The internet advantage in facilities management
The Pilot Project
Not long after Topographic’s demonstration of MapGuide to the larger UDS group, a
pilot GIS project was begun. A segment of the pipeline between Colorado Springs and
Denver was selected for conversion. Topographic Mapping Company further developed
their pipeline application to UDS specifications, mapped the pipeline, created the base map, and linked to scanned documents provided by UDS. The base map was to include
streets, roads, highways, creeks, rivers, lakes, railroads, major pipelines, major power
lines, counties, city polygons, and place names.
The Committee and the larger group at UDS were given a demonstration of the pilot GIS.
Its performance was generally as follows:
The user would open his browser (Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer). A
base map of the region would be displayed in the browser with the pipeline
clearly shown. Commands for zooming and panning were available as buttons
within the browser. By zooming into a larger scale, outlines of alignment sheets
along the pipeline would become visible. By continuing to zoom in, tract
numbers, alignment sheet numbers, and other text around the pipeline would
become visible. Much of the text on the basemap was hyperlinked to other
information, such as database records or images. The tract text was linked to the
scanned UDS right-of-way documents. Alignment sheet text was hyperlinked to
alignment sheet CAD drawings. Other hypertext on the basemap linked to plats
of several kinds (property plats, road crossing plats, boring plats, etc.).
Note: The alignment sheets and most of the plats in this project were originally
developed as AutoCAD drawings. Topographic used a software product from
Autodesk as a viewer for the CAD drawings. This viewer is an Internet plug-in
called “Whip Driver”. This plug-in will display a new file format (.d~ that can
be created from AutoCAD drawings.
The committee was intrigued with the Whip Driver as a way to view our CAD drawings.
It seemed that MapGuide and the Whip Driver worked well together since both were
developed with Internet technology. With the Whip Driver we could see that everyone
would be able to view our CAD drawings without purchasing or learning a CAD
package. We were quite happy to learn that the Whip Driver could be downloaded for
free born the Internet. By downloading and testing we discovered that the Whip Driver’s
commands for zooming, panning, and printing were quite simple to use.
With the completion and demonstration of the pilot project by Topographic, the GIS
Committee felt that our short-term requirements had been demonstrated. Locating and
viewing scanned documents appeared to be easy and intuitive. Finding, viewing, and
printing CAD drawings seemed also to be simple. We were confident that our goal of
making information available to everyone in our company could be reached with this
Internet GIS approach. The incremental cost of adding users to the system was
considered minimal. To meet our longer-term requirements, we were relatively sure that
the basic functionality already existed in MapGuide or would be developed by Autodesk
as they continued to work on their product.
To meet the specific requirements of our attorney, Topographic created a database of
property owners along the pipeline. In addition to descriptive information about the land
owners, these database records contained latitude and longitude coordinates for points of
interest on the base map. From these points of interest on the base map, hypertext linking
to several types of documents could be found. With this design of the pipeline GIS, our
attorney’s request for real-time access to landowner information was met. He could enter
the name of the irate landowner, immediately see the portion of the base map showing the
caller’s tract of land, and view documents and drawings through links on the base map.
The system was simple to operate because of the browser interface, thus meeting another
requirement. The requests from our attorney appeared to have been demonstrated in the
pilot project.
System Implementation
The pilot project seemed to have demonstrated our initial required functionality, but
securing finds for a fill project continued to be difficult. UDS was still in the process of
digesting the merger and its other acquisition. By mid-1998 almost a year after the
completion of the pilot project, we did receive authorization for system implementation
and a commitment of IT support. It was determined that a UDS programmer would be
assigned to the project to customize and further develop Topographic’s pipeline
application. We retained Topographic to provide training, create our base map, and to
map our pipeline system.
The base map was delivered by Topographic within about a month of our signing the
contracts. To create the base map DLG data from the USGS was converted to MapGuide
format. The MapGuide files for most of our pipeline systems were delivered by
Topographic within the scheduled four-month period. Outside of the original contract
with Topographic, we have since added many of the scanned USGS topographic quads as
a raster background layer. We have found that MapGuide handles these images very well
with literally hundreds of them being cataloged as a single map layer. MapGuide will
determine which parts of which images are actually to be viewed and only deliver those
pixels to the user. In addition to the scanned USGS quads, we have added aerial
photography as a raster background layer in some areas. The raster layers, the scanned
quads and the aerial photographs, very much enhance the look of the base map and the
value of the system.
Including hardware, software, base map creation, training, and contract mapping, the
project cost to UDS was under $100,000. Compared to other GIS projects of which we
are aware, our costs for this implementation were extremely low. Our targeted focus and
the use of Internet technology contributed to the low cost of our GIS. There are many
ways in which this GIS will be used, but it will take only one real emergency involving
our pipeline for the system to pay for itself.
Other Uses
From the very beginning other managers at UDS have been interested in adding
capabilities and data to the system. Soon after getting started, I was asked about adding
convenience stores to the base map. A convenience store database is already available,
and in that database are latitude and longitude coordinates for all of the stores. With
location information in the database already, it should be simple to display symbols for
these stores. The convenience-store application also presents interesting opportunities for
using the thematic mapping capabilities of MapGuide. Hyperlinking from the base map
to the database, documents, photos, and drawings as we have done with pipeline
information makes sense as well. With the expanded use of our pipeline GIS in other
departments, broader financial support for the system has been promised.
We expect soon to be adding detailed information about UDS refineries to our GIS.
Refineries are complicated structures requiring the maintenance of thousands of CAD
drawings. We see MapGuide as a good way to catalog these drawings as well as a way
share that information around the company. We will probably never see the end of new
information that we will want to add to our GIS.
The Use of Internet Technology
The GIS Committee at UDS is comfortable with our decision to use Internet GIS as our
system platform. The fact that our GIS runs in a browser is significant to us, and we are
confident that the browser interface will insure the system’s use by our people. One of
the primary goals of our committee from the beginning was broad system access. With
the browser interface to the GIS, we believe that universal access will be achieved with
little or no training and little or no support.
Another reason for being pleased with MapGuide is its technology. As with many
companies today, UDS is shifting toward the use of Internet technology as our
platform
for new applications. We have a company Intranet now, and MapGuide fits very well
technologically into our plans to expand our Intranet applications. Available Internet
tools create a powerful platform for development, and Intranet applications are easy to
use.
Another advantage of using Internet technology is that training for users is minimal.
Installations of the MapGuide plug-in have mostly been by the users themselves.
Operation of the system is very Internet-like, the commands are easy to use, and the
hypertext links work just as you would expect. Operational suggestions have been made
and passed onto Autodesk about the use of the mouse button and command defaults. As
with any program, there are features you would like to see in new releases. I should note
that you might have problems at times with browser incompatibilities. Older versions of
the browsers may not be compatible with the MapGuide plug-ins. IT does get support
calls on this issue or on network issues.
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