Autodesk Utility Design 2013 Release 2: The New Phone Books Are Here! The New Phone Books Are Here!

This is a reprint of an earlier blog (September 25, 2012) that is no longer available online.

Well, maybe not exactly…but in a new release of Autodesk Utility Design (AUD) that showed up on the Autodesk Subscription Site last Friday (for those who have the appropriate subscription – Infrastructure Design Suite Ultimate, or AUD itself) communication and fiber support have been added in all areas of functionality – industry model, configuration, layout and analysis.

In addition, so additional functionality has been added. Those who were working with 2013 AUD knew that when creating new overhead lines, a 3D view of the lines and pole was created (complete with sag in the lines). Now the same 3D visualization has been added to underground facilities.







There’s a new analysis tool for overhead clearance. It identifies clearance between wires as well as with the ground.
For those who do design based on work locations and stake-outs, a new work location block allows you to associate material and feature information with that work location.
For design output, material lists in table form can be added to the drawings with the “Insert Table” button.
An exciting new feature for a lot of electric utilities will be the new schematic layout tools. Non-schematic lines with conductors and ducts can be converted to a schematic view and then back. The new commands AUDEXPAND and AUD COLLAPSE will generate the schematic and then back to non-schematic views.

Some new electric distribution tools have been added – neutral conductor can be automatically added with the layout of primary, new span tools (create equal spans and preferred span lengths in addition to maximum span lengths), double circuit networks for overhead 3 phase systems have analysis and visualization capability, a spreadsheet-like load calculator for calculating demand load at service points, pole heights are now set by a pole height above ground pole leveling and custom status.
When you open an existing drawing with the new release, you will see a model update, and the new tools will be available.

I’ve worked with AUD for several iterations, and the current implementation is pretty exciting. It is a great tool for doing utility design. It is very easy to integrate with GIS and provide the calculations that engineers and designers need to get quality designs out faster. Watch over the next several weeks, and I’ll add some new blogs on AUD and utility design. If you haven’t taken a look at it, now’s the time.