Acknowledgments

A big thank-you to all of the past Mastering Civil 3D authors throughout the years. The book has come a long way and without the long hours put forth every year, it wouldn't be where it is today.

Thanks to the whole team at Wiley: Willem Knibbe for giving us guidance at each step in the process; Pete Gaughan, who promptly answered our technical questions; the editors, Thomas Cirtin, Dassi Zeidel, and Liz Welch, for making sure that the book doesn't just make grammatical sense but has consistency as well.

Thanks to Tommie Richardson, who meticulously combed through the technical jargon making sure the datasets worked, and who offered detailed suggestions to make the book even better (and longer).

Thanks to Dana Probert of Autodesk for her help in pointing us to all the great new features and of course to all of the Civil 3D Autodesk team for making the software more useful each year.

—Louisa Holland and Kati Mercier

Thanking people who have helped along the way is my favorite part of the book-writing process. First and foremost I'd like to thank my husband, Mark, for his encouragement and keeping my office from looking like an episode of Hoarders: Diet Coke Can Edition. I'd like to thank my parents for their support and bragging about my book even though they're not 100 percent sure what it's about.

To Russ Nicloy and Ron Butzen: Thanks for your enthusiasm and general awesomeness. Ron, you are the best manager a crazy person can have. To my friends and colleagues across WisDOT: You are like a second family.

Thanks to my Twitter buddies, especially @NickZeeben, @Civil3D_Jedi, @iPinda, @WKFD, and @Sockibear for letting me bounce random metric conversion questions at them.

Lastly, I'd like to thank my dogs, Daisy and Zuzu, for keeping my feet warm while I typed.

—Louisa Holland

A huge thank-you to Lou Holland for inviting me along on this coauthoring journey. We joked from the start that it was exciting that this book was going to be “chick lit” with two female authors. Since the civil engineering field, as well as the technical field, is often led by males, it is refreshing to be an example to girls who dream of one day designing with dirt.

I'd also like to thank my coworker and Civil 3D cohort, Aaron Mortensen, P.E. I could always count on you to be there to bounce ideas off of as we implemented the software, and vent to when needed. And I will definitely not forget my #Civil3D Twitter friends and fellow blog writers whom I could always turn to for some additional insight.

Thank you to all the many hands who have been part of the textbooks and manuals that I have read over the years. I think I took for granted that books just appeared when I was ready to buy them.

But most importantly a thank-you to my wonderful husband, Nick, who is so patient with me and regularly reminds me of all that I am capable.

—Kati Mercier