1. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 1 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM Using VRT Files to Import ODBC, CSV Problem : Many data sources come in comma delimited or in Excel or database formats Solution : VRT files describe the data source so they can be easily imported into Bentley Map Notes: –Works best with point features –Capitalization is important in the various parameters

2. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 2 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM What is VRT (Virtual Datasource) An XML format file that describes the format of the source data –Data source –Feature name –Spatial Reference System –Field encoding Sample VRT SurveyMon.csv wkbPoint

3. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 3 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM SurveyMon.csv wkbPoint Common Parts of VRT file Name of feature

4. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 4 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM SurveyMon.csv wkbPoint Common Parts of VRT file Source for feature

5. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 5 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM SurveyMon.csv wkbPoint Common Parts of VRT file Feature Type

6. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 6 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM SurveyMon.csv wkbPoint Common Parts of VRT file Spatial Reference

7. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 7 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM SurveyMon.csv wkbPoint Common Parts of VRT file Encoding (Column names containing XY(Z) values)

8. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 8 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM CSV Example Source Data: SurveyMon.csv Easting,Northing,ID,Elevation 602639.5381,4049623.398,1,282.9576447 669949.1987,4061243.25,2,282.3723275 617433.4852,4004901.709,3,265.455676 640922.0652,4096213.903,4,228.7933358 680351.1314,4008944.322,5,211.2217422 689200.8667,4010622.815,6,278.4353313 600382.0976,4086158.497,7,203.1683236 630393.1237,4095834.27,8,262.3779305 644160.8595,4016882.563,9,261.6596222 660532.9288,4092362.074,10,243.4360725 VRT File SurveyMon.csv wkbPoint

9. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 9 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM The Map Interoperability Tool File -> Map Interoperability Import -> New Import Add file… Set All File Types Show Properties -> Ungrouped

10. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 10 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM Import the Data All headings from CSV are present, including system generated FID Set any WHERE clauses or spatial constraints Set any required symbology Import the data

11. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 11 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM Review the Imported Features Feature named correctly – Located at correct location – All other properties imported

12. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 12 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM specifies the geographic coordinate system (GCS) of the input data Examples are: – WGS84 – GEOGCS [ "GDA94", DATUM ["Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994 (EPSG ID 6283)", SPHEROID ["GRS 1980 (EPSG ID 7019)", 6378137.0, 298.257222101]], PRIMEM [ "Greenwich", 0.000000 ], UNIT ["Decimal Degree",0.0174532925199433]] A Note About Coordinate Systems

13. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 13 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM A Note About Coordinate Systems Because the GCS can be difficult to define, a simple workaround is to omit the GCS definition and import to a DGN to which the GCS of the data has been assigned. Reference to other DGN files or reassign GCS Sample data is MTM27-10 Import to DGN file with GCS defined as: Reassign GCS as required for transformation

14. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 14 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM Database and Spreadsheet Sources Require an ODBC connection to be setup which is specified in the data source parameter –SrcDataSource>ODBC:SurveyMonXLS Because there can be multiple tables or sheets in each source, an additional parameter is required – MonumentData This defines the table or range name in the source All other parameters remain the same

15. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 15 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM ODBC Example – Excel Spreadsheet Setup ODBC link to XLS file File must be in Excel 97 – 2003 format Data is as shown Range Name (MonumentData) defines the extent of the cells to import including the column headers

16. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 16 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM ODBC Example – Excel Spreadsheet VRT File ODBC:SurveyMonXLS MonumentData wkbPoint

17. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 17 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM ODBC Example – Access Database Setup ODBC link to MDB or ACCDB file Data table is as shown Source layer is the name of the table

18. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 18 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM ODBC Example – Access Database VRT File ODBC:SurveyMonMDB SurveyMon wkbPoint

19. © 2011 Bentley Systems, Incorporated 19 | WWW.BENTLEY.COM Require a custom format for the data Geometry type is – wkbLineString – wkbPolygon For more information and examples: Linear and Polygon Sources http://communities.bentley.com/products/geospatial/desk top/f/5924/t/65028.aspx