As-Built & CAD-to-GIS Conversion Services
Draftech converts existing as-built drawings, CAD files, scanned maps and legacy GIS exports into an attributed dataset for your receiving platform. In-house engineering and GIS teams carry the conversion from source review through client acceptance.
Fiber as-built GIS data services for your record backlog
Draftech's fiber as-built GIS data services convert existing network records into your current GIS schema. You receive converted features, a client-approved attribute crosswalk, quality review against the agreed model and a register of unresolved records. Engineering is 100% in-house and GIS production is in-house too, giving you a single point of accountability for the delivered data and the decisions behind it.
This conversion service sits within our GIS mapping services. It serves ISPs, carriers, electric cooperatives and BEAD subgrantees with records accumulated across projects, drawing standards and previous vendors. The scope starts with documents and datasets you already hold.
A legacy file can carry a duplicate identifier, a missing connection or a location expressed in the wrong coordinate system. An engineer who trusts it inherits a bad design assumption. A field crew is sent to the wrong structure. A grant closeout record fails review. Each reuse carries the error forward. We establish what the sources support, convert that information and document what remains uncertain.
What you receive from each source
CAD drawings and existing as-built files
Our CAD-to-GIS fiber conversion services translate design and as-built CAD files into GIS feature classes. Information held in layers, blocks and annotations, such as cable identifiers, fiber counts and sequential footage marks, becomes attributes under the approved mapping. Your team can query those attributes in the converted dataset instead of opening drawings to read individual labels.
The conversion accounts for what each drawing represents. A design file and an as-built file may describe different conditions, even where they cover the same route. Design-only features are not carried into GIS as constructed plant unless an as-built or a legible redline confirms them. Unclear annotations or conflicting revisions become review items.
Our OSP as-built GIS conversion services also use existing redline sets as conversion evidence. Legible, attributable changes inform the GIS record; a mark that cannot be tied confidently to an asset remains flagged. The handoff shows where the source supports a usable attribute and where a decision still needs evidence.
Scanned maps and paper records
Draftech georeferences maps and digitizes their content into GIS features, recording each feature's source and confidence. The deliverable makes historical information accessible in the same GIS as your other converted records, with its limitations visible to the people using it.
Paper records vary in legibility, scale and completeness. Those differences affect how much information can be carried forward and how confidently a position can be represented. A clean digital line does not establish survey-grade precision. We preserve the distinction between a location supported by the source and a location the source cannot establish reliably.
Legacy GIS exports from previous projects
Datasets from past projects and vendors move into your current schema through our GIS data migration services, with identifiers harmonized across sources. Records delivered by different vendors can use different field names or values for the same information. We agree how those differences map into your schema before carrying them into the converted dataset.
Duplicate or missing identifiers require particular attention because they can make separate records appear to describe the same asset, or leave an asset without a usable reference. We resolve discrepancies where the supplied evidence allows it and record remaining conflicts for client review. You receive a consolidated dataset with documented decisions about how legacy information was carried forward.
An approved crosswalk for every source
The attribute crosswalk is a deliverable your GIS and engineering teams approve. It states how each legacy source's fields and values map into the target schema. That agreement gives your reviewers a clear basis for judging the conversion and prevents different source conventions from being treated as equivalent without review. Teams running their own migration can read our telecom record migration guide.
Your GIS team knows what your GIS expects. Your engineering team knows how the information will be used. Draftech brings those requirements together with an assessment of what the drawings actually record. Where the target requires an attribute absent from the records, the gap remains explicit.
For electric distribution records, the destination model is your existing distribution GIS or the model established through the utility mapping engagement. This conversion scope maps legacy sources into that model. The agreed crosswalk connects the backlog to the dataset your utility intends to maintain.
Coordinate review and documented exceptions
We verify each source's coordinate system and fix a wrong or missing datum, projection or drawing unit where the evidence supports the fix. Records are delivered in the agreed coordinate system, and any source whose position could not be confirmed is listed in the exception register.
Draftech checks the converted dataset against the agreed model and source evidence. Review reconciles record counts between each source and the converted dataset and checks that every source field is accounted for in the crosswalk. Connections present in the source are checked against the converted features to confirm they remain intact. Findings that can be resolved from the records are corrected before acceptance review.
The exception register identifies records that the available evidence could not resolve. It connects the open question to the affected record so your reviewers can examine the issue without searching the entire backlog. Missing information stays distinguishable from confirmed information, and conflicting evidence stays visible.
Your team can direct follow-up work toward known gaps instead of discovering them during a design assignment or reporting request. Acceptance includes understanding those gaps and their effect on the intended use.
How your conversion engagement runs
Send Draftech the legacy records and your current GIS requirements. Include available drawing revisions, redline sets and exports, together with your schema and the use the dataset needs to support. Identify known conflicts so they can be considered in the scope.
We assess which attributes and locations the records can establish and agree the target model and attribute crosswalk with your GIS and engineering teams. This establishes the conversion deliverables, target schema requirements and basis for review before production proceeds.
Draftech then converts and checks the records under the same in-house engineering QA applied to new design. Your team has one accountable firm to address a question about source interpretation, a mapped attribute or a delivery issue. That continuity matters when a discrepancy involves both the engineering meaning of a record and its representation in GIS.
We deliver into your receiving GIS or asset-management platform. Your reviewers examine the delivered data and exception register, resolve questions where further evidence is available and accept the delivery against the agreed requirements.
Where the records go after acceptance
After conversion, your team can maintain the accepted dataset. For electric distribution assets, utility GIS mapping keeps the converted dataset current as subsequent work changes the network.
When the requirement is to produce records for a new fiber build, as-built documentation covers that work. Existing records from completed builds can feed a conversion engagement once they are available.
As-Built & CAD-to-GIS Conversion Services FAQ
Can CAD files, scans and GIS exports share one conversion scope?
Yes. Draftech assesses each source type and maps the supported information into the agreed target schema. The crosswalk and exception register account for differences among the sources so a consolidated delivery retains their limitations.
Will conversion confirm that an old as-built matches today's network?
Conversion establishes what the supplied records support; it does not establish current field conditions by itself. Records that need new field evidence remain identified as such. If that evidence is required, pole data collection is a separate scope for new pole and OSP data.
Can the converted records support grant reporting?
They can supply attributed information from existing records in the agreed target schema. We assess that structure against the requirements you provide and identify source gaps that affect its use. Conversion alone does not establish that a grant closeout package is complete.
What determines the scope of a conversion engagement?
The number and mix of source types, their legibility and consistency, and the size of your GIS schema shape the conversion scope. Unresolved conflicts in the records also affect the review effort needed to reach an agreed delivery.
Scope your legacy record conversion
Bring the records your team keeps returning to, your GIS requirements and the next task those records must support. We will define the conversion scope around the information available, the attributes you need and the questions that require resolution.
Contact Draftech about your conversion backlog to discuss existing as-built, CAD, scanned-map or legacy GIS records.