Autodesk Object Data Converter

I just bought a sunfish sailboat. Arguably the most successful sailboat design, with over 500,000 made. This sailboat is easy to sail and has pretty good performance. My boat is one of the old ones, 1965. Several design changes over the decades have improved the design's performance. Better, rudder and centerboard shapes and materials, and a kick-up rudder feature that allows for easier beach launching are some of the more notable improvements. Its upstart cousin the Laser is faster… but not as easy to sail. Although both are touted as being “car-toppable”, both are still a little more than I want to manage by myself from my garage to the water and back without a trailer.

I have been on a quest to design a sailboat, toy, machine or thing that is fast, comfortable, simple to sail, and easy to transport by one person. I’m currently working on my 11th significant prototype concept of such a boat… I bought the sunfish because I’d actually like to sail something now!

I have some drawings that were created by someone else in Autodesk Map 3D that I need to use in ArcGIS. I have Autodesk Map 3D and could use it to convert the Object Data to Shapefiles to make the drawings more usable by ArcGIS, but a colleague has just put together an Autodesk Map 3D converter that I can run in conjunction with Autodesk Map 3D that keeps the data inside the AutoCAD file. This tool generates attributed AutoCAD drawings according to the mapping specification for drawings that I can understand and that are readily usable by ArcGIS for AutoCAD and ArcGIS desktop.

I had to spend some time in my garage retrofitting a little utility trailer to accommodate the sunfish, next weekend I will be sailing!