Surveying/Site Planning/Civil Design Software

[ganapati]

Is anyone familiar with SiteComp? I am in need of getting an affordable program to incorporate into undergraduate civil engineering program, and I am looking into this software among others. Any input will help me.

 

[dmarchi]

I am also interested in SiteComp. Is there anyone out there using it? Can you recommend it?

 

[sc]

ganapati,

Have you tried talking to software companies to see if they are willing to participate in a computer software laboratory. The aim being for the University to have a computer lab setup with the appropriate software as used in industry. This means that the students do not need to purchase the software and that the university can run on decent software instead of the cheapest available.

Call it cheap advertising for the software company as the students will end up in industry and if they were able to use the software they will generally try and obtain it for use when working.

Good luck
sc

 

[sc]

ganapati,

I know that you are not after structural software, but have a look at the spacegass site for an example of what I mentioned previously.

go to:

http://www.spacegass.com

look at: academic copy

regards
sc

 

[Eve1]

You might also check out Carlson Software which is affordable also.

Regards
Eve1

 

[LHA]

The company I used to work for used SiteComp before I got there. By all accounts it was a good software, but they switched because you needed a special machine (some HP model, as I recall) to run it. You couldn't just buy it and stick it on your Apple or PC. I don't know anything about it personally, this is hearsay, but you should at least verify that you can put it on a regular machine.

I have used Terramodel and AutoCAD.

TMOD is adequate in its abilities, but extremely un-user friendly (lots of clicking and commands to do simple tasks).

ACAD is my favorite for ease of use and universal acceptance - I used to do work in CA, USA for clients in Hong Kong, and we never had to convert anything! But I have heard the modules (plug-ins to do specific tasks) are less user friendly than other softwares.

Our company also uses Microstation extensively. I have never used it, but those who use both say the modules are easier to use than ACAD.

I have never heard of Carlson Software, so I can't comment on it.

Generally, your students will absolutely have to use (or have software that interacts fluently with) AutoCAD in the civil field. It is, for better or worse (ongoing, endless debate here!) the industry standard.

 

[ngneer]

I thought sitecomp demo version was available for download. Nevertheless, it's difficult to get a feel for the program without training. Civil software is such a broad topic with many products, with most users a result from previous experience with a certain program. I have a friend that uses bentley software (microstation, geopak, inroads) that naturally highly recommends (ex. 48 out of 50 dots use microstation). Other products are land development desktop (maybe called civil design presently), eaglepoint, carlson, terramodel, etc. My current employer has eaglepoint which from what I have heard was one of the original civil design but has been overtaken by bentley and autodesk products. With our small size, it's a difficult argument to purchase a new product license ($5k and up) with the necessary training all while keeping pace with current workload. Good luck and I totally agree that future civil grads must be familiar with design software and be skilled in cad.

 

[CivelRocks]

I personally really like all of Bentley Systems Software (I am bias), Which is Microstation, Triforma, and a bunch others. I worked for microstation as a summer job so I got to test a lot of their software. It is very user friendly. Plus they have an educational program like the one suggested above. I think they will not only give you the software for free but train you on it for free. They really like the free advertising. I use AutoCAD right now, the 2005 version. I have used every version since R14. It is ok but Bentleys is real nice.