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As part of our amazing series of short interviews at our 2018 12d Technical Forum, we asked the question, “How long have you been using 12d Model software?” The answers, again, varied quite a bit from person to person! Some had been using it for just 18 months (and yet, by all reports, were well on the way to ‘super user’ status already!), and others had been on board ever since the first licences were sold way back in 1991!

We heard from…

Elliot Grierson – Horizon Surveys, WA
Carly Smith – Alexander Symonds, SA
Seb Woodland – GHD, Qld
Bill Ypelaan – GHD, Vic
Peter Bonus – Horizon Surveys, WA
David Mares – Bouygues Construction, NSW
Derek Roberts – Calibre, NZ
Richard Russell – Arcadis, NSW
Dean Ostrofski – City of Gold Coast, Qld
Phil Weightman – Byrne Consultants, Qld
Peter Murray – Brisbane City Council, Qld
Darren Gaunson – TABEC, WA

Watch the video to see who fits in where!

We finished off this year’s 12d Training Webinar Series with a replay of an extremely popular topic from May – Directional Kerb Ramps!

Directional kerb ramps have always been a thorn in the 12d Modeller’s side – they are manually intensive to model, so they are often left to the last minute as no one enjoys drawing these things again and again.

Having felt these frustrations too many times in previous jobs, our presenter set out to find a way to build up the kerb ramp using a combination of the Apply MTF function and computated Super-Alignments so he could draw them once and then get them to update via a chain should the horizontal or vertical position need to change. Find out how in this exciting advanced session!

Watch the video now to catch this topic if you missed it live!

Some of our fabulous delegate interviews at the 12d International Technical Forum in July 2018 included the question “What’s your favourite thing about 12d Model software?”

The answers were as varied as the delegates themselves.

One thing is for certain, though – the product’s users love it, and were happy to chat about it at our sold-out event in Brisbane!

We heard from:

• 12d Managing Director Dr Lee Gregory, who chatted about Civil BIM functionality
• Carly Smith of Alexander Symonds in SA, about her work with wind turbines
• Peter Murray of Brisbane City Council, who loves the Survey functionality
• Richard Russell of Arcadis, who enjoys being able to collaborate with other designers and interface with other packages
• Darren Gaunson of TABEC in WA, who loves the simplicity of 12d Model, and the way in which he has been able to learn new skills in it with ease
• Bill Ypelaan of GHD in Vic, about the ability to adapt 12d to the different types of work he does
• Lane Irwin, who heads up 12d NZ and is a big fan of plotting (in case you haven’t realised from previous posts!)
• David Mares of Bouygues Construction in NSW, with some tips for newcomers to the product
• Elliot Grierson of Harrison Surveys in WA, who appreciates 12d’s great Support.

What a wonderful collection of thoughts from our long- and short-term users – watch the video today to hear what they said!

I caught up with 12d Model and 12d Synergy Training Manager Tim Brooks, of 12d Queensland, on 13th December to chat about the Apply MTF Manager in 12d Model.

There are often tools in 12d Model that go unutilised, the Apply MTF Manager is one of those. This feature can speed up your initial design setup time and get you into the detail stage faster. For all those still creating their MTFs and then Functions separately, this webinar video will help!

The Apply MTF Manager has been available since 12d Model 10, but Tim has found that this tool is not being used as often as he feels it should be, and he’s here to spread the word.

Benefits of the Apply MTF Manager include:

• Uses the Apply MTF Defaults
• Can apply to multiple Super Alignments
• Can turn on Functions strings automatically in a chosen view
• Optional use of a MTF seed file
• Cleans out empty models

Tim guides you through the Apply MTF Manager in this succinct presentation…in less than half an hour, you’ll gain a firmer understanding of how this great functionality works, so you can work faster and better!

–Lisa Stewart

Lane Irwin of 12d NZ (with Ben Pham of 12d Solutions in Sydney) addressed our 2018 12d Technical Forum delegates about the new Multipage Plot Sheets (sometimes abbreviated to MPS) functionality in 12d Model 14.

Lane said there were a few things in the older plotting that were very successful, but some things were missing; the new MPS has evolved over time, in particular with the addition of functionality requested by customers. One such addition was the ability to split up plots into ‘chapters’ – having many plots, frames and sheets combined into a ‘book’, which can then be split into ‘chapters’ and even split further into ‘pages’.

Frames themselves have been updated – in addition to plan frames, there are now cross-section, long-section, perspective and 3D PDF frames.

Referencing

At a book level, users can now add a Title Block File. There’s also an option for a Drawing Register within this. The best part, according to Lane, is that you can reference back to this – follow it once and then other sheets can start looking at it; this can be set at a book level, chapter level or page level.

Text Placement

Text can be placed in an absolute position or relative to a frame (with anchor justification). Users can apply the available variables– e.g. a user might have a scale with mini frames on their sheet and wish to apply different scales with different text, etc.

There are also new attributes such as ‘current page’ and ‘total pages’.

Symbols

Similarly, symbols can be absolute in their placement, or relative to a frame (with anchor justification). Users can also rotate symbols if desired.

MPS – Model to Plot

There was an existing option to plot millimetres to units or plan units, but there were only three options available…now it’s unlimited, meaning users can select many different models and plot in different spaces.

MPS – Some New/Improved Features (Summary)

• ‘What You See Is What You Get’ (WYSIWYG) on page preview
• Auto PDF file naming (using the Book, Chapter or Page name)
• View Favourites in frame
• White outs behind frames
• Highlighting current frame in detail plan
• Plot only Book, Chapter or Page
• Referencing
• Improved menus on MPF
• Refresh button
• Active/Inactive
• Insert New
• Copy and paste
• Move up and down tree
• Apply a mapping file to a frame

MPS – Magic Chapters

These help overcome the limitations of a single frame by allowing multiple cross sections, long sections, drainage long sections, and plot frames.

Lane also demonstrated (live!) the creation and editing of a variety of Multipage Plots in 12d Model 14, including showing user notes in views; watch the video to see how all this is done!

As part of our amazing delegate interviews at our 2018 12d Technical Forum, we asked the question, “What do you like about 12d Model?” The answers were even better than we’d hoped…

We heard from…

Carly Smith – Alexander Symonds, SA

Dean Ostrofski – City of Gold Coast, Qld

Darren Gaunson – TABEC, WA

Peter Murray – Brisbane City Council, Qld

David Mares – Bouygues Construction, NSW

Phillip Weightman – Byrne Consultants, Qld

Watch the video to see what they said!

This kind of feedback is what has always driven us to strive for greater and greater service, and constant improvements to our products, over nearly 30 years of providing these to the AEC industry.

So many of our clients have been using 12d products for decades, and their loyalty and enthusiasm is our greatest treasure.

We look forward to hearing more feedback and suggestions from customers – feel free to send your thoughts to info@12d.com at any time!

12d Model and 12d Synergy user Michael (Mick) Connor of Fulton Hogan has been very busy in recent months! Not only is he an integral part of the team that’s made the Sydney B-Line Bus Project a reality, he’s managed to fit in a great webinar – ‘12d Synergy and 12d View for Surveyors’ as part of our popular Industry Solutions series (check out the link if you missed that one http://bit.ly/2K7fJdo).

And now he’s found yet another exciting new project…the formation of an Engineering Surveying Steering Group – a panel, including client representatives, surveyors from across the industry (NSW) – inspired by their drive over the past three years to work towards a more robust framework for Survey delivery.

They are currently running quarterly sessions, and would like to extend to interested parties an invitation for Friday 14th December.

They have representatives from RMS, TfNSW, and 12d Solutions coming along to this session, as well as Gaby Van Wyk (SSSI) who can talk through the revised AS5488 (SUI Guidelines).

12d will showcase some mapping and attributing smarts which can be aligned with SUI 5488 and G71 requirements.

Due to an overwhelming response to this concept, the Survey & Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI) has expressed interest in sponsorship/endorsement. The team is currently awaiting venue availability, so contact Mick on Michael.Connor@fultonhogan.com.au today to book in and you’ll receive all details as they become available!

In the wake of three successful 12d International Innovation Awards, 12d Solutions was pleased to announce the 12d International Innovation Awards 2018.

The 12d International Innovation Awards recognises inspired thinking and innovative solutions in civil engineering, surveying and data management. Around the world, our industry faces challenging problems and finds inventive answers. The 12d International Innovation Awards highlights some of the best of those solutions.

Entries closed at the end of April 2018.

The Overall Winning Team – from Arup – received $A3,000, the 12d Innovation Winner Trophy and a Full Technical Forum Package for the 12d International Technical Forum 2020, plus a $A1,500 training package. We will also select an individual to be on the judging panel for the 2020 Innovation Awards.

The Design & Visualisation Winner (or winning team) – from Aurecon – received $A1,000 cash and $A1,000 in Training, and a trophy.

The Survey & Construction Winner (or winning team) – from Tatras Consulting – received $A1,000 cash and $A1,000 in Training, and a trophy.

The 12d Water Winner (or winning team) – from WSP – received $A1,000 cash and $A1,000 in Training, and a trophy.

The Customisation Winner (or winning team) – from J. Wyndham Prince -received $A1,000 cash and $A1,000 in Training, and a trophy.

The ‘Banishing the Drafting Demon’ Winner (or winning team) – from Mackay Regional Council – received $A1,000 cash and $A1,000 in Training, and a trophy.

The 12d Synergy Winner (or winning team) – from BG&E+Cardno JV – received $A1,000 cash and $A1,000 in Training, and a trophy.

We also awarded Highly Commended prizes for each category, and certificates were awarded for the top entry from each of these business types:

• Small
• Medium
• Large
• Government

Award Winners and Highly Commended entries were showcased at the 12d International Technical Forum 2018, and are to be published on our websites, with selected entries being turned into case studies for industry media.

See our website for further details on the winners.

While we were at the 12d Technical Forum 2018, we chatted to some delegates about the Awards – check out this video of some of what was said!

The video begins with our Managing Director, Dr Lee Gregory, speaking about the history of the Awards, and what the Awards mean to him. We also heard from representatives from Calibre and City of Gold Coast, as well as our General Manager, Joel Gregory, who was also integral to these Awards being created back in 2012.

We’ll start taking entries for the 2020 Innovation Awards soon, so stay tuned for details!

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When the idea was presented to set up a stand at the 2018 Technical Forum (which was held at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in July) to chat with delegates about the event, our products…”life, the universe, and everything” (to quote the sublime Douglas Adams)…we knew it was a good one, but we had no idea just how good it was going to be!

This post is the first in a series about those informal interviews; we’re excited to present them to you!

We’ve compiled some of the feedback we had about the 2018 Technical Forum, starting with a chat we had with our Managing Director, Dr Lee Gregory, about these events, which began (as Conferences) way back in 2005.

We also spoke to representatives from Gold Coast City Council, TABEC, Horizon Surveys, GHD, Alexander Symonds, Byrne Consultants, WSP, Arcadis, Calibre, Brisbane City Council, and Bouygues Construction…with bonus content from 12d General Manager Joel Gregory (whose 18 month-old son, Lachie, made his Technical Forum debut this year!) and Lane Irwin of 12d NZ!

Networking was high on the list for most delegates we spoke to – the chance to meet 12d staff and resellers in person, and to liaise with users from all over the world, is something that just can’t be replaced by any number of remote experiences.

We’re absolutely thrilled that this Technical Forum was so well received, and we’re already making plans for the 2020 event, which will be held back at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from 2-4 August 2020!

Watch a compilation of the positive feedback we received at this enormous event!