Autodesk Geospatial Integration Tour - Bridging the Gap for Better Workflow
On my way home from Chicago yesterday I had to fly through Winnipeg, so this was a great opportunity to stay the night, and attend the Autodesk Geospatial Tour today. This show is an Autodesk event to showcase the Autodesk Geospatial solutions and how they can be used to improve data integration between CAD and GIS.
The Show started out with Autodesk’s Geospatial Evangelist, Pete Southwood. Pete gave a great presentation on AutoCAD Map 3D and highlighted many reasons why AutoCAD Map 3D is a better option than vanilla AutoCAD. Pete demonstrated how easy it is to work with Geospatial data that might reside in a variety of formats, including ESRI SHP files and ArcSDE, and how simple it is to publish that information to the web through AutoCAD Map. Pete also used the ‘F’ word, as in FREE, and showed how Autodesk Design Review, a FREE download, can be utilized in the design process.
The morning continued with a short presentation from the Winnipeg Transit as they showcased how they are managing their transit data in an AutoCAD Map based environment. Map was chosen for it’s ability to visualize the transit data in a 3D environment.
Next up was Mike Schlosser. Mike discussed a few topics topics, but the focus today was primarily on CAD and GIS integration. Mike made some great points, some of which I eluded to in a previous post, that today, this integration isn’t really a technology or software problem. It’s a people and workflow problem. More specifically, it’s peoples perceptions and the culture clashes between typical engineering and GIS people, which in turn affects many potential workflows that could be implemented to improve these integrations. Mike demonstrated the following:
- How to use AutoCAD Civil 3D for parcel layout, and how that information can be brought forward into your GIS
- How Autodesk Topobase, or “AutoCAD Map for the Enterprise”, can be used to address the as-built backlog issues that many organizations experience.
- 3D Digital Cities and showed how Autodesk LandXplorer can be used to aggregate your data from a variety of sources including, SHP, Oracle, MySQL to visualize the future, today.
The tour is continuing next week in the following cities:
MARKHAM, ON
October 14, 2009
WATERLOO, ON
October 15, 2009
SASKATOON, SK
October 16, 2009
EDMONTON, AB
November 4, 2009
KELOWNA, BC
November 5, 2009
If one of these cities above is near you, Register now!
Until next time,
Take care
Warren M
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