This user group is a place for all civil professionals to network and learn something new. The group targets everyone in the civil industry from entry level to experinced CAD technicians, designers to professional engineers.
We have been talking lately about certification, the benefits of being certified and the details of how to prepare for and take the certification exams. For me exam prep and testing is a great way to evaluate my own skills and identify my strengths and improve upon my weaknesses. For my employer, it demonstrates my efforts to keep my skills up to date and provides a measurable assessment of my abilities. Of course nothing beats on the job performance as a measurable assessment of skills, but certification is a sort of proving ground that can help set you apart from the pack.
Autodesk has set aside a few dates throughout the year to provide testing at a much discounted rate of $25.
The dates are as follows:
February 10th
April 13th
June 15th
August 10th
October 12th
I plan on testing April 13th,, taking the associate and the professional exam both on the same day. If anyone is interested in testing with me, I will hold a study group for an hour or two on Thursday night before the test, then again Friday just before testing. I will be available at our February meeting to talk more about it.
In the meantime, here are some testing and study resources:
Here is Autodesk’s page on certification, including top 10 reasons to get certified.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=14238652
This is the Civil 3d Testing Exam Prep Roadmap.
http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/autocad_civil_3d_2012_certification_roadmap-lores.pdf
For those with an Autodesk University login here is Michelle Rasmussen’s class on Certification preparation.
Part 1 http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=9078
Part 2 http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=9079
And this is Autodesk test page where you can purchase practice tests.
http://autodesk.starttest.com/
Hello everyone!
This is a reminder that we have our monthly Boise Civil Users Group meeting this Thursday from 11am-1pm at the AGC Building. Our lead sponsor this month is ProSoft. Please register soon to ensure there is plenty of lunch for all. CLICK TO REGISTER
This month we will be discussing the vision and direction for the coming year, new board member involvement and taking time for a Q&A session to answer technical questions.
We have some exciting things planned for 2012; Top rated guest speakers, give-a-ways, and much more.
Looking forward to seeing you all this Thursday!
There will not be a meeting this month. We will resume our regular monthly meetings on Thursday, Janruary 26, 2012.
The November meeting will be this Thursday November 17th 11am-12pm at the Idaho AGC Building. Due to the holiday we will have an abbreviated meeting this month, just an hour long.
We will be taking care of some group business this month, taking nominations for our BCUG Board members, talking about board positions and elections. If you are interested in being on the board, this is the meeting for you.
We will also talk more about setting up a study group and preparing for the AutoCAD certification exams. I have add 2 brochures to the Resources page that will give you some additional information on becoming an Autodesk Certified Associate or Professional. Having an Autodesk certification is becoming more valuable to employers and is a real feather in your cap. We hope to see many BCUG members get certifications.
It great to see all of you each month and I am looking forward to Thursday.
Here are the details of our next Boise Civil Users Group meeting:
- Thursday, Oct. 27th 11am-1pm at the Idaho AGC Building.
- Topic: “Labels! Moving beyond AutoCAD single line text and MTEXT” This month’s topic will be presented by Travis Irons w/ WHPacific and Tim Douglas w/ Murray, Smith & Associates, Inc. Items covered, Labels & Label styles for labeling parcels, lines & arcs, alignments, pipes, structures and whatever else we can label. We will also showing how to label other features while using the label styles mentioned above. And last but not least, Fields; let’s not forget about using fields to label our designs.
- This month’s sponsor: PACIFICAD
Please REGISTER HERE for this meeting to receive a free lunch from this month’s sponsors.
Mark you your calendar’s for a new meeting date for November 17th! Due to Thanksgiving being on the fourth Thursday of the month we will be holding our regular meeting on the third Thursday in November.
Please be thinking how you might like to help your User Group out; Nominations & Elections coming soon, if interested in helping out on the Board please email or talk to a current Board member (Tim Douglas, Travis Irons & Ryan Morgan). Maybe you or a colleague have a topic and/or project you’d like to showcase. Remember it doesn’t have to be a long presentation. It can be as little as showing some tips and tricks that you’ve come across.
This group is functioning at its best when users contribute to their group. Please consider how you can help.
This month’s user group is on Thursday September 22, 11am-1pm at the Idaho AGC Building.
This month’s sponsored presentation will be given by Shawn Herring of ProSoft.
Topic: “Best Practices when working with Survey Data”
We will be taking a look at the beginning process of all our civil projects; Survey. Working with survey data and getting it to do what you’d like it to do can be a pain sometimes. Have you ever received a bunch of points from the surveyor and wondered, “What’s best way to import this data and get started quickly?” For this month’s session we will go over importing points, manually creating points and exporting points out for staking. We will create some point groups and look at how point groups can automate the drafting/design process. We will take a quick look at importing a Fieldbook file for that “Field to Finish” option and see how our template can automate the surface creation process.
Don’t miss this month’s users group and feel free to invite someone including any surveyors you may know. I’m sure there will be something for everyone.
I hope you can all join us for the August meeting, where Dusty Gallingar from PacifiCAD will be back to talk about AutoCAD Map, using GIS data and FDO connections. We will also have Mark Nelson from Idaho Power showing us how they are leveraging GIS for their projects. GIS can be a powerful tool for civil users and if you are not familiar with it, this will be a great opportunity for you or others in our office to come check out.
If you haven’t Registered yet please get yours in. We need a head count for lunch.
Be sure to register at our website and we’ll see you all Thursday the 25th.
Good morning civil users!
Reminder: We have a meeting coming up this next Thursday, July 28th from 11-1pm at the AGC Bldg. This meeting will be structured a little differently than all other meetings. Our next meeting will be a networking/social gathering. We will be covering some general user group business, network and possibly a Q&A session near the end. Lunch will be provided by our sponsors PacifiCAD & ProSoft. This will not be the normal pizza/sandwich lunch…much better! PLEASE REGISTER HERE
So don’t miss your opportunity network with other users in your field and the opportunity to network with our sponsors and their technical staff. Have a civil problem you’re having a hard time figuring out? Put it on a thumb drive and bring it to the meeting. The guys from PacifiCAD & ProSoft will be there to help answer your questions.
For the August meeting we will have Dusty Gallingar from PacifiCAD back talking about AutoCAD Map, using GIS data and FDO connections. We will also have a user presentation from Idaho Power showing us how they are leveraging GIS for their projects. GIS can be a powerful tool for civil users and if you are not familiar with it, this will be a great opportunity for you or others in our office to come check it out.
Hope to see you all next Thursday July 28th.
June 29, 2011: Working with Survey Data
This session will go over importing points, manually creating points and exporting points out for staking. We will create some point groups and look at how point groups can automate the drafting/design process. We will also show how to extract corridor points and export those. We will take a quick look at importing a Fieldbook file for that “Field to Finish” option and even review some of the Trimble Link tools.
If you are interested in attending June 29th, register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/955944288
Registration has begun for this incredible FREE EVENT featuring Lynn Allen, Angel Espinoza, Scott Davis and Jason Dodds.
Prosoft is hosting this showcase of new Autodesk 2012 products and over 15 industry specific breakout sessions.
Seating is limited so register today at www.prosoftnet.com or call (888) 263-0393.
Date: Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
Time: 8:30-4:30 (Lunch Provided)
Location: Red Lion Hotel
Boise Downtowner
1800Fairview Avenue
