Version differences between Civil 3D 2009, 2010, etc 1

[beej67]

Recent discussions have gotten me thinking about buying Civil 3D, but I don't have any interest in spending seven grand on it. Recently went to google and did some window shopping:

http://www.google.com/products?q=au...ent=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wf

I'd be interested in a stand-alone copy with no subscription and no reoccurring AutoDesk screw-you fees, but I do need the hydrology package included in it, and I presume I need the full monty instead of an "upgrade." I've got r14 on a disk someplace but doubt that would count for the "upgrade" criteria.

So what's my most cost effective approach, here? These guys say they'll sell 2009 for $400:

http://www.fullapp.com/5676.htm

Do I trust them? And is 2010 worth it over 2009? How stable/slow is it in an XP environment?

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

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[coloeng]

If it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

 

[francesca]

Don't spend $400 from a non-Autodesk certified reseller on 2009. If you're likely to do any SWMM modeling, get 2011. I had an email from a reseller last week where they're offering 50% off 2011 if you get it in the next month. Call up a few resellers and haggle. (Found it:

http://www.advancedsolutionsonline.com/promo/get_current.aspx

it's an offer on an upgrade from a previous release but guess what, if they can make money on that, they can make money on cutting you a deal.)

- 2009 is the "2007" file format and won't read anything from 2010 or 2011.
- 2009 does not have as good of an interface with the Hydraflow applications (it's not seamless)
- 2011 has a SWMM wrapper (subscription add-on at this point I think)
- 2011 won't run on XP with 2 GB of RAM. However, it's more stable than 2010 and 2009 on XP with 3 GB of RAM if you're working it hard. It would be well worth upgrading to Windows 7 if you plan on doing complex stuff with Civil 3D.

We have a subscription license, meaning we can use any version of the products we have licensed. I use 2009 for a sewer project (client's standards) and with 2 miles of sewer and 28 sheets (client's standards) in one file, it crashes constantly. Given the choice, I now work in 2011. However, there is no backwards compatibility on Civil 3D objects. If you want to share intelligent objects (not blocks/linework, but pipes, alignments, profiles, etc.) with an earlier version you have to use LandXML. If your templates aren't set up well, that's a pain in relabeling, etc. 2010 and up ship with NCS templates with most of your styles and layers created.

 

[beej67]

Thanks so much for all the info Francesca. That's exactly the feedback I needed.

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

http://www.campbellcivil.com