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.gdb file import using Civil 3D 2014

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Message 1 of 17
deetersmith
23124 Views, 16 Replies

.gdb file import using Civil 3D 2014

Is there a way to import a .gdb file into the 2014 products for Civil and Map.  All of the answers I found are from earlier releases and I am hoping things hace changed.

 

16 REPLIES 16
Message 2 of 17
Murph_Map
in reply to: deetersmith

Not that I know of OOTB, early releases needed the Open Source FDO providers from OSGeo,org but I don't know if there is one for 2014 yet.

Murph
Supporting the troops daily.
Message 3 of 17
phil_borycens
in reply to: deetersmith

Yes, you can connect via FDO to ArcGIS Geodatabases (*.gdb) using Data Connect if you have a 32-bit machine (or virtual machine) running AutoCAD Map 3D, and an available ESRI license. Please see the following for specifics:

 

Bringing In Features from ArcGIS

http://docs.autodesk.com/MAP/2014/ENU/filesMAPUSE/GUID-B3CF6F4D-35A7-4BF1-B384-0F1C7BD9F028.htm


Phil Borycens
Message 4 of 17
TimSR
in reply to: deetersmith

So, several thousand dollars worth of AutoDesk Software coupled with several thousand dollars of ESRI software, AND if you load an obsolete 32 bit version, problem solved! That's basically how you access public data your tax dollars paid to create. Whew! Welcome to 1999. Since Map 3D is software, it doesn't even qualify as a paperweight for me without easy, quick, FREE access to public data that is commonly placed in a .gdb format.

Message 5 of 17
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: TimSR

Hi,

 

>> public data that is commonly placed in a .gdb format.

GDB is a propritary format from ESRI, it is not a public format and so it is not useful as interchange format.

 

Fileformats for exchanging data should be documented in public, used often in the market and available for every software vendor ... and the internals of the GDB-format is nothing of all that.

 

You have the option with freeware tools to convert your GDB-data to other formats directly accessible with FDO/Map3D. If you look to www.osgeo.org (basic technology for accessing GIS-data, Map3D is this using) you'll find e.g. OGR or a product like QGIS (also with FDO connection), that makes things possible!

 

@phil
>> Yes, you can connect via FDO to ArcGIS Geodatabases (*.gdb) using Data Connect if you have a 32-bit machine

Sorry to say, but for that question "access GDB with Civil3D 2014" there is no 32bit solution as Civil3D 2014 is not available for 32bit.

 

Good luck, - alfred -

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Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
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(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 6 of 17
deetersmith
in reply to: deetersmith

Thanks so much.  I wil definately try this.

deeter

Message 7 of 17
TimSR
in reply to: deetersmith

As with everything, there is always some sort of "work around". I think you are correct that .gdb is not a useful interchange format since it is proprietary. Yet, county GIS departments regularly sell CD's with the tax parcels, topo, etc. in .gdb format. And there is a work around, if you have a 32 bit machine. I understand porprietary programs, I just don't understand why Autodesk doesn't tell people how useless AutoCad Map is going to be unless you also purchase the ESRI product, or save the "Commodore 64" just in case...

 

Tim

Message 8 of 17
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: TimSR

Hi,

 

>> And there is a work around, if you have a 32 bit machine

As wrote above, Civil3D is not available for 32 bit, so as long as a user has Civil3D >= 2013 he has to use a 64bit OS.

 

>> why Autodesk doesn't tell people how useless AutoCad Map is going to be unless you also purchase the ESRI product

SCNR: this would then be the first company of the world saying "my products are not useful" ... that is far away from any practice in the market 😉

 

And as long as a file-format is not available for public it is possible that (in this case ESRI) the vendor can change the format (or even minimal details in it) from now to tomorrow making it impossible for anyone else using that new format. So every hour spending time in development for importing a proprietary format is risky ... and to be honest I preferre the way to continue developmet in things like FDO, OpenGIS, ... instead of getting connected to GDB if it might change with every ArcGIS release (and then I need again converter).

 

At least: every GIS system has it's own choice of "best to use format" where it's really performant and other formats "it can just use" (but not that performant), so in big projects with large datasets, with long time working on that data most of the GIS people do convert the data to there favorite formats and on the end export them back to get it more "exchangeable". What I want to say with that: we are all "converters" to get the best out of it 😉

 

- alfred -

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Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
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(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 9 of 17
deetersmith
in reply to: TimSR

All of the counties I work with have their information in .shp files. I made the choice to use a 64 bit program and to use Autodesk as in my world of utilities it is more accurate, functional and flexible. I have used ESRI and I am sorry but 30' is not close enough.

deeter allmond Smith
GIS Administrator
Okaloosa Gas District
364 Valparaiso Pkwy
Valparaiso, FL 32580
850.729.4869
deetersmith@okaloosagas.com
Message 10 of 17


@Alfred.NESWADBA wrote:

And as long as a file-format is not available for public it is possible that (in this case ESRI) the vendor can change the format (or even minimal details in it) from now to tomorrow making it impossible for anyone else using that new format. ... and to be honest I preferre the way to continue developmet in things like FDO

 



Safe Software is a small company with only about 100 employees, yet they have had no problem maintaining file geodatabase access in FME for years, I'm sure Autodesk could manage it if there were a will.

As for FDO, even though I use it all the time, it really is not true GIS integration and is sadly lacking in many respects. True integration would be the ability to draw objects in Map and have FDO dynamically store them in the database with all the relevant attributes like scale, rotation, attribute values, Object Data, etc. Currently, FDO is able to capture the point, line, polygon geometry and that's it, all additional information has to be added afterwards; it really needs a lot of further development to make it really useful.

Message 11 of 17
TimSR
in reply to: Gary_Braun

I'm going to continue my "whinathon" just to give an example of what I am talking about. When I purchased Infrastructure Design Suite, I watched AutoDesk Personnel give presentations showing how quickly you can import a tax map, topo, Google Earth/Bing image, quickly draw a building, render it in the Infrastructure Modeler and POOF, you know whether you can fit what you want on the subject property. Too Cool! If I have access to something I can import from the county database, I can very quickly access the feasibility of a site and even give a decent looking presentation if necessary. Until I found out the truth. Unless I buy several thousand more dollars of software, I can't do these things. My whole point is that AutoDesk should make it VERY CLEAR that Infrastructure Design Suite is pretty useless if the data you begin with is in a gdb format. If I had known that, I would have purchased only AutoCad, or maybe Civil3D. Maybe I would use MAPCLEAN every once in a while and not recall how much that one command cost me. And maybe this isn't totally AutoDesk's problem. Maybe I should go TANGO on my county for selling CD's that are useless when they could provide them in a SHP format. Still, not happy.

Message 12 of 17

Hi,

 

>> Safe Software is a small company with only about 100 employees, yet they have had no problem maintaining file geodatabase

Yep, they did quite a lot debugging different formats as their job is to exchange data between different formats. That is their major (and afaik the only) business they are doing, so it's not surprising that they did it (and do it in the future).

 

>> FDO, [...], it really is not true GIS integration and is sadly lacking in many respects.

>> True integration would be the ability to draw objects in Map and have FDO dynamically store them in the database

That's how I use Map3D, I draw an entity and store them to any database I have linked to, so I don't understand why you think that this is not possible with Map3D.

To the contrary: the geometric editing functionality like having grips, ploar and object snap tracking, commands like _OFFSET and much more makes Map3D the most powerful GIS-system for creating and editing GIS-geometry.

 

>> ...with all the relevant attributes like scale, rotation, attribute values, Object Data, etc. Currently,

>> FDO is able to capture the point, line, polygon geometry and that's it, all additional information has to be added afterwards;

>> it really needs a lot of further development to make it really useful.

Scale and rotation are values I define in styles (which Map3D can do) or ...if you want to create lables as blocks that holds rotation and scaling then you have the choice to use _MAPEXPORT and send the blockscaling as well as the blockrotation to the GIS-dataset automatically.

 

- alfred -

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Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
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(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 13 of 17
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: TimSR

Hi,

 

>> When I purchased Infrastructure Design Suite, I watched AutoDesk Personnel give presentations showing how quickly

>> you can import a tax map

During that presentation have they told you that they used GDB? I guess no

 

>> Google Earth/Bing image,

I'm quite sure that they have not shown importing GoogleEarth data with a 2013 or 2014 product, for sure! (because that functionality stopped with 2012)

 

...I guess you missed to test the software or at least to ask a reseller to make a presentation with your data, that would then have shown some issues you see now and you will have disussed how to get around them, if it's then ok for you or not.


I would never buy a software for multiple thousands of dollars just because I saw a presentation like a video.

 

>> Unless I buy several thousand more dollars of software, I can't do these things

What do you need to buy now, I don't understand that as I have shown infos above to free software that can convert GDB to formats you can use with your IDS.

 

>> My whole point is that AutoDesk should make it VERY CLEAR that Infrastructure Design Suite is pretty useless if the data you begin with is in a gdb format

Again, if you don't ask this specific question ... there will be no vendor starting to tell you what he's software can not do.

GDB is one of thousands GIS-formats, I don't know any GIS-software-vendor having a complete list published what format he is not able to import.

 

>> Maybe I would use MAPCLEAN every once in a while and not recall how much that one command cost me

Sorry, I don't understand that.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 14 of 17
TimSR
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA

Alfred, your comments are useless.

1.Their presentation did not tell me that the program would not read gdb. They mislead me into thinking I could use GIS data to create quick, easy models. I cannot do that unless I spend several thousand more dollars. You act like it is a "badge of honor" to mislead companies into buying things that could be useless.

2. I included Google Earth SLASH Bing Images as an example. No one knows better than I that they dropped Google.

3. There is no "free" software to convert this data on my 64 bit machine that I am aware of. If there is, you can convert the data every time I need it. BTW, I expect any data conversion with immediate attention. I'll give you an hour each time I need a whole county converted.

4. You tell me I should have asked this specific question about gdb formats before I purchased the product. Then you say there are thousands of GIS formats. So, from memory, I should ask about each of the "thousands" of formats to be sure my money was being spent wisely? Thank you for the advice. I'll try to write up a questionare asking my vendor about each of the "thousands" of GIS formats next time.

5. You do not know what MAPCLEAN is yet you offer empty advice that fixes nothing.

6. AutoDesk is not a "Damsel in Distress" that you need to come to the rescue for. This is a real problem that needs to be addressed. It can easily be addressed by clearly stating that a very common GIS format is not accessible without spending thousands of dollars or going through some archaic conversion process.

"GIS has thousands of formats".... LOL That was a good one.

Message 15 of 17
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: TimSR

Hi,

 

>> Alfred, your comments are useless.

thank you, just wanted to help and make some things clear (just to see other sides too).

 

- alfred -

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Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 16 of 17


>> ...with all the relevant attributes like scale, rotation, attribute values, Object Data, etc. Currently,

>> FDO is able to capture the point, line, polygon geometry and that's it, all additional information has to be added afterwards;

>> it really needs a lot of further development to make it really useful.

Scale and rotation are values I define in styles (which Map3D can do) or ...if you want to create lables as blocks that holds rotation and scaling then you have the choice to use _MAPEXPORT and send the blockscaling as well as the blockrotation to the GIS-dataset automatically.


Not to argue the point Alfred, but I'm not sure you've fully grasped my point. If you insert an attributed block into Autocad, say a fire hydrant with an ID in an attribute, you can easily create a new FDO point feature from the geometry, but how does that hydrant ID number get into your FDO datastore without you manually adding it after the fact? Likewise, maybe you draw a closed polyline in Map to represent a land parcel, then add some object data fields for PID, taxation number, etc. Once again you can create a new polygon feature in your FDO data by capturing the geometry, but now how does the OD information you've already entered in CAD get into your FDO data? Again, I think FDO still need a considerable amount of work to make it fully integrated into Map.

BTW, using _MAPEXPORT as a work around to get scale and rotation values into your GIS data is not the same as passing them through your FDO connection.

Message 17 of 17
MattKich
in reply to: TimSR

Agreed TimSR _ cheaper just to get arcview seat and export shape files

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