The Road from CAD to enterprise
Running Together
Technology changes and advancements have provided reasons to look to expanding from CAD
based to Enterprise GIS. With the current state of the GIS industry, systems are available that
run with CAD software at the user interface, and full scale enterprise solutions at the server or
“back-end” level. This means that at the user level, the change from CAD to Enterprise will be
almost unnoticeable! Impacts to user productivity can be almost non-existent, and general user
acceptance can be improved!
Going from CAD to Enterprise can be a much smaller step with today’s technologies. This
industry change is significant! The ability to mix a CAD based graphics solution with an
enterprise GIS solution provides additional benefits not generally available with earlier
enterprise GIS solutions. CAD based graphic solutions have generally kept pace with Microsoft
in terms of ease of use, etc. CAD based graphic solutions are generally desktop software
solutions that function more like PC based software products, and are generally more compatible
with Microsoft operating system capabilities.
Interaction with other MS Windows based applications including MS Office means users can
operate their GIS Solution with the same type of windows like operations that they have become
familiar with using MS Office, and that are very intuitive to computer users today. In addition,
functions like copy – paste to move map graphics into spreadsheets or documents, or information
from spreadsheets or documents into the map frame or a plot, become simple operations.
Other operations such as printing and plotting, import of contractor development (sub-division)
drawings, import or conversion of manual drawn and/or digital data into the GIS database, export
of data to outside organizations, and collaborating or overlaying of diverse data on screen are all
well developed capabilities in CAD based graphic solutions. Running a CAD based solution as
the user interface to an enterprise GIS solution brings these important capabilities into the
enterprise GIS world with no special or proprietary development.
The Road
So what is the road like? What are the important notes and guidelines that can help? Based on
the experiences of others, the following categories are important:
Existing Data Organization
Data Modeling
Data Migration
Data Symbolization
Applications
User Training
These items listed will be discussed in more detail, and relative to the general order they should
be considered in.
Step 1 - Existing Data Organization
In the process of moving from CAD to Enterprise GIS, a very important step is to gain an
understanding of the data quality relative to the available CAD files and associated attribute data
sources. A determination of the level of organization that exists in the data is necessary.
For instance, in the CAD files, it is important to understand to what extent the layer controls and
object class organization have been adhered to and controlled. Also, for the data files and/or the
extended entity or object data, it is important to understand to what extent data integrity rules and
legal values have been adhered to.
Step 2 - Data Modeling
In an enterprise solution, the concept of a data model is necessary so that the information that
will be stored and managed by the system will be useful from the perspective of the ability to
investigate the information and perform queries where meaningful results are returned.
Decisions will need to be made pertaining to the data model for the resulting enterprise solution
prior to moving ahead.
If the CAD files and associated attribute data are well organized, many aspects of a data model
may already exist. Those aspects may already be utilized by the organization for facilities
management information. Depending on the extent to which this is the case, it may be very
beneficial for the resulting enterprise solution data model to be developed from and in
conjunction with existing data format.
In some cases, even if the CAD files and associated attribute data are well organized, the
organization may not yet have built information requests and processes specific to this
organization. For this case, it could be that there is less work involved in utilizing an existing
data model available from the enterprise solution provider, and adapting the vendor’s data model
together with the existing data from the CAD files. In this case, the goal would be to simply
account for and confirm that all useful information available in the CAD file data will be
available and accessible in the new data model. This can be done with a simple gap analysis
performed between the existing data and the new data model.
Step 3 - Data Migration
If the CAD files and associated attribute data are well organized, the information can be moved
from the existing format into Oracle database tables using several methods. Some enterprise
solutions provide data classification capabilities or data scraping capabilities that will perform
much of the work of moving the data into Oracle tables. Customization will likely be required
for capture of the attached object or extended entity data in the specific format of the files.
If the CAD files and associated attribute data are not reasonably well organized, a data clean-up
process may be necessary. The data clean-up process will most likely involve a manual opening
and review of each file to confirm organization of all feature types onto prescribed layers based
on some predefined scheme. Additionally, review of the attribute data may be required if values
that are unexpected show up when attempting to migrate the data.
Alternatively it may be helpful to move the attribute information into Oracle initially with the
data integrity and legal value controls relaxed, and perform data manipulation and clean-up
scripts there. Large amounts of the attribute values may be able to be repaired fairly simply
through queries and scripts, and thus may be easier to repair by allowing out-of-tolerance
attribute data to be migrated into the enterprise solution and repaired there. This is especially
true if the available tools in the existing CAD solution are not capable or well suited for this type
of data manipulation.
Step 4 - Data Symbolization
When preparing to migrate the data into an enterprise solution, one of the important details is
deciding and obtaining agreement on how the data will be symbolized in the enterprise GIS.
Depending on the size of the organization and the numbers of interested parties, this process can
be a difficult wrestling match of opinions. Organizations can choose to manage and dictate
adherence to one set of symbology across the entire organization, or they may opt for
regionalized symbolization to appease one or more groups of users or managers.
Once the data is in the Oracle tables, most enterprise GIS solutions use attribute driven
symbology. This means that rendering of the features can be controlled by their attribute values
(i.e. a switch or valve can appear differently based on the attribute of closed or open).
Also, enterprise solutions generally can provide the capabilities to symbolize the data into
multiple formats depending on user class, etc. This can be very beneficial since different views
can improve the usability of the information on the screen or in the subsequent paper maps.
Step 5 - Applications
When moving from a CAD based GIS to an enterprise GIS solution, user acceptance will be a
significant factor in the success as well as the length of time required for the transition to be
successful. One extremely helpful factor in gaining the user acceptance is to develop any new
features and functionality in the enterprise GIS using similar work flow and process actions
where possible. This is sometime not possible if part of the justification of the overall project is
the business process improvements that are to be gained by changing the existing processes.
Step 6 - User Training
Enterprise solutions require user training. Minimization of the changes in the user interface can
reduce the amount of training required. If an enterprise solution that uses a CAD based graphics
solution for the user interface is adopted, training may be able to be minimized to simply
reviewing the minor adjustments and nuances of the enterprise GIS.
Other Important Issues (Bumps In the Road)
As with nearly all information systems projects, lack of understanding of the significance of the
project in terms of either budgetary requirements or level of effort required can be a serious
impediment to maintaining management support and confidence.
Specific to the move from CAD to enterprise GIS, one of the most discouraging and potentially
costly pitfalls can be skipping or under estimating the importance of the first step (Step 1 –
Existing Data Organization) mentioned above. Projects can come to a screeching halt because of
a lack of understanding of the real data quality prior to beginning the process. Attempting to
migrate the data into an organized data structure when the data is not well enough organized for
an automated process to follow is a “show stopper”. When this happens, the realization follows
that the only way to an enterprise GIS solution involves data clean-up that may be costly and will
almost certainly be time consuming.
Similarly, not taking seriously the importance of the data model can end up limiting the types of
additional applications that can be added to the system as it matures. Some schools of thought
would argue that the data model can be adjusted at nearly any time throughout the life cycle of
the solution in order to accommodate additional applications. While this is true, adjustment of
the data model after the enterprise GIS is in production and loaded with data is more difficult,
and may involve exporting and importing entire data sets, etc. Another approach might be to
include all the features and attributes that can be conceived as potentially valuable for future
applications, and simply leaving the fields blank or null, or filling them with default values.
Lastly, not recognizing the importance of user satisfaction and user acceptance in the system
selection and development phase can cause major delays, if not failure, in the implementation
phase. With current technology, it is possible to go from CAD based to enterprise GIS without
changing the CAD based solution at the user interface. This can greatly minimize the user
acceptance issue since only minor changes to the user’s process on a familiar interface would be
more readily accepted.
End Results
Geographic information is beneficial. The ability to visualize the aspect of location relative to
the other available information improves the decision process and the overall operations
efficiencies and effectiveness.
When this geographic information is expanded into an enterprise GIS solution, it becomes a
more integrated and fluid part of the information systems capabilities of an organization. With
an enterprise GIS, other systems can be developed to make decisions which include the
geographic component of the data without human intervention. And operations systems can be
built to leverage the geographical component of the data. For instance, construction and
inspections jobs that are near to each can be flagged, and the operations system (work
management) can suggest they be scheduled together to save travel time. There are many
additional examples of this type of savings.
The road from CAD to enterprise is a road that has been traveled successfully by many. When
traveled carefully, it can lead an organization into a world of expanded capabilities and benefits.
Those that have already traveled the road, and those that are making the move today, will
improve their potential to emerge as leaders in their industries in the future.
