(Last updated - September 10, 2009)
CAiCE (Computer Aided Civil Engineering) was selected by the
Ministry in December of 1997.
The Ministry currently uses CAiCE Visual Transportation in three
integrated engineering disciplines: Survey, Design and Construction.
Approximately 83 copies of Visual Transportation are installed
throughout the province.
Custom VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) macros and fragments have
been developed by the Ministry to customize and automate various
functions. These VBA libraries, combined with Ministry standard
CAiCE files (feature tables, cell libraries, etc…), make Visual
Transportation a powerful tool for Highway Engineering that meets
the requirements of the Ministry’s Highway Design Standards.
Current CAiCE Status
The Ministry is continuing to maintain and enhance its library
of CAiCE macros and fragments and provide technical support to
Ministry and Consultant CAiCE users.
Autodesk is maintaining CAiCE with one or two service packs per
year. The Ministry has been actively involved in each service pack
to ensure that CAiCE bugs are fixed. Another priority has been to
verify that CAiCE functions properly under Windows Vista.
CAiCE Replacement Project
Since CAiCE Software Corporation was acquired in 2002, the
Ministry has been closely monitoring the development direction of
Autodesk’s engineering software.
We are currently investigating newer engineering software
technologies. CAiCE is still supported by Autodesk, but it is a
mature product. It is not being developed, only maintained with
regular service packs. Therefore, we are not able to take advantage
of newer software technologies. There is also increasing uncertainty
and risk associated with CAiCE running with newer computer hardware
and operating systems.
Future Engineering Software
Next-generation engineering software has many features that are not
available in CAiCE Visual Transportation. Some of these features
include:
• 3D Dynamic Engineering model
• Intelligent and enhanced flow of data
• Advanced visualization
• GIS integration
• Automated production drafting
• Support for large data sets
• Green Design capability
AutoCAD Civil 3D
AutoCAD Civil 3D is Autodesk’s
flagship model-based product that will eventually replace Land
Desktop and CAiCE. Autodesk started development of Civil 3D in 2003,
and since then, significant functionality has been added each year.
The Ministry completed a high-level evaluation of Civil 3D a few
years ago, and since then, Autodesk has been making good progress to
resolve deficiencies identified by the Ministry.
Much of the CAiCE core technology has been integrated into Civil 3D.
It is also based on AutoCAD, which is a familiar engineering
platform for the Ministry and its consultants.
Current BCMoT Civil 3D Initiatives
In an effort to maintain close contact with Autodesk, the
Ministry has monthly meetings with Autodesk management. We are
currently investigating translating our CAiCE feature table into
Civil 3D styles, and we will be translating a small set of roadway
fragments into Civil 3D subassemblies.
Civil 3D Pilot Project
With the current economic climate and resultant
budget reductions, multi-year funding originally
allocated to the CAiCE Replacement Project has been
redirected to deal with other priority budget pressures.
This reduction in funding will limit the use of external
resources and as a result, delay the start of a Joint
Ministry/Consultant Pilot until such time as the
Ministry can develop the internal expertise required to
properly administer a pilot.
Scheduling of a pilot will depend on this development of
internal Ministry Civil 3D expertise and Autodesk’s
development progress in satisfying Ministry critical
highway engineering software functional requirements.
As was the case with the implementation of CAiCE, a
Civil3D pilot will span one year and will be used to
identify any further functional deficiencies not
discovered during a previous high-level evaluation.
Prior to a Ministry wide implementation of Civil 3D, the
following major project tasks must be completed:
• Software customization required to
satisfy Ministry Highway Survey, Design and Construction
Supervision standards.
• Civil 3D software use procedures development.
• Civil 3D software discipline-specific courseware.
• Civil 3D Survey and Design Format Terms of Reference
development to replace existing CAiCE TOR documents.
Future of CAiCE
The Ministry is well-positioned to support the use of CAiCE for
foreseeable future. We also have the internal resources required to
maintain technical and customized programming support for CAiCE. We
have well-developed CAiCE policy documents including the General
Survey Guide, CAiCE Design Project Data Format TOR and Construction
Supervision Survey Guide.
Autodesk has stated that CAiCE will be maintained and supported
until Civil 3D has functional parity with CAiCE. This has not yet
been fully achieved. The Ministry will continue to use CAiCE, and
has just negotiated a renewal of our CAiCE Master Agreement that
will expire on March 31, 2012.
Downloads
The
Ministry provides all its standard CAiCE files and VBA libraries
for download. You can download these files by clicking the link
below:
BCMoT
CAiCE Files.zip (29.8 MB - 2009/04/15)
The
above zip file is password protected. To obtain the password, please
send an e-mail with your contact information to Ian Busby at
the address below:
Ian.Busby@gov.bc.ca
Questions or problems
regarding these files should be directed to Ian Busby at the
above e-mail address.
Questions or problems
regarding the Visual Transportation software should be directed
to CAiCE at Autodesk (1-800-793-0692 or support@caice.com).
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