Spatial Manager™ for BricsCAD

Introduction

Spatial Manager™ for BricsCAD is a powerful BricsCAD plug-in designed for BricsCAD users who need to import, export and manage spatial data in a simple, fast and inexpensive way, which includes many possibilities not seen so far in BricsCAD. It comes in a lightweight application that runs inside BricsCAD and allows the user to import and export geospatial data between BricsCAD drawings and geospatial files, data servers or data stores

Notes:

- The access to spatial data servers and stores is available on the "Standard" and "Professional" editions only

- The Export function is available on the "Professional" edition only

- The full managing of spatial data functionality and the background Maps are available on the "Standard" and "Professional" editions only

BricsCAD commands

This is the list of BricsCAD commands included in Spatial Manager™ for BricsCAD

• Main commands
  • SPM (or SPATIALMANAGER): Show Palette. Opens and/or displays the application Palette
  • SPMCLOSE (or SPATIALMANAGERCLOSE): Close. Closes the application Palette
  • SPMIMPORT (or SPATIALMANAGERIMPORT): Import. Directly Imports features from geospatial files or tables without using the application Palette
  • SPMEXPORT (or SPATIALMANAGEREXPORT): Export. Exports BricsCAD entities into geospatial files or tables ("Professional" edition only)
  • SPMSETCRS (or SPATIALMANAGERSETCRS): Coordinate system. Sets the Coordinate Reference System (CRS) for the drawing
• Background Map commands ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)
  • SPMBGMAPSHOW (or SPATIALMANAGERBGMAPSHOW): Show. Shows the selected image Map in the background of the drawing
  • SPMBGMAPHIDE (or SPATIALMANAGERBGMAPHIDE): Hide. Hides the background Map if it is displayed
  • SPMBGMAPREFRESH (or SPATIALMANAGERBGMAPREFRESH): Refresh. Regenerates the image of the background Map, which may be needed under certain graphic situations
• Alphanumeric data structure management commands ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)
  • SPMDATATABLEDEFINE (or SPATIALMANAGERDATATABLEDEFINE): Define Table. Define, modify or delete a data table or its fields
  • SPMDATATABLEATTACH (or SPATIALMANAGERDATATABLEATTACH): Attach. Attach one or more entities to a data table
  • SPMDATATABLEDETACH (or SPATIALMANAGERDATATABLEDETACH): Detach. Detach one or more entities from their corresponding attached data table
• Selection command ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)
  • SPMSELECTBYTABLE (or SPATIALMANAGERSELECTBYTABLE): By Table. Select all the entities attached to a specific data table
• Support commands
  • SPMHELP (or SPATIALMANAGERHELP): Help. Shows the application help (Wiki format)
  • SPMABOUT (or SPATIALMANAGERABOUT): Information. Shows basic information about the application and the installed release
  • SPMUPDATE (or SPATIALMANAGERUPDATE): Updates. Checks if there is a new application release to be downloaded from Internet
  • SPMOPTIONS (or SPATIALMANAGEROPTIONS): Options. Set of parameters to configure the application (includes also the functionality of SPMUPDATE and SPMABOUT)

Main features

• General
  • Import/export spatial data into/from BricsCAD drawings
  • Transformation of coordinates when importing or exporting
  • Background image Maps from Bing, OpenStreeMap, Mapbox, Ordnance Survey, etc.
  • Extended Entity Data (EED)
    • Viewer palette
      • Also shows some other data as the Blocks properties (Name and Attributes), Layer, geometric properties, etc.
    • Edit values directly in the palette
    • Hyperlinks
    • Managing data structure
      • Define, modify, and delete tables and fields
      • Attaching entities to a table
      • Detaching entities from their tables
      • Selecting the entities attached to a table
        
        
• Import processes
  • Entities imported into a new or open drawing
  • Basic target layer or new target layers using a field value
  • Use blocks for points and centroids
    • Select the name of the Block according to the value of a field
    • Block insertion parameters from field values
  • Polygon fills and transparencies
  • Polygon centroids
  • Labeling entities while importing
  • Spatial filter to import only the entities in the current view
  • Elevation and thickness from field values
  • Import data from tables as Extended Entity Data (EED)
  • Speed up the processes skipping some wizard steps
  • Use the intuitive palette options or the quick import function
  • Save Tasks to replay the import processes so many times as desired
    
    
• Export processes
  • Entities exported to geospatial files or servers
  • Select the entities to be exported
  • Option to treat the closed polylines as polygons
  • Options to export the Handle, the Layer and the Elevation of the entities
  • Option to export the Name and the Attributes of the Block References
  • Options to export Text objects and their basic properties (Rotation and Height)
  • Automatic complex geometric operations
  • Filtering of incompatible entities
    
    
• Data sources
  • Manage your own shortcuts
  • Access to spatial data files (SHP, GPX, KML, OSM, PBF, MIF/MID, TAB, E00, SQLite, SDF, ASCII points, GML, XML, etc.) (see current available Data Providers)
  • Manage your User Data Sources
  • Access to spatial database servers (SQL Server, PostGIS, etc.) (see current available Data Providers)
  • Access to other connections (WFS, ODBC points or WKB - Excel, Access, dBase,...-, etc.) (see current available Data Providers)

Notes:

- The access to spatial data servers and stores, the Extended Entity Data (EED) and the Background Maps are available on the "Standard" and "Professional" editions only

- The Export function and the Tasks technology are available on the "Professional" edition only

To get a first preview of the application, please watch this video:

To experiment the EXPORT capabilities (on the 'Professional' edition), please watch these videos:

• Directly to Google Earth (KML) from your drawing
• Coordinates to Excel from your drawing
• Import a Shapefile and export it as 3D Google Earth
• OpenStreetMap data. Edit and export to Google Earth
• Import a Shapefile. Edit & export as Shapefile

To take a look at the TASKS technology (on the 'Professional' edition), please watch this video:

• Tasks preview

To learn how is working the DIRECT DATA EDITION and how to MANAGE the DATA STRUCTURE (on the 'Standard' and 'Professional' editions), please watch the following videos:

• Direct Data Edition
• Managing the Data Structure

To know more about the attractive and useful BACKGROUND MAPS (on the 'Standard' and 'Professional' editions), please watch the following videos:

• Background Maps 1
• Background Maps 2

To know how to LABEL the objects WHILE IMPORTING, please watch this video:

• Labeling objects

To know how to Use the BLOCKS WHEN IMPORTING, please watch this video:

• 'Blocks' enhancements

FAQs

Here you will find all the technical information available on the implementation as well as tutorials, additional data, etc.

• How to Start?
• Licenses
• Compatible BricsCAD applications
• Data Providers
• Interface
• Data sources
• Spatial files
• Databases
• Import
• Export ("Professional" edition only)
• Data Structure Management ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)
• Background Maps ("Standard" and "Professional" editions only)

Links

Here you will find some useful links to other pages of Spatial Manager™ for BricsCAD

• Changelog
• Coordinate Systems objects list
• End User License Agreement
• Spatial Manager™ web