The Dirt

Vote for the AU Classes You Want . . .

Something new this year—Autodesk would like you to help us select the best 500-plus sessions.

We have uploaded all of the sessions (that were submitted by the deadline) to AU 2008 Session site and we need your input. Topics are organized under 19 tracks, which are either an industry or a product.  If you are considering attending AU, please take a few minutes to vote for sessions that you absolutely want to see.

Over the next few weeks, we will review all those submissions and whittle them down to the number we can actually physically accommodate in the Venetian Conference Center in Las Vegas.

Registration for AU will start on August 15th, and one week earlier for AU members.  Class schedules will be available for review by August 1st.

Thank you in advance for helping us select the most interesting classes. The deadline for voting is Saturday, May 3, 2008

Vote now!

FIG Working Week 2007

On Sunday, May 13th, I arrived in Hong Kong to give a presentation at the annual FIG Working Week Conference. FIG is an acronym (in French) for International Federation of Surveyors. What is FIG? According to their website:

FIG was founded in 1878 in Paris. It is a federation of national associations and is the only international body that represents all surveying disciplines. It is a UN-recognized non-government organization (NGO) and its aim is to ensure that the disciplines of surveying and all who practice them meet the needs of the markets and communities that they serve. It realizes its aim by promoting the practice of the profession and encouraging the development of professional standards.

What I find most interesting about FIG is their commitment to:

• Addressing the global shortage of licensed land surveyors.
• The creation of standards and practices for surveyors everywhere.
• Promoting educational programs in an effort to create more interest in land surveying.

Indeed, just as there is a shortage of engineers in most of the world, there is also a shortage of land surveyors.

At the conference, I spoke about the importance of having specific standards working together with respect to Civil 3D 2008. Without standards—including a field coding standard, CAD standard, and what I call an “IT standard” (file naming conventions, etc.)—you simply cannot achieve the maximum return on investment from Civil 3D.

This posting also marks the first VIDEO posting I’ve ever done. Moving forward I hope to do many more of these. 

My thanks to the Autodesk staff in Hong Kong and to Andy Chan who showed me his new Civil 3D 2008 book.  I’ll be posting a review of this book very soon.