Over the last few years, we have been modifying our Civil 3D curriculum to support the learning goals of different civil engineering professionals – those who want to learn general concepts of civil design and those who want to focus on specific functions within civil engineering (e.g., Grading, Survey). We realized that including all of the tools that Civil 3D has to offer in a single Fundamentals learning guide does not align with our goal to provide focused content for the different civil engineering roles.
We understand that your time is valuable! By separating the content into shorter, role-based learning guides, we aim to provide you with topics that focus specifically on what you need to know to be successful when using Civil 3D.
With our Civil 3D 2024 curriculum, we are getting closer to our goal. See below for the list of 2024 learning guides and check out our roadmap for the projected release dates for upcoming titles.
- Civil 3D: Essentials (for new users of Civil 3D)
- Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for General Civil Design (requires completion of Civil 3D: Essentials or equivalent)
- Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for Grading (requires completion of Civil 3D: Essentials or equivalent)
- Civil 3D: Essentials for Surveyors (for new users of Civil 3D focused on Survey)
Additionally, for those of you that need both essentials and beyond the basics learning guides, we have created the following two-book sets as a cost-effective option: (available in print and eBook formats):
- Civil 3D: Fundamentals for General Civil Design (2 book set includes Civil 3D: Essentials and Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for General Civil Design)
- Civil 3D: Fundamentals for Grading (2 book set includes Civil 3D: Essentials and Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for Grading)
We are receiving positive feedback about this transition, but as with any change there are questions. Hopefully our responses will help you make your decision on what guide(s) are best for you.
Q. I am new to Civil 3D, which learning guide should I start with?
If you are going to be focused on Grading or simply want to learn Civil 3D as a general design tool, the Civil 3D: Essentials learning guide is the best place to start. Once you have completed this, it is highly recommended that you use one of the Beyond the Basics titles. However, if you plan to use only the Survey tools available in Civil 3D, the Civil 3D: Essentials for Surveyors learning guide would be best for you to start with.
Q. Do I need to complete the Beyond the Basics after Essentials? 
In general, using both in succession is the highly recommended learning path for most users. In the Essentials learning guide, you will learn techniques enabling you to organize project data, work with points, create and analyze surfaces, model road corridors, perform grading and volume calculation tasks, and lay out pipe networks. The Beyond the Basics learning guides are a continuation of these topics. You can use the Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for General Design if you want to learn general Civil 3D tools across multiple industries; however, if Grading is your focus, use Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for Grading.
The one exception to the Essentials/Beyond the Basics learning path recommendation is if you are a surveyor. The Civil 3D: Essentials for Surveyors learning guide is designed to cover all the fundamental skills surveyors need. There is no need to take a Beyond the Basics unless you want to learn other skills.
Q. Is there anything in the Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for General Civil Design that would be of use to me if I do Grading? 
No. The learning guide that will be of most use to you after taking Civil 3D Essentials would be the Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for Grading learning guide. This would be the best choice to learn more about grading.
Q. Last year you had two learning guides - Civil 3D: Fundamentals for Land Developers (Grading) and Civil 3D: Fundamentals for Grading Optimization. What happened to that content? 
The content in those two learning guides is now included in the Civil 3D: Essentials and Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for Grading learning guides. The grading optimization content is covered in the Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for Grading learning guide, as it teaches advanced skills for grading and how you can optimize your designs. Also, if you have previous Civil 3D knowledge, you now can use the Civil 3D: Beyond the Basics for Grading learning guide on its own without spending time on relearning the essential skills.
Q. We love this new approach of shorter focused learning guides. What’s next? 
We are aware that Grading and Survey are not the only two disciplines that use Civil 3D. We are looking at the possibility of developing Beyond the Basics for Transportation and Beyond the Basics for Piping learning guides in the future. Please let us know if these are of interest to you.
We really hope that you like how our Civil 3D guides are evolving. As a previous trainer, I would have loved to have these available to use. Let us know what you think!
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