July 12, 2013

Autodesk InfraWorks 2014 Proposals and Scenarios

At Ideate, we are reviewing the latest release of Autodesk’s Suites. New to the Infrastructure Design Suite is Autodesk InfraWorks, a re-branded and enhanced Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler (AIM). Autodesk InfraWorks is an easy to use, high-level collaboration, communication and visualization tool for planners, designers, and anyone else involved in the planning and pre-design phase of a project’s lifecycle. 

Two new features in InfraWorks are the ability to create Proposals and Scenarios. Proposals allow a user to develop simultaneous design alternatives while Scenarios allow a user to share designs online with groups of other users through an Autodesk 360 account.

Proposals
A Proposal is a design alternative. It is a set of InfraWorks objects developed on top of your existing data. A user can have many proposals in the same design footprint, allowing for multiple design alternatives. This can be done quickly and is useful for working with clients in real-time.

You access the Proposals dialog box on the home tab of the InfraWorks Ribbon, as seen in the image below. You can add different InfraWorks objects to create proposal components, as identified in the Proposals Dialog Box. To add components to a proposal, use the create/edit features tool bar. A user will need to make sure that objects are being added to the correct proposal. To do this, a user must set the correct Proposal in the drop down list in the Proposals Dialog Box, or the proposals drop down list above the InfraWorks Ribbon. Users can create, delete, and merge proposals in the Proposals Dialog box.

InfraWorks Ribbon

Proposals Dialog Box

Scenarios
A Scenario is an isolated geographical section of a chosen proposal which can be shared with other users. The Scenarios dialog box is accessible on the Present tab of the InfraWorks Ribbon. From the Scenarios dialog box, you can create, delete, edit, copy, and publish Scenarios as well as create Scenario files. A user can name, define the geographical extents, edit a few basic settings, and determine a display resolution for a Scenario, as seen in the Create/Edit Scenarios Dialog Box. Once a Scenario has been created, it can be published to a particular group to be viewed in either in an InfraWorks 360 mobile application or the InfraWorks desktop application. It can also be viewed in a web browser.

InfraWorks Ribbon
 
Scenarios Dialog Box
 
Create/Edit Scenarios Dialog Box

Both Proposals and Scenarios allow a user to effectively and efficiently communicate design intent of multiple design alternatives. I encourage you to check out these new features.

Visit our website at www.ideateinc.com to see what Autodesk InfraWorks can do.


Kate Ming
Ideate AEC Application Specialist

Kate has a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley. Prior to Ideate, she worked at a multinational company for four years doing general civil design on large infrastructure projects. She is versed in roadway, rail, and utility design. She also has experience with utility demand analysis and Low Impact Development plans. At Ideate, Kate provides training and support for Civil 3D, AutoCAD, and Navisworks.  

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