I'm wondering if there is a best practice for maintaining both CAD and ESRI GDB sytems simultaneously?
I work for my local municipality and as it is now the Eng Techs update reference drawings in CAD then I go through the changes and update the GDB. There is a lot of duplication and occasionally things get missed or fall to the wayside.
How does your organization manage 2 separate systems? Would it be better to train the Eng Techs in Esri or is it possible to streamline the data management?
If your organization uses AutoCAD, I would suggest to have a look at ESRI's
"ArcGIS for AutoCAD"
product. It should theoretically allow a much more streamlined working process between AutoCAD and ArcGIS, where both your ArcGIS and AutoCAD users, can use and edit the same datasets stored in an ESRI Geodatabase via editable webservices.
See here for the product page link of ESRI:
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-autocad
In case of a Bentley MicroStation environment, you might consider Bentley's
"ProjectWise"
product, and specifically the following modules:
- ProjectWise Geospatial Management
- ProjectWise Connector for ArcGIS Software
This should allow you to connect an ESRI Enterprise Geodatabase from within MicroStation.
Some links:
http://www.bentley.com/nl-NL/Products/Bentley+Geospatial+Management/
http://www.bentley.com/nl-NL/Products/ProjectWise+Connector+for+ArcGIS+Software/
ftp://ftp.bentley.com/pub/help/projectwiseconnectorforarcgis/08111122en/readme.htm
Lastly, with OGC (Open GIS Consortium) WFS vector data services making headway, you may be able to use standard compliant vector based webservices served from any of these three platforms, in any other, provided these vendors offer such solutions.
