[Geomedia-l] Geomedia - AutoCAD support

Fri Jun 15 13:36:40 CDT 2007

Very interesting discussion.

Not totally sure I agree with the comparison in digitizing functions
between AutoDesk and GM. Both were designed with very different
intentions. 

AutoCAD was (obviously) designed to be a CAD while GM is designed to be a
GIS. If you look at it from a GIS stand point, some (I don't have a strong
CAD background, but I dare say many) CAD-like graphics aren't even
supported in fairly main stream RDBMS applications like Oracle Spatial,
MySQL, etc. In my eyes, what it comes down to is that in GIS, we typically
have three - five types of data

Point
Line
Polygon/Area
Text/Label
Compound

When I compare this to AutoCAD, it's night and day. 

Now, if you were to compare many of the higher-level functions inside of
GM (functional attributes, native queries, aggregation, analytical merges)
to AutoCAD Map, it would be interesting to see which tools are better. But
it's also important to note that although AutoCAD is very "main stream",
AutoCAD Map is a VERY small portion of Autodesk's sales.

In the end, I really do believe Intergraph relies on 3rd party vendors
like Safe Software (FME) for those organizations (like Harry) that need to
read the latest and greatest. At this point, that's why FME gives you the
Intergraph data server. So, with the data server, you should theoretically
be able to read most if not all of the formats that FME can read inside of
GM. I guess, that should theoretically mean AutoCAD 2008 (assuming FME
reads it). However it's important to note that many organizations don't
upgrade to the latest and greatest anytime soon. In fact, we still get
digital submittals that are in AutoCAD 2004 file formats fairly regularly.
As a result, INGR needs to look at not only what main stream organizations
are using (maybe AutoCAD 2004 is still commonly used) and balance that
with the many change requests and trouble requests they get and yet
finally, balance that will new functionality that will help sell the
product. It's a slippery slope that in the end; obviously can't make all
happy....

My 2 cents...

Jeff

--------------------------------
Jeff Hobbs
GIS Coordinator
San Jose Water Company (NYSE:SJW)
1265 South Bascom Avenue
San Jose, CA 95128
Voice - (408) 279-7833
Fax - (408) 279-7889
jeff_hobbs at sjwater.com
http://www.sjwater.com <http://www.sjwater.com/> 

  _____  

From: geomedia-l-bounces at directionsmedia.net
[mailto:geomedia-l-bounces at directionsmedia.net] On Behalf Of Budschedl
Harald
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 03:25
To: geomedia-l at lists.directionsmag.com
Subject: AW: [Geomedia-l] Geomedia - AutoCAD support

The thing about GIS products is not "what are they capable of" per se.
Because this has ALWAYS have to be answered AFTER asking "what do you want
to do with it, and where are you putting the solution to work".

With our company (and surely there will be loads of others), the Autodesk
portion of application gets larger and larger. This is due to price
issues, but also due to the fact, that more people know how to work with
those products than with i.e. Geomedia (or ArcGIS for that matter).
Geomedia has on the one side to "fit in", to have a chance to be included
in the working/planning processes in certain companies. On the other side
it has to stick out in respect of functionality and economical pricing. As
I see it in the moment, both targets are only partially reached as of
today.
To "fit in", there is too little compatibility to the nowadays common
products, not so much format wise, but concerning the support for all of
the versions of a format.
To "sick out", I personally think that the functionality of digitizing and
drafting lack certain ergonomic touches in comparison to other
"mainstream" products. Pricing stick out for sure, but not in a positive
way I might add.

As in the moment, certain problems (i posted them in an other mail
yesterday) impede our work seriously and the voices of the critics are
rising, which demand Geomedia being phased out in favor of an other
productline, for economical reasons.

I might be wrong, but I am more and more seriously under the impression,
even though we might not be a premium example, that Intergraph is taking
certain issues (i.e. competitive pricing, compatibility, and others
already mentioned) far too lightly. But as we all know: the market will
determine, if they prevail in what they do ... But as all companies should
know: WE (the customers) ARE the market.

Just letting off a little steam and frustration... :-) ... no harm done, I
hope
CU
Harry

  _____  

Von: Krishna Rao T.V.B [mailto:krivehi at yahoo.com] 
Gesendet: Freitag, 15. Juni 2007 09:51
An: Budschedl Harald; geomedia-l at lists.directionsmag.com
Betreff: Re: [Geomedia-l] Geomedia - AutoCAD support

Dear Group,

I completely agree with what Harald said. But we do also have a similar
problem, so alternatively we use FME for the sake. Though it is not a good
alternative but we have no other option.

I believe Intergraph need to act fast , it is a similar case in exporting
our data into KML, where I understand Intergraph has not even given a
thought to it.

With Regards,

Krishna Rao T.V.B

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