AEC TECH NEWS: Autodesk unveils AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 and latest InfraWorks 360

San Rafael, Calif. — Autodesk released Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 and the latest version of Autodesk InfraWorks 360 software.  Together, InfraWorks 360 and Civil 3D represent Autodesk’s Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Infrastructure solution – enabling civil infrastructure professionals to transition from a traditional CAD-based design practice to a BIM process-based approach.

The latest versions of these programs offer a host of enhancements and new capabilities that help users streamline legacy project workflows and improve decision making to achieve the best outcomes at lower costs for their projects, Autodesk said.

New for InfraWorks 360

InfraWorks 360 is Autodesk’s geospatial and engineering BIM platform that enables parametric model-based planning and design of civil infrastructure in the context of the real-world. Recently, Autodesk announced reduced pricing and a significantly simplified packaging of the InfraWorks 360 offering.  With the new packaging, subscribers now receive access to the core functionality in InfraWorks 360 along with the advanced functionality found in the Road Design, Bridge Design and Drainage Design application modules, modules that were previously licensed separately, all in a single offering.

The latest release of InfraWorks 360 delivers better interoperability with Civil 3D and Autodesk Revit; the ability to design in a richer, real-world context of the project’s environment; and improved detailed engineering capabilities.  Along with the new feature functionality, Autodesk also announced the availability of InfraWorks 360 from the Autodesk eStore.

New and enhanced features include:

• Enhanced interoperability — Workflows between InfraWorks 360, Civil 3D, and Revit have been enhanced to help civil engineers more effectively assess multiple design concepts then use their design models downstream with Civil 3D and Revit for detailed design and construction documentation with minimal loss of critical design information.  In this latest release, roundabout design models from InfraWorks 360 can now be brought into Civil 3D.  In addition, bridge designs can now be easily brought into Revit for more detailed design work. Design data can also be exchanged between InfraWorks 360 and Civil 3D, and Revit, allowing changes made to the InfraWorks 360 model to be reflected throughout the detailed design phase, thus enabling designers to test and optimize design alternatives more quickly.

Workflows between InfraWorks 360, Civil 3D, and Revit have been enhanced.  Shown here is InfraWorks 360 model imported directly into Revit 2017 for detailed design work.  Image courtesy of Autodesk.

• Multi-modal simulation — The movement of people and products effectively and efficiently through urban and rural environments is vital to any economy.  The new multi-modal simulation capabilities in InfraWorks 360 combine the power of an integrated geometric model with analysis functionality to help urban and traffic planners study the impact of their civil infrastructure designs to the movement of buses and trains; parking areas; taxis, ride sharing, autonomous vehicles; walking, cycling and other personal modes of travel.  InfraWorks 360 provides planning professionals with the tools to design more attractive, economical and ecologically sustainable environments for their citizens.

Multi-modal simulation feature helps urban and traffic planners analyze movement of people and vehicles to find optimal design solutions. Image courtesy of Autodesk.

• Better design context — A compelling value of InfraWorks 360 is the ability to enable civil engineers to plan and design their project in a real-world context of that project’s surroundings.  The latest release of InfraWorks 360 delivers improvements to Model Builder, including: linking to Open Street Map (OSM) source data and a fix for elevation issues around bridges.  In addition, with InfraWorks 360 users now have the ability to overlay DWG files, in addition to raster images, over InfraWorks 360 models with full location, scale, rotation control and correlation tools.  The ability to take advantage of data rich sources like Autodesk ReCap, 2D DWG files, Raster Overlays and Open Street Map data allows InfraWorks 360 users to model more accurate designs within a real-world view quickly and earlier in the project lifecycle.

Ability to drape a DWG enhances users’ ability to model more accurate designs in a real-world context.  Image courtesy of Autodesk.

• Detailed engineering — The latest release of InfraWorks 360 delivers a number of improvements that enhance detailed engineering workflows for transportation design including support for modeling merges, diverges and weaving lanes; new traffic simulation support for ramps and turn lanes, and enhanced editing for roundabouts and bridge girder sections.  This release also introduces the Contextual Stack, enabling users to have access to and edit design data about specific assets they select such as roads, pipe network parts, bridge parts, among others.  Users can customize the data they wish to see and choose where they want to see it.  With these enhancements, users have greater detailed engineering-level control over their designs earlier in the design process.

New for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017

AutoCAD Civil 3D is a civil engineering design and documentation solution that supports BIM workflows, helping civil infrastructure professionals improve project delivery, maintain consistent data, and respond faster to design changes.  With AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017, users can take advantage of improvements and new features to help streamline legacy workflows, centralize the management of design and drafting standards, and better integrate with Autodesk InfraWorks 360.

New and enhanced features include:

• Interoperability with InfraWorks 360 — Connected workflows between AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 and InfraWorks 360 help users optimize their designs faster, collaborate more efficiently across different teams and locations, and communicate more effectively with clients and public stakeholders.  With AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017, users can now also take advantage of the roundabout-related features available in Autodesk Vehicle Tracking software to enable the design of roundabout objects right from within Civil 3D.

Users can now take advantage of roundabout-related features available in Autodesk Vehicle Tracking software right from within Civil 3D.  Image courtesy of Autodesk.

• Project Management — AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 offers new features to help improve legacy workflows, including: Corridor Data Shortcut (DREF), option to Cache DREF Surface, Subfolders for Objects, Streamlined Reference Creation, and Reference Styles Utilities.  With these features users can now create data shortcuts for corridors and reference them in other drawings, create multiple DREFs at once, and simplify the management of drawing styles, allowing teams to work better together and enforce standards more easily.

• Corridor Modeling — Enhancements in AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 provide greater flexibility and accuracy in corridor modeling workflows.  In the latest Civil 3D, feature lines can be used as a corridor baseline, corner shapes are automatically cleaned up and more accurate, multiple feature lines can now be extracted from corridor regions and, corridor solids can now be assigned property data that is retained throughout the design workflow.

• Usability — Users of AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 can now take advantage of new pressure pipe content for HDPE, PVC and steel pipes.  In addition, a “No Site” option for Feature Lines now enables users to better control design elements that make up a model.

• Data Exchange — AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 improves design efficiencies further by allowing users to create their own property set definitions, manually add them to any drawing object, and use the property data in other applications such as Autodesk Navisworks software and Autodesk BIM 360 Glue cloud-based service.