About the Autodesk® Standardized Data Tool for Civil 3D

The Standardized Data Tool for Civil 3D (SDT) was developed to provide engineers, designers, project managers, and beyond with a way to interact with the data that is inherent in every civil infrastructure model. With the reams of data that are packed into digital models on modern-day projects coupled with the increasingly more complex and stringent project delivery requirements, civil engineers have a need to attach, validate, and manipulate civil model data more than ever before. Long gone are the days of simply drafting with AutoCAD; SDT aims to be a vital tool for engineers on any project to leverage project data to gain insights into every phase of a project and to simplify project delivery.

Civil engineers routinely create large, complex 3-dimensional, data-rich models that can connect to surveyed field books, online GIS databases, and IOT or SCADA devices providing real-time data points. Inherent to every Autodesk Civil 3D drawing (or Civil Information Model - CIM) are the underlying features, their extended properties, and associated project metadata. With SDT any project member can manipulate and work with data found within a Civil 3D project. SDT allows teams to standardize and customize this project data through the use of templates and to ensure that projects are being delivered with details down to each feature – more efficiently and with fewer errors in the data.

SDT uses existing Property Set functionality established within Autodesk AutoCAD Architecture and found in the various other specialty toolsets. Property Set Definitions allow users of Autodesk software to attach extended data to virtually any entity within their DWG project model, standardize dimensions, customize architectural styles, and maneuver in each individual toolset. In addition to leveraging existing functionality and APIs; SDT extends functionality to Microsoft Excel allowing non-Civil 3D users to work with project data. The typical civil designer in the Civil 3D environment interacts with objects on a one-on-one basis (allowing for detailed, sub-entity level design) and so it can be easy to lose sight of the overall project landscape.

This tool provides the overall project team with the ability to view, analyze, visualize (with a dashboard), edit, and collaborate with the Civil 3D model as a whole – encompassing multiple design files as a holistic job.

The SDT is supported for all active versions of Autodesk Civil 3D and can be implemented on existing Civil 3D projects.

Note the Standardized Data Tool for Revit will assist architects with similar information management capabilities, however that tool is not compatible with the SDT for Civil 3D (other than allowing for reporting via Power BI or Microsoft Excel).