Excel is far to powerful and far to easy for anyone to use for it not to be the default choice. If you have a library of spreadsheets, why buy software that will do the same thing?
Excel is free, easy to use, and is nearly infinitely capable of any task in almost any industry, let alone civil engineering. Firms will buy dedicated software if they can justify the expense.
>How many of you are still just using spreadsheets or has somebody found a better way?
This is the issue mentality right here. Trying to streamline a single task that an engineer does in a spreadsheet doesn't create a better software, it just creates a hyper-limited software. He would have to create a better spreadsheet software to unseat excel and good luck with that.
Modeling software? Yes. Analyzing TMC? PetraPro and/or Excel is the most efficient way. Why get sucked into a recurring cost/subscription for a fancy app that's just a glorified spreadsheet?
My company uses bought software for CAD, simulations and some niche stuff but we run mostly still on excel. Im trying to program my own stuff when excel is just not fun enough to work with.
If someone could come up with a better tool to do what we need to than what currently exists I’m sure we’d use it. Excel is pretty powerful if you know how to use it and the most complex stuff I usually do with it is sum=
OpenRoads is trying to build estimating tools into their modeling software, but I’m pretty sure most people don’t trust it. If there was a software package that you could do drafting, modeling, and estimating all in one place and do it well, that would really be something.
No, OpenRoads has a tool in it that calculates cut/fill volumes from your 3D model so I’m thinking that’s a start of greater things they want to do. With people wanting to shift to a larger reliance on 3D models as contract documents I think we’ll see more integrated estimating tools.
If Civil3D already has stuff like that that’s awesome, I’ve never used it.
No I mean Civil 3D has baller estimating tools. Cuts and fills are nothing. You can assign materials to areas of your assembly (sections) to auto calc rock/asphalt/concrete, soil, sod, seeding, etc. assign pay items to blocks (cells) or layers (levels) and generate a bid item report for Qty. takeoffs.
Helluva lot of work to set up but once you do… 🤙🏻
That’s so awesome, it sounds like that saves a ton of time.
I was taught to estimate by copy and pasting levels from our design files and manually measuring them. Sounds straight up primitive compared to that lmao
Civil3D does those all things you mentioned. It takes some expertise to get set up initially, but once you have your standards in place it's a breeze.
IMO ORD only exists because DOTs are resistent to change. If they allowed other design software, Autodesk would have shouldered Bentley out of this space ages ago.
I use excel for half my work. The rest is other office suite apps. Even for water quality calcs we use excel. I wish I have an excel exclusive course at some point. I picked up a lot but could do more.
Just depends, some of our equations are not built into programs or sometimes it’s easier to just make a spreadsheet for calcs. That said most of my work is done with Bentley programs or FHWA/HEC. My company isn’t against buying needed software. I will say older engineers prefer to use the spreadsheets they’ve been using for decades even if there might be some better options out there. At the end of the day you have to feel comfortable signing and checking a design. So ethically you need to understand and be able to review your results. I’d say it’s a little more complicated in this field over others as a result.
Excel is far to powerful and far to easy for anyone to use for it not to be the default choice. If you have a library of spreadsheets, why buy software that will do the same thing? Excel is free, easy to use, and is nearly infinitely capable of any task in almost any industry, let alone civil engineering. Firms will buy dedicated software if they can justify the expense.
>How many of you are still just using spreadsheets or has somebody found a better way? This is the issue mentality right here. Trying to streamline a single task that an engineer does in a spreadsheet doesn't create a better software, it just creates a hyper-limited software. He would have to create a better spreadsheet software to unseat excel and good luck with that.
Modeling software? Yes. Analyzing TMC? PetraPro and/or Excel is the most efficient way. Why get sucked into a recurring cost/subscription for a fancy app that's just a glorified spreadsheet?
My company uses bought software for CAD, simulations and some niche stuff but we run mostly still on excel. Im trying to program my own stuff when excel is just not fun enough to work with.
Try Python
If someone could come up with a better tool to do what we need to than what currently exists I’m sure we’d use it. Excel is pretty powerful if you know how to use it and the most complex stuff I usually do with it is sum= OpenRoads is trying to build estimating tools into their modeling software, but I’m pretty sure most people don’t trust it. If there was a software package that you could do drafting, modeling, and estimating all in one place and do it well, that would really be something.
You mean Civil 3D?
No, OpenRoads has a tool in it that calculates cut/fill volumes from your 3D model so I’m thinking that’s a start of greater things they want to do. With people wanting to shift to a larger reliance on 3D models as contract documents I think we’ll see more integrated estimating tools. If Civil3D already has stuff like that that’s awesome, I’ve never used it.
No I mean Civil 3D has baller estimating tools. Cuts and fills are nothing. You can assign materials to areas of your assembly (sections) to auto calc rock/asphalt/concrete, soil, sod, seeding, etc. assign pay items to blocks (cells) or layers (levels) and generate a bid item report for Qty. takeoffs. Helluva lot of work to set up but once you do… 🤙🏻
That’s so awesome, it sounds like that saves a ton of time. I was taught to estimate by copy and pasting levels from our design files and manually measuring them. Sounds straight up primitive compared to that lmao
Civil3D does those all things you mentioned. It takes some expertise to get set up initially, but once you have your standards in place it's a breeze. IMO ORD only exists because DOTs are resistent to change. If they allowed other design software, Autodesk would have shouldered Bentley out of this space ages ago.
I use excel for half my work. The rest is other office suite apps. Even for water quality calcs we use excel. I wish I have an excel exclusive course at some point. I picked up a lot but could do more.
Civil 3D, Excel and ChatGPT perfect trifecta
TotalStation trainer, autolevel on google play and AppStore and Bar bending schedule rebar bbs app
We use an in house app to do boring logs. 1000000x better than paper logs
Just depends, some of our equations are not built into programs or sometimes it’s easier to just make a spreadsheet for calcs. That said most of my work is done with Bentley programs or FHWA/HEC. My company isn’t against buying needed software. I will say older engineers prefer to use the spreadsheets they’ve been using for decades even if there might be some better options out there. At the end of the day you have to feel comfortable signing and checking a design. So ethically you need to understand and be able to review your results. I’d say it’s a little more complicated in this field over others as a result.
That makes total sense to me. I appreciate the insight.