What’s New in Map3D 2008
Due out later this spring, Map3D boasts a few key enhancement areas.
1) Performance - Autodesk has “tuned up” the Feature Data Objects (FDOs) to increase speed. How much up to about seven times.
2) Do More GIS with FDO Data - Now it’s possible to do all the geoprocessing that once was only possible on DWGs including things like buffering.
3) More FDOs - Third parties are producing new FDOs (both proprietary and open source) and they all behave the same way. Among them the open source OGR FDO which supports ESRI’s personal geodatabases.
4) Data management - Map now includes support for metadata (think ArcCatalog). The metadata can be stored in the DWG (and only read by things that read them) or dumped out in XML (for use in other systems).
Mark Christian also noted that there are number of enhancements in the docs aimed at getting users to do more with Map. These include resources like “GIS Skills for Engineers” aimed at making sure users know how to do basic practices. This follows last year’s “Best Practices for Managing Geospatial Data.”
Disclosure: Autodesk covered travel, lodging, food for me to attend World Press Day. I also received corporate gifts.
