Get the Jump On Civil 3D

Reprise Civil 3D Layer Standard Conversion

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 07:37:00 -0700

The Framework for Civil 3D Jump Kit product is notable and perhaps even famous for the product’s native support for multiple variations of the National CAD Standard (NCS) Layer Standards. These include the current NCS 6.0 and NCS 6.0 AIA variants. These common NCS Layer Standard variants are variously required for GSA, DOD, US Army Corps, and other project submittals.

People ask,

“Does this mean that the Framework for Civil 3D Templates, Civil 3D Style Libraries, and other Civil 3D resources are NCS dependent?”

In…

Spreadsheet Tools for Civil 3D

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 28 May 2026 07:37:00 -0700

The specifics of the latest Autodesk Civil 3D release may not blow us away. The new Civil 3D features may not appear particularly useful for our current project work. Out here in Civil 3D Land, we are daily users of Autodesk Civil 3D. We must embrace the day-to-day concerns that drive our civil engineering and survey work.

In some speculative future the odds are pretty good that we will someday benefit from a new Civil 3D Release. Our older Civil 3D release will, in part, tag along for the ride. Our older version’s Civil 3D Object…

Keep Book on Civil 3D Customization

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 21 May 2026 07:37:00 -0700

These days people anywhere can bet on nearly anything. Is that an interesting take on statistical analytics and/or just a sign of the times? The legal Internet prediction markets allow us all to test our prophetic capabilities in some new and entertaining ways. What fun.

Speaking of odd - here’s one we probably cannot check…

“What are the odds the next Civil 3D Update with make your day?”

Most of us won’t hold our breath. Want to bet on a fantasy UFL football team?
Like many fans…

When Purge and Audit are Not Enough

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 14 May 2026 07:37:00 -0700

Our civil engineering and survey projects in Autodesk Civil 3D and other Autodesk apps generally tend to grow larger and more complex with time. Is it just me? Our bottom line requires that we spend some time and attention to regular drawing maintenance as our project timelines grow longer and the project complexity increases.

Hopefully, we learn, practice, and master the Civil 3D Batch Save Utility (BSU) to routinely PURGE and AUDIT our project drawings on some sort of regular basis. Ah. The joys of SCRIPT, SCRIPTCALL, and a wee bit…

Another Round of Redo the Do

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 07 May 2026 07:37:00 -0700

The Internet is the place where things change all the time and everything stays the same. That always means we must learn and burn and deal with what changes one way or another. Maybe you noticed? Eheh.

These days all the various Clouds have part to play. Just sayin’.

“Hey, hey, you, you, get off of my cloud
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd”

Folks do remember the Rolling Stones hit Get Off of My Cloud.
They say this song is how Mick and the boys managed to somehow follow up…

Civil 3D Sandbox Project Upgrades

Tench Tilghman — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 07:37:00 -0700

We recently released the Jump Kit 2027 and Templates Only 2027 products. Templates Only includes reasonable example drawings and some essential civil data content. Such basic examples are nice. We don’t believe they are enough. Our Jump Kit products always include multiple Civil 3D Sandbox Projects in both STB and CTB.

People ask,

“What is a Civil 3D Project Sandbox?”

A Civil 3D Project Sandbox is a rich Civil 3D Project…

Civil 3D 2027 Framework Products

Tench Tilghman — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 07:37:00 -0700

The fundamental goal of the Framework for Civil 3D products is to provide customers with the increased Liberty to Work in Civil 3D. The latest release of our Framework for Civil 3D 2027 production products is great news for exactly that reason.

The Framework products make Civil 3D work and work better.

The important Autodesk Civil 3D 2027 release hit the street…

Framework for Civil 3D 2026-2025 Updates

Tench Tilghman — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 07:37:00 -0700

Last week Autodesk released the Civil 3D 2026.2.1 Update and the Civil 3D 2025.2.5 Update. These recent Civil 3D Updates include security fixes and more. Behind the scenes these important updates also provide the important Civil 3D Backwards Compatibility capabilities. They support the new Autodesk Civil 3D 2027 Object Model updates for these older releases. Just sayin’.

Yes. The upcoming Framework for Civil 3D 2027 products will be released real soon now. We are finalizing our new release of 2027 products…

Autodesk 2027 Products and the Framework

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 07:37:00 -0700

This week Autodesk released a barrage of Autodesk Revit 2027 platform products. That included the release of Revit Structure 2027. In fact, the latest Revit Core release included so many changes and fixes that Autodesk had to include a Revit 2027.0.1 Update in the final RTM (Release To Manufacturing) build. That’s a first.
Most years Autodesk waits at least a couple of days for a product Update. Eheh.

There are lots of new Revit 2027 goodies.

Autodesk Civil 3D 2027 Lands

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:00:00 -0700

Will Autodesk marketing pick Welcome to the Jungle as the Autodesk Civil 3D 2027 rollout theme song? Trust me. That’s not happening. Heavy metal sound and City of LA dystopia are not the current Autodesk marketing thing. They might rather have a go at the famous '80s hits Material Girl or Physical. True. The Guns and Roses first album is memorable indeed. Autodesk Civil 3D 2027 looks to be another hit out here in Civil 3D Land.

Is it a Thriller? Say what?

Civil…

AutoCAD 2027 Arrives

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 07:37:00 -0700

The latest version of AutoCAD 2027 hit the street this week. Hoorah. There are things to like about that for almost everybody out here in Civil 3D Land. Based on the promised and real AutoCAD 2027 Tab performance improvement - Should we call this AutoCAD the Tabby Cat release? Eheh.

AutoCAD 2027 and the AutoCAD 2027 Toolsets were officially released on Wednesday March 25, 2026. A number of folks responded to last week’s The Autodesk Wrights of Spring post and guessed…

The Autodesk Wrights of Spring

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 07:37:00 -0700

Autodesk employs a standard industry method and practice development cycle. They didn’t quite invent it. Each spring Autodesk will produce new named builds of their most significant core products.

We know this. This happens like clockwork. Want to take a guess at the AutoCAD 2027 ship date?

Are we ready for the new Autodesk Civil 3D 2027, AutoCAD 2027, and the AutoCAD Map 3D Toolset? What the heck is a Toolset anyway?

Everyone always asks, will there be a new DWG file format this time around?
Nah.…

For What It’s Worth in 2026

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0700

I first heard the famous Buffalo Springfield and Stephen Stills tune For What It’s Worth performed live in Feb in 1967 in Santa Barbara, CA. I remember paying $3.00 or maybe $3.50 to see the show. Big bucks. I had to talk my parents into dropping me off and picking me up. I couldn’t drive yet. Why did they agree? I haven’t a clue. It was a simpler time. Music was important in my house.

It was my first rock concert. I was perhaps one of the youngest and littlest kids in the audience. Most…

Symbol Sets and Blocks in Civil 3D

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 07:37:00 -0800

Systematically managed blocks and symbols can make our Civil 3D Standards more flexible and adaptive to the ever-changing demands of our customers. These simple AutoCAD graphics have a significant impact on our daily civil engineering and survey project work. Case in point - If we change the block representations in a project drawing by redefining all the block graphics, our familiar work can become unrecognizable and even incomprehensible.

That’s Uncomfortable

The graphic representations that are sexpressed in our AutoCAD…

Make a Difference and Civil 3D

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 07:37:00 -0800

It’s only human to wonder if we can make a difference in this world.
Is “You matter” a vague humanist philosophical ideal that everyone must strive for?
Could “You matter” be something the sincere elementary school teacher tells all their students?

Is “You matter” the modern participation trophy?
The phrase often appears to be the core concept behind all the social media apps.
The focus on attention is very concerning.

Old Guy Whine

Back in my day we walked 5 miles to school uphill in the snow just to get there. Eheh.

US Country Kit for Autodesk Civil 3D

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 07:37:00 -0800

Most of us in Civil 3D Land who are paid to oversee and manage our working environments are cognizant of the annual ritual that is the Autodesk Rite of Spring. We pay some attention to those Autodesk backend updates that will continue to trickle out until AutoCAD 2027, the AutoCAD Map 2027 Toolset, and Autodesk Civil 3D 2027 hit the street later this spring.

Obviously, Autodesk is already hard at work preparing the annual updates to the Autodesk Civil 3D Country Kits. Been there. Done that.

People do ask,

Civil 3D Description Key Mastery

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 07:37:00 -0800

The Point is one of the most overused words in Autodesk Civil 3D. Are we talking about COGO points? Survey Points? Point Groups? Point data in a Surface? Points of Intersection in our horizontal, vertical, and cross section control?

This list of different and/or separate meanings for the word Point seems to be a never-ending story.

The mastery of Points is nothing to take lightly in Autodesk Civil 3D.
As we like to say,

“It’s all about location, location, location, baby.”

In…

Autodesk Desktop Connector 17.1.0.16 Update

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 07:37:00 -0800

Happy February! What do you know? It’s new fiscal year for Autodesk this month. This means those powers start to roll out upgrades and updates to some code in preparation for the annual Autodesk Rite of Spring. Autodesk kicks things off this year with a pretty significant update to the Autodesk Desktop Connector 17.1.0.16 (ADC).

Autodesk Civil 3D users should pay attention to this new release of the ADC. Most of the improvements listed in the ADC 17.1.0.16 Update directly affect Civil 3D projects stored in all the Autodesk Cloud platforms : Autodesk…

The Pony Car Paradox and Civil 3D

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 07:37:00 -0800

The 1964/1965 Ford Mustang was an innovative car. The original Pony Car did many of the things a lot of people wanted in a car at an affordable price. The Mustang became an instant classic. That summer my grandmother’s sons bought her a Chantilly Beige 1964+ convertible for her very special birthday that year.

For Men in Black fans - This was also the year of the now famous New York World’s Fair.

My grandmother loved and immediately named her car – The Pearl.
She and her sons proudly gave…

Civil 3D Upgrade Decision Mechanics

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 07:37:00 -0800

There are reasonable and somewhat logical business reasons not to employ the latest and greatest release of Autodesk Civil 3D. The on-going work on our civil engineering and survey projects is a reality.

Out here in Civil 3D Land, some people upgrade only on odd releases and some folks upgrade only on even releases. There are historical, mythical, and magical reasons for these approaches. Is our odd or even Civil 3D release upgrade thing superstition?

All that jazz creates some great funk.
Stevie Wonder says it best:

Civil 3D Templates and Civil 3D Style Libraries

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 07:37:00 -0800

Let’s proactively start off a new year with a chat about some practical and mission critical Autodesk Civil 3D realities.

Around here we build, manage, and maintain an enormous and deep set of Civil 3D Templates and Civil 3D Style resources for multiple releases of Civil 3D.

Like everyone else we had to learn the hard way to systematically manage a large set of Templates and Style Libraries.

Customers often ask us to summarize and boil down that body of knowledge. That is no easy task.…

Happy New Year from the Cadpilot

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 07:37:00 -0800

Happy New Year to all. If you are like me, you’re all probably a bit footballed out at this point. Nah. It ain’t over yet. Maybe there are just fewer fat ladies singing for a living these days?

My wish for the New Year is that the officials will be far less visible late in all the contests from now on. What do you think?
Ok. Maybe we all just need something less meaningful to shout about. Eheh.

The coach says, “It’s all about the execution.”

Speaking of Execution

Are we glad to recall that the Delta Force…

Civil 3D Features Matter the Most

Tench Tilghman — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 07:37:00 -0800

Are we here to talk about the latest software changes and improvements to Autodesk Civil 3D? Nope. Yep. There are recent Updates for Autodesk Civil 3D 2026, Civil 3D 2025, Civil 3D 2024, and even Civil 3D 2023. There are new Framework for Civil 3D Updates builds available too.
The recent Civil 3D Updates each include useful performance improvements and fixes.

It is safe to say that the higher the release number of the installed Civil 3D employed, the faster and better the software…

Merry Framework for Civil 3D 2026-2024 Christmas

Tench Tilghman — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 07:37:00 -0800

Merry Christmas to everyone out there in Civil 3D Land. This year Santa Claus already left a gift or two under our trees. Are we going to open one? You betcha.

Since the Thanksgiving holiday, Autodesk released updates for all the current releases of Civil 3D - That includes the important Civil 3D 2026.2 Update and maintenance Updates for Civil 3D 2025, Civil 3D 2024, and Civil 3D 2023.

In typical Autodesk fashion, there are multiple updates available for all the surrounding and supporting software too. Please. Don’t miss or forget these.

As…

Civil 3D 2025-2023 Object Model Updates

Tench Tilghman — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 08:20:00 -0800

In early December Autodesk released the latest Civil 3D 2026.2 Update. This week Autodesk followed up with Christmas presents for all the rest of us out here in Civil 3D Land.

To maintain the all-important Backwards Compatibility feature we learned to love and depend on in Civil 3D, this week Autodesk released Updates for Civil 3D 2025, Civil 3D 2024, and Civil 3D 2023. There are also InfraWorks Hotfix Updates available.
That’s a bunch of updates!

Autodesk…