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Alternatives to Civil 3d
Posted by johnymal on June 19, 2023 at 3:07 pmHello, can anyone suggest me alternatives to civill 3d?
I have used Carlson Survey but it crashes a lot so I want to move to a cheaper company than Autodesk and better than Carlson.
Also, I want to handle big mosaics from aerial photos.
OleManRiver replied 1 year, 2 months ago 13 Members · 20 Replies -
20 Replies
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I was first introduced to Carlson/IntelliCAD with the 2011 version. It crashed a lot. Recently I’ve had access to the 2022 and 2023 versions. These are far more stable. So if you are not basing your opinion on recent experience I suggest that you give it another try.
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I have been using carlson for more years than I can remember and it may have crashed 2x total over several decades. Might need to reinstall or check for updates on your PC (video drivers and such).
—Dan MacIsaac, PLS -
I am no cad guy so not very helpful. However i have been researching and talking with different people and Traverse PC seems to be a good platform. Now those that I have discussed that use it are mostly boundary surveys ALTA. Some topos desigb etc. Some of them had extensive background in civil 3d and carlson. Carlson users I know love it. Â Mosaics geezers I used software in the usmc and for government. Thats been so long ago it was erdas and other self designed stuff. Â I use trimble business center because we have that equipment. Â Love it for what I do . We also have civil 3d. I am learning it slowly but not as survey friendly and a different mindset than survey but is very powerful. I was a Terramodell fan big time but that was many years ago. Â The micro station folks love it or hate it. I would list what I was wanting to do from it. Is it qa/qc then cad deliverables plats maps. Or what. Esri has mosaic capabilities software as well. Find out what you want and then concentrate on those things. To see who can provide solutions.Â
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Also, I want to handle big mosaics from aerial photos.
The only problems I’ve encountered using Carlson crashing a lot was when I was issued an under powered machine with a less than ideal video card. It felt like I was trying to race in the Indy 500 in a go-cart with doughnut wheels. Finally convinced the IT people to build me a souped up machine with tons of extra RAM and haven’t had any problems since. Aerial imagery mosaics gobble up the RAM and when it runs short the software gets weally wonky in my experience. Good luck!
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Willy -
Contact Traverse PC for a demo and download a 30 day trial.Â
The professional edition does aerial photos!Â
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@gary_g  Oh wow.  I know they have some good training materials and videos online as well. I have heard from several people the support is top notch as well. I have not tried my 30 day free trial yet on my personal side. I still need a new computer for that. And the big company I work for has no i need for it but what i have read and seen its a great software package for a surveyor.
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I used Microstation early on . Pacsoft actually had a interface so you could pull your work into Micorstation for drafting.Â
If your doing boundary/topo work, subdivision/site plan work and not jumping into LIDAR, Photogrammetry work from drones. I would say give Traverse PC a try.Â
On this page:
https://traverse-pc.com/learn-more/handle-any-survey-project/
you will see a funeral home site plan we did.Â
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No mention of Microstation, so far. Probably not cheaper than C3d. But an alternative nevertheless.
I’d recommend hand drafting over this.
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I’d recommend hand drafting over this.
So would I. But I know a couple of guys that swear by it.
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It has been interesting to see MicroStation wane over the decades.
Twenty years ago it was strong competitor to Autocad, and in many ways a better product.
Now one hardly ever hears of it.
Is it still big with the DoT’s stateside?
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Is it still big with the DoT’s stateside?
Yes. I know of some that specify (and verify) that all work is done native in MicroStation and not converted from other platforms.
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It has been interesting to see MicroStation wane over the decades.
I believe that Civil3d is informed by Microstation’s WYSIWYG setup, thereby stealing its thunder.Â
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Is it still big with the DoT’s stateside?
Yes. I know of some that specify (and verify) that all work is done native in MicroStation and not converted from other platforms.
Yes, it’s the only reason they still exist. No company would willingly use their software or deal with their obscene licensing structure.
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I’m trying to get TBC set up to draft in. You probably don’t wanna try that unless you use Trimble gear and even then I don’t know if it would do the mosaic stuff you need.
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Yes, it’s the only reason they still exist. No company would willingly use their software or deal with their obscene licensing structure.
Oddly enough, I’ve had a few employees who were from Central Europe and that was the software they were most familiar with. Â
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I was first introduced to Carlson/IntelliCAD with the 2011 version. It crashed a lot. Recently I’ve had access to the 2022 and 2023 versions. These are far more stable. So if you are not basing your opinion on recent experience I suggest that you give it another try.
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Me too…
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In the beginning; I switched to Carlson with the AutoCad engine, and it was a lot more stable…
I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will! -
@norman-oklahoma jumping from C3D to MicroStation is not at all an easy task as MS is not intuitive.
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@bstrand I think it is better than people let on. Especially if you are already doing field codes for F2F type stuff. I like it for drafting but I am not a good drafter with civil 3d yet either. What I have truly loved is the data traceability at any stage of the project. I have also like the fact when i have to produce a plat at ground distances I no longer have to scale I can just label the distances along the boundary at ground but maintain my grid points. No more lines on top of lines from flattening etc like in cad so one line or linestring and I can label it accordingly and its horizontal etc. now I am still working out the kinks of dynaview collection vs dynaview and plats to plot. So it has not yet gone into production but I am getting closer.
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Also having everything in one platform is nice. Especially on those projects that several months ago left the brain and now the client wants to add something new to the project. Everything still in one spot and drag and drop the new field data in qa/qc and that’s done.
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