DWG Format?

[Raychaser]

Hi There

I'm loving the site and learning to make use of the data. 

As a preface I work with a lot of open source software like GRASS and QGIS so I'm a little trouble with the DWG format which is a really proprietary format. 

What was the reason for choosing DWG? Would it be possible to convert it to something a little more open like a compressed .dem, geo tiff or even dxf?

Thanks,

Matt

[Mark, Jonathan]

Glad you are liking the site.

 

We initially focused pretty much on three geographic formats--DWG because a lot of folks use Autodesk products, SHP because a lot of people use ESRI products, and KML because of Google of course.  Our experience is that a lot of software can ingest both DWG and SHP files.

 

More recently we have begun to expand our formats to XML, JSON, and GeoJSON as well as both ECW and SID for the orthophotos.  We continue to look at other formats but are trying to keep the site and files manageable by not going too far too fast.

 

We'll have a look at the formats you mention as resources permit.

 

Jonathan

 

 

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From: vancouv...@googlegroups.com [vancouv...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Raychaser [matt....@gmail.com]
Sent: January 23, 2012 10:24 AM
To: vancouv...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Vancouver-Data] DWG Format?

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[Herb Lainchbury]

I don't know if this is helpful or not but I have used this tool, which is easy enough to liberate data from SHP files.

http://shpescape.com/

H

--
Herb Lainchbury
Dynamic Solutions Inc.
www.dynamic-solutions.com
http://twitter.com/herblainchbury

[Raychaser]

Hey. So, first of all, sorry for the double post. I absentmindedly wrote the first one, thought it didn't go through and then wrote the sedond. 

Jonathan: I totally get the format thing. It'd be great to have everything in an open format and once you get there it will make things more accessible for all kinds of people to play around with free data (which is super cool btw) :)

Herb: Thanks, I'll file that tool away in my toolbelt. Actually I use grass and qgis which both support shp files. It was the DWG that had me in a pickle. Always good to know of another tool though.

Ideally I'd like to get a DEM file out of the DWG since it's essentially just elevation data. Still not quite sure how to do it. Sketchup seems to crash when I try to load it in......

[Luke Closs]

Jonathan, thank you for doing GeoJSON - It's a really good open web format that I see a lot of new-school apps using.  Personally I like it the best for consuming with code, (JSON is awesome in general) and I like KML for the ease of visualizing it quickly.

(I have never used autodesk or esri products, and I only use qgis when I have to.)

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 7:53 PM, Mark, Jonathan <jonath...@vancouver.ca> wrote:

--
Cheers,
luk.ec

[Meng]

Thanks Luke for your comment on GeoJSON and JSON for which we started
to consider in 2010. In many ways, JSON and GeoJSON are a better
alternative to a XML format, especially for programmers who are
nowadays using JavaScript API-based platforms.

In selecting data formats, based on our experience handling public GIS
data requests before we had open data, we identified the open data
users categories and their general needs: programmers who are more
interested in formats like KML, RSS, GeoRSS, XML, JSON and GeoJSON;
professionals in geospatial industries who are more interested in
industry standards geospatial formats such as DWG (CAD drawing
standard) and SHP (vector GIS file standard), as well as ECW and MrSID
for raster data; and general public who are more likely interested in
a data set that can be easily opened, analyzed and visualized with a
widely available tool such as a CSV/XLS file (Excel) or a KML file
(Google Earth/Maps). Like Jonathan said, with those popular data
formats, plus widely available free data format conversion tools like
others suggested here, you can convert any of those formats to any
other format you are interested in.

Meng Li

GIS and CADD Services Branch
City of Vancouver

On Jan 31, 11:47 pm, Luke Closs <lukecl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jonathan, thank you for doing GeoJSON - It's a really good open web format
> that I see a lot of new-school apps using.  Personally I like it the best
> for consuming with code, (JSON is awesome in general) and I like KML for
> the ease of visualizing it quickly.
>
> (I have never used autodesk or esri products, and I only use qgis when I
> have to.)
>
> On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 7:53 PM, Mark, Jonathan

> <jonathan.m...@vancouver.ca>wrote:

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >  Glad you are liking the site.
>
> > We initially focused pretty much on three geographic formats--DWG because

> > a lot of folks use Autodesk products, SHP because a lot of people use ESRIproducts, and KMLbecause of Google of course.  Our experience is that a lot of software can

> > ingest both DWG and SHP files.
>
> > More recently we have begun to expand our formats to XML, JSON,
> > and GeoJSON as well as both ECW and SID for the orthophotos.  We continue
> > to look at other formats but are trying to keep the site and files
> > manageable by not going too far too fast.
>
> > We'll have a look at the formats you mention as resources permit.
>
> > Jonathan
>

> >  ------------------------------
> > *From:* vancouv...@googlegroups.com [vancouv...@googlegroups.com]
> > on behalf of Raychaser [matt.rei...@gmail.com]
> > *Sent:* January 23, 2012 10:24 AM
> > *To:* vancouv...@googlegroups.com
> > *Subject:* [Vancouver-Data] DWG Format?