GIS Data Conversion Projects

City of Coquitlam, B.C.

1999 Drainage Network Conversion

Underhill was awarded a contract to convert the City's hard copy as-built storm sewer plans to CARIS GIS. Conversion was accomplished using Underhill's in-house conversion software developed in Pen Metrics Field Notes system under Windows 95 and AutoCAD 14. Underhill's software supports full connectivity between facilities and allows attribute entry through customized screens. The software also incorporated an translator to CARIS exchange format. Facilities were placed via coordinate geometry (COGO), in Field Notes, relative to the clients land base from CARIS.

1996 Sanitary Sewer Conversion

Underhill was awarded a contract to convert the City's hard copy as-built sewer plans to CARIS GIS. Conversion was accomplished using Underhill's in-house conversion software developed in Pen Metrics Field Notes system under Windows 3.1 and AutoCAD. Underhill's software supports full connectivity between facilities and allows attribute entry through customized screens. The software also incorporated an translator to CARIS exchange format. Facilities were placed via coordinate geometry (COGO), in Field Notes, relative to the clients land base from CARIS.

British Columbia Hydro

Underhill's association with BC Hydro is a long and mutually beneficial one. Since 1958 we have completed over 900 projects for BC Hydro and its predecessors: BC Engineering Co., and BC Electric Co., in the fields of engineering, surveying, mapping, and facilities management.

1990 - 1992 Data Conversion of Existing Electrical Distribution Records

Underhill was successful in obtaining a major portion of BC Hydro's initial GeoFacilities Information System (GFIS) conversion project. This project was described in the industry as "one of the most aggressive conversion projects ever undertaken". Hydro's conversion schedule called for the entire system to be converted in two years "... which is two to five times faster than other GIS conversion projects of similar size and scope." .1

BC Hydro serves 1.4 million customers in a territory that covers more than 72,000 square kilometres (45,000 square miles). The project included conversion of overhead and underground primary and secondary electrical facility information, and digital land base development. Also involved on the Underhill Team was Kilborn Engineering Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C., and GeoTechnology International of Denver, Colorado.

Underhill was awarded the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island divisions of the project. These areas cover the two largest metropolitan centres in the Province; Vancouver and Victoria. Over 1,500,000 overhead and underground electrical facilities and their attributes, on some 5,500 map sheets, were converted during this project. BC Hydro's accuracy requirements were 100% for the digital model and 99% with respect to the source documents. Underhill met or exceeded these requirements in all returns. This project represented Underhill's first IBM GFIS contract.

To meet the project schedule and achieve the rigid accuracy standards, Underhill developed a methodology which utilized, in-house developed, specialized digitizing and quality control software. The electrical facilities digitizing was carried out in the IBM GFIS environment and the land features in Intergraph MicroStation PC. The land data were merged with the electrical data after translation from Intergraph to IBM GFIS. This custom translator was written by Underhill. This methodology, executed by a qualified staff trained by our in-house program enabled us to complete the project successfully.

Subsequent to the completion of the initial project Underhill was awarded further conversion work in Vancouver. BC Hydro had originally planed to do this work in-house, due to the complexity and density of the facilities. Underhill's performance in the initial GFIS contract gave BC Hydro the confidence that Underhill could complete this area.

1. Juhl, G.M. (1990) " B.C. Hydro Automates a Province". GIS WORLD, August/September, 1990.

1990 - 1992 Field Inventory of Overhead Facilities in the Lower Mainland of B.C.

In conjunction with the original BC Hydro GFIS conversion contract Underhill was successful in obtaining a contract to produce a Field Inventory of the overhead distribution system in the Lower Mainland. This project involved: preparation of Field Inventory documentation, training of approximately 25 people (including 6 of Hydro's own staff) in field inventory procedures, development of field computer data collection software for automated attribute data collection (software included validation of field input data), development of software for the management, audit, digital QA, and editing of field collected data, field mapping of Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Surrey, Delta, Langley, Richmond, North Shore, Vancouver, Abbotsford, and Mission.

1993 Conversion of Existing Electrical Distribution Records/General Work Order Conversion/ Field Inventory

In May of 1993 UGSL obtained follow-on work for update, conversion, and field inventory of a number of areas not converted in the initial GFIS project. More specifically this work included: General Work Order updates in the Lower Mainland, conversion of overhead and underground facilities and field inventory in Golden and Revelstoke, B.C, and conversion of overhead and underground facilities in Lillooet, and Cache Creek, B.C.

Florida Power & Light

1992 - 1993 Electrical Facilities Conversion

Underhill along with Field Data Services, Inc. of Denver, Colorado worked on the Florida Power & Light Facilities Graphic Management System (FGMS) data conversion project. This AM/FM - IBM GFIS project involved the conversion of primary electrical facilities on 459 map sheets covering an area of 1,000 square miles representing the populated portion of Dade County (Miami), Florida. Part of the conversion process involved verifying positions of facilities which had been imported from an existing data base. These facilities had been roughly geographically located on a grid system. The area contained approximately 800,000 customers and 490,000 cadastral parcels.

FPL's content, or factual, error rate for the electrical facility files was 0.1 percent. Positional error for field located facilities was not to exceed 5 feet at a 90% confidence level. Underhill along with FDSI met or exceeded these specifications in all deliveries.

Underhill provided, field data migration, text merging and customized data checking routines, and procedures to ensure network connectivity, developed field data collection methodology specific to FPL's electrical data specifications, and performed the electrical data conversion. Underhill also provided custom graphic data translation from ARC/INFO to IBM GFIS.

Underhill's translation software was used to convert FPL's land base (supplied by another conversion vendor in ESRI ASCII format) to IBM IFF. This data was used to the provide geographic referencing for converting electrical facilities. The Underhill software worked quickly and ran on a standard 640K microcomputer. The translator, written in ‘C', produced attribute and graphic IFF records for topographical and cadastral features, building symbols and outlines, map borders, and power poles.

Salt River Project

1992 Electrical Facilities Conversion

In February of 1992 Underhill was contracted to do the conversion of electrical facility information for the Salt River Project's Distribution Facilities Information System (DFIS). Intelligraphics International of Medina, Ohio, subcontracted the data conversion portion of their contract with SRP to Underhill. This project involved the conversion of 540 square miles of electrical distribution in Phoenix, Arizona. A total of 15,000 facilities (only transformers included in count) were converted.

Although facility counts were lower than that in the BC Hydro and Florida Power & Light conversion projects, SRP proved to be an extremely technically challenging project. The data model was based on five separate map views - overhead, underground, circuits, operations, and schematics. Each view had its own symbology, line types, and annotation scales. The complexity of graphics required detailed document preparation and layout (scrub) prior to digitizing. The product specifications were rigorous and quality control and edits were a large part (30%) of total conversion hours.