The internet advantage in facilities management
Gerald Childers Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corporation P.O. Box 696000, San Antonio, Texas 78269-6000 Robert Keating Topographic Engineering Company 6709 N. Classen, Oklahoma City, OK 73016 Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Ultramar Diamond Shamrock (UDS) of San Antonio, Texas is a company that operates a pipeline system of approximately 4,500 miles in the states of Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Michigan. In addition to pipelines, UDS also owns and operates oil refineries as well as hundreds of convenience stores as retail outlets for its refined products. UDS is in the process of implementing an Intranet GIS to help manage its pipeline system and has chosen Autodesk’s MapGuide software as its GIS platform. Topographic Mapping Company of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Topographic Land Surveyor of Parnpa, Texas have been selected to assist with the implementation of this system. Selection and implementation Committing to a Direction for the Pipeline GIS When the UDS GIS Committee began its task of selecting a pipeline information system, we were well aware of the broad range of options available for our consideration. None of us were GIS experts. We had only broad directives regarding system functionality. Our budget was limited, and we were quite sure that a million-dollar solution would never receive approval. In addition to the many commercial GIS alternatives, we were being asked to consider a data management system being developed internally. The challenge before us was considerable. As background information, we at UDS had been using CAD since the early 1990’s. In addition to CAD, we had been using a map-based document management system since 1993. With this CAD-based system, we were able to find and view pipeline documents by simply “picking” symbols on a CAD base map. This approach to locating information was simple and intuitive, but we believed that more powerful options were probably available by 1997. As our deliberations progressed, a “wish list” of capabilities from those inside and outside of our group began to develop. As an example, a UDS attorney made a request of our Committee for capabilities that would be useful to him. The attorney wished for the ability to display maps and other information from a query of the GIS based solely on landowner names. His request appeared to be reasonable because he would often get calls from landowners complaining about the pipeline. The callers would be mad, and they often threatened lawsuits. To respond to these calls, information would be sought in a manual, difllcult, and time consuming way. With a GIS available to him, the attorney hoped to enter a name into his computer and quickly be able to see landowner information while that person was still on the phone. He hoped to see maps of the pipeline crossing that person’s property as well as right-of-way documents pertaining to that tract. Our attorney was hoping for great things from the GIS Committee. As previously mentioned, the IT department at UDS had been developing an information system for our “Diamond Shamrock” and “Total” convenience stores. UDS management and the developers of this system wanted for the Committee to consider it as our solution. The convenience-store system had a nice graphic interface to a database, and its developers were willing to add functionality for our use. We tried to envision this system working for us, but we were very concerned that it was not map-based. We were convinced that a GIS was what we needed rather than the text-based system we had been shown. The management of our pipeline system requires maps and other information that are geographic in nature. Members of the GIS Committee had ideas and desires of their own for GIS functionality. As the Chair of the Committee, I had something of a vision myself for this system. I felt strongly that we should at least maintain the functionality of our CAD-based document management system. We had been scanning right-of-way documents for use in the old system for years. We had thousands of pages of right-of-way documents already in digital form. It was quite necessary for our committee to select a system that would make best use of these documents. I also liked the idea of “zooming in” on a map, seeing the pipeline in that area, and finding links to the documents. It was important to me to upgrade to a GIS package that worked this way. In addition to fimctionality, the committee was very concerned about the cost of any system that we might recommend. While our GIS Committee was doing its work, the merger of the two companies forming UDS, Ultramar and Diamond Shamrock, was being digested. There had been another acquisition, Total Petroleum, affecting our company’s cash flow as well. In the uncertain atmosphere of reorganization, funds for all projects, including ours, were tight. However, we moved methodically ahead hoping to overcome the obstacles to our task. The Intranet Option As the GIS Committee was beginning its deliberations, some of our members were exposed to an Internet GIS program from Autodesk. Because we used AutoCAD already at UDS, we felt fairly comfortable in looking at a GIS product from Autodesk. The product was called MapGuide and was shown to us by Topographic Mapping Company. The developed application we were shown was a GIS for a pipeline system. And, among the capabilities demonstrated were hypertext links to documents from a base map of the pipeline system. The fact that MapGuide ran in a browser like Netscape’s Navigator or Microsoft’s Explorer was also appealing to us. It appeared that the MapGuide system would allow us to use the documents we had already scanned. It would also allow us to use them as we had originally intended. Since the program ran in a browser, it seemed obvious to us that it was easy to learn and easy to use. “Ease of use” was very important to us. After discussion and deliberation, the GIS Committee determined that we wanted others at UDS to see MapGuide. We especially wanted the UDS developers of the convenience-store system to see the difference between a GIS and a text-based system. The Committee assembled a meeting with the IT developers, UDS attorneys, managers from several different areas of the company, and our pipeline group. We arranged for Topographic Mapping Company to make a presentation to this group. Once the GIS with its map interface to data was shown, the text-based system seemed much less capable. The IT group was impressed with the use of Internet technology as well as the map interface to pipeline data. As a result of that meeting, consensus among our managers moved steadily in the direction of Internet GIS. 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 fi.u-ther 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: 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. 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 conildent 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 Imdementation The pilot project seemed to have demonstrated our initial required functionality, but securing finds for a fill project continued to be diflicult. 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 basemap and the value of the system. Including hardware, software, basemap 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 Technologv 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 platfomn 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 powerfd 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. System components System Overview Currently, UDS does not intend for its GIS to be published on the Internet. It will be available only on the company’s Intranet. The components of the system include Internet server software, a map authoring software tool, a browser as the user interface, a plug-in as the map display engine, another plug-into view CAD drawings, application web pages, databases, and pipeline data in a web compatible format. UDS is using MapGuide from Autodesk as its Internet-based GIS software. The Server MapGuide Server is Internet server software that runs in the Windows NT environment. MapGuide Server also requires Internet server software (such as Microsoft’s Internet Information Server) to be running as well. The Windows NT and Internet server expertise required for MapGuide is beyond that of most CAD operators. For most installations a combined effort of CAD/GIS and IS/IT is required. The web-site application development side of an Internet-based GIS project can be challenging. UDS’S GIS is currently running on a dedicated server. The server is running Windows NT, Microsoft’s Internet Information Server, and MapGuide Server. The project data files reside on this server as well. The GIS server is being maintained and updated locally by UDS IT staff. The Map Authoring Tool The MapGuide system of software includes a map-authoring tool called MapGuide Author. This software allows the GIS administrator to define map layers and layer characteristics and to define the connections of the layer definitions to the various data files. MapGuide Author is a standard Windows program. Application Web Pages MapGuide out of the box does nothing. A MapGuide frame must be embedded in a web page before it can run. HTML code on the web page must call MapGuide where it will then display the MapGuide map. In seeing a demonstration of MapGuide it is difficult for the casual observer to understand what MapGuide is doing and what web application programming is doing. The Topographic pipeline application makes use of extensive web programming. However, it is possible to develop applications that use very little web programming. Web development tools are very powerful. Java or Active-X programming environments can be used in conjunction with MapGuide. Much of UDS’s pipeline application has been developed externally to MapGuide with Active-X. Its menu system, database queries, database reports, links from the alignment sheet web page, base map printing, hypertext from the database, lat/long locate, one-call capabilities, etc. are programs external to MapGuide. To make best use of the resources available to the developer of an Internet-based GIS, the development of HTML and web programming skills should be encouraged. Databases MapGuide can link to any ODBC compliant database. The UDS pipeline application uses Microsoft’s Access database program. The pipeline application primarily links to a right-of-way database that has been developed for the project. Map Data New file types have been created by Autodesk for MapGuide. These files contain the graphic information (points, lines, and polygons) that is displayed on the MapGuide map. These file formats have been created in such a way that very large amounts of data can reside in the data file. The server software can quickly locate the graphic data needed for the display disregarding all of the other graphic data. The process of creating the graphic data files can be confusing. A stand-alone program called the SDF Loader can be used. This program in some cases is the best way to convert GIS data from non-Autodesk systems. For map data in AutoCAD format, conversion to MapGuide can best be performed with another product from Autodesk called AutoCAD Map. AutoCAD Map has the ability to export the file types used by MapGuide. When graphic elements in the AutoCAD Map drawing are to be linked to database records, special techniques are required. These techniques are not easily discovered or well documented. Conclusion Internet technology is changing GIS and will continue to change GIS dramatically over the next few years. Internet GIS software is now available from most of the GIS software vendors. The decreased cost of hardware, soflware, training, and support that results from the Internet approach will enable more organizations to build GIS applications. These factors and others such as shorter implementation cycles will help organizations justify their expenditures for these systems. Users no longer need to be intimidated by GIS. Maps and related documents no longer need to be plotted, copied, and express mailed in order to get information to users. A pipeline GIS does not have to cost a lot of money and take a long time. Results can come quickly. Users can come on line quickly. The advances that have come with Internet technology are significant and should be seriously investigated by those considering GIS. | ||
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