Application SHP2DGN Converter

Aware of the importance of continuous improvement of geospatial information, a project with the name "Acquisition of Three-Dimensional Data for Geographic Information Systems" (SIG3D) was created in 2012, which constitutes the basic information for the production of the Military Charter, scale 1:25000, M888 Series, by photogrammetric methods.

The methodology used in this project was adapted to our Production Chain, having for this purpose been created a Geographic Database, whose objects resulted from a compilation of the Object Catalog and a symbology in everything identical to that which has been produced in CAD (Computer-Aided Design).

A complete environment in GIS, only became so possible in 2014, with the completion and implementation of this project in the Production Chain. Thus, the acquisition of data by photogrammetric processes, for the Military Charter 1:25 000, M888 Series, significantly improved the quality of the information acquired, constituting the fundamental step for the beginning of the migration of CAD technology to GIS.

From the outcenter, the difference between these two technologies and the advantages inherent to their use were noticed, one directed to graphic design and the other, a complete spatial database:

• Modeling: CAD models real-world objects; GIS models the world itself with geographic coordinate systems and map projections in the world;
• Objects: CAD includes lines, circles, arcs, text, etc., with attributes; GIS comprises networks and relationships with connectivity, conductivity and associativity that allows spatial analysis;
• Memory: CAD uses physical memory; GIS uses disk space;
• Topology: CAD has no topology; GIS has geometry/topology and allows objects to form logical groups, figure 1 to model the real world, with spatial analysis to determine the relationship between objects;
• Data Management: CAD differentiates objects by attributes (Type, Level, Color, Style and Thickness) without any information or relationship between them; Database enables relationships between objects by combining data from multiple sources or storages, data that can later be used for numerous geometry or content analyses.

The development of the SHP2DGN_Converter application was directed to user interaction, a simple and intuitive app and quick access to the necessary data of input and mapping of information, as well as the visualization of all the steps performed during the execution of the conversion of SHP to DGN.

A specific application software composed of a set of instructions written in a high-level programming language (3rd generation) Python and C++ (DGNLIB) and libraries such as Geospatial Data Abstraction Library, shapefile, shapely and csv for handling shapefiles and CSV or XLSX files.

GitHub: "SHP2DGN_CONVERTER"