevations. I have been using this method for a while now. In fact I have written scripts and macros to automate importation of contour data into my drawings. Read more »

Sadly most of us have experienced this kind of frustration. A drawing becomes so corrupted that RECOVER can’t even fix it. Never fear! Autodesk has workarounds. These tips are good to know because it seems things like this tend to happen when a deadline is right around the corner.

There are some useful inquiry commands in Civil 3D 2008 & 2009. Similar commands used to be available in Map 3D, but from what I hear (and in my experience) they have stopped working. Read more »

Have you ever wanted to import just a portion of another drawing into your current drawing? I know the civil engineering world frequently needs to import specific data from one map to another. Since I work in that world and because I’m lazy, I created a quick method for importing data from standard maps into new drawings using queries and macros. Read more »

I found out that installing Raster Design Object Enabler for Map 3D or Civil 3D allows MrSID images to be inserted directly into AutoCAD through Map 3D’s image insert command (MAPIINSERT). I use it to directly insert georeferenced ortho photos in MrSID format into my drawings. This is really nice because instead of using another piece of software to cut out the ortho to insert, I can directly insert the lightweight MrSID image directly and clip it to my desired area. Read more »