Topic: Civil 3D - Survey Helper Utility

[Dinosaur]

CARLSON CONNECT Is a FREE utility that will pick up where Civil 3D leaves off in importing survey data.  It's menu plugs right into Civil 3D and assists with downloading data from a variety of collectors and will also import / export Carlson software points.  Versions are available for Land Desktop 2005, 2006 & 2007 in addition to Civil 3D 2006 & 2007.
My thanks to Jason Hickey for bringing this information to light.

[Cannon]

Hey Dino,

Tell me that you didn't ask the guys at MidWest about this, please? I'm assuming they just never had a chance to fill you in. Reply privately if you'd like....

[Dinosaur]

I don't talk to <them> . . . at all . . . the boss even tosses stuff they send to my attention if he sees it first.  THAT is a good story for private discussion should you be interested.  I just found Jason's reference to the utility and thought it interesting.  The topic is already out there . . . what's up with it that the people need to know?

[Dinosaur]

HMM!  I have been advised that this little Carlson utility is indeed an OK addition to your Design software . . .
That is just fine, but I installed it on my Civil 3D 2007 at work and suddenly C3D takes 5 minutes to load, do anything or unload.
HARRUMPH!
I uninstalled it and the problem persists with Civil 3D soaking up all but about 200mb of my 2gb memory after an empty drawing1.dwg has finally loaded.  A repair produced no better results so guess who gets a fresh install.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION

[Dinosaur]

UPDATE

Sorry Carlson, whatever happened it was not Carlson Connect that caused the problem.

[Dent Cermak]

Carlson connect has come with my LDD/Civil 3D since LDD2005. On installation it asks about installing Carlson Connect and some other routines as well. Yours did not?? 

[Dinosaur]

I have not seen this option on install of Civil 3D.  I have not installed LDT so I can not speak to that.  As to the problems I experienced after installing Carlson Connect, I removed it from my system and did a clean install of Civil 3D.  After running this install less than a week without Carlson installed I experienced the same program malfunctions.  I blame coincidence at this point - at least my install number three is still holding so far.