Case Study: University of Washington achieves automated, reliable campus Geodatabase updates with Safe Software (FME Desktop)

University of Washington - Customer Case Study

The University of Washington facilities management team, responsible for over 21 million sq ft across 500+ buildings and 1,500+ floors, needed a reliable way to keep Autodesk AutoCAD floor plans synchronized with a seamless 2.5D, multi‑campus Esri Geodatabase. Manual updates were slow and error-prone, and an initial automation using Autodesk Vault plus a Python loader frequently failed partway through (after 15–20 files), raising concerns about missing or incorrect floor space data.

They replaced the fragile ETL step with FME Desktop called as a subprocess by the existing Python scanner. FME performs the CAD-to-GIS translation, stitches drawings, and runs validation checks before publishing updates; errors halt the load and are reported. The result is a faster, more reliable automated update process that prevents data loss, preserves rich geometry and attributes, and frees staff to focus on integrating operations with the GIS and improving decision making.

University of Washington

Aaron Cheuvront

CAD/GIS Program Manager