What other types of resources are out there regarding Dynamo for Civil 3d. I am looking to talk shop with other Civil 3d Designers / CAD Managers and see if Dynamo may help me accomplish what I intend to do. There’s lot’s of stuff regarding Revit out there not much For Civil 3D.
How much time would you estimate it takes to lean, with no programing background? I am an experienced Civil 3d Designer turned CAD Manager for a new firm. I am in the process of creating Company Standards and Operations. I have been taking every measure possible to make the Civil3D CAD system as user friendly as possible. I started with templates furnished by the City of Omaha and have been building out for a few months now. The system is very much drag and drop plug and play when it comes to X-refs and sheet setup. Now I want to automate a few processes that I find to be repetitive and am wondering if learning Dynamo may be worth the time. For instance I am looking into a means of automatically setting and associating data shortcut project folders for all my model files.
Are there any formal Autodesk Classes For learning Dynamo for Civil3d?
Are there any forums that may be for useful for talking shop about Civil 3D Template/Standards design and implementation? My previous firm, one of the ENR top 100 firms, was utilizing standards that had been locked in and practiced for over 10 years The system was pretty much a hybrid AutoCAD / Civil 3D system… It worked great 10+ years ago but with all the advancements in the software, very out dated. I was able to take a 4 hour sheet setup process and turn it into about a15 minute process. I wanted to roll with the idea and they did not wish to deviate from the standards. Now I have moved on and been put in a position to do just that. I have created a pretty decent system. I don’t really have anybody at my level of experience to bounce ideas off of and improve upon what I’ve already built.
Any information may be useful and greatly appreciated.
This is the place! Just keep posting questions on this forum under the Civil 3D category.
I’d say its true that there is more available for Revit, but there still is quite a bit for Civil 3D. Dynamo has been available for Revit for 5+ years, so there is naturally more content by now. Dynamo has only been available for Civil 3D for 2 years, so the user base is still growing. But you’ll still find a lot of guidance if you poke around the Civil 3D category on this forum.
Check out the Camber package. It has some basic nodes for data shortcuts, and it will have a lot more in the next version (preview below):
Zachri sums it up well. This forum is the best place to be. The C3D Toolkit and Camber are the best packages for working with C3D.
I have found that a basic understanding of python is a huge help as well. I love the python node integration into Dynamo. If you want to get a basic understanding of Python I suggest either a course by,
Not meant as an advertisement, these are just the courses that helped me a lot.
I also suggest downloading either pycharm or jupyter notebooks. I really like using jupyter notebooks because I can run and test code/see the output, one line at a time (huge for me because I’m just a struggling programmer, mostly I’m just a public improvement design engineer for a City). You can install jupyter notebooks through Anaconda: Anaconda | Individual Edition
Personally, I use a jupyter notebook environment that is built into ArcGIS Pro so that I have access to Arcpy, but for testing basic python code, all you need is the standard jupyter notebook environment.
The Community Conversations on computational design are also worth reviewing; this far they have been integration agnostic (they apply equally to Sandbox, Revit, Civil 3D, Alias, Advance Steel, FormIt, etc.). Just be sure to watch in reverse order.
Thank you Shaun,
Yes I am simultaneously researching both Python and Dynamo and am a couple hours into a really nice slow paced python for beginners course (14 hour YouTube presentation) and am testing out the various scripts in PyCharm. It seemed to be the go to for most of the crash course videos I was browsing when first looking into it. As dynamo is advertised as “You don’t need to know python” but I agree, to get a thorough understanding of the Dynamics within Dynamo A basic understanding of python is absolutely necessary. I am in a good position right now where I don’t have Production work in the pipeline until early 2022 so my job currently is to design and document the company standards. I was able to Create, test, and build out my prototype system on 1 contract. I know the System works (Surprisingly well actually). My first draft of the System Operations manual was at 100 pages. After receiving comments from the engineers, a lot of “can you explain in more detail how to do that?”, it will be closer to 200 in the end. I am honestly weighing out the time and effort of learning this platform and automating the steps to achieve the finish product with less explanation vs writing step by step walk throughs of all the processes to create associate and modify all the various components implemented in the system in a Standard Practices Manual. I mean how do you sum up 25 years worth of Autodesk experience into a nice neat easily readable package. It looks to me like Dynamo is the direction the industry is swaying towards anyway. So I may as well get a jump on it now right? In your experience about how long did it take you from the time you started to learn dynamo until you felt comfortable and productive utilizing it?
Thanks again,
Ryan J. Leone
Sounds very relatable. I have been a dynamo user for a little over a year. I utilize it wherever I can but I still feel very uncomfortable and not productive when utilizing it. Despite this, when I get something working, I find it is a massive improvement to my workflows. I’m the only Civil 3D/ArcGIS User at the City of Kelso, WA and I do many other tasks outside of it in terms of plan review, consultant management and construction management. My allotted time to practice and utilize dynamo is small and in-between. I spend a bit of time at home learning it, but I’ve also been spending a lot of time learning the dutch language and my six year old and newborn aren’t too keen on giving me time for either!
Since you are a CAD manager you are in the best position to learn and utilize dynamo for your company and I’d highly recommend it where possible. These forums are rich with information.
Hi! for people unfmailiar with Python programming, I suggest this class. It also helps for basic understanding when using IronPython and trying to load libraries, such as Dynamo Geometry or the File System.
