Review: ArcGIS - MSD

I was recently contacted by a confused user who uses both ESRI's ArcGIS and Autodesk's Map 3D products. He was provided an installation of ArcGIS 9.3 + MSD for AutoCAD. He was wondering what MSD was and how it compares to AutoCAD Map 3D.

First of all MSD is designed to supplement the lack of GIS functionality for VANILLA AutoCAD. If you have AutoCAD Map 3D or Civil 3D, you already have a Superset of the functionality provided by MSD. Here are some of the technical specifications comparing MSD on AutoCAD to AutoCAD Map. Although the lists are not comprehensive, they represent the core functionality of both products:


MSD on AutoCAD:

- Only a few coordinate systems supported
- Query only, No editing
- Can’t push design data into GIS
- Uses Object Data, no direct connect to GIS server
- No support for geo-referenced Raster Imagery
- Can’t access web based data sources such as WMS, WFS


MSD is basically an automated import utility with coordinate systems and some stylization capability. The key is that ESRI is targeting VANILLA AUTOCAD.



AutoCAD Map 3D 2009:

- NATIVE (not an import) live connection (FDO) to ALL ESRI formats, Mapinfo, Microstation, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, ODBC, others, and all other databases provided by OSGEO.com open source community of which there are hundreds

- Over 5000 global coordinate systems
- Geo-referencing and management of Imagery
- Direct connect, query, stylize, theme and EDIT data in native sources (all named above)
- WMS, WFS data sources
- Map book creation
- Network and Polygon Topology analysis
- Direct connect to various surface formats such as DEM, stylization, contouring, draping
- Database Joins
- Push design data en mass into a database with Bulk-Copy


Summary:

MSD is a good product provided free if you already own ESRI products. It is not intended for use with AutoCAD Map. Doing so would downgrade the functionality built into AutoCAD Map. AutoCAD Map is a full-featured design, data management and GIS application.