IMAGINiT Geospatial Solutions Blog

Geospatial DWFs

Do you DWF?

If No?  Why not?

For those who do not know what a DWF is, my colleague Veredith Keller gives a good description here.  Essentially, a DWF is a highly compressed file format for efficient distribution of detailed design data. 

DWFs can be printed or published directly from Autodesk products and are a great way to share data with people that do not have AutoCAD.  Autodesk Design Review is a free, yes FREE, application available from Autodesk to view DWFs. 

But wait! Autodesk Design Review is much more than just a viewer!  ADR is a full collaboration tool that provides annotation, measuring and markup tools for non-AutoCAD users. Design Review users can markup and save DWFs, and then those DWFs, including the markups, can be overlaid in AutoCAD.

DWF with markups in Autodesk Design Review

 
Same markups overlaid in AutoCAD Map

So, as you can see, the DWF (and DWFx) file format, and Autodesk Design Review are a powerful set of tools for team collaboration.

But I thought this post was about ‘Geospatial DWFs’ you ask?

I’m getting to that…  I just thought an overview of DWF could prove helpful to put everything into context.  So what is a ‘Geospatial DWF’?  Simply put, a Geospatial DWF is a DWF on steroids! 

A little bit more background information for context…

When working with FDO data sources we have access to all of the attribute information associated with your features.  Below, we can a feature parcel selected, and the associated attributes.

So, wouldn’t it be great if those attributes could be published out somehow, so the users could see those attributes as well without having AutoCAD…

Well…  they can! And that is where the Geospatial DWF comes in. 

Here we can see this same data that has been published into the DWF and we can see the associated attribute data in the DWF!

So how do you include the associated attributes?  I’m glad you asked!

In AutoCAD Map, on the Output Tab > Export to DWF/PDF Panel, there is an Options command:

This command will fire up a dialog box that allows you to choose exactly what attributes you want to publish from each of the connected feature sources:

After the DWF is published, it will then contain all of the attributes that were specified.

So what is the benefit of this, or why is it important?

Imagine… being able to share this information with other users without having to provide all of the various data sources that this information might be coming from… or providing this information to people out in ‘the field’ in a disconnected environment…  The possibilities are endless.

So, if you’re looking for a break from the Olympics (personally, I can’t get enough!)… Take some time and explore Autodesk Design Review, and Geospatial DWFs.

Until next time
Take care.

Warren

Windows 7 and Autodesk Products

Well, the day is upon us… The latest and greatest Windows OS, Windows 7, is now shipping.  So the next logical question is when will the Autodesk products ‘officially’ support Windows 7?

According to the latest press release, starting today the following products are supported:

• Autodesk Inventor 2010
• Autodesk Inventor LT 2010
• AutoCAD 2010
• AutoCAD LT 2010
• AutoCAD Architecture 2010
• AutoCAD Electrical 2010
• AutoCAD Mechanical 2010
• AutoCAD MEP 2010
• Autodesk Algor Simulation 2010

Hmmm, what’s missing from this picture?  No geospatial products are listed here!

Hopefully this will be addressed in a future Update release…  Time with tell.

Until next time,
Take care

Warren M

Autodesk Geospatial Tour ‘09 – Winnipeg, MB

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