Unlock Your Civil 3D Project Data Management with a Standardized Data Tool

ALEXIS MERESSE: Hello, everyone. My name is Alex Meresse, and today I'm accompanied by Vincent and Lionel. And we're going to show you how Egis has implemented the new Civil 3D plugin standardized data tool in order to manage your data managements.

So I joined the Egis department head 15 years ago, and I had the opportunity to work on exciting projects in France, and across the globe. I started as a Civil 3D user since 2013, then I gradually became a Civil 3D corporate expert, developing main processes on specific vision, or implemented in projects. I have overseen company standardization, and development related to the automations.

Since April this year, I've taken over the management of software in road and rail infrastructure. And now my colleague will introduce themselves. Over to Vincent.

VINCENT FREDON: Thank you, Alexis. Hello, everybody. My name is Vincent Fredon. I'm a solution engineer infrastructure for Autodesk France, now for more than eight years. I'm very happy to support Alexis and Lionel in this session today. Lionel?

LIONEL FABRE: Hello, everyone. Thank you, Vince.t So I'm Lionel Fabre. In the digital engineering for business department at Egis. I'm the director of the production tools and methods department. This department is in charge of the BIM digital platform-- production platform. I've been working at Egis for 11 years now. And regarding my background, I'm a civil engineer, and I have a robust experience in-- on the BIM implementation, and authoring design tools standardization. In the past, I worked for-- sorry, for five years at Autodesk.

ALEXIS MERESSE: OK, so first of all, Lionel will present Egis [INAUDIBLE] strategy digital. Then Vincent and I I will explain how to manage project data, what the current constraints are, and how to standardize the data to solve them. This leads me to present a case study from one of our projects. And while-- we finish with the ROI and conclude. Now, Lionel, It's your turn.

LIONEL FABRE: OK. Thank, you Alexis. So I'm going to start with a quick presentation of Egis for you to know exactly where we are. So Egis, we are the first engineering company in France. For several years now, our company has been on a trajectory on continuous growth. Our objective is to enter the construction engineering global top 10 by 2026.

We have two key objectives. Today, it's becoming a leading player in the field of climate and biodiversity protection, and the second one is that we are convinced that the digital changes will play a structural role in our activities, and this will be even more pronounced in the future.

So let's talk about Egis in fewer numbers. So we have a turnover of 1.48 billion euro. We are the first civil engineering company in France, as I said. We have 18,000 employees in the world. So, splitted in 75% for the consulting, engineering part, and 25% for operation and mobility services.

We have closed 28 acquisitions since the beginning of 2020, and we want to become one of the top 10 engineering company by 2026. And our strategy is to continue these acquisitions to reach our target of 2.8 billion euro in 2026.

So, within this, we provide a unique global offer, combining consultancy, engineering, operation, and mobility services. With this position, we can cover the entire life cycle of our projects. Our business is built on three key pillars. So the first one is the mobility, the urban and sustainable living, and the third one is energy and industry. We are committed to work on a global eco-engineering approach to reduce the emission and negative impacts of-- on biodiversity.

Our internalization is organized around a number of [INAUDIBLE] countries, in which we have started a structural development. With this organization, we are able to have a global climate policy, and we are capable to work locally on those challenges with the local actors. Thanks to our acquisitions-- the last one is McIntosh Perry, a major company in the North America, located both in Canada and the US-- we are on the point of reaching a critical size on a number of markets in the Middle East, in India, Australia, and New Zealand.

OK. So regarding the digital strategy, within our new digital engineering for business department, we have three key territories of value that can drive self-development and innovations. The first one is the augmented design, where we are committed to improve our design processes by leveraging our production tools and technologies.

Second one is connected office to site. So we have the objective to bridge the gap between design and construction by using real-time data from construction sites, and we are convinced that this approach will improve site management, and enable us to adapt designs as needed, ensuring seamless project execution.

And the last one is developing and leveraging digital twins. So, from project conception to asset management-- management, sorry-- we harness the power of digital twins. So intelligence and technical excellence will be the two enablers for us to reach out the objective, and our targets. So, thank you for your attention. I now hand over to Vincent for the technical presentation.

VINCENT FREDON: Thank you, Lionel. We are going to speak a lot about property sets and data in this session. Why is it a so important topic? First, data is one of the unavoidable features of infrastructure projects. Designing is not drawing anymore. It's modeling with smart tools using intelligent objects. Today, drawings are the 2D deliverables created from the model, extracted from the models.

Models means geometry and data. Model without data can only be used for rendering. It's a usage often required, but we can do much more with data. Meaningful data embedded in models allows many different uses-- quantification-- for example, volumes for 3D solids-- control and validation using any attributes attached to the object, sustainability using, for example, carbon index attached to the objects-- digital train and maintenance.

Second, alignment with Open BIM. BuildingSMART International has published the IFC 4.3 format one year ago. It includes specific categories and classes for infrastructure project components. Adoption of IFC 4.3 means agility to manage attributes in the infrastructure project models. The IFC 4.3 extension for Civil 3D is already available for an advanced mapping between the infrastructure models' data and the properties in the IFC 4.3 exports.

And, last point, data in Civil 3D means property sets. Property set is a style in Civil 3D for extended data management. It can be data for Civil 3D object, like networks, corridors, and for AutoCAD objects, like 3D solids, polylines. A lot of property sets can be created and customized for any use case and requirement.

Different types of properties are available-- manual, the classic one, and also using list of predefined values to force some attributes to get some specific values for some objects, some properties. Automatic properties based on default properties, like volume for 3D solid, for example. And we can also define some formulas using other properties to get more valuable information in the properties for each object.

Property set is part of the answer to help managing data for infrastructure project. But what is the current state of this topic for the infrastructure design companies today? First, owner's requirements are growing. Most of the tenders include BIM deliverables, and the requests are more and more precise. Of-- needs about data is specific to each project, and owners will have specific requests for different kind of usage.

And it's common to see the owner requirements changing or becoming more precise during the production phase. Engineering companies must be reactive to these owner requirements.

Second, engineering companies must face more complex projects, better integrated in the context, and demonstrating innovative solutions to reach sustainable goals. The number of files and objects is growing very fast, with many properties and data for each object in the files. With the evolution of the project, and the successive phases, there is always modification and updates of properties and data.

And, of course, to stay competitive, a high level of quality is non-negotiable. This means that engineering companies need automation and efficiency for data management. With those findings and needs, it seems essential to get an infrastructure project data management solution.

Standardized Data Tool for Civil 3D has been developed to facilitate data management in several Civil 3D files. SDT is an out-of-the-box tool for data management in Civil 3D. It's available for all Civil 3D users. It's based on the creation of a specific project for data management. This project is called a job.

We are going to say this word, job, a lot of times during this presentation. SDT provides features to perform easy and efficient data management and validation processes. Four main components are connected in a job. It's what we see on the right part of this slides.

First, on the top of the right part, job standards files. It's the template for property sets. Second, the middle of the right part of the slides, set of Civil 3D files. It's the group of working files-- Civil 3D files. We have also, on the bottom, the job data file. It's an Excel file connected with a group of working files, and the job validation reports available in Excel format or HTML format.

SDT provides specific functionalities to help the most time-consuming manipulations-- pushing property sets from the template to the working files, after any modification of the templates, with the ability to address a lot of the DWG files in one manipulation. Attach properties to objects in the working files to be able to address a lot of objects in each DW files-- DWG files, sorry. And add values to properties on each object and entities.

The connection with the job data file-- it's the Excel file-- is extremely powerful. It's a bidirectional exchange between a selection of objects and entities in several DWG working files, and the Excel files. All the relevant features-- all the advanced features of Excel can be used to perform any control, addition, automatic filling of cells in the Excel.

The validation [AUDIO OUT]

--it includes default controls already set in the tool, like file name, property, blank fields, et cetera. And any customizable analysis for any specific checks.

Let's look at the user interface of Standardized Data Tool. All the SDT command, all the SDT features are available in the Civil 3D ribbon after SDT installation. We have here the screen capture of the ribbon in-- from Civil 3D. The main commands are displayed in colors on these slides. In blue, the command to push property sets from the template to the working files.

In yellow, the command to attach the property sets to object and entities in each DWG files. In purple, here, bottom left, command to edit and copy data to properties attached. It's tools to help to manage the data on each objects. In green, data synchronization with Excel with the job data file. And in red, the validation report.

You can see that there is two buttons for most of the commands. It means that each functionalities is available for one file, or for batch treatment applied on a selection of file, or on all the files attached to the job. There is also specific windows for creation and addition of the jobs, and navigation in the jobs, and in all the files attached to the jobs.

Let's see some screen captures of the most used windows of Standardized Data Tool. Here, for example, on the left, the Job Explorer, we can select the collection. A collection is a group-- it's a group of jobs. With the menu, we can select a specific job using the menu. And in a specific job, we can see in the last part, in the bottom of this window, the list of all the DWG files connected to the job.

On the right, the Batch Update Standards window, it's to copy automatically the property set from the template to the working files in the job. It's very easy. You select the job you want to use. You can use all the DWG, or you can select some DWG in the jobs, and you update to push automatically the property set on all the DWG selected. Next one.

Here, it's the Batch Attach Extended Data. It's meant push the property set from the DWG to the object and entities in the DWG. It's the same. You select the collection, the job, select some DWG, if you want to use some only, or all the DWG. And you can select some entities by types. You can select a networks, section, corridors, et cetera. And for AutoCAD, you can only select some specific types of objects-- like solid 3D, for example-- and you apply, and close to have the process running as a batch treatment.

And the last slides for this section is about the batch synchronization data. It's the connection with Excel. And here, always the selection of the job and DWG files. And on the right, you can see that you can select the direction you want to go from the DWG to Excel, or from Excel to DWG, and if you want to fill only the blank fields, or if you want to push all the data in Excel. Now we are going to see the process analysis with Alexis.

ALEXIS MERESSE: All right. Thank you, Vincent. So let's see what it looks like when you process with or without SDT. So, just first of all, we consider the input as model 3D object, like pipe structures, 3D solids exported from corridors, 3D blocks. And all your design has been done using the Egis standards. I'm talking about file, layer, and object naming rules, the assembly, and old [INAUDIBLE] styles.

So we apply property set by domains on one file at a time. By domain property set, I mean applying object-specific information. I don't want to find property set of drainage on a pavement structure file, for example. Then this information is filled manually, semi-manually, with a list, for example, or with an automation-- Dynamo, why not?

Finally, we export the IFC, and we use the IFC Model Checker that Egis developed to validate if requirements are met. If it's not, a previous task need to be repeated. So that's what a normal process looks like for property set.

However, there are a number of problems with this. First one is, we need to do this for all your file, and for all your disciplines. And obviously, it's not possible to fill all information manually. There is too many objects. We therefore have to develop a script to do this for us. But they remain specific to the owner request. They are not often applicable to another one.

Finally, validation takes place after the IFC export, and not before. They are time-consuming steps that has to be repeated in the case of reworks. What about SDT, now?

Of course, all the input are the same as current process, but there are three main benefits. First one is, the property set can be attached, several files at once. Then the synchronization with Excel allow you to fill in properties for all your objects in one sheet. Then the validation is done before the IFC. So, in the end, Standardized Data Tool seems to meet all your needs.

And now, to illustrate this new process, and highlights its offers, I would like to present you a use case Egis. And for that, here, French highway project that we use for many proof of concept, mainly on BIM processes, modeling, BCF, communication, virtual reality, and augmented reality on-site. It's a widening project to four lanes over 16 kilometer long, with two main interchanges. It's [INAUDIBLE] includes many road crossings.

It was designed for detailed design phase, and therefore with a particular precision on assemblies. Here, here are a few figures. So 70 corridors for manual local roads, safety and protection equipment access services. And what about drainage? 80 pounds, and so many drainage elements.

The project was designed following Egis standards, and it was divided into sectors and exchange point to facilitate teamwork, and avoid excessively large file. It means one interchange is translated by one file. It's the same for roundabouts, and we try to limit the corridor for data design to 10 kilometers, no more. This is, of course, made possible by the data shortcut.

All your design and deliverables are also divided according the Egis directory rules by domains. This means that the C_Civil only contained files relating to platform, and D_Drainage only for drainage element, and so on. [INAUDIBLE] can contain subassemblies. For example, a road corridor can deal with main, local, services access road. It's why the 3D solid are exported following subdiscipline rules. So here's what's the current state of the project look like.

Well, we know very well that the life of a project can be marked by certain requests, and also we have a project that was almost finished. We suddenly receive a request from your owner that was not initially planned. He asked us to classify highway project data according to his own classification rule. It's his classification codes, each element by disciplines, or by domains, using seven levels.

But this problem, it's that there is file-- the file had already exported, and the quantity of information to be filled in was too large. [INAUDIBLE] apply seven levels, 240 categories, over more than 12,000 solids, but we have to make it. This is the target. And, for the next slide, we will see if SDT will make it happen.

First, let's start at the beginning by translating this classification received into Civil 3D property set. It's relatively simple, and there is no real value to present it to you, but you should know that we use lists. Why? It's because they follow the format of value. That is, I wouldn't be able to field anything different from what is required. Therefore, six levels were created, and least have been associated. Finally, the last level concatenate the previous ones with a simple formula.

Something else that will be very important later on. So we have chosen to set the default value to triple H for-- it's for quick identification. So now, our property set are created-- our template. And how do we apply them on file? Because if you remember [INAUDIBLE] process, you have to do it for each files. Certainly with editing, it's much simpler, because it just mean seven jobs.

So all I have to do now is associate the file with the jobs, and it's so simple. For the next few slides, I'll show the process using the pavement structure solids. This process is, of course, the same for the other disciplines. Just need to go to open the Job Manager.

You see, all the jobs have been created can be found here. Select your collection platform, and add models. Now go to the folder regarding minerals, solids, and that's them. Finish and close. If it's red, there is no issues-- green, no issues. Red means there's issues with one model file. And yellow, it's the file are not saved into the jobs. Now, the files are linked to the job, but property set are not attached yet.

It's a batch attach, extended attach-- command. I select my collection, my job, and I select File. I'm about to choose different object types. But here, I'm talking about platforms, so I will take solids.

So let's now see if-- properties that have been attached. Open the Job Explorer. It's like a quick access. Select your collection again, and your job. And you're able to open directly the file with this window.

I select, randomly, solids. Go to Extended Data, and they are here. So now, I can fill the information using list, but the number of solid is far too high. I could develop the Dynamo script, but it will be very specific for this case, and it will require a bit of time, and I'm a little bit lazy.

Vincent said that the property set could be synchronized with Excel, so let's do it. I will use Batch Sync Data command, select my collection, and my job, and the files. As mentioned, there is deferral synchronization option. Here, just want to push all attributes into Excel file. So we keep this one, and overwrite all data.

Have access, also, on my custom classification. It's the owner classification, But also able to use property set-- automatically apply when the solid 3D is exported from the corridors. Yeah, it's done. We can open the Excel file now.

Can you see that? All tabs correspond to different property set for all the objects object-attached in the job. I have also access to the owner property set with the default value, triple H. So now, how do you are feeling the values now?

Let's look for a match-- magic logic to fill the Excel fields. Going back to the classification, the terms don't correspond in any null values in the files. But, however, with the platform disciplines, we can see that the clients cat correspond to the shape code. It's why I'm going to translate it using the Egis standardization shape codes.

These shape codes are also in the 3D shape model property set here in red. And the object name is shared between all the property set, and therefore, on the owner property set-- in green. So all you have to do now is to match shape code, the object name, and the owner classification. And the Excel function that meets this need is the VLOOKUP formula.

This function is one of the most popular in Excel, and helps you to find things in a table or a range by row. That's what it looked like. So I copied the file, as not to compromise it-- compromise the file structure. Now it's written in red. I think it's because it's important.

So here, the owner property set, still with the default value. Here, the shape code, what I want to add in my property set, the object name. And I will use the VLOOKUP formula to add the shape code phase to the object name. And I extended.

Add a tab with a translation of the owner codification, and I will do the same formula on level one to six to match the shape code within the owner codification. And it's done. So I do this for the other job using different coinciding parameters. For example, I use the layer name for safety equipments. I use the subassembly name for longitudinal drainage element, like channels.

And finally, for the piping structure, I just use the object types. So now, I copy level one to level six, and paste it into the Excel use for the synchronization. I use the same command, Batch Sync Data-- my collection, and my job. But here, I prefer now to push Excel attribute to Civil 3D, like import. I select Overwrite All Data, and I leave the other property set checked because they haven't been changed, anyway.

Now let's have a look if it's good. [INAUDIBLE] Going to the Job Explorer. And [INAUDIBLE] directly on this file-- on this window. I select, randomly, solid, go to Extended Data, and you will see that information are now filled in.

But did I work properly? Did I miss field, or did I make a mistake in my formula? That's the purpose of various validation jobs. So this validation job allows you to perform validation based on criterias. In this example, I just want to check if they're still triple H. My collection, my job, again.

And I will try the first validation job on the first files. I don't need to use prebuilt check here. In fact, what I want to use is a placeholder value. Just fill triple H here, and next. Don't need a slow custom check, and I prefer to have an HTML report.

I can open it now, and go to the second tab, which-- regarding my files. Go down to the placeholder value region. There is more [INAUDIBLE] 1,000 issues. In fact, if you divide it by 7-- seven levels-- it mean 80 solids with a problem. In fact, I know where is my issue, because my model contains longitudinal drainage equipment, and either only processes the platform. No matches were found with them. So it's quite normal.

I had seen in the Excel, but I had deliberately left the error to-- so-- to see them on the validation jobs. So now, I can fix my mistake directly in Excel, and re-import it, or just use an AutoCAD Lisp routine to select, and zoom in the object to see what is wrong.

So times do not permit, but here are some other validation jobs that have been carried out to ensure that the data is correctly filled in. The first one is check if level 1 is different to A, but you also do some custom check for the design. For example, if a solid is under or equal to 0, if a type slope is under 5%, and if the structure is part of the customer catalog, and many, and many other.

So property set were created, attached, synchronized with Excel, and finally validated. So we succeed in meeting the owner expectation. So it's a total success. Now, take a closer look to the RoI.

VINCENT FREDON: Thank you, Alexis. Let's evaluate what's the benefit of using Standardized Data Tool. As Alexis explained in the detail of the use case, Egis has a current process to manage data on such a road project. Using Dynamo and a model checker-- internal model checker-- the quality of the result is already optimum for Egis. In any other context without an existing methodology, SDT brings automation and efficiency for data manipulation and validation. It can increase significantly the quality of the deliverables for any Civil 3D project modeling.

For the Egis use case, let's focus on the time spent with the current process, and with Standardized Data Tool. Here on the slide, there is a reminder about what has been used for the use case-- 14 files for road platform design with a lot of solids inside, five files for road equipments, and 43 drainage networks with a lot of pipes and structure inside. Then it's really to highlight the quantity of files, and quantity of objects inside-- on the left, the current process, on the right, with SDT.

With Alexis, we did an estimation of the time for the main tasks-- main step of the process. Then on the left, property set creation, about two hours, property set application to DWG in objects, about one day, and probably the most consuming task, data applied on objects. Here, there is a Dynamo script creation for the specific use case, one day and a half, and play Dynamo using the Dynamo script on each files about half a day.

IFC export, one day, and IFC model checker by Egis, one day. We are about one week, five days for this process. On the right with SDT, we have the same time for property set creation-- two hours. It's not the most consuming tasks.

Two job creation, batch attach extended data, then the functionality-- the specific command and functionalities of SDT-- very fast, about 30 minutes. Excel, the synchronization with Excel-- probably the most powerful features in SDT, synchronization in Excel, Excel manipulation, and back to the object in the DWG files. Half a day to perform this.

Validation tool in SDT, half a day. And here, we have mentioned, based on the model checker capabilities. We mean staying on the same level of validation that the model checker used today in Egis. We know that we can do more with customized checks with this tool.

And the last part, IFC export is still the same, one day. There is no specific functionalities for this. The result is very low compared to the current process, two days and a half. It means the gain is 50% on the time spent for this process. Then the benefit here is really clear about the gain of using Standardized Data Tool.

To know more about SDT, there is some existing resources accessible. Here, on the left, there is an Autodesk page dedicated to Autodesk interoperability tools with a specific part for Autodesk Standardized Data Tool for Civil 3D. You will find also other parts for the other tools provided by Autodesk, but here you will find all the resources available for SDT.

And, among those resources, there is one YouTube playlist where you will find some very nice short videos to explain how SDT works. With this, you can learn SDT. It's very easy, very well done.

And this is a tip and tricks. And Alexis mentioned the need to use a specific idenficator for each object to find this object in the DWG file to check what's wrong when the validation report tells that there's something wrong on an object. There is one command you can use-- an existing command in AutoCAD you can use to do this, and it's available also in the Autodesk Network Knowledge page.

ALEXIS MERESSE: Oh, OK. Thank you, Vincent. So now, let's conclude.

VINCENT FREDON: Then, after those implementation tests we did with Alexis, we can say that this first evaluation is successful, and we have a clear ROI here. It's about a time span on the process. It's really clear. We can say that SDT can reduce the time spent on this process by 50%.

We called a colleague from Alexis, Luis Fernando in Egis Brazil, because he is also using SDT, and I think he was using SDT for about two months. And it was really interesting because his feedback was very similar to what we conclude with Alexis. Of course, what Alexis explained is one specific use case, and we can imagine a lot of different use cases developed with Standardized Data Tool using a lot of different objects, networks, corridors, surfaces, feature lines, anything.

And it's about manipulation. It's a tool, user-friendly, and quite flexible.

ALEXIS MERESSE: Oh. Yeah, and I would like to add that the standardization applied by Egis is perfectly in line with the STD process. It's a very important point. So we identify also a few ideas that could be developed further. Firstly, we talk about that, but the object number link Excel and validation jobs is not very integrated. You need to lose-- to use a list routine, or something else. Then the connection with ACC is currently not operational, but I hope it will be soon.

It will be nice, also, to able to save a custom check of validation job-- regarding a specific job. It means create a custom check one, associate to a job's one, custom check two a job two. And then I think it will be interesting to look into the BSDD. And finally, I think the integration of BCF could be good for the [INAUDIBLE] between the person who validates, and the person who designs. Thank you very much.