“Work smarter, not harder.”
CEC Columbus Assistant Project Manager Sophia Adcock has taken that sage adage to heart and put it into action.
Sophia took the initiative and the knowledge gleaned during Autodesk University last fall to lead the charge to automate design tasks. She has combined the power of two programs — Dynamo and Python — to help increase efficiency and accuracy in civil/site design. Dynamo allows users to directly input Python code into the program, and creates scripts that are used in Civil 3D.
“Dynamo is a visual programming tool available through Autodesk, used in Civil 3D. It allows users to create their own commands and run those commands to automate processes. You set the parameters and write the code,” Sophia says. Python is a coding language — it’s all text based, in contrast to the visual nature of Dynamo. Programming with Dynamo is more user-friendly than writing code, but the areas where Dynamo has limitations can be made up with using Python.
“Sophia is one of only a few people in the Columbus Civil group in my 16+ years here that took it upon herself to use knowledge gained at Autodesk University in New Orleans this past year and apply it to a task to help improve efficiency,” Don Bronchik, CADD Manager, says.
She’s already written several scripts, mostly to aid in stormwater management design and plan production. Many of the scripts she has written were created out of spite, automating the boring and repetitive tasks that take up unnecessary time.
“It’s simple code writing that will save hours and hours during the design process. The scripts will be accessible to the entire company,” Sophia adds. “I felt like it would be useful to streamline repetitive tasks during site design.” Looking to the future, “It would be cool if people shared ideas, even for project-specific tasks, where they might benefit from this and I could help bring it to life.”
“I work on many of CEC’s largest projects and she will definitely be my go-to when comes to ways to use Dynamo to improve workflows. She will be presenting her work to some of the staff working on a large West Virginia project in the next few weeks. I am sure the whole company will benefit from her work,” Don adds.
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