SUCCESS STORY
Accelerating Civil 3D with a Unique Hardware Solution
Customer Challenge
CrossRoad Engineers was established in 1995 with a goal to create a family-oriented business rather than a large corporate firm. Exclusively in Indiana, they specialize in transportation design, site development, surveying and right-of-way management, working closely with the Indiana DOT. The main challenge CrossRoad Engineers faced was slowing performance in Civil 3D on the Dell computers they were using. “Over the past few years, we were experiencing performance issues with day-to-day Civil 3D tasks and 3D scanning. We were reluctant to continue buying Dell machines because we were only seeing marginal improvements,” said Andrew Wolf, Vice President of CrossRoad Engineers.
Project Goals
“From basic to more advanced tasks in Civil 3D, it just seemed like everything was getting slower. It was frustrating for our users,” said Andrew.
Priority project goals identified were as follows:
1. Accelerate mundane day-to-day tasks in Autodesk Civil 3D to improve workflows
2. Purchase a machine that aligned with business goals
Solution
From publishing and drawing simple lines to more advanced Civil 3D tasks and 3D scanning, the Dell computers continued to cause problems for workflows. “When our CAD techs would run a certain project’s publish job on a Dell system, the computer would freeze for up to 30 minutes until it was done,” said Andrew.
“I got connected with ATG when searching for Civil 3D support. We had a need and felt like we exhausted all options and settings within Civil 3D to optimize our files. I didn’t really know where to go from there. That’s where Travis [ATG Account Representative] introduced us to BIMBOX. With BIMBOX, our CAD techs can run the troublesome publish job in a fraction of the time and keep working.”
Business Outcome
With the 30-day trial, CrossRoad Engineers had the chance to make sure they were making the best purchasing decision. Through extensive benchmarking and testing, BIMBOX proved to be the best option to accelerate Civil 3D.
“As a small business, we avoid big purchases if we can’t justify them. The 30-day trial allowed us to do a return-on-investment analysis to make sure the cost made sense for what we needed. Right away, BIMBOX proved to be valuable and led us to make the switch. With the unique capabilities, like custom direct die CPU cooling, BIMBOX was the clear winner out of the options we considered,” said Andrew.
Conclusion
From basic to advanced tasks in Autodesk Civil 3D to simply opening a PDF file, BIMBOX proved to be the best solution for CrossRoad Engineers. “What stood out to me the most was the performance improvement. BIMBOX has blown us away. The speed of launching and opening files and running through our daily tasks was unbelievable. Hands down, BIMBOX was a no-brainer for us – the purchase made sense financially. It’s crazy how much time and money can be saved by just switching computers,” said Andrew.
Project Summary
Delivery Date
2021-01-05
Project Duration
30 days
Autodesk Solutions
- Civil 3D
Services Provided
Customer Industry
- Civil Engineering