Pre-Implementation | Civil 3D 2011 vs 2012?

[BlackBox]

We're implementing Civil 3D this year, and are tentatively expecting v.2011 to be installed.

However, as it has not yet been implemented, and my State is releasing a DoT Kit for Civil 3D 2012. I'm of the opinion that we should jump to 2012 in lieu of 2011. All corporate templates, and styles, etc. *should* not go to waste, and we would be able to utilize another resource to make us competitive via the State's DoT Kit.

As a developer who is only beginning to learn about .NET, another feature that piqued my interest is the .NET API enhancements made available with 2012.

If anyone has any information in support of, or can point out where my logic is flawed, I'd greatly appreciate the input.

[sinc]

Well, Autodesk's track record of new releases isn't that great. Most of the initial releases have serious flaws that make them difficult to implement until the first Service Pack is released. Or at the very least, if you wait a while, you might be able to find solutions to the new problems on the web, rather than wasting time solving the new problems yourself.

And it's especially risky in that C3D is not backward-compatible at all, so as soon as you roll out the new release and people start working in it, you can't change your mind and go back. This can be especially troublesome if you work closely with any other companies, and you force other companies to move up to 2012 with you. That's not something you want to do prematurely.

But if you're feeling brave, go ahead and try rolling 2012 out into production without waiting for a SP. The product has gotten more stable over the years, so it's not as risky as it was in earlier versions of C3D. I know a couple of people who started using 2011 prior to the SP, and they were able to manage with no serious disasters.

Another thing to keep in mind is add-ons and third-party applications. As one example, the Raster Design enabler is not expected for a couple of months, so if you're a big RD user, you definitely don't want to roll 2012 out into production right now. Another big one that's bitten us in the past is Trimble Link, and it took Trimble quite some time to get a working version out. It was particularly bad when we went from 2008 to 2009, because in that release, Trimble removed functionality from Trimble Link that forced us to upgrade all our data collectors unexpectedly. We didn't discover the change until we had already upgraded C3D projects to 2009, so going back to 2008 wasn't an option, and the unexpected data collector upgrades didn't make the boss happy.

[BlackBox]

Sinc,

Thanks for your response; I appreciate the clear perspective, and real-world example you've provided.

This helps a lot.

Cheers!