β Scribed by R.G. Newell; T.L. Sancha
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Although there are some similarities between CAD and GIS there are many differences. The most fundamental difference is that GIS models the world as it exists, whereas CAD models artifacts yet to be produced. As a result the data manipulated by a GIS is an order of magnitude larger and more complex than CAD systems have to deal with, and the nature of the data, its sources and its uses, are quite different. This paper compares the two fields in terms of their technology, data, market, user applications and vendor organizations.
CAD is used to design new objects, which have not existed in the world before, whereas GIS is used to build a model of the world as it exists, including its history, in order to understand, analyse and manage resources and facilities. The data set necessary to represent the world, as it is, is enormously larger and more complex than the data set necessary to represent new products. This fact leads to there being major differences between CAD and GIS.
Anybody who has worked in both fields will immediately be struck by the difference in emphasis between the two, basically stemming from the vast differences in data volume and the fundamental raison d'etre of the two kinds of system. Table 1 shows lists of common terminology and jargon that one might hear at a conference on CAD or GIS.
Even a superficial examination of the parts of GIS and CAD that one might think are similar immediately reveals some important differences, namely the graphics: volume 22 number 3 april 1990 0010-4485/90/030131-05
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
## Abstract Archaeological prospection and excavation have the same research objective, namely, the study of the material culture of humans. They investigate the archaeological record but are based on different physical properties and work with different resolution and instrumentation. In addition