resourceContent.wat-is-cad.description
CAD is where much design data starts in geo practice. Below: what Computer-Aided Design is, how drawings move into GIS, and how CAD layers appear in GeoApps Viewer and apps.
CAD stands for Computer-Aided Design. It is digital drafting of plans, sections, and technical drawings — often in AutoCAD with DWG/DXF. Lines, polygons, and annotations capture the design before data lands in GIS or BIM.
Municipalities and firms combine CAD designs with PDOK topography and own registers. Via FME or desktop GIS, drawings are transformed (CRS, topology) and published as layers. Non-specialists then open the same data in a web viewer.
In GeoApps, CAD-derived layers appear in the Viewer next to WMS/WFS, PDOK, and 3D models. Drawings support projects, operations, and participation: the same underlay that started in AutoCAD, for everyone in the browser — without a desktop licence per viewer.
CAD delivers drawings; BIM adds semantics and lifecycle (objects, materials, phases). Both play in GeoApps: CAD layers as 2D context, BIM models in 3D — often in the same Viewer or app stack.
Publish CAD-derived layers next to PDOK and project data. Specialists draft; colleagues and project teams open the map in the browser.
See GeoApps Viewer
