First Post; Introduction

[HappyCow]

Hello. I'm a retired PE in Nebraska that started a small business doing Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure Plans (SPCC) for above ground storage of oil products. My strengths are with geotechnical and hydrology issues and it's a nice fit. I've used Microstation long ago, but this is my first exposure to AutoCAD. Old dog, new trick. I'm climbing the learning curve with a walker.

It's also my first exposure to a forum such as this. I've read thru all of the rules and such, and they seem to say, "be nice, and be helpful". Have a nice day.

[Ed Jobe]

Hi and welcome to AUGI. We've always prided ourselves on our community. The rules you read were an effort to promote professionalism. Hope you find something useful here.

[tedg]

Yes welcome!
There are no stupid questions, although it helps to do a "search" first to see if the question has been asked and answered in the past.

The forums are divided into certain topics and products, it seems you're getting into AutoCAD correct? Is it just "vanilla" AutoCAD or something special?

There is also Civil 3D (C3D) that is AutoCAD with Civil design add-ons that are very powerful, that is it's own animal, and there's a forum for that too.

Again, Welcome!

[HappyCow]

Thank you. I'm planning to test AutoCAD for thirty days, if I can get it going. Something in the download regarding the license manager isn't working. I submitted a Case and just sent another reminder to follow thru and help me. It'll work out. I purchased Carlson Software last year thru a local Survey Rental store, and it's based on an open source of AutoCAD. I like their Civil, GIS and Pointcloud tools, but I struggle with the AutoCAD side of things. They say I can install Carlson's tools on a solid AutoCAD foundation, and that's where I'm going. I'll take a look at AutoCAD Civil along the way. I'm between SPCC projects and hoping to get going with AutoCAD. I have a textbook to go thru. It's nice being retired and having time to do it.

Is there a Forum Topic where I might find developers working with Carlson Software?

[Ed Jobe]

You might want to look into Flex token licensing. You pay $300 for a bunch of tokens and then each time you open Civil 3D its $9/day. $7/day for plain AutoCAD. The tokens last a year and you can buy another batch of $300 if you run out. Since you are retired, you may not use acad often enough to justify a full subscription. I'm the cad manager. Our survey dept uses Carlson too. We have developer forums, but not specifically for Carlson, just Autodesk. You would have to see if Carlson has any such forums. You might also search Github.com for repositories that target Carlson.