Importing dwg into GIS

[RamNath]

Hi,

I am not sure if I am asking the right question or providing enough details, so sorry for trouble. But here it goes

I am home owner and trying to get permit from city officials. As part of the process, they want to get cad files which they can import into their GIS system.

I got a set of the drawings but they didn't import correctly and they said it was "hanging" in sky when they tried to import. So they asked us to get some "horizontal control" figured out from surveyors.

So now we have:

- surveyors gave us new cad files which has horizontal control information. (S1)

- engineer/architect is creating a new set of drawings, which is what I need to give to city for them to be able to import into their system. (C1)

I am trying to find out what information they need to transfer over from S1 to C1 so city can properly import.

Thanks much.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

My first inclination is that should be the job of the surveyors/engineers/architects as part of their payment and not the client.  Just a thought

[RamNath]

Thanks for the reply.

I understand. As a client/owner, I am just trying to make sure we go back to city with all the (right) information. We have been going back and forth with them for last 5 months. And I am trying to avoid the case, where we go with something, city takes x-days to review and say "missing data", architect/engineer takes another x days to fix...

[JoeBorgione · Accepted solution]

The problem with a surveyors horizontal control position is that they may make up their own reference system so it may end up being meaningless to the city.  If your city GIS people are on the ball, they should be able to rectify or transform your cad drawings using an air photo or some other geo-referenced data.  All they need to know is where your drawings appear their data, and they should be able to take it from there...

This should be in any GIS 101 class: http://gpshort.uga.edu/instructions/gis/Convert%20an%20AutoCAD%20file%20to%20a%20Shapefile%20and%20G...‌

[RamNath]

Thanks Joe. I guess city didn't want to do what you are suggesting, they made us do the whole survey again

I think surveyors said that they used city's "monuments" for the reference points.

So are these just some coordinates written on the drawings that city will input into their system or these are some properties embedded in the cad files?

[JoeBorgione]

As I understand it, that data is embedded in the CAD drawings.  They still have to transform the drawings no matter what you give them.