What an amazing year it has been! I get to continue writing this series and updating it for yet another great release of Autodesk^® AutoCAD^® Civil 3D^® software. And after a wonderful 16 months on the Premium Support Services team at Autodesk, I have changed roles and I’m now serving as Community Evangelist for InfraWorks^® 360. This new role gives me the opportunity to focus on reaching the Autodesk infrastructure software (including InfraWorks, Civil 3D, and others) community and try to be a positive force to inform and enable this great group of people.

In addition, I will be updating the entire InfraWorks 360 series of books to address all the exciting changes there. These are certainly exciting times to be involved in the civil/infrastructure design industry and to be using Autodesk products. I’m blessed to be in such a wonderful position to observe and participate in the transformation that is taking place. For years, we have been talking about 3D and BIM in the civil/infrastructure industry and now we’re finally putting our money where our mouths are. There will be big changes over the next few years, so invest in yourself through training and learning, and hold on and enjoy the ride!

I’ve said it before on past books and I’ll say it again on this one: This book was a team effort. Kudos to Stephanie McComb for getting the book off the ground and for keeping it moving along throughout the process. Thanks to the wonderful editors, Christine O’Connor and Kathryn Duggan, for correcting all my mistakes (there were many) and making the book hold up to the high standard of quality that is characteristic of Wiley/Sybex. It was an honor to once again work with my good friend Joshua Modglin and to know that, as technical editor, he had my back on the technical aspects of the book.

And as always, thanks to my wife, Dixie, and my four children for enduring yet another “book season” and all of the not-so-fun stuff that comes with it. I love you all, and I do it all for you.