ePlan is a collaborative program between the Australian land authorities and the surveying industry, in conjunction with the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) which aims to replace paper and PDF plans with digital files based on a national standard. ePlan was introduced in Victoria in 2011 and has been operational in this jurisdiction for 2D (non-building) plans since 2013. On average, one ePlan application is currently submitted to a digital plan lodgement portal every fortnight. The low uptake of ePlan is caused by a number of challenges which includes surveyors acceptance of adopting a new method of producing plans, the quality of the visualisation service which converts the ePlan LandXML file into PDF as the legal title diagram, and support for 3D building subdivision plans. This paper aims to explore the current status of ePlan implementation in Victoria and discuss the ongoing research programs developed to address the aforementioned challenges.
This paper explores the current status of ePlan implementation in Victoria, and discusses the ePlan project challenges, the ongoing research programs and their recent outcomes. Finally, the paper proposes the future directions for the Victorian ePlan project. 2
From 2011 to 2013, ePlan was piloted in Victoria by the land authority, surveying industry and software vendors. In
May 2013, the digital plan lodgement portal namely ‘Surveying and Planning through Electronic Applications and
Referrals (SPEAR2)’ was ePlan enabled and the following services were provided within this portal
Most 2D cadastral plans (e.g. Plan of Subdivision/Consolidation) are supported in ePlan. Currently there are three fully functional ePlan-enabled surveying software packages in Victoria; LISCAD, ePSALON and Stringer ePlan from LISTECH, Geocomp Consulting and Civil Survey Solutions respectively. In addition, the Plan functionality within 12d Model and Magnet Office (previously known as CivilCad) applications developed by 12D Solutions and Position Partners respectively is currently under test.
On average one ePlan application is currently submitted to SPEAR every fortnight. Similar to other states, the ePlan uptake is low in Victoria because of a number of challenges: surveyors acceptance of adopting a new business process – ePlan is basically seen by surveyors as a change in their subdivisional practices the visualisation service limitations – this service struggles to display dimensions along small bends, narrow easements (e.g. party walls) and the general display of plan information for detailed and large estate subdivisions. It cannot also support the creation of enlargement diagrams, which is a key component of plan presentation. Feedback received from the surveying industry also indicated that in general the surveyors would like to have control over the plan presentation of the PDF visualised from an ePlan. Lack of support for building subdivisions in ePlan – the boundaries defined by buildings on 2D plans are supported in ePlan, however building subdivision plans, which have cross sections are not yet supported.
In order to address the above challenges and increase the ePlan uptake, the ePlan team has defined the research programs explained in sections 3, 4 and 5 below. 3
ePlan Engagement Program This program aims to investigate the subdivisional processes of the surveying firms and better understand how ePlan can fit into their processes. The program also enables surveyors to provide immediate feedback on the current visualisation of plans and to participate in the future development of ePlan. In the first round of this program (May 2015-Sep 2016), the ePlan team conducted workshops with eleven surveying firms, investigating their business requirements. As part of this program, a case study was undertaken with data provided by SMEC Australia, which is one the largest surveying firms in Victoria. The outcomes of this case study have been described below. The second round of the ePlan Engagement Program commenced in Nov 2016, with 18 expressions of interest received. This round is scheduled to conclude in March 2017.
2 www.spear.land.vic.gov.au 3 https://www.spear.land.vic.gov.au/lassi/SpearUI.jsp
The aim of SMEC’s case study was to align ePlan with their current business practices and product quality. SMEC provided the ePlan team a copy of a large computed plan of Laurimar estate, located in the north of Victoria. The AutoCAD Civil3D Stringer ePlan application was used to convert one of the stages of the computed plan (stage 5) to an ePlan. Figure 1 provides a comparison between SMEC’s current process and the ePlan process for creating a plan of subdivision for stage 5 of Laurimar estate. As shown in the above figure, SMEC prepares a computations plan which is a survey-accurate plan that includes only the minimal data required by all stakeholders such as parcel numbers, distances, bearings, areas, stage parcel boundaries, survey mark connections, significant trees, etc. The Laurimar estate plan includes 98 stages and 2027 parcels. In their current process, SMEC copies the data of each stage into a new drawing file in CAD format and the plan of subdivision is drafted for that stage. As part of the drafting exercise, the diagram and textual information (e.g. easement details, land information, owners corporation details, etc.) needs to be added to the plan template. The current process results in a duplication of drawing files for any stage/estate subdivision. The quality assurance takes place once the plan is prepared. If changes are required by the stakeholders, the computations plan is updated first and then the plan of subdivision is updated accordingly.
Within the ePlan creation process, the computations plan was used as the input file. This plan was enriched with the required information e.g. easements and road connections. The enriched computations plan was then used as a single data source for creating the plan of subdivision for stage 5. In other words, there was no need for duplicating the drawing files for creating the plan of subdivision. The required attributes such as parcel, land, parent title and survey mark details were added to the diagram using the Stringer ePlan module. The stage 5 data was exported to LandXML, which was subsequently validated and visualised by SPEAR.
The case study confirmed that the validation checks automatically performed by SPEAR would provide streamlined quality assurance checks within SMEC’s process. The visualisation service within SPEAR also converts the LandXML file into a PDF, which significantly saves time in drafting the plan of subdivision. Any amendments required to the plan needs to be undertaken only once in the computations plan, with the corresponding ePlan subsequently updated automatically. 4
ePlan Visualisation Enhancement Tool Development Through a collaborative program with the University of Melbourne, the ePlan team has been developing a new tool for surveyors, which will enable them to improve the quality of the PDF visualised from the ePlan data, using the functions such as editing labels/arrows, defining sheets, creating enlargement diagrams and exaggerating features.
In addition to the PDF file, a JSON 4 file is exported from the visualisation service, which includes the diagrammatic representation of information, such as the placement of labels and arrows. This JSON file is then imported into the enhancement tool user interface (UI) where the aforementioned functions will be available. OpenLayers 3 has been selected as the main Javascript library for developing the tool UI. Once amendments are made by the surveyor, the updated version of the JSON file and the ePlan LandXML file will be uploaded to the visualisation service to produce an updated version of the PDF Plan. This tool is expected to be integrated into the SPEAR environment in May 2017. 5
Following the progress of implementation ePlan in Victoria for 2D cadastral plans and also in order to be aligned
with the ICSM Cadastre 2034 Strategy
Data modelling defines data elements, their relationships and attributes to model the real world
3D modelling in ePlan has been previously investigated to some extent.
3D modelling in ePlan is based on boundary representation using a collection of connected faces. In this phase, a
simple building subdivision was modelled in ePlan using three possible approaches, including CoordGeom,
VolumeGeom, and Referencing
In this phase, a complex building subdivision including 12 lots and 2 common properties in a three storey building was modelled in ePlan based on the referencing approach. This plan is a typical complex plan with above and below ground ownership spaces. Similar to the previous phase, this phase confirmed that the ePlan Protocol can support complex building subdivisions with flat faces. For modelling this building, Autodesk Revit was used to create 3D objects in IFC5 format. Then, the IFC file was converted into ePlan LandXML format and visualised in a prototype (See section 5.2).
In this phase, modelling of curve shaped buildings in the ePlan Protocol was studied. This phase confirmed that the building with curved surfaces should be approximated in ePlan by flat faces (triangles/rectangles). As a result, 3D objects with curved surfaces in ePlan would be an approximation of the real objects, which would have different area and volume.
The detailed outcomes of these three main phases have been presented in
As part of this investigation, the ePlan team has developed an interactive web-based 3D visualisation prototype6 based on WebGL technology to illustrate how the legal and physical objects of a building subdivision can be presented and queried in a 3D digital system. In this prototype, users are able to see the 3D ownership spaces as well as 3D physical objects in a building to understand the ownership spaces. It has several tools, such as parcel identification, cross-section, measurement and search. In addition, the mobile version of the prototype was also enabled by adding touch functions in the latest version. This prototype system is being used for communicating with other stakeholders of a 3D digital cadastre for Victoria, e.g. planners, developers, surveyors, Owners Corporation managers, Utilities, etc. Figure 3 shows a screen of this prototype.
Search for Common
Property No. 2
Common
Property No. 2
According to the feedback received thus far, the prototype can significantly assist in the understanding of a 3D digital cadastre and its benefits to the wider community. Since 2015, the prototype has been viewed over 1300 times across 27 countries. 5.3
Automated quality assurance check is an important topic to consider in 3D cadastre as data ambiguity and invalidity
cause significant expensive issues (e.g. legal disputes) in cadastres. However, there is little research on the 3D
digital cadastre data validation
6 www.spear.land.vic.gov.au/spear/pages/eplan/3d-digital-cadastre/3dprototype/prototype.html developed thus far. These rules are applied to check the individual parcels and their relationships with other parcels. These validation rules have been formalised using mathematical expressions and are being tested with different data sets. This study shows that due to the complexity of 3D cadastral objects, a large number of validation rules are required to cover various scenarios.
This paper explored the current progress of the ePlan project in Victoria, Australia. Currently, the subdivision plans can be submitted to SPEAR in ePlan LandXML format, which is an intelligent digital data. As compared to PDF plan, an ePlan file provides the subdivision process stakeholders with many benefits such as providing prelodgment checks via validation report, eliminating the drafting step from plan preparation via visualisation service, standardising the presentation of plans, eliminating the duplication of drawing files by storing all required data in computed plan, speeding up the application creation process in SPEAR, saving time in constructing the subsequent surveys by having access to digital files, pre-populating the Victorian Online Title System (VOTS) and automating the creation of new titles, reducing lodgement to registration turnaround time, providing the data for digital plan examination, and upgrading the spatial accuracy of map base.
This paper also discussed the main challenges that have impacted the uptake of ePlan in this jurisdiction. The most critical challenges include the surveyors acceptance of adopting a new method of producing plans, quality of the visualisation service, which converts the ePlan LandXML file into PDF as the legal title diagram, and support for 3D building subdivisions. The paper also introduced the research programs defined by the ePlan team in order to address the ePlan challenges. The research programs discussed in the paper include the ‘ePlan Engagement Program’, which aims to gain a greater understanding of surveying firms’ subdivision processes and how ePlan can fit into them, the development of an online tool through the collaboration with the University of Melbourne to empower surveyors to improve the plan presentation of the PDF plan visualised from the ePlan data, and the investigation of the technical aspects of a 3D digital cadastre for Victoria comprising 3D data modelling, validation and visualisation components.
In addition to the above research programs, the ePlan team will continue to enhance the quality of its current ePlan visualisation service. Supporting the field notes (known as abstract of field records) in ePlan format, and designing an Oracle database for storing registered ePlan files are on the ePlan team’s agenda for 2017. The ePlan team will also continue its collaboration with the Office of Surveyor General on a pilot project to utilise back captured plans in ePlan format for upgrading the spatial accuracy of the Victorian Mapbase.
The authors would like to thank the ICSM ePlan Working Group, Land Use Victoria and the University of Melbourne staff for sharing their views and contributing to this paper.