City of Coppell Adds a New Dimension to Civil Engineering

  Making the transition from 2D to 3D to support engineering modeling and emergency preparedness, the City of Coppell, Texas, gained numerous cost savings and community benefits. The engineering department at the City of Coppell, Texas, is among the engineering departments in cities across North America discovering the benefits of 3D modeling. Under the guidance of Scott Latta, Engineering Technician, and with the help of Avatech Solutions, they made the transition from 2D AutoCAD® to engineering modeling using AutoCAD® Civil 3D®. Latta and the team of engineers undertake several projects per year. Designs are sent out to general bids to construction companies to build and complete projects. “We are starting out by taking baby-steps with a couple of pilot projects redesigning traffic lighting in two parts of the city,” said Latta. “So far, we are really pleased with the results – and for the first time in years the contractor actually complimented me on the thoroughness and clarity of the detail in the drawing.” The advantages of AutoCAD Civil 3D are that scale lengths are actually real and relate to all parts of the drawing. For example, if the curb set back is changed, then one can immediately see how that impacts other components such as storm water drainage pipes that may require relocation. “What you see on the drawing is what you get in the field,” noted Latta.   Better Expenditure of Tax Dollars Civil 3D allows the City of Coppell engineers to anticipate interferences, preventing costly and unnecessary field delays. According to Latta, his team enjoys time savings that leads to an increased willingness to explore design changes based on feedback from construction firms. “The better the communication between our engineers and the general contractor performing the work, the fewer problems crop up,” he says. Checking potential interferences right in the drawing minimizes costly field errors and improves planning and collaboration. “Improving communications can provide big cost savings, and if we can spend taxpayer dollars more wisely, I’ll do it,” says Latta. “For example, projects that require traffic rerouting don’t have to cause irritating delays or long-term traffic displacement.” Latta says that it was more difficult to make changes when the group used AutoCAD® Land Desktop: “The effort to rework a drawing based on lines, arcs and circles was just too onerous.” AutoCAD Civil 3D allows the engineering team to quickly rework drawings. “The time saved reworking drawings in AutoCAD Civil 3D versus AutoCAD Land Desktop will save us thousands of dollars. Quickly making a change on a drawing, regardless of how far along the process is, vastly improves our accuracy in the field.” Don’t Ignore the Learning Curve As great as the benefits are, it’s not always easy to make the transition from AutoCAD Land Desktop to AutoCAD Civil 3D and training is required to ensure the entire team is maximizing the new soft ware tools. “AutoCAD Civil 3D is not the same as the basic AutoCAD product, so the learning curve can be steep,” says Latta. “It takes a whole new way of thinking about drawing objects as models. I took four days of training with Avatech, which got me up and running. Now, because I work with it regularly, I learn more each day and am becoming proficient on the job. My goal for the near term is to redesign a sewer replacement and then a water line replacement, learning as I go and teaching my colleagues the features they’ll use most along the way.” 3D City Online The City of Coppell also implemented AutoCAD Map 3D, which they use for emergency preparedness and security. Engineering generates 3D maps for their police and fire departments, locating fire hydrants, call boxes, gas lines, water treatment plants and other important sites. Emergency departments’ link telephone numbers to these maps so 911 response teams can reach people or sites as quickly as possible. “Seeing the benefits of 3D map technologies in action, the city is now looking at providing more information online to residents using AutoCAD Map 3D. The GIS department is also determining how they can use it for city limits, creeks, parcel definition, zoning maps, transportation corridors and parks,” says Latta. Staying in Touch with Citizens The trend is improving communications and collaboration in all aspects of building and infrastructure projects. As more and more aspects of civil engineering and mapping become 3D model-based, the likelihood that cities will become more flexible and efficient in their ability to meet citizens’ needs increases rapidly. “I still speak with people in the community, and I am happy to do so, since understanding what people need or helping to educate them keeps me in touch with how engineering aff ects real people,” said Latta. “AutoCAD Civil 3D allows me to be more efficient and produce better work while still working closely with the citizens.” Joe Hedrick, Manager of Professional Services, Avatech Originally published in [acronym] magazine, Issue 5