The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Recently, good friend Scott Wolter, a Wisconsin resident and Civil 3D guru, joined me on a trip to the University of Wisconsin in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. They had asked for some help with integrating different types of GIS data into Land Desktop and Civil 3D.

Jo Ann, Ezra, PK, Scott

We spent the day with Ezra Schoonover and Jo Ann Rife discussing the University’s needs as well as Civil 3D capabilities. Ezra and Jo Ann manage the campus facilities using a DWG-based campus map. Scott and I showed them how the MAP functions of Civil 3D allow them to import and export raw survey data, point files, and a host of GIS formats including DGN, and SHP. We also stressed the importance of specifying local coordinate systems to all of their drawings, and the ease with which imported data can translate from one datum to another. This capability found in MAP, Land Desktop, and Civil 3D is required in Wisconsin because every county in the state uses its own local coordinate system.

So what do you do if the campus in Oshkosh crosses county boundaries? In Civil 3D 2007, each survey database can be assigned its own local coordinate system. This capability enables a Civil 3D 2007 drawing that crosses multiple coordinate system boundaries to do the appropriate translation across those boundaries. Huzzah! One drawing with multiple coordinate system translation definition . . . we’ve waited a long time for this. It’s here and it works great!