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(Last updated - December 2011)
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 76 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 users.
CAiCE Replacement Project
Since CAiCE Software Corporation was
acquired by Autodesk in 2002, the Ministry has been
closely monitoring the development direction of
Autodesk’s engineering software.
We are currently investigating newer engineering
software technologies. Autodesk still makes CAiCE
available for purchase, but it is considered to be a
mature product and no new development is taking place.
Therefore, we are not able to take advantage of newer
software technologies. There is also increasing
uncertainty and risk associated with CAiCE being able to
run with future 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 is intended to replace both Land Desktop
and CAiCE. Autodesk started development of Civil 3D in
2003, and since then, significant functionality has been
added each year.
Some of the CAiCE core technology has been
integrated into Civil 3D and it is also based on
AutoCAD, which is a familiar CAD platform for the
Ministry and its consultants.
The Ministry has completed an initial
evaluation of Civil 3D functionality and has reported a
significant number of issues for resolution.
The reported issues relate to problems with
processing survey data and construction supervision
earthworks monitoring and measuring for payment.
This is key functionality for highway location
survey and construction supervision.
Current Civil 3D Initiatives
The Ministry has recently completed a significant
re-write of its CAD Standards to bring that section of
the B.C. Supplement to TAC Geometric Design Guide up to
date and to prepare a base for Civil 3D styles
development.
The Ministry continues to monitor
Autodesk’s progress in resolving important issues
identified by the Ministry.
The degree of progress made to address these
issues will impact the Ministry decision to pilot Civil
3D.
Autodesk has suggested that the
Ministry document existing workflows and that Autodesk
would try to prepare and demonstrate practical Civil 3D
workflows using Ministry supplied project data to
produce the required deliverables.
February 2012 will see the Ministry providing
workflow documentation to Autodesk, broken down into two
functional areas, one for Survey/LiDAR/Terrestrial
Scanning and the other for Construction Supervision.
Once Autodesk is in receipt of Ministry
documented workflows, they will begin their work to
prepare Civil 3D workflows.
Scheduling of Autodesk’s Civil 3D workflow
demonstration has yet to be determined.
The results of this workflow exercise
will determine whether the Ministry needs to re-evaluate
its approach to the CAiCE replacement project.
Civil 3D Pilot Project
Before a decision is made by the
Ministry to implement Civil3D, the Ministry will proceed
with a joint Ministry/Consultant pilot that will take
place over a period of a year. A select group of
Ministry staff from survey, design and construction
supervision offices and a few consultants chosen by the
CEBC, will participate in this effort. The software
pilot will be used to identify any final issues that the
group feels must be resolved before the Ministry can
agree to implement Civil3D.
The Ministry will:
• Lead the pilot group
• Arrange for a suitable hardware/operating system
platform
• Arrange for discipline-specific training
• Monitor pilot progress
• Lead pilot program progress meetings
• Document issues
• Facilitate consensus on issue priority
• Pursue timely resolution of issues with Autodesk
Providing there is a successful
completion to the Civil 3D workflow exercise, the
Ministry will then restart its Civil 3D customization
efforts, ensuring Ministry-specific highway engineering
standards are in place, a pilot project start date is
scheduled and Ministry staff and the CEBC are contacted
to solicit their participation.
The Civil
3D customization efforts will involve the translation of
our CAiCE feature table into Civil 3D styles,
translation of Ministry standard survey file formats
into LandXML for import into the Civil 3D Survey
Database and translation of Ministry CAiCE roadway
fragments into Civil 3D subassemblies.
Prior to a Ministry wide
implementation of Civil 3D, the following major project
tasks must be completed:
•
Complete 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 development.
•
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
the 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.
Downloads
The
Ministry provides all its standard CAiCE files and VBA libraries
for download. You can download these files by clicking the link
below:
PLEASE REFRESH WEB-PAGE BEFORE
DOWNLOADING
BCMoT 2010 CAiCE Files.zip (29.9 MB - 2010/03/18)
BCMoT
2009 CAiCE Files.zip (29.8 MB - 2009/04/15)
The
above zip files are 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.
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