IMAGINiT Geospatial Solutions Blog

AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 - Update 3

Autodesk recently released an update (re Service Pack) for AutoCAD Map 3D 2009.

The update can be downloaded here, and the readme can be viewed here.

Odd thing about this update is that under the section titled:

Issues Addressed for AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 Update 3

It states:

AutoCAD Map 3D 2009 Update 3 does not include any specific fixes to product commands and features.

Huh?  What does it update then? 

I suppose this just means that it updates some of the core files, and nothing to specific commands.  A colleague of mine, Mike Thomas, also informed me that this could be an update to the core AutoCAD underneath Map.  Ok, that makes more sense now.

Until next time,
Take care,

Warren M

AutoCAD Map - Save Map as Drawing

So.  You've spent countless hours connecting to and stylizing your masterpiece map.  The Display Ranges are set just right, the lineweights and colors have been chosen with care, the themed data source colors are vibrant and meaningful.  And the results? Spectacular!

But wait, now 'Contractor Bob', or 'Mary' from down the hall wants a copy of the map in digital form so they can perform some further work or analysis on the data.

You're at the crossroads, and there are a couple factors which will determine what data they want, and how you get it to them:

• Contractor Bob and/or Mary might be unfamiliar with all this new fangled Map and FDO technology and simply want a 'DWG' file with 'CAD' objects, OR, they might be using just AutoCAD, and not AutoCAD Map.
• Your map datasources might be a non-file based source like SQL Server Spatial, or Oracle.

<Sigh>All that hard work for what, do I have to redo it as 'CAD' objects... that's going to take hours!

STOP!

Before you start re-creating this drawing for the 'CADdies' in your world, were you aware that there is a one button push command to save that beautiful looking map to a CAD drawing?  Well, if you weren't aware before reading this, now you are.

"So how do I do this" you ask?

Simple.  On the Display Manager tab, look under the Tools button and you will find a command to Save Current Map to DWG...

Start the command, specify a file location for the new DWG file, and voila, it's done.

The result?  A great looking DWG file, with all of the Features now converted to CAD objects.

*** CAVEATS ***
While this is a simple, quick method for generating a DWG from Features, you should be aware of some of the idiosyncrasies of this process.

• Layers:
  • The resulting layer names in the drawing are a concatenation of the 'Schema name and Display Layer name.
• Polygons:
  • The result of Feature Polygons will be a polyline boundary and a hatch object with colors assigned to the object, so, the colors are NOT ByLayer.
  • IF, the boundary of a Polygon Feature was stylized with a dashed/dotted type of line, the result is a HORRIBLE series of line and dot segments.
• Lines:
  • Linear Features come across as polylines, again having the color assigned to the object.
• Points:
  • Point Features might vary depending on how they were stylized in the source map.
    • If the points were left with default stylization, (square, circle, etc.) the result will be polyline boundaries and hatches of the symbols.
    • If the points were stylized with blocks, the blocks will be retained.

Until next time,
Take Care.

Warren M

USBoot

And now for something completely off my normal type of topics...

I've recently had the need to create another 'system' to install some software that, unfortunately, cannot be installed side-by-side with other software on my work production laptop.  A dual-boot scenario would probably be the best solution, but that would mean a lot of extra work with respect to acquiring a new, larger hard drive, partitioning the drive, re-installing my system, installing/configuring the new OS, etc...

In these scenarios I usually just create a new VM (virtual machine), or install the software in question into an existing VM. 

Simple solution, problem solved!

The predicament with this particular application I need is that it has some pretty serious horsepower requirements to run, as well as requiring an instance of Oracle.  As such, a VM  is just NOT going to cut-it to run this application as needed.

So, what other options do I have? 

Boy, with the cheap prices of portable USB drives ($90CAN for 250GB), wouldn't it be nice if you could install a completely separate OS (Operating System) and boot from a portable USB device?

Surely this can be done?
But how?
Off to Google I go... 
Bingo!  It CAN be done.

I found a series of web sites, and forums that discussed this very topic.  After some digging and reading I found 2 sites that stood out with some very specific instructions and tutorials:

How to install and run a FULL Windows XP from a USB drive
and
USBoot.org

I actually tested both methods:

The first method requires a Windows installation CD, and some editing of the windows installation files.  At first I was a little intimidated by this, but the site documents this very well, and the instructions are quite clear.

The other method from USBoot provides a download which contains some command-line based tools for preparing your system.  This method does NOT require a Windows installation CD since it simply uses your installed system.  The USBoot command line tools step you through a 3 phase process that covers everything from preparing your current installed OS for booting from a USB drive, to copy your current drive and OS to the USB drive.

In the end, I decided to go with USBoot method for one single reason: 
Pagefiles (Windows Swap File)

Windows XP will not allow the OS to save a pagefile to a 'removable drive'.  So the result of the first method is an OS installation that prompts each time it boots up that there is no pagefile set.  Now, I could live with the prompt, and having no swap file might not be a problem for many applications.  However, I need to ensure that a pagefile is set properly on my system.

FYI, Vista does allow a pagefile to be on a removable drive.

One of the really nice features of the USBoot tool is that it has a command that fakes out Windows into thinking that ALL USB drives are 'fixed drives', thus allowing you to create a swap file.  So now I have a completely separate system I can boot to from a USB drive!  Which BTW, goes along nicely with the Ubuntu I have installed on a 2GB memory stick :-)

Until next time
Take Care

Warren M

MapGuide Enterprise - Data Migration Tool

Those of you who have been using, or at least watching the development of, the latest MapGuide technology might recall a Migration Tool that was available back in the MGE 2007 release cycle.  This tool was able to help migrate mwf files from MapGuide 6.5, and create the appropriate resources for a MGE site.

It wasn't a perfect solution, and still required you to do some manual adjustments, but it was a great starting point for migrating sites from the older MapGuide technology!

The problem was that as the MGE versions continued to be updated on the yearly release cycle, this Migration Tool was left in the dust and was not being updated to follow the advances in MGE.

GREAT NEWS!  This tool has been recently updated and will be available for MGE 2010.

The Migration Tool and all of it's supporting documents can be found here.

Until next time,
Take care

Warren M

Digital Cities

"Digital Cities": the a new buzz phrase that has been gaining a lot of momentum over the last couple of years or so.  From the Autodesk perspective, we saw hints of these merging technologies way back at AU 2007, with a flashy video demonstration on the main stage.  This topic was even more prevalent at last years AU with the announcements of: Salzburg, Austria becoming the first pilot project city for the Digital Cities Initiative last summer, and Incheon, Korea becoming the second city to sign on in November, just prior to AU.

The above announcements are not new, but a little closer home, it was announced earlier this year that Vancouver would soon join Salzburg, and Incheon in this initiative as well.

So, what is a 'Digital City', and what is this initiative all about?

The Autodesk catch line is:

Experience It Before It's Real.
Visualize Sustainable Development in Your City

The Digital Cities Initiative is how Autodesk is working with these organizations to build a collaborative environment to build high-fidelity 3d models of existing and proposed infrastructure.

In simple terms, it's really about modeling a city in 3D so that the digital model can be used for various analysis and simulations.  But more importantly, is the ability for a platform such as this to consume and visualize a wide array of different data types and formats.  Formats such as CAD data, BIM (Building Information Modeling), geospatial data in a variety of formats, just to name a few.

While the initiative is much more than a single software 'product', one piece of the puzzle is a very cool piece of technology that I had the opportunity to check-out recently is LandXplorer.

Autodesk acquired LandXplorer through the acquisition of a company in Germany called 3D Geo.  3D Geo provides software and services for geo-visualization.  They are pioneers in the field of geo-visualization and produced market-leading software.

Autodesk LandXplorer is actually a suite of products that helps leverage the investments organizations have made in existing software and data.  The ability to aggregate data from a wide variety of sources is the real power of LandXplorer.

LandXplorer Studio Professional is the desktop application to bring all of the disparate data together to create and manage the city models, as well as create presentation quality video and imagery.

The suite also contains a server component for data distribution via the web, a free viewer, a publisher to publish the city model to KML, and a CityGML viewer.

Check out some great LandXplorer sample videos.

Until next time
Take Care

Warren M