Workflow for AutoCAD Map3D

I’ve created Design Specification Documents to help communicate design intent and detailed interaction patterns and UI controls of the Workflow Feature for AutoCAD Map3d feature to different members of development teams.

User Problem

GIS Analysts are constantly running the same kinds of analysis over different sets of data, which means that are making very repetitive sequences of operations in which they just slight change the input of these operations. They wish there was a way to automate these analysis by such prompting different sets of inputs.

Design Opportunity

Using the Microsoft® Windows® Workflow Foundation (WWF), AutoCAD Map 3D software makes it easier to automate repetitive tasks with a powerful workflow framework and user interface. With the framework, you can build, save, and share simple and complex workflows with a visual editor. Facilitate more accurate data updates based on industry—or custom defined—standards by using custom feature rules and workflows for industry models.

The initial tools will focus on spatial and data analysis capabilities collectively known as Overlay Analysis, where a collection of classes/geometry is compared with another collection of classes/geometry using defined operators like Intersection, Union, and Erase, and resulting in either modified or an entirely new set of classes/geometry. This first offering of Workflow will provide a well-designed framework for developers to create custom workflows. Developers will be able to easily create workflows and end-users will be able to run workflows seamlessly and without any knowledge of the underlying workflow.

Use Cases

This example will describe only the first four of the High-Level Use Cases. In these descriptions, it should be clear how the Low-Level Use Cases are accommodated.

Run Workflow

This action will generate a series of prompts for each activity involved in the workflow. By default, no values are set so every activity will cause a prompt to appear.

Save Workflow

Users can save their workflows as XOML files, which will store the activity diagram and/or the input parameters for each activity component.

Edit Workflow

The medium for modifying a workflow is the Workflow Designer Window, which can be opened from the Ribbon, from a Menu Action, or the Command line.

Edit Activity

Once users drag an activity from the Activities List Panel to the Design Surface, they can set the input parameters before running by either by manual input, by binding the input parameters to the output of a previous activity, or by choosing to prompt users for the parameters at runtime.

UI Inventory

Final Version

You can check the final working version of this feature at Autodesk’s Official Youtube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0w5-tOhywc or check the video below:

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