Transition from LDD to Civil 3d 08'

[hotrodz0321]

This question is directed toward land surveyors but feel free to offer any suggestions.

I currently work at a land surveying firm, pretty small (around 20 employees)...we are upgrading from LDD 2002 to civil 3d 2008....before we buy the 6 seats of the program we want to get some things straight....LDD projects could link several separate drawings together using a database and could therefore share points as long as that drawing was associated with that project.....the new civil 3d doesnt allow that? As i understand it, each drawing is pretty much its own database and if you erase a point from that drawing then its pretty much gone..your only option is to have points on certain layers and turn them off.....

Question: To anyone who has made this change already or plans to, how have you and your company dealt with this new project setup, how are you working with drawings now as opposed to LDD?

[rkmcswain]

No offense to you and your companies abilities and/or skill levels, but IMO you should consider outside consulting to assist with the LDT->C3D transition. This is huge. It's comparable to jumping to Microstation+Geopak. In fact, I think those without any knowledge of LDT are actually going to be able to learn C3D faster.

Having said all that, there are two way to share project data in C3D. Data Shortcuts and an external program called Vault. Again, I recommend hiring an outside consultant to look at your needs, recommend a solution, and assist with the implementation of that solution, including training. Without it, you are likely to spend more billable time in the "learn it yourself" method than the consultant will cost you.

In the meantime, there is plenty of reading material out there. Start by checking out the "Civil 3D Blogs" links on the right side of this page:
http://rkmcswain.blogspot.com/

Good luck.

[hotrodz0321]

I have experience in 2006 and 2007 products but no other users at my office do......i have heard of vault and will look into it.....i was just exploring different options and seeing what other surveyors have done to make this migration and what they think of it