The City of Alexandria, Louisiana’s Utility Services Department has selected infrastructure software to help improve the tracking, accuracy and maintenance of the utility’s assets and data. The solution, which includes Autodesk Topobase and Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise software, will allow the city to more easily share intelligence and processes to optimize its facilities and networks—improving the utility’s efficiency.

“Autodesk’s approach is to provide our utility customers with an open, standards-based, integrated solution—from planning to design to management—so they can create a more accurate and complete model of their network information,” said Paul McRoberts, senior director, Infrastructure Modeling Product Line Group, AEC solutions division for Autodesk. “For a utility department like the City of Alexandria, we provide a single solution for all of its utilities – electric, gas, water, and wastewater – and that is extremely powerful.”

The City of Alexandria’s Utility Division is located in central Louisiana and serves about 50,000 customers. A public utility, the city’s utility division consists of electric, gas, water, and wastewater departments. The utility had long used AutoCAD and AutoCAD Map 3D software to help plan and manage its electric utility networks and assets. Adding Autodesk Topobase—which includes network models of all of these systems—enabled the city of Alexandria to manage all assets and data in a single application. Furthermore, the city can now build upon its existing AutoCAD expertise, workflows, and data formats to improve the accessibility of its design data to GIS departments. Topobase provides this integrated network model based on engineering design data—so that decision makers and engineers can have better access and insight into the distribution network.

The City of Alexandria selected Autodesk Topobase to create a central repository for its geospatial data and asset information. By using Topobase, planners and asset managers across the utility can create, structure and manage asset data in a consistent and repeatable process. The city also selected Autodesk MapGuide Enterprise to improve the ability to share more accurate geospatial, customer and asset information with engineering, customer service and field maintenance personnel.

“The Autodesk solution aligns well with our business and technology needs,” said Michael Marcotte, utility director, City of Alexandria. “Because it is tailored to utility specific content and workflows that help us improve our productivity and data accuracy, we can be more responsive to our residents. With Autodesk MapGuide providing access to data via laptops in vehicles, we are making more reliable and accurate information more accessible.”