Friday, February 15, 2008

Who Has Time for All Those Civil 3D Webcasts?

No matter how many times I have visited the Civil 3D Live Webcast page, I have never noticed that the sidebar on the left included a link to a section called Demonstration. Well, I actually followed that link today, and they are several real quick demos of each subject listed.

I viewed the "Section" demo and it wasn't bad. The best part is that it only last a few minutes. Sure, these demos are not going to answer as many questions as watching the full webcast will, but it may be enough to get you started.

In case you do have time for training, there are many sites that include webcasts, screencasts, etc. Here's a short list of sites you really should visit for webcast style training:

Civil 3D Webcasts Page
Autodesk University
Autodesk Subscription Center

The subscription center has eLearning lessons for current and previous versions of Civil 3d. Don't be afraid to watch the older ones. I actually learned some things from the old version lessons that I had never noticed in the current versions. Some of the dialog boxes look a bit different in the older versions as well, but you should be able to follow the workflow of the lesson.

The thing I liked about eLearning on the subscription site is that the lesson remembers where you last stopped. That way you can continue the lesson instead of trying to "fast forward" to the correct location like you have to do with a webcast. You also get to "click buttons" on Civil 3D in some lessons. Of course, you can't click anything other than what you're supposed to click, but it is still sort of a "hands-on" experience.

The AUGI Training Program is also available but I haven't used it yet.

Check with your reseller for webcasts as well. A lot of times they offer free webcasts throughout the year and will sometimes record and post them on their website. For example:

The D|C|CADD Company
Avatech Solutions

Let's also not forget our dependable friends at civil3d.com and the Civil Engineering Community, not to mention the numerous bloggers that can be found on the internet.


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