Carlson Civil Package 1

[sde2006]

My company is currently evaluating the Carlson Civil package as an integrated civil design tool. We are under the impression that with this software and others such as; HydorCAD, PodPAC, Flow Master and Culvert Maseter that we can suffice all of our current design needs.

Does anyone have experiance with the Carlson software and whether they are aware of any limitations? Can this software be used strictly for hydraulics and hydrology without major setup time involved?

DCN

 

[TerryScan]

I have been using Carlson Survcadd for 8 years now(used another defunct civil package for the previous 8 years) and have recently upgraded to Civil 2007. I have not gotten the chance to really check out the hydrology yet. I did run through a storm pipe design tutorial and was very impressed/pleased...but have not used it on a real project yet.

I believe Carlson will provide an evaluation copy if you are up for trying it. The manuals are also online and there are also a lot of training movies that may give you an idea of its capabilities.

I really like the product (of course most people like the product they are using). A weak point may be the manuals. They sometimes are not very thorough at explaining how to use tools (the training movies make up for a lot of this). On the other hand, most routines are very intuitive and do not require manuals.

I am also very pleased with support. When I have found a bug after a new release, I have often received a patch within a few days.

 

[sde2006]

TerryScan,

Thanks for your response.

 

[sde2006]

TerryScan,

Your expertise is invaluable. Do you have any recommendations that will help aid us in researching our sofware options? We are mostly skeptical with the stormwater analysis application combinations.

Thanks

 

[TerryScan]

In the past I have been using Carlson Survcadd for everything but hydrology and hydraulics. I use Hydrocad, Stormcad, and ICPR when called for.

Having run the tutorial on the storm pipe network design in Carlson Civil 2007, I anticipate it will replace Stormcad in my routine. The integration of Civil 2007 of design and drafting is quite impressive.

Hydrocad is so simple to use, I don't know if I will replace it...and ICPR is so sophisticated I don't think I'll replace it either..lol.

 

[ALBUD1962]

I have over ten years experience using Survcadd for various civil applications. While I believe you still need other packages there are features of the Hyrdology modules worth noting. The pond capacity and design are pretty decent. I was able to balance the earthwork for my pond construction pretty easily. There isn't direct Hec RAS support (i'm not sure if the newer versions are better, I am using Survcadd XML)but you can create data for flood plain analysis using the profile and section routines.
I basically use the hydrology package to compute stage storage and to do what if's with my pond designs.
The package is great for contouring and developing design profiles. I can grade out a road in minutes.