cad

The topic of CAD-GIS integration is always a hot one, particularly if you’ve ever attended a CAD conference of the Surveying Mapping Summit at an Esri UC.This topic has been discussed in a recent article by RJ Zimmer where he looks at CAD data types vs GIS data, spatial reference systems,  and Creating the GIS Data from the CAD Features

From the article… With the appropriate GIS software, one may directly view CAD files and CAD features in a GIS environment in order to display a visual representation of the CAD elements in context with GIS data. Alternatively, one can display GIS data in CAD software. However, in order to empower the CAD data for GIS spatial analysis, the CAD features should be converted to a GIS format that have feature attributes assigned to them. This article explains the simple steps necessary to convert CAD data to GIS format. Read on in  – GIS Matters: Convert CAD Data to GIS

Just an FYI… if your interested in testing the waters with some CAD translation tools, AnyDWG offers up some free downloads of a number of utilities including DWG to DXF, PDF, and DWG converters. They also have a DWG to image converter to Batch convert DWG and DXF files to TIF (TIFF), JPG (JPEG), BMP, GIF, PNG, TGA, PCX, WMF and EMF – more info at http://anydwg.com/downloads.html

I tell ya, I have to give Ralph G. some credit… cranking out almost 500 weekly editions of his CAD newsletter.. kudos. What’s amazing though is that in the entire time Ralph hasn’t changed a thing… I guess if it aint broke don’t fix it eh! The upFront.eZine has become a must read for the CAD user / CAD technogeek over the years, however, wouldn’t you think that the early 90s text formatting would eventually change?? I like the publication but I’m anxiously waiting the day that it comes full fold and enters the new millenium and gets a new look, new design, facelift… or something… anything ;0) Keep up the good work Ralph – see http://www.upfrontezine.com/