LandXML Accepted as a Standard

LandXML Version 1.0 accepted as an industry standard by Land Development and Transportation Industry Consortium LandXML.org

July 26, 2002 - The LandXML.org Industry Advisory Board is pleased to announce LandXML Version 1.0 is an accepted standard for open data exchange of civil engineering and survey data. The LandXML ASCII data exchange standard is based on the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) industry standards XML and XML Schema.

Currently eight commercial software applications that support the LandXML 1.0 data exchange standard are available from Autodesk, Inc., Bentley Systems, Carlson Software, EaglePoint Software and Trimble Navigation. A complete listing of software applications is available here.

The LandXML schema specifies a data exchange standard useful for solving real-world customer problems:

* Transferring Civil engineering design data and Survey measurement data between software applications and between office computers and field devices.
* Providing a data format suitable for long-term data archival.
* Providing a standard format for official electronic design submission.
* Source data for quantity take-off, cost estimation.
* Source data for custom calculations and reports.
* Providing accessible design data from remote/field devices.
* Providing high precision data exchange format for GIS applications and databases.

The LandXML.org Advisory Board

The LandXML.org Advisory Board is comprised of more than 180 Land Development and Transportation Industry professionals from 86 organizations. Representatives from companies include Autodesk, Bentley Systems, CAiCE Software, EaglePoint Software, Leica Geosystems, Infrasoft, Trimble Navigation, and Tripod Data Systems. These companies have put competitive differences aside to work together making this industry standard useful for design and survey professionals around the world.

U.S. government agency participants include The U.S. Federal Highway Administration, AASHTO, Nebraska Department of Roads, Florida Department of Transportation, North Carolina Department of Transportation, Missouri Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. International participants include Land Information New Zealand, Philippines, Slovenia, Spain, France, Japan, Vietnam, Egypt, Brazil, and India. For a more complete list of participants look here.

LandXML 1.0 Software Application Support Available Now

Currently eight commercial software applications that support LandXML data exchange are available with almost a dozen more applications under active development. Autodesk, Inc., Bentley Systems, Carlson Software, EaglePoint Software and Trimble Navigation produce these civil design and survey software applications. A complete listing of software applications is available here.

Real-World Problems Solved by LandXML

Data Exchange and Sharing

LandXML is a design data exchange format for common Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Land Planning data. It allows data created during the Land Development process to be shared by professionals who are using any software application that has the ability to either import or export LandXML data. One example is the ability to quickly export road design data from a civil engineering design software application to the Federal Highway Administration's IHSDM software application (http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/ihsdm/brief.htm) that checks the complex road design parameters against published AASHTO road design policies. The end goal is to produce safer road designs.

Submitting Project Data

Instead of or in addition to submitting vendor and version specific software files, engineering firms can submit a LandXML project file to approval agencies, The specification of LandXML ensures that the consultant can properly deliver the data, and that it can be fully used by the receiving organization.

Archiving Data

Archiving data for the future is critical, but the value is lost if that data is not usable in the future. LandXML is not reliant on any specific software title or version, and the format is derived as open, ASCII characters. All LandXML data files also include the schema version and schema definition path, so the file can remain usable even as the current schema versions are incremented.

About LandXML.org

LandXML.org and the LandXML schema specification was initiated by Autodesk and other former EAS-E participants in late 1999 as an industry-driven, open XML data exchange standard addressing the needs of private and public sector Land Development and transportation professionals, software/hardware producers, and service vendors. The first draft LandXML schema was derived from working with the authors of the earlier ASCII based initiative EAS-E (Engineering And Surveying - Exchange) data interchange standard.

LandXML copyright 2002 LandXML.org, All other company names, brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

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Source: Material used in press releases is often supplied by external sources and used as is.