12d v8

[David Carter]

hey my name's dave i'm just starting out using 12d model is there any hints you can give me for anything to do with 12d, i'm definately a green user of the program so i may ask a lot of rediculous questions at times so please help me.

[Ryan Johnston]

G'day Dave,

we all started there at some stage.
My tip of the day is to try to get your hands on a copy of the 12d V8 training video. (around 2 Gb in size).
This lays done the basics and then some.

All the best.

Ryan.

[David Carter]

thanks for that mate, i'll have a look around and see what i can find. Is it on the second disk you recieve when you get your copy of 12d V8, please let me know so i can narrow down the hunt through the office. thanks again. Dave

[Lee Gregory]

PDF's of the Getting Started for Design and Getting Started for Surveying manuals are in the Trial Software and the Updates section of www.12d.com

[John Fowler]

My tip of the day is to try to get your hands on a copy of the 12d V8 training video. (around 2 Gb in size).
This lays done the basics and then some.

I know this was 5 years ago although is this still available?

[Matthew Monk]

Not sure about the videos, but the Getting Started course notes are available in PDF from the 12d website:

http://12d.com/aus/resource_portal/lear ... mentation/

Your local 12d distributor may still have an old V8 DVD lying around somewhere.

[John Fowler]

Not sure about the videos, but the Getting Started course notes are available in PDF from the 12d website:

http://12d.com/aus/resource_portal/lear ... umentation

I am working through it now

I am trying to work out how to print a long section (to a model). On page 209 (of the getting started for design manual) it walks you through loading the setup file Long Sections.lplotppf. I navigate to the directory and select it and click read and it works although nothing seems to change. No fields are filled out which from looking at the screenshots in the notes, they should be. Is this a case of the plot setup file not being compatible with version 9 or something? Or any other ideas? Thanks

[Owen Thornton]

John, do you mean page 219? Page 209 is only about quick plotting, not PPF plotting.

I just Read the installed file C:\12d\10.00\Training\design\getting started basic\Long Sections.lplotppf into the Section Long Plot PPF Editor, and it looked just like the manual. Works the same in V9 as in V10.

Owen.

[John Fowler]

John, do you mean page 219? Page 209 is only about quick plotting, not PPF plotting.

I just Read the installed file C:\12d\10.00\Training\design\getting started basic\Long Sections.lplotppf into the Section Long Plot PPF Editor, and it looked just like the manual. Works the same in V9 as in V10.

Owen.

Sorry, it was page 218.

See the attached video screen capture which shows what I mean. Even if I fill in the rest of the details on the main Section Long Plot part, the other panels in the choice list all are empty. No notes like shown in the picture, no pagination data etc.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106007244/video.swf

[Owen Thornton]

Are you using the practise version? The format of PPFs are different (intentionally) between the practise and release versions. Until you have a release version at your disposal, it is not worth doing too much work modifying PPFs. You can create your own PPF in the practise version, but you will not be able to use it later in a release version.

You should be able to convert the ascii version of the PPF (.lplotppf.ppf) to a binary version (.lplotppf) which is usable in the practise version. I have never tried this, but it should work. See: Plot=>Plot and PPF Editors=>Convert ascii to binary.

Owen.

[John Fowler]

Are you using the practise version? The format of PPFs are different (intentionally) between the practise and release versions.

Yes, I am trying out the practice version of release 9. The .ppf file is the one that I downloaded/installed with the practice version so I thought it would work given the getting started for design manual doesn't mention it wouldn't work in the practice version.

Until you have a release version at your disposal, it is not worth doing too much work modifying PPFs. You can create your own PPF in the practise version, but you will not be able to use it later in a release version.

I wasn't too interested in creating my own right now, more so just following the getting started for design manual to see how easy it was to modify them. In Civil 3D I had a horrendous time trying to modify data bands in the long sections to get them looking how I want.

Are the .ppf files compatible between different releases/upgrades of the program? I.e. if I have an old version 8 .ppf file (made by a previous employee in the full version of the software), will this still work for the most part in the full version of version 10?

You should be able to convert the ascii version of the PPF (.lplotppf.ppf) to a binary version (.lplotppf) which is usable in the practise version. I have never tried this, but it should work. See: Plot=>Plot and PPF Editors=>Convert ascii to binary.

Thanks, I'll try this out later.

[Owen Thornton]

Yes, PPFs are typically upwards compatible in release versions.

I agree that we should add a note to the manual, about the ascii to binary conversion, for those people using the practise version. The data installed with the practise version is the same as the release version I think. Most people using the getting started manual are attending the Intro to Civil Design (or similar) training course, using a release version of 12d. I imagine that most people using the practise version are not quite as thorough as you John, and may not have made it to the plotting section.

Cheers,
Owen.

[John Fowler]

You should be able to convert the ascii version of the PPF (.lplotppf.ppf) to a binary version (.lplotppf) which is usable in the practise version. I have never tried this, but it should work. See: Plot=>Plot and PPF Editors=>Convert ascii to binary.

This did indeed work, thanks.