Five questions for Autodesk

[Anonymous]

I am in receipt of Map 5. Five questions I must ask are:
1.) When will ANYTHING Autodesk geocode addresses?.......
2.) When will we have to stop querying source drawings to perform certain functions?.......
3.) When will we be able to import simple X,Y data without being directed by Crazy Dave's AutoLISP Emporium?......
4.) When will Map be able to symbolize data on-the-fly? I don't want to have to query anything. I just want to double click on a TRUE table of contents and change the symbology....
5.) When will Map perform the rudimentary task of annotating features by simply clicking them?...........

Please don't direct me to the wish list. I've been asking for these functions since Autodesk first bought the ADE technology from Landmark Intellicad back in the early 90's. That's right campers; the technology you use to query source drawings was purchased from, I believe, Intellicad and was subsequently used as the base for the ADE and Map products. The technology is nearly ten years old and we're still using it in a "state-of-the-art" software package. i wish I could tell Brand "E" to go and jump in the lake along with their "maintenance" but I can't. My job dictates that I use a product capable of many GIS functions that are still, as of Map 5, ominously missing. Autodesk, are you listening?

[Anonymous]

RGibson wrote:

> technology you use to query source drawings was purchased from, I
> believe, Intellicad and was subsequently used as the base for the ADE
> and Map products.

Yes, and Softdesk bought the remaining fragments, picked up the people
and another idea began to evolve. :o)

I'll never forget getting the Landmark package and trying it out on
R12. Those guys were ahead of their time.

Terry

[DWalsh]

Hi RGibson,

Thanks for your input. The Map team is aware of a large number of requests for new features and improvements from our users. We intend to address as many of these requirements as possinble in future releases.

Regards,
David Walsh

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply David....As a user of Autodesk products since 1986, I truly would like to be a 100% Autodesk shop. In fact I was an ATS for Map in 1998 and am still an ACI in a Premier ATC. Wow! How's that for some acronyms? Anyway, I had real hope for World as did Autodesk I'm sure. I can understand how hard it is to crack that market given the position of ArcView. That's why I think if Map, which is built on the best graphics engine out there, could provide some of the same functionality that exists in products like GeoMedia and ArcView, Autodesk would see a tremendous jump in their market share of the TRUE desktop GIS environment.

[Anonymous]

Good topic. I haven’t seen Map 5 yet, but my impression is that Autodesk is making progress on this front. It is difficult (costly) to develop some of the GIS functionality we’d all like to see in Map. This goes back to the CAD data model which was and is its foundation. It is impractical to do “true” GIS on a data model that was not originally designed for GIS, and retrofitting can only go so far. Solutions are not easy to come by – another file format perhaps (similar to the shape file)?