Is it possible to CAD a SDF or SHP file to automatically be a coverage etc.

[kbrownEEUYJ]

I strongly suspect this is a long shot but I'm hoping other users can confirm this for me.

Long story short. I am trying to streamline my Infraworks process and I'd like to know if it's possible to assign/name or set a value to an SDF or SHP file in order for Infraworks to Automatically assign it as a coverage area or any of the fields within it.

It'd be ideal that when I mass import the information into infraworks if I didn't have to individually pick each file and assign it an object type or even if I could streamline the field definitions.

[andrewofabley]

@kbrownEEUYJ 

Well, if your files have an identical schema, or at least the attributes that you are mapping are all the same, you should be able to mass import these and configure them all at once. Then you can drive their appearance via the attribute values or via a style rule.

I've done this before. It's quite convenient because you can rewrite the SDF file and it will update your model when you refresh - although for this method I just use the one .sqlite SDF file with multiple tables within the file, so I'm just updating / reading a single source file.

Good luck.

[kbrownEEUYJ]

Thankyou, that is pretty much what I'm doing currently.

Currently my SDF export imports as separate items, and creates layers for all object types. trees, city furniture, coverage areas, and buildings all at once from one export. 

I'm basically trying to solve a first world problem. That is that I don't want to have to sort through each of these items and divide them out into coverage areas, vs city furniture.

It's a minor inconvenience but solving it could open the door to creating entirely automated process.

[andrewofabley]

@kbrownEEUYJ 

I see.

I think the best you could hope for is to presort the SDF file tables such that it groups all of your classes together.

Coverages first (with Cov_) as the table name prefix,  so you know their class on the way in - then the same for each other object class.

Then you can write to (update) the SDF file as you go, and refresh as desired inside Infraworks.

I've made a 'dummy' series of SDF tables before, preconfigured them into my model, then refreshed them as my data was populated by my colleague into the tables.

That's pretty close to automation - I didn't expose a way for Infraworks' SDF/SHP reader to pre-assign a class.

I hope that helps?