Organizational Changes at Florida DOT
The past six months have brought about a lot of change within the Florida Department of Transportation. We have some new faces in management, particularly in our office and the chain of command directly above us. Elwin Broome, Office Manager for the Engineering / CADD Systems Office (ECSO) for nearly a decade, retired in December of 2006. Elwin guided the ECSO through the early years of the Electronic Delivery development process and brought us to our current status as one of the first state DOT’s to engage in delivering plans sets electronically. Bruce Dana was selected as the new Office Manager for the ECSO. Jimmie Prow now leads the support team and Ray L’Amoreaux , one of the original members of the Engineering / CADD Systems group, was selected to lead the development team. Beginning in December 2006 we have a new Director for the Office of Design, to whom our office reports. The former Director, Mr. Robert Greer was replaced by Ms. Lora Hollingsworth, who was the City Engineer for the Leesburg in central Florida.
With the election year over, Governor Charlie Crist (Rep.) replaced the incumbent Governor Jeb Bush. With the change in administration, Denver Stutler, Secretary of the Department of Transportation, resigned. To quote Secretary Stutler “The best time to get on and off the train, is when it stops”. Newly elected Governor Crist then appointed Ms. Stephanie Kopelousos as the new Secretary for the Department. We at ECSO are encouraged by these changes and hope to move forward in new and innovative directions as never before.
Infrastructure changes at Florida Department of Transportation
The most imminent change of outside interest will be our migration from Lotus Notes / Domino as our email infrastructure to Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange. Select machines within our Office of Information Systems are currently using Outlook. In addition, select machines are also testing the Microsoft 2007 Office Suite. Most likely the change to Outlook will coincide with the roll out of the Microsoft 2007 Office Suite. We expect this change to happen early this summer, beginning with Central Office in June.
Vista on the horizon? Those involved in testing tell me that it will be 1st quarter of 2008 before we see the first Microsoft Vista operating systems on local desktops. We continue to test our electronic delivery software on the Vista operating system. Our experiences so far indicate a migration to Vista will be involved. We’re not ready to say ¡hasta la vista! to the old Windows XP operating system yet.
Virtual servers have become the latest innovation in server technology to impact our applications. Some districts have deployed virtual servers as their CADD server using VMWare \ Virtual Server to create and maintain the servers. We have installed some of our CADD applications on the virtual machines and noticed no appreciable difference in performance.
Applications & Development
Generally, our focus is toward reducing the complexity of our electronic delivery suite and consolidating similar applications and processes. Currently we are involved in converting our electronic delivery suite to the Microsoft .NET 2 framework. Last year I reported that we were having persistent problems with versions of MicroStation V8 and incompatibility with GEOPAK and other software. We have finally stabilized with MicroStation version 08.05.2.56. We continue testing GEOPAK Version 8.8.02.71, which we plan to release July 30, 2007 with our next Maintenance Release of our FDOT2004 CADD Software suite. After which, we will begin development and hope to be using MicroStation XM by the 3rd quarter of 2008. We will be working on converting our MicroStation applications from August 2007 until then.
LandXML
We have adopted the LandXML format as one of the required deliverables for project data. This will eventually replace many of the old formats for Engineering and Survey data produced by 3rd party / proprietary programs. We have just completed a feasibility project to store raw survey data as LandXML. We are looking for a solution to replace the Electronic Field Book (EFB) application developed by FDOT back during the mid 1980’s. Electronic Field Book is now obsolete because there are so few handheld devices still available that will run the software (16 bit DOS app).
To accommodate the additional needs identified for raw survey data collection in LandXML format, Nathan Crews, the LandXML schema architect, has proposed changes to the latest working draft (LandXML-1.2.xsd). For more information on the version 1.2 schema, navigate to: http://www.landxml.org/spec.htm
Since the beginning of 2007 we have been investigating formats used in the construction industry for machine control systems (GPS guided systems for construction equipment). We have interviewed contractors and invited software vendors who sell these systems to construction contractors. One common denominator for data exchange among these systems is LandXML data format. The prominent civil design software suites will output design data in LandXML and the software used in construction will import. We plan to investigate this further as a design model for deliverables for future projects.
Information wanted
What plans do you have, if any, for deploying MicroStation XM at your DOT?
Is anyone evaluating Autodesk Civil 3D?
Are other states using Electronic Delivery of plans and specifications?
Are other states considering engineering models for roadway projects? If so, do you plan to use LandXML or other formats as delivery to the agency? Do you plan to deliver engineering models to the contractor for construction?
What are your experiences / opinions on Bentley Select Server XM licensing and usage?