It can be a headache when geographic and design data are contained on different IT packages. B&E hears how one company hopes to change that.

CAD AND GIS technologies are developed and deployed in many different ways across industries and even within a single organisation. Historically CAD has been known for its powerful precision data entry and editing tools for design while GIS systems have been associated with spatial analysis and mapping.

As a result many organizations employ both CAD and GIS tools in different departments because these tools offer the specific features and functions required by the users. The tools are often used in different departments, by different users, for different purposes, but in most cases the common factor between both these disciplines is the data.

Although GIS and CAD design data are largely interdependent, many organisations maintain two or more independent, yet often identical data sets for each system. Engineers request an export of background spatial data they need from GIS specialists to design their projects and, when completed, information from CAD drawings is frequently imported or digitized for use in the GIS mapping environment.

Unfortunately, this data transfer is often a oneway trip from either system, with data losing connectivity, accuracy, and geometric precision, and users incurring potential liabilities for these errors.

In today’s competitive environment and with shrinking budgets both public and private organisations are finding it costly to maintain separate CAD and GIS functions. It is expensive to manage multiple types of software, convert data, synchronise systems, and keep design and operations disconnected. It is also difficult and expensive to purchase new software and retrain CAD or GIS professionals to use the others’ technology.

As a result, engineering, GIS, surveying and IT departments within many organisations are now keen to collaborate and share geographic and design data more often and more smoothly. This is made all the more important as organisations focus efforts in developing a corporate view of their data, with central storage to enable easier and more efficient management at a single source. Holding data many times over, in many different formats is inefficient. Data held in “silos” around an organisation can quickly become inaccurate and out of date.

This becomes expensive as it results in missed business opportunities, loss of productivity and higher costs. By blending the two technologies, users gain the benefits of working with high precision data in a seamless map-based environment. Integration helps professionals throughout a project lifecycle to exchange data and collaborate more efficiently. Imagine being able to seamlessly search for a land parcel and also being able to precisely locate the utility connections and detailed design information related to structures on the property. Why settle for a single polygon representing an entire airport when detailed design drawings are available?

However, integrating these technologies isn’t easy and the process has faced a number of hurdles over the past decade. Early attempts to use CAD for GIS data creation and management were hampered by several limitations:
• Lack of data consistency, connectivity and topology
• File-based storage of data with single user access
• Non-existent or crude methods for attaching attributes to features
• Early use of GIS for design projects was characterized by several limitations:
• Loss of geometric accuracy and precision of features
• Limited data editing tools compared to the array of tools found in CAD.

For the traditional GIS vendors, the move to lifecycle and data integration has been harder because of their historical focus on polygon analysis without precision engineering support. Autodesk products were well accepted, in large part because they easily integrated data formats that were previously incompatible into a single display. Since then, Autodesk has expanded this family of tools for survey, transportation design, mobile data distribution, and much more.

Autodesk’s latest GIS-CAD offering is AutoCAD Map 3D 2008, which enables integration. The software delivers practical mapping functionality to engineers and geospatial professionals by making it easy to integrate CAD and GIS information. The software is an extension to the base AutoCAD product and complements existing GIS implementations, enabling quick access, efficient editing, and easy management of a broad variety of large geospatial data sets, far beyond that which standard AutoCAD could handle. The software can be made to look just like a normal AutoCAD installation with an extra menu for the additional map functionality.

Because AutoCAD Map 3D is based on open data standards, organisations gain the flexibility to work with virtually any spatial data available, offering far more flexibility than the minimal options in standard AutoCAD. Whether data is stored in DWG, DGN, SHP, or other standard geospatial formats, AutoCAD Map can directly access and edit the data, removing the need for continual translation of data between systems. And because the Autodesk mapping solution works seamlessly with Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server and ESRI ArcSDE, users can manage and store geospatial data as easily as they can create and edit it.

The benefit gained by this approach is the data is far more accessible to all users, whether it is CAD users wanting to access geospatial data or GIS users requiring a view of the design data from the engineers. There are many further options they can benefit from, including viewing and querying the attributes within the connected data, through to styling and theming the data based on the properties found within the DWG, connected mapping file or the database.

CAD and GIS integration provides the ability to seamlessly work with both CAD and GIS data within a single environment and the power to blend powerful CAD design tools with robust, well-managed geospatial database is no longer a mystery. It is easier than ever for engineers and GIS professionals to work together, leverage each other’s domain expertise, and share information.