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Technical Memorandum
Project
:

Assignment 1: COGO, Object Classification, and Map Standards

Client:

Mike Wallace, CET, OLS,

Prepared By: Matt Reaume, B.ES
OLIP

Subject
:

GISC9305 CAD and GIS

Date:

February 12, 2015

1.Introduction
The purpose of this assignment serves an introduction to the use of AutoDesks
AutoCAD MAP 3D CAD drawing and object classification. Northern Geospatial
Solutions has used COGO to create a new subdivision development to an already
existing parcel land base of the City of St. Catharines, along with developing a
single line road network with object data containing address information for the
streets covered by the drawing.
Northern Geospatial Solutions has created a methodology that outlines the
procedures taken in order to develop a newly digitized subdivision and a single like
road network. Throughout the procedures described in detail are illustrated images
that outlines the process of major steps. The ON1Call Map Standards V1.5 Niagara
Peninsula CAD Standard serves a guide for the preparation of metadata for the
updated base file, quality assurance, and control procedures.

2.Methodology
In order to create the newly digitized subdivision development to an already
existing parcel land base of the City of Catharines, several steps must be taken to
ensure accuracy and quality. First, the coordinate tracker tool was utilized to create
a control point as a reference to begin digitizing. The coordinate system is set to
UTM NAD83 Zone 17 in decimal latitude and longitude to accurately map the new
subdivision development. Once a control point was placed onto the existing base
map, the COGO tool was used to begin the process of inserting the new subdivision.
Figure 1 below shows one .tiff image and the lines that were digitized in each block
of the City of St. Catharines. Six .tiff images were compiled together that outlined

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Glory Hill Road, Hilts Court, and Moffat Street. These images were the basis for
using COGO on the new subdivision development in the city.

Figure 1: Block 2 of New Subdivision

All of the .tiff images were digitized using line, angles, circle radius and length, and
degrees, minutes, and seconds measurements, as outlined on each .tiff image.
Rubbersheeting was used to connect the new subdivision development to the
existing parcel base. This was done because the new subdivision is more accurate
and precise than the original base map.
An additional single road network for the new subdivision was created and added to
the streets layer in the base drawing that consisted of Hilts Court and Glory Hill
Road. The process of creating a table based on street data is the next step by
defining object class structure and definitions. Using the Mapping Standards from
ON1Call, a data structure for source input datasets for the road network file has
been provided, in the following format shown in Table 1. Figure 2 shows the creation
of each individual field in AutoCAD 3D Map that was used to define and attach
object data based on the road network in the City of St. Catharines.

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Table 1: Road Network File Structure

Field Name

Field Type

Street
FromLeft
ToLeft
FromRight
ToRight

Character
Decimal
Decimal
Decimal
Decimal

Field
Size
64
6,0
6,0
6,0
6,0

PreDir

Character

PreType
StreetName
SuffType
SufDir

Character
Character
Character
Character

10
40
10
2

UniqueID

Decimal

9,0

DateCreated

Date

10

Description
Street Name (River)
From left address
To left address
From right address
To right address
Street direction before street name (W
River Rd)
Street type before street name (Rue River)
Street name (W River Rd E)
Street Type after street name (Rd)
Street direction after street type (Rd E)
Street
segment
unique
identification
number
Date the record was created (dd/mm/yyyy)

Annotating the base map was the next procedure in creating the new subdivision
development. The style that was incorporated was standard and the size is 5.0. This
was implemented because standard gave the best overall layout of the text and 5.0
is a perfect height that allows the rest of the features to remain visible on the base
map. The names of the streets was executed by defining and attaching object data
based on the road network file structure, shown above in Table 1. A sample of the
annotation can be seen in Figure 2 below, which clearly illustrates the street name
in the white.

Figure 2: Annotation of Street Name

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Upon completion of digitizing the new subdivision development in St. Catharines,
drawing cleanup was implemented to ensure quality assurance. The cleanup
actions that were used in drawing cleanup consisted of deleting duplicates, dissolve
pseudo nodes, snap clustered nodes, and zero length objects. These actions were
used in order to clean up the base map and provide an increase in quality and
accuracy. Lastly, metadata was created in AutoCAD 3D Map through VMware View
Client because the view metadata option repeatedly crashed the program
otherwise. Metadata was created that followed the Niagara Peninsula CAD Standard
Version 2.1 and is shown below in Table 2.
Table 2: Metadata

Title
Description:

File Name
Type
Date
Author
Coordinate System Name
Planar Distance Units
Entity and Attribute Info
Content

Metadata Standard Name

GISC9305D1ReaumeM.dwg
A new subdivision was created using
COGO that is within the city of St.
Catharines, which is placed on top the
existing base map
Assignment1
DWG
02/12/15
Matt Reaume
UTM NAD 83 Zone 17N
Meters
Type: StreetLine, Attribute Layer: Layer,
Domain Value: Street_Single_Line
30M_394.tif, 30R_13736.tif,
30R_13817.tif, 30R_13872.tif,
30R_13907.tif, 30R_14133.tif,
30R_14134.tif, 30R_14133addresses.tif,
30R_14134addresses.tif, Assign 1 Base
Drawing.dwg
The Niagara Peninsula CAD Standard
Version 2.1

Conclusion
After using COGO, Northern Geospatial Solutions has created a newly
created subdivision development on top of the existing base map for the city
of St. Catharines. It is evident throughout the methodology that numerous
procedures were taken, and the existing base map did not portray the
surrounding features accurately. This technical memorandum has included
a formal layout along with a detailed methodology of the procedures taken
throughout the process of using COGO.