IMAGINiT Civil Solutions Blog

Toward Data for Sustainable Development

In a few of my posts, I’ve mentioned the increasing frequency at which geospatial data is being made available and becoming more openly accessible.  we’re not just analyzing static, previously collected and often outdated data anymore.  We’re moving into an era where data is live and continuous.  We can look at tackling larger issues and work with big data to develop solutions.  Here’s one example of what’s happening with regard to the problems we face in sustainable development. It was announced at a UN summit by a company called Planet Labs.  Here’s the company description from their website.

“Planet Labs is a startup based in San Francisco, founded by former NASA employees that collects information about our changing planet via a fleet of compact, highly capable Earth-imaging satellites.  Planet Labs' mission is to image the entire Earth, every day, and to ensure universal access to this data. The broad coverage and high frequency of Planet Labs' satellite imagery will enable customers unprecedented access to global and local insights that currently are either impossible or cost-prohibitive to obtain. Learn more at www.planet.com and @planetlabs”

On September 28, at a gathering hosted by the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD) in conjunction with the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development, Planet Labs CEO and co-founder Will Marshall made the commitment that $60 million worth of its satellite imagery would be made openly available and accessible to the global community, resulting in one of the largest philanthropic investments of geospatial imagery ever. This imagery will be a valuable asset in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals), which recently were ratified during the 70^th session of the United Nations.  You can find out more about sustainable development and the sustainable development goals here.

Leading the initiative to provide awareness of data for these goals is The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.  It is a worldwide network of governments, NGOs and businesses working together to strengthen the inclusivity, trust and innovation in the way that data is used to address the world’s sustainable development efforts.

Planet Labs has estimated its imagery can be used to directly or indirectly advance 15 of the 17 Global Goals, and to measure more than 70 of their associated targets by tracking daily environmental change, urban development and economic indicators on a global scale.

This imagery will be made available through a new Planet Labs initiative called "Open Regions," under a creative commons license, and will be accessible directly online through their imaging platform.  The imagery can be used to monitor deforestation, measure and combat climate change, and increase food security through increased crop yield, among countless other applications.  Planet Labs collects imagery at a resolution that allows for detailed change detection, but that does not violate personal privacy.

I’m excited about the prospects for this initiative and this trend to relevant, global open data.  Imagine what we can accomplish.

Coordinate Transformation – Part 2

Bob Mason | Applications Expert

As we left off from the 1^st part of this post, the drawings are set and we can now perform the query. We are going to use AutoCAD Map 3D which is built into Civil 3D to do the work.

First, change the workspace to “Planning and Analysis”. This workspace displays user interface components related to AutoCAD Map 3D features available in AutoCAD Civil 3D.

 

 

 

Again referring to the Task Pane and the Map Explorer tab, we can use the “Query Library” section to define the query.

 

 Right click on “Current Query” – in the Define Query of Attached Drawings dialog box select Location …

 

Since the intention is to transform the complete drawing, selecting “All” in the Location Condition dialog box is the easiest.

 

Once you are returned to the Define Query of Attached Drawings dialog box. Here in the Query Mode section you select “Draw”, which will create (draw) the objects that match the query criteria and bring them into the current drawing in their transformed location.

At this point, everything should be in your new drawing and all drawings should be lined up nice and neat.

I hope this takes one of your worries out of your day.

 

[Infographic] Insights Into the Civil Survey Sector

Coordinate Transformation using AutoCAD Map or Civil 3D

Bob Mason | Applications Expert

Were you ever given a drawing by a contractor and the coordinates were in Latitude and Longitude (LL), your project was in State planes or UTM coordinates? Naturally the two are not going to line up no matter how hard you try. AutoCAD Map 3D provides us with the tools to transfer a drawing in one coordinate system into another.

We can put the two together quite easily. Open up the drawing you have in LL and access the Map Setup ribbon, here you will find the Assign button.

 In this dialog box we are assign a coordinate system to this drawing. For the category we can enter LL, and the same in the search window to bring up the available systems. When the search is complete, select, select LL, No datum, Latitude-Longitude; Degrees -180 to +180.

Now we can start working with our project drawing. We can start by confirming the coordinate system we are working with. With your drawing open, refer to the Task Pane and the Map Explorer tab. Here you can right-click on the drawing name and select “coordinate system…”

 

Here we can verify the coordinate system of our project drawing.

Great, let’s translate the drawing now.

First, in the Task Pane, we can attach the drawing with the coordinates in LL. Now you can define a location query that will bring in all the object. You should now have all your LL drawing in the right place where it belongs.

To Snap or not Snap 3D

Bob Mason | Applications Expert

Object snaps function the same way in 3D as they do in 2D with the exception that they can optionally be projected. By default, the Z-value of an object snap location is determined by the object's 3D location. However, if you work with object snaps on the plan or top view of a 3D model, a constant Z-value is more useful.

If you turn on the “OSNAPZ” system variable, all object snaps are projected onto the XY plane of the current UCS or, if ELEV is set to a non-zero value, onto a plane parallel to XY plane at the specified elevation.

So, have you ever taken an external reference and snapped to a location in your drawing and ended up giving it an elevation because the point you snapped to had an elevation? It really can cause some issues. Autodesk has provided some very helpful tools to control these settings.

The below dialog box for 3D object snaps controls how your OSNAPS will work. Using F4 to turn these on or off can make your selection process that much easier.

The Forest and the Trees

How many trees are there on Earth?  Is it possible to get a reasonable estimate, and how would we do it?  It isn’t feasible to send out teams of tree counters to every part of the planet and have them count each tree, so how do scientists figure this out?

One method that’s been used is to rely on satellite imagery to measure forest cover.  Based on that technology and related analysis, scientists came up with an estimate of about 400 billion trees worldwide.  Imagery is a good first step in that it gives sufficient data on the extent of forest cover and information on the tree densities within those areas, but it does not have the resolution to refine the estimates for a more exact count.

In a recent article in Nature, which you can read here, a new estimate has been generated by an international team of scientists led by Thomas Crowther, an ecologist at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology who led the study while at Yale University.  Using a combination of satellite imagery with ground based surveys taken in accessible areas (for every continent except Antarctica), the team refined the estimates for those areas, then applied the estimates to remote parts of the Earth where there is little data.  Based on this, they estimated that there are about 3 trillion trees on the planet.  This is more than seven times the previous estimate.

While that is good news, the study also found that about 15 billion trees are cut down each year.  This is a sobering figure.  It turns out that humans are the major controlling factor in changing tree density and since we began developing agrarian societies around about 12,000 years ago, the number of trees worldwide has dropped by an estimated 46 percent.

Crowther found this impact astonishing.  Human activity certainly has been a major force in changing the planet, but even so, it came as a surprise that we have had such a major control over the tree density.  There are ongoing natural controls like drought, insects and fires, but it is our relentless clearing of land and consumption of wood and its products that have been accounting for the most change.

Most of us are concerned with local land development and infrastructure planning and we don’t undertake global studies of this nature.  However, what studies like this one point out are the clear impacts we have on our planet.  We all need to keep in mind the consequences of local development and expansion and consider the effects of changing population densities on our environment.  Forests, for example can provide many benefits beyond the value of the wood they contain.  Soil conservation and runoff control, purity of water and carbon balance are just as important to population growth in the long term as land cleared for agriculture or housing.

We now have an array of software design and analysis tools that allow us to visualize and plan our development without putting a shovel in the ground.  With environmental data becoming more available and increasing amounts in near real time, we rapidly can incorporate it as we build models to envision and test the consequences of our development plans.  Communities can more easily see and understand the impact related to their growth.

At IMAGINiT, we can provide you with the software tools and the support that can help you expand your capabilities and accomplish these goals.  Please contact us if you would like to learn more! 

System Variable Monitor

Bob Mason | Applications Expert 

Have you taken the time to install and run AutoCAD 2016 or any of the AutoCAD-based programs (e.g. Civil 3D)?  There are some neat tools that have come around in this version; one in particular is the System Variable Monitor.

Fortunately, I am given a lot of opportunity to get into the software and learn what it is all about. It really adds adventure to the day when you notice something happening and you have the time to figure out exactly why. I had been noticing a message appearing on the command line when my Civil 3D 2016 software starts up… I wanted to find out what this is telling me.

The new AutoCAD feature called System Variable Monitor monitors system variables and reports when they are changed from their preferred value. In many cases, this happens when a custom routine is cancelled. The technical term for this is SYSVARMONITOR.

 

This feature’s dialog box displays the monitored system variables and their corresponding status, expected and current values and access to individual system variable help topics. What this does is notify you if a particular defined system variable has changed, then allows you to put it back to where you would like it. Of course you can work with more than just the ones listed by selecting the “Edit List …” button.

This tool really has its advantages if you appreciate the sanity of knowing your environment is the way YOU want it.

 Thank You Autodesk!

Insight into Civil 3D Sites

Bob Mason | Applications Expert

Did you ever notice “Sites” in the Toolspace and wonder what it was for?

In Civil 3D, you can manage objects with a common topology in a collection called a site. The objects that share in the topology are parcels, alignments, grading, and feature lines. All objects in a site collection share common topology and have relationships to each other. Any one particular object may only reside in one site at a time, but you can easily move or copy these objects from site to site. This is pretty cool because it allows you to have different iterations of a design in a single project.

You can assign names to the site topology collections, but the Sites collection itself cannot be renamed. Alignments may be assigned to either the Alignments collection within a topology collection, or the top-level Alignments collection.

Example: When placed in a site topology collection with parcel objects and the alignment crosses parcels which are also in the same site, it will automatically subdivide the parcels (if the resulting area is closed).

Alignments that are placed in the top-level Alignments collection (non-site specific) do not interact with parcels or any other objects on any site.

Why not give sites a try next time you are working with designs for soil maps, watersheds, or subdivisions?

Survey Results: Insights Into the Civil Survey Sector

A few months ago, we asked people to let us know how things are going for them. Will their team be hiring in a year? What technology are they using? What services do they offer?

Knowing these things helps us understand what's going on in the industry. It means we are better equipped to help our clients make the most of their design technology, know what systems or services they may want to consider and figure out if (and how) they may need to share data with others.

The results of this survey are now available for viewing on the ProductivityNOW Portal. We'll also have a webcast soon reviewing our findings and takeaways from this survey.

Thanks again to the 295 people who took the time to complete the survey, we appreciate your time.

Are there questions you think we missed asking? Let us know! We'll be doing another survey in a few months.