Map Tools: A Transformative Experience

Transcription

1 Bonus Chapter 3 Map Tools: A Transformative Experience The Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2016 software contains most of the functionality that can be found in the Autodesk AutoCAD Map 3D 2016 software. As survey technology advances and sources for accurate data become more varied, the ability to transform between units and coordinate systems will become increasingly more important. For the solutions to many interoperability questions, you will look to the map functionality to help you along. In this chapter, you will learn to: Transform coordinates between drawings. Attaching Raster Images Frequently, when using AutoCAD Civil 3D, you ll need to show an aerial image as it relates to your design. The coordinate system of the photo will not always use the same units or coordinate system as your drawing. Standard image attachment tools will not automatically transform the image. Even if both your drawing and the image are assigned coordinate systems, the Civil 3D software will not presume to move one into the other. You ll need to use the map portion of the software to force the coordinate transformation. Here are the general steps to follow to transform an image from its original coordinate system to the coordinate system of your Civil 3D drawing: 1. Start a new drawing and set it to the same coordinate system as the image. In this chapter, this will be referred to as the source coordinate system. 2. Switch to the Planning And Analysis workspace to access the Map 3D tools. 3. Insert the image into the new, empty drawing by clicking the Insert An Image button on the Data panel of the Home tab. 4. Save and close the initial drawing. 5. Open your project drawing and make sure it is set to the correct coordinate system. In this chapter, this will be referred to as the destination coordinate system. both03.indd 9:0:18:PM/08/05/2015 Page 1

2 2 BONUS CHAPTER 3 MAP TOOLS: A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE 6. Attach the source drawing using the features found on the Map Explorer tab of the Task pane or by using the Attach feature found on the Data panel of the Home tab. 7. Use the ADEQUERY command to pull the image across to the destination coordinate system. In the following sections, you will work through these steps in greater detail. Finding Your Map Tools The AutoCAD Map 3D software bridges the gap between GIS and CAD. Because infrastructure designers often dip their toes into the GIS waters, the Civil 3D software contains all the tools that come with the Map 3D software. To access the tools you will work with, you will need to change your active workspace. In the following exercise, you will change workspaces: Figure B3.1 Switching to the Planning And Analysis workspace. 1. Start a new drawing based on the _Autocad Civil 3D (Metric)NCS.dwt file. Even if your preferred working units are feet, the first step in the process will be working with the JP2 image in its native coordinate system. The JP2 you will be working with was obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Conservation Service (USDA) website ( Like most of the data from USDA, the file is in UTM NAD83 and is in metric units. You could also get data from the National Map Viewer ( viewer/) hosted by USGS. Don t forget to check your local city or county GIS resource for even better resolution imagery, before proceeding to one of these alternatives. 2. Save the file in your example file folder as Source.dwg. 3. From the Settings tab of Toolspace, right-click the name of the drawing and select Edit Drawing Settings. 4. On the Units And Zone tab, enter UTM83-14 in the Selected Coordinate System Code field. This will set the drawing s coordinate system to UTM with NAD83 datum, Zone 14, Meter; Central Meridian 99d W. 5. Click OK to dismiss the Drawing Settings dialog. 6. Click the Workspaces drop-down in the upper-left corner of the screen and select Planning And Analysis, as shown in Figure B Save the drawing and keep it open for the next exercise.

3 TRANSFORMING TO LOCAL COORDINATES 3 Inserting the Image Now that you have set your source drawing, it is time to insert the file. In this example, you ll use a.jp2 file, but the process is the same regardless of the type of image file with which you are working. Note that some imagery has the coordinate data already embedded into the file, while others need a world file to define their projection and image position within that coordinate system. So if your image does not show up in the right place, make sure that the world file is not missing from the directory where your image is located. Note that when you insert an image using the map tools, you are given the options to choose among world file, image file, and image defaults for Correlation Source. 1. Continue working in the Source.dwg file that you created in the previous exercise. Remain in the Planning And Analysis workspace. To continue with this exercise, you must have completed the previous exercise. 2. From the Home tab Data panel, click the Insert An Image button. Note that you can type MAPIINSERT and press Enter at the command line from any workspace to invoke this command. 3. In the Insert Image dialog, set Files Of Type to All Images. 4. Browse to the files you downloaded for this chapter, select Texas_State_Capitol.jp2, and click Open. 5. In the Image Correlation dialog, verify that Correlation Source is set to Image File; then click OK. The insertion point and units are already embedded in the image, so no world file is necessary, and you don t need to worry about changing anything. 6. Perform a Zoom Extents to see the image in your file. 7. Remain in the Planning And Analysis workspace and save and close Source.dwg. If you happen to receive a georeferenced image that is in the same coordinate system as the rest of your project, you can use the MAPIINSERT command directly in the project. A coordinate system match may happen periodically, but more often than not you will need to continue the process as outlined in the next section. Transforming to Local Coordinates The first thing you should do in any project drawing is set your coordinate system, as shown in Figure B3.2. Be sure a coordinate system is set before you import your survey and create Civil 3D data. If you change coordinate systems or units partway through a project, any existing information will not be adjusted and changing coordinate systems in the middle of a project is generally a bad idea.

4 4 BONUS CHAPTER 3 MAP TOOLS: A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE Figure B3.2 Set the units and zone before you begin importing data. The technique outlined in this section works on images and any base AutoCAD object. If you have AutoCAD objects (lines, arc, circles, and so on) in a file that has a coordinate system assigned to it, you can attach the file and use a query on the graphic data to perform an exact transformation. Locate Using Geographic Data For XRefs and block insertion, you will see an option called Locate Using Geographic Data. Note that this option will be available only if both the drawings have a coordinate system set and if the GEOMARKERVISIBILITY option is set to 1.

5 TRANSFORMING TO LOCAL COORDINATES 5 Be wary of the Locate Using Geographic Data option for Civil 3D and Map applications. It is intended for base AutoCAD users who simply want to line up drawings; it does not perform a true coordinate transformation. In other words, it will scale and move the XRef or block, but it will not re-project elements to the destination drawing s coordinate system. 1. Open the drawing Destination.dwg (Destination_METRIC.dwg), which you can download from For this example, make sure you have saved the file Source.dwg after completing the previous exercise. These files have been set to a Texas State Plane, Central Zone, coordinate system. 2. In the Planning And Analysis workspace, select the Home tab Data panel and click Attach. 3. Use the Select Drawings To Attach dialog to browse to the file Source.dwg. For this exercise, you saved Source.dwg to the C drive to avoid the need to define an alias. If the file you work with in real life is on a network location, you will need to click the Create/Edit Aliases button and set up a shortcut to additional drives. 4. Highlight Source.dwg, click Add, and click OK, as shown in Figure B3.3. Figure B3.3 Select the source file, click Add, and click OK. The file will be added at the bottom of the dialog in the Selected Drawings section. 5. From the Home tab Data panel, click Define Query. If the dialog does not appear, make sure that within your options for the current Civil 3D profile the path mentioned here is included in your Support File Search Path:

6 6 BONUS CHAPTER 3 MAP TOOLS: A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE Figure B3.4 Setting query properties. C:\program files\autodesk\autocad 2016\map\support\en-us 6. Click the Location button. 7. Set the boundary type to All and click OK. 8. Set Query Mode to Draw. Leave all other options at their defaults. 9. When your dialog resembles Figure B3.4, click Execute Query. Click OK if you receive any warning messages. You should now see the image translated to the correct coordinate system. If the image is not within your current display, use the Zoom Extents command. 10. Select the image, right-click, and select Display Order Send To Back, as shown in Figure B Save the drawing. Figure B3.5 Change the display order to be able to see the existing objects.

7 TRANSFORMING TO LOCAL COORDINATES 7 You will receive a reminder saying The association between queried objects in the current and attached drawings will not be retained once the current drawing file is closed. 12. Click OK to acknowledge this message. 13. At the command line, type mapwspace, hit Enter, and select the default ON option to enable the Task pane. 14. Switch to the Map Explorer tab and from the Drawings category select the source drawing. 15. Right-click the name of the file and from the provided menu select the Detach option. Don t forget to switch your workspace back to Civil 3D to resume working in the rest of the book. You can compare your completed file against the finished file Destination_FINISHED.dwg (Destination_METRIC_FINISHED.dwg). An Alternative Method To insert and transform a georeferenced image into the Civil 3D software, you could also use the Map Data Connect tool from the Planning And Analysis workspace in the Home Data panel (or type MAPCONNECT at the command line). This method works for various data types, including raster images. The advantage of this method is that it involves fewer steps. We made you do it the hard way for several reasons: Continues

8 8 BONUS CHAPTER 3 MAP TOOLS: A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE Continued If an image is inserted via the attach and query method, as you did in the previous exercise, the image can be manipulated in all the same ways as an image attached via base AutoCAD that is, you can crop it, make it transparent, and adjust it. Images brought in through the MAPCONNECT command can be color adjusted, but that s it. These images are present only in the drawing they were inserted into and are not available when that drawing is used as a reference into another drawing. If you use the attach and query method, you can transform anything images and entire CAD files, if necessary. Using Live Maps In the 2014 release of AutoCAD vertical products, a new feature was introduced that allows you to overlay imagery using Microsoft imagery services. The downside is that this imagery was provided as an overlay only and is not available for printing. Beginning with the 2015 release, this feature enables the user to save a capture of the image embedded within the drawing file. Let s look at using Live Maps with the exercise you just completed. 1. Open the Destination_FINISHED.dwg (Destination_METRIC_FINISHED.dwg) file. 2. From the top right of the screen, select to sign in to A360 with your Autodesk account. To use Live Maps, you need to have or create an Autodesk account, since the delivery of the content using this feature cannot be done without you being connected to the A360 servers. Also, you will be prompted to accept an EULA and select to use or not use Live Maps upon logging in to A From the Geolocation tab Online Map panel, click the Map Off drop-down button and select Map Hybrid.

9 THE BOTTOM LINE 9 The screen will be updated with a live connection to the Hybrid overlay of imagery and street data. You will notice that the online service takes into account the coordinate system defined for the drawing, and the online image map is aligned with the imagery data you referenced in the previous exercise. If a coordinate system is not set for the drawing, this feature will request you to set it before using the online map data. You can go ahead and switch between the options for imagery alone or street data overlay. Sometimes the imagery content available through the service is better than imagery downloaded from other sources, but as mentioned before, check also the local city and county GIS resources. 4. Change Online Map to Map Aerial. 5. Select the referenced image, and from the contextual tab Options panel, click the Show Image button to hide the image. Click Esc to deselect the image. You could also have unloaded the image by using the options found under the External References palette that can be launched by typing xref or externalreferences at the command line. 6. In the Geolocation tab Online Map panel, click the Capture Area button to access the drop-down menu and choose Capture Viewport. 7. In the Geolocation tab Online Map panel, click the Map Aerial button and choose Map Off. You will notice that even if the online service was set to Off, the captured image is still visible. If you select it and access its properties through the AutoCAD Properties palette, you will notice that this object is a Geomap image and is saved and embedded within your drawing. Also on selection, you will notice a different contextual tab named Map Image that allows you to do the following: Swap the type of the overlay from the drop-down for the current captured area. Set the resolution of the captured image to different levels. By default, the resolution is set to Optimal, but by selecting Very Fine, you will get the best resolution. Control the way the captured image is displayed with the property sliders. Update the representation of the image with the Reload Image button found on the Update panel. This command gives two options of reloading the data with the explanation of the difference shown in the dialog. 8. Since you only needed to see the functionality of the feature, you don t need to save your drawing. Therefore, you can close the drawing. The Bottom Line Transform coordinates between drawings. Most project locations have the ability to use several coordinate systems or units. Being able to correctly manipulate a drawing s coordinate system is extremely important. Master It The TransformThis.dwg file is in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) North American Datum (NAD) 83, Zone 10, in meters. Start a new drawing based on _Autocad Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt or _Autocad Civil 3D (Metric) NCS.dwt. Set the new drawing s coordinates to NAD 83 California State Plane Zone III (US Foot or Meters, depending on which template you used). Save the file as CA_StatePlane.dwg.

10 10 BONUS CHAPTER 3 MAP TOOLS: A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE Using the mapping tools transform and transfer the data from the source file to your saved file. Solution 1. Start a new drawing based on _Autocad Civil 3D (Imperial) NCS.dwt or _Autocad Civil 3D (Metric) NCS.dwt. 2. From the Settings tab of Toolspace, right-click the name of the drawing and select Edit Drawing Settings. 3. On the Units And Zone tab, set the category to USA, California. 4. Set the available coordinate system to NAD83, California State Planes, Zone III, US Foot (NAD83, California State Planes, Zone III, Meter), and click OK. 5. Using the filename CA_StatePlane.dwg, save the drawing to the same location as the rest of your chapter files. 6. Switch to the Planning And Analysis workspace. In the Home tab Data panel, click Attach. 7. Browse to and select the file TransformThis.dwg. Click Add and then click OK. 8. Click Define Query, click Location, set the radio button to All, and click OK. Set Query Mode to Draw. 9. Click Execute Query. Perform a Zoom Extents to see the data. 10. Detach the TransformThis.dwg drawing. 11. Check your result against the finished drawing CA_StatePlane_FINISHED.dwg (CA_ StatePlane_METRIC_FINISHE D.dwg), which can be downloaded from the book s web page.