DWG to SHP - Data Interoperability / FME Workbench

In my previous post I discussed about the issues faced in CAD to GIS conversion when using basic utilities of ArcGIS. In this post I will discuss the route taken by me to convert a set of DWG files to SHP format.

If you are working with a data pertaining to a large area or data with a large number of layers Data Interoperability extension for ArcGIS becomes very essential. While Data Interoperability can handle nearly 100 data formats, FME Desktop on which Data Interoperability is based on can handle 300+ formats. Whatever conversion you need these software have an answer - cad to gis (shp, geodatabase, kml, 3d pdf etc.)

I was involved in a project containing CAD drawings spread across several files. This technically is known as data in tiled format. Though FME has facilities to work on tiled data I decided to take up another route. That is, I used AutoCAD to stitch together all the files. This enabled me to do a reality check on the data quality - arrangement of layer components. It came to light that layers were mixed up, which often is the case with CAD drawings. Working with AutoCAD enabled me to correct such anomalies and also reduce the number of layers.

While the direct read feature of ArcGIS collectively depicts all the layers in the form of points, lines, polygons etc. an FME Workspace depicts all the layers as they are in AutoCAD as shown in figure below. Buildin.. and Compo.. seen in left are the two layers in AutoCAD which are known as reader feature types in FME terminology. Same feature types seen at right are the writer feature types, that are the output layers in shapefile format(in my case). The readers and writers are seen in a workspace as soon as our requirements are defined.

Fig. FME Workspace

Turning off a Dell Laptop Monitor: Keyboard shortcut(s)

I am someone who is particular about power savings and I don't leave appliances powered on when not in use. The same applies to computing devices - be it a smartphone or a PC/Laptop. I power off the desktop monitor when I step out for a tea break or hit Fn+F2 on my Lenovo laptop that turns off the display. Recently, I got a Dell Laptop and I was surprised to discover that Dell does not provide any shortcut to turn off the display. This led to some exploration and I found two ways to achieve that which are outlined below -

Resolving INS-20802: Oracle Net Configuration Assistant failed error on Windows 10

I was all excited about the migration to Windows 10 until I had to install Oracle client 12.1.0.2 on it. The Oracle client installation used to fail miserably at the last stage with this error named INS-20802.

SSL VPN: Configuring and Using Forticlient on Ubuntu, creating a Launcher

Is your primary OS at home Linux and do you use Windows only to connect to your work PC over VPN or to attend meetings? Do you often wish to connect to your work VPN from a Linux PC? If your answer is 'Yes' to the above questions, I have an answer if your workplace uses Fortinet SSL VPN. Note that it's possible to connect to Fortinet and other VPNs like Cisco VPN from Linux through the inbuilt network manager by installing additional tools but this post would focus on using the standard Forticlient for accessing the resources on your work network. Obtaining Forticlient The most important thing to note w.r.t. using Forticlient for Ubuntu (or any Linux distro) is to note that the client is not publicly available for download from the official website. You will have to ask your IT department to download the client for you, in case they haven't provided it.

StayGeo

Search This Blog