Public works agencies are increasingly tasked with doing more with less across while delivering a range of services, including road maintenance, traffic engineering, and surface water management.

By Mark Lancaster, Synergis Engineering Design Solutions

Have you ever contacted a vendor requesting a 3D model of their product and you only received a 2D drawing of it? I will even bet the drawing you received had limited amount of information on it as well. So what steps did you take to convert their 2D drawing over to 3D?

The latest release of InfraWorks 360 (Autodesk's preliminary design software) became available for download on June 8, 2015 and includes some very nice improvements in functionality, including roadway design, drainage design, roundabout design, and more, as showcased in this blog from BIM on the Rocks.

By way of a summary, here's a sneak peek at what's new:

Roundabouts Got Easy

Is your agency using the cloud for CAD or any other related digital design work?

From cloud-based apps that let you work on any computer or device to the amazing computer power that you can access for less money than buying traditional software, the cloud is a wonderful thing.

Well AutoCAD 2016 is out and loaded with a bunch of new features, and once again I will be covering a lot of them in my up-coming blogs and community sites. Although, this is a great way for or clients to be aware of what is out there, it still makes me wonder how many people really take advantage of these new tools or really learn how to use them properly to make their jobs easier?

We all know BIM isn't just for the techy folks. Other stakeholders, like engineers, architects, project managers and facilities managers need to understand BIM concepts too. But these casual users are often under-served by BIM training. After all, these aren't always the people who attend Autodesk University and other technology training events which tend to focus on the people who actually use BIM software like Revit.

By Jeff Yoders, Line//Shape//Space

This AutoCAD Tips and Tricks roundup covers filleting parallel lines, using AutoCAD on your Mac with the native Mac UI, saving time with Dynamic UCS, and mesh modeling for quick and easy design.

Have you ever seen a drawing file you created with Civil 3D balloon in file size? Has this caused performance to take a nose dive?

The following steps should help you get some improvement on getting smaller file size, and hopefully better performance:

State and local fiscal year-end is fast approaching, and it's a great time to make an investment in design software and services. After all, unspent funding is not only a lost opportunity, it may send a signal to budget-setters that they should reduce funding next year.

With Autodesk's 2016 software release now fully rolled out, now is a great time to review your design, visualization and collaboration needs and make the most of your remaining budget.

A Word From our Sponsor!

AutoCAD Civil 3D is 10 years old! Can you believe it?