Engineers who need to integrate river-flow analysis data with 3D civil design models recently got a boost with the release of a new extension that ties them together. Until the end of the year, Autodesk Labs is offering Project River Analysis Extension software for free as a sort of trial balloon. The software integrates with AutoCAD Civil 3D and AutoCAD Map 3D for 2012.
The latest extension can overlay one-dimensional data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydrologic Engineering Center's free River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) onto 3D models built in the 2012 releases of the AutoCAD tools. Those versions feature enhancements such as multiple document interfaces as well as compatibility with 64-bit computing architecture platforms for increased performance.