Autodesk Government Solutions today announced the availability of a new government geospatial bundle that combines various Autodesk GIS products with Google Earth Pro. Today the bundle is only handy for sales people and government agency buyers. The real key to making it a smooth-running software suite for the end user is only available as beta software.
The bundle includes Autodesk Map 3D 2007, Autodesk Raster Design 2007, Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise 2007, and Google Earth Pro Version 4.
The technology that makes this more than a sales bundle is still in development. After using either Autodesk Map 3D and/or Raster Design to create a GIS dataset, a user can publish the data to Google Earth Pro’s KML format using (to quote the Autodesk press release), “beta plug-in software available for free download at the company’s Autodesk Labs web site.” The GIS data is then available for less-technical users to process in Google Earth Pro and possibly distribute for free viewing in any copy of Google Earth.
The users of Autodesk GIS software that I have talked to in the past really like the products, but there just aren’t very many Autodesk GIS users out there. ESRI, Intergraph and Bentley are the big three in GIS, with Autodesk generally lumped in with “other providers.” Autodesk GIS solutions are often chosen because there is specific need to bridge between CAD data and GIS applications, or somebody in the organization demands the firm stay an Autodesk shop.
This bundle might open the door in government accounts where people have discovered the Google Earth cool factor and have hit a wall in developing custom applications building on it. The bundle also makes sure agencies are using Google Earth in a manner consistent with its license; the free version is only for private use.
In announcing the bundle, Autodesk quotes a recent federal report on the need for geospatial technology in the government: “Twenty [Federal] lines of business (63% of the total) are identified as having primary geospatial elements. In the ‘Services for Citizens’ lines of business, 74% are identified as having geospatial as a primary element.” The profile goes on to state “The most accurate and up-to-date [GIS] data are data that are collected, maintained and used locally.”
I can relate to the need for a solution like this in the hands of civil servants. Every day I stop by the 24-hour gas station at center of my small town to read the daily report posted on the nearby Tripod Complex forest fire that has consumed more than 100,000 acres and blackened our skies (also available online). The daily perimeter maps are crudely drawn JPEG overlays. I know the data is being generated that could display this information in Google Earth; the tools just need to be in the right hands.
The bundle, officially known as The Autodesk Government Geospatial Solution with Google Earth Pro, is now available on the US General Services Administration’s Schedule 70. It is available exclusively to government agencies through DLT Solutions, Inc., the Autodesk Master Government Reseller.
--RSN
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