EARTHWORK TAKE OFFS (Agtek, Civil3D, Viewpoint, Insite Sitework) What do you use!?

[Odysseus21]

Hi, I'm in need of assistance.. I'm an estimator for a small construction company, we mainly do site utilities (drainage, water and sewer) but we have all the infrastructure necessary to do small to medium excavating/grading work.

I've been looking for a software that would help me calculate my volumes of cuts and fills, footing and structures excavations, etc. I've talked and received demos from people from agtek, viewpoint, insite sitework (still waiting to hear from paydirt).

Anyone has experience with this software? agtek is way to expensive for us, viewpoint is the most affordable but seems a little limited, so far insite looks like the better option.

And what about civil3D!? can you perform earthwork take offs out of pdf plans with civil3D,(I NEVER GET CAD FILES) I know you can digitize a pdf to dwg but I dont know if you can give your now polylines the right properties (elevation, etc) to work with civil3d.

Would it be worth it to invest in training for civil3D instead of buying an expensive dirt software? would it do the same thing and has fast once you mastered it?

I'd greatly appreciate any advice.

 

[TerryScan]

You might want to take a look at Carlson Takeoff as well.

 

[beej67]

Most contractors I know use Paydirt.

Most civils I know with deep pockets use Civil3d.

Most civils I know with shallow pockets either use Carlson, or download some lisp routines on the cheap to go along with an Intellicad clone, such as Bricscad. I don't recommend this latter option if you don't have a good sense what you're doing in the ACAD environment.





Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[Odysseus21]

TerryScan, I just emailed Carlson, thank you.

beej67, I don't know why you say that most civils with deep pokets use civil3d, of all my options this is the cheapest one since we are able to use the free student version. However before I spend 1000 - 2000 in training I want to know if civil3d is the right software for my purposes and mostly that can work with the information that is given to me (pdf).

Thanks!

 

[brandonbw]

It is not easy to do earthwork in Civil 3D. And it will not do this from PDF's. Buy a planimeter and do the calcs by hand.

Carlson is probably the easiest, but I don't think that works with PDF's either. You could find an old copy of Land Desktop. But you still need to draw the 3d polylines.

I got a quote from Agtek and I know its expensive. I was more curious if it could help me design certain types of projects faster. But it seems like its made for what you want to do. Estimates from PDF's with no drafting involved.

B+W Engineering and Design | Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer

http://bwengr.com

 

[LincolnPE]

of all my options this is the cheapest one since we are able to use the free student version...

The free student version is for students, not commercial use. Read the EULA.

 

[beej67]

You'll be breaking the law using the student version of Civil3d for professional purposes. Doesn't mean you can't do it, but just keep that in mind.

If the stuff you're going off of is in PDF, you'll need to trace the contour lines in whatever package you buy, and assign those traced contour lines elevations. You can do that just as easily in Carlson, Paydirt, or Civil3d. Bring the PDF into the CAD file, scale it up to the proper scale, and trace the lines in a different layer. Assign the lines elevations. Do it in two layers - one for the existing topo and one for the proposed topo. Build a 3d surface for each layer and tell the machine to calculate the cut/fill between the two layers.

I'm not sure why brandon thinks it's not easy in Civil3D. I don't own a license, but from what I've seen, it is no more difficult in Civil3d than it is in Carlson, or Land Development Desktop, or in the old Softdesk stuff. It's all just TINs from lines.

I've never used Paydirt, but I think it might actually be built from the ground to work off of PDFs. That said, I bet you still have to trace the lines. My wife is a construction estimator, and she uses a software called "on screen takeoff" to do almost all of her work. I don't know if it does earthwork or not, but I do know it works in a PDF environment, where you trace polygons over the plans and assign those polygons variables, which are then added up in a quantity database.



Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[brandonbw]

Beej: You are right, it is easy to do earthwork in Civil 3D. But learning how to do it in Civil 3D is the hard part. Piece of cake to bring in existing topo lines. There is a little more to it to bringing in, creating, proposed linework. I would suggest watching some youtube videos on it to get a feel for the workflow.

B+W Engineering and Design | Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer

http://bwengr.com