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| CIVIL DESIGNER NEWS AND UPDATES |
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Once again, may we say a thank you to all our valued clients and our CIVIL DESIGNER users. We look forward to a continued partnership for many years to come as we all grow together from strength to strength and enjoy these busy times that we are embracing.
Superior Software and Support
The world's focus has again turned to focus on South Africa as we move closer and closer to 2010, putting a big smile on all football fans faces. However, just as important is the amount of money being spent on upgrading our countries infrastructure as we push ahead to tackle the increased demands and ensure that all runs smoothly in the future.
We know it's a real busy time, so we are making sure that we are backing you in any way we can. We would like to give our support and acknowledge your excellence and let you know that we stand behind you 100%. With our international hotline support centre and local support offices in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town as well as the new 144 weekly workshops a year, on top of our regular user group and client meetings, you can rest assured that you will always have the best support behind you. |
New User Workshops
We now hold workshops at our three offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban between 2pm and 4pm on Fridays. There is no charge for this and it is an added service to our existing clients. This gives you the opportunity to spend 2 hours alongside our experienced support staff. With help and advice, tips for improving speed, efficiency and overall understanding of the powerful functionality of our software, you will have the perfect opportunity to develop your skills further, making your time even more productive.
So come visit us, bring your projects to us and come and find out more about:
- Any software functionality queries,
- Our software's latest functionality and future functionality,
- Any other questions related to our software, services and support.
That's a total of 144 free user workshops a year across our offices on top of regular user group meetings and client visits. Now that's personalized service that you can't get anywhere else. We will be limiting the number of users that can attend each workshop to 8 clients to maximise the benefit to you. So please contact your nearest office to book your spot.
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A Fully Fledged Design Environment
CIVIL DESIGNER has been around for 20 years now and is a mature product at the forefront of infrastructure design. There is an age old saying that it takes 20 years to gain 20 years of experience. So what does make CIVIL DESIGNER unique, and why is it the preferred choice of civil engineers? The simple answer is that CIVIL DESIGNER has always led the way forward by adopting a Client Driven Development Model. This basically means that the software has been continually improved according to the majority of our user needs through continual feature requests and interaction over the years. Additionally by keeping a close eye on industry trends, CIVIL DESIGNER has emerged after 20 years to be one of the most powerful, robust and feature rich packages on the market.
While many civil packages have design elements to them, many are in fact simply a CAD package with some design aspects. CIVIL DESIGNER has, on the other hand, been repeatedly described as a fully fledged design environment, giving you true integration and benefits from advanced design elements, which is what infrastructure software should be all about - and not simply be a draughting program with some design functions.
The need for time-saving measures gets greater every year and is a priority for most consulting firms. This has led to a number of innovative additions in our software. For example, the means to instantaneously switch between plan view, long section and cross sections with sheet file customization options is the sort of functionality which eliminates the need for CAD work altogether and results in faster and more efficient delivery. In addition it is now possible to generate final drawings from an initial design so that all the contours and design elements are converted to CAD elements with a couple of clicks. This makes all the difference to the designer.
CIVIL DESIGNER, as a fully fledged design environment, does far more than simply insert infrastructure elements such as piping etc, but has the power to quickly establish total demand in a network using the number of people and per capita demand. More importantly, it will automatically assign demands for each node proportionally to the lengths of the adjoining pipes and inform the user of where pipes need to be resized etc. With the entire package focusing on the design aspects and the supporting calculations, it is filled with rich functionality that has an immediate effect on productivity by including design environment elements. These include design factors such as dynamic earthwork design, TRH design criteria with roads, kerb libraries, auxiliary lane routines, regression analysis and rendered 3D drives.
Pipe service databases can be used to indicate crossing positions of the pipes/cables on long sections as well as the road vertical alignment view. With advanced interactive functionality that points out clashes in your design, the user can focus on the design itself and not be worried that he is going to miss something such as an important clash in infrastructure services.
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IMESA 2009 Conference and Exhibition
With the theme "Serve Our Cities, Rescue Our Resources" this year's IMESA conference explores ways of using resources more effectively and sustainably. Topics to be investigated include:
the energy crisis, equitable service provision among communities, and the legacy of 2010 - 'an infrastructure opportunity or an asset management nightmare'.
IMESA 2009 will take place 28-30 October at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Knowledge Base look forward to seeing you there.
Read More
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CIVIL DESIGNER 2010
A glimpse of what is coming...
CIVIL DESIGNER 2010 is about to leap into the next generation of civil engineering infrastructure design and will be launched early next year after 3 years of intense development.
Maximum compatibility and 3D functionality
CIVIL DESIGNER 2010 will be launched on our new 3D CAD platform based on the inside knowledge we have gained as a founding member of the Open Design Alliance. This means that it is fully compatible with the DWG and DXF drawing formats. The new 3D graphics platform will additionally be even faster than CIVIL DESIGNER 6.5 so look forward to further improved productivity and the following:
- Layouts and viewports
- 3D entities
- Multiple Views
- 3D rendering
- Blocks and XRefs
We Will Retain the CIVIL DESIGNER Strong Points
Naturally we will still keep all the CIVIL DESIGNER strong points that you love like the handling of very large bitmaps, sheet files and geometry lines. CIVIL DESIGNER 2010 will allow you to open multiple projects at a time, and the design elements will be CAD-like entities, which can be modified and edited like CAD entities. There will be no distinction between pure CAD entities and design elements. Simply select and display the properties, or right click for a set of special functions applicable to the selected design element.
The faster DTM model will still be able to handle huge data sets and considerable work has been done on advanced functionality for each of the design modules. We have also looked at improving productivity when plotting and creating sheet files.
We will not change the menus and methods of the current CIVIL DESIGNER. The operator will work in the same manner. The learning curve will therefore be even shorter which is fundamental in today's world.
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Visits and Training Activities
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Our Customer Consultants will be involved in the following upcoming visits and training activities. We would be happy to meet with you to discuss your training or product needs. Please call us on (021) 701-1850.
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| REGIONS |
DATES |
ACTIVITIES |
PERSONS |
| Cape Town |
15 - 23 Sept |
Civil Designer training: All modules |
Andrew |
| Port Elizabeth |
5 - 9 Oct |
Civil Designer training: Design Centre, Survey, Terrain, Road, Sewer |
Andrew |
| East London |
6 - 9 Oct |
AllyCAD training |
Brett M |
| Durban |
13 - 16 Oct |
AllyCAD training |
Brett M |
| Durban |
15 - 17 Oct |
Client visits |
Reece |
| Johannesburg |
12 - 20 Oct |
Civil Designer training: All modules |
Cameron |
| Windhoek |
21 - 22 Oct |
Advanced Road training |
Andrew |
| Cape Town |
26 - 29 Oct |
AllyCAD training |
Brett M |
| Durban |
26 Oct - 2 Nov |
Civil Designer In-House training for Ethekwini Municipality |
Cedric |
| Johannesburg |
2 - 10 Nov |
Civil Designer training: All modules |
Cameron |
| Port Elizabeth |
3 - 4 Nov |
Advanced Road training |
Andrew |
| Port Elizabeth |
10 - 13 Nov |
AllyCAD training |
Brett M |
| Durban |
16 - 23 Nov |
Civil Designer In-House training for Ethekwini Municipality |
Cedric |
| East London |
17 - 18 Nov |
Advanced Road training |
Andrew |
| Cape Town |
23 Nov - 1 Dec |
Civil Designer training: All modules |
Andrew |
| Windhoek |
24 - 27 Nov |
AllyCAD training |
Brett M |
If you are interested in training, please call us to discuss your training needs. All courses are CPD and ISETT SETA accredited.
| REGIONS |
OFFICE |
CONTACT DETAILS |
| INTERNATIONAL, Western Cape, East Cape, Namibia |
Cape Town
(Head Office) |
Shantell
Tel: (021) 701 1850 |
| Kwazulu Natal, Free State, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mpumalanga, Zimbabwe |
Durban Office |
Nalini
Tel: (031) 566 3323 |
| Gauteng, Limpopo, North West Province, Botswana |
Johannesburg Office |
Barbara
Tel: (011) 675 3959 |
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Crossing pipes
How to show crossing pipes on generated road long sections. |
View this Tech Tip.
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Nasrec 2010 Infrastructure Developments
Goba, Gauteng |
With less than a year to go before eager spectators queue in line to enter the Soccer World Cup stadium, the office of Goba's Gauteng branch is abuzz with activity. Leon Mbongwa talks proudly of his involvement in the infrastructure developments of Gauteng's Nasrec area... More..
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Quality Public Spaces for communities
BACE Consulting Engineers |
The infrastructural benefits associated with the 2010 FIFA World Cup are deemed to be one of the tangible, long-term outcomes and legacies of hosting this mega event. For the City of Cape Town's urban designers and spatial planners, creating public space for public life has been foremost on the agenda...
More..
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La Tourelle Ocean Villas Development
PBAI, Mauritius |
John Paterson has been searching for that golden moment when 'eureka' suddenly dawns. He didn't have to wait long. With the La Tourelle Ocean Villas integrated resort scheme in Mauritius, the challenges were numerous, but when that eureka moment finally came, it was priceless.
More..
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Software boosts roads design efficiency
Department of Transport, KZN |
One of the most important challenges facing South Africa as a whole remains the creation and maintenance of infrastructure. The national and provincial departments of roads and transport lead the way in ensuring that the existing transport infrastructure remains adequate and reliable, while being expanded where needed...
More..
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You can now own CIVIL DESIGNER via a 'Lease to Own' payment option over a 12, 24 or 36 month plan.
This option is available to South African clients only and is linked to the prime lending rate. Please email info@civildesigner.com.
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Access the Support Forum here.
Email the Support Centre.
Tel: 086 0101 999 (South Africa only)
Tel: +27 21 7011850 (International)
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The Outsourcing Centre offers a dedicated engineering support team who handle infrastructural
design tasks ranging from data capture and drafting through to GIS related assignments. The team is
available to assist with project deadlines and data can be presented in any format required.
Contact bureau@knowbase.co.za for further details.
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Dawid Du Toit
Head Developer
Knowledge Base
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We tested CIVIL DESIGNER and were impressed ourselves at how robust it is. We imported 1.2 million points in just 1 min 46 seconds in a recent test to see how fast it handles large data projects. To date we have yet to hear about a client that has really pushed CIVIL DESIGNER to its full potential. We have tested it with projects that have 14 million points so far!
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Vincent Bester
CEO
Knowledge Base
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Not only can you talk to one of our qualified civil engineers in our support centre, but you can also be put through to one of our developers if necessary. This is unheard of in the industry and is why CIVIL DESIGNER has unbeatable support and has ended up being the Number 1 package that it is today!
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