Today is the last full day at AU. Tomorrow morning I have a couple of classes, and then it’s all over.

What a day it has been! I took classes that gave in-depth instructions on developing pipe structures in Civil 3D, utilizing Map 3D to make drafting easier, editing pipe networks in LandXML, and setting up an multi-user project in Civil 3D without Vault.

But of course I have to tell you about my favorite class…

My favorite class today was titled The Secrets of Cutting Plan and Profile Sheets in AutoCAD Civil 3D taught by Michelle Rasmussen. When Michelle started the class, she put up a slide right away that said, “Efficiency is intelligent laziness – Anonymous.” Wow! Good way to say it. That is exactly what I believe. Throughout the presentation she emphasized the fact that she is lazy and always tries to find the easiest, quickest way to get stuff done. I love it.

The secret to cutting plan and profile sheets in Civil 3D is in the template. Setup your template correctly and you can use it over and over again on various projects. I plan on taking what I’ve learned and applying it back at the office. Some neat things Civil 3D can do for you are:

• Use different profile grids for the design (model space) and plotting (paper space).
• North arrows inserted in paper space can automatically be rotated to match the plan view rotation angle.
• Match lines and text can be customized and formatted in many ways.
• Views can be rotated automatically to align with the alignment.
• And so much more…

So as you can see, these classes are full of really great information that you can take and apply back at the office.

I plan on posting a few tricks that I picked up at AU in the coming days. There is so much to process this week but after it’s all over I will do some experimenting with some cool tools and blog about what I discover.

#AU2008

P.S.
I am looking forward to the AU party and the Design Slam finals tonight.