In many instances, the infrasturcture project may need to only access and view spatial information for reference purpose only when starting a new design project such as highway or underground utitlity. Also, users can aid to create and maintain the spatial information and store accessed through FDO data access technology. I'll try to show how to implement the FDO data access technology into AutoCAD Civil 3D or Map 3D.

Supported file format: ESRI ArcSDE, MySQL, SHP, ODBC, WMS, Oracle Spatial, Raster Files, Geodatabase, MapInfo MID/MIF, TAB, Microstation Design V8, GML, and TIGER/Line.

Step 1
It must be ensured that you use a version of FDO provider that matchs the FDO API version that your application uses (e.g. AutoCAD Map 3D 2008 uses FDO build 3.2.1)

Navigate to the FDO lib, e.g. C:\Program Files\AutoCAD Map 3D 2008\FDO\bin, right-click the FDO.dll and select properties.

Step 2
Go to www.autodesk.com/fdo to find a list of third-party and open source FDO data provider software developers and download locations.

Navigate to the location of FDO lib, e.g. C:\Program Files\AutoCAD Map 3D 2008\FDO\bin and copy the specific FDO Provider DLL to this directory.

I have downloaded OGRProvider-3.2.1.win32

Step 3
Open the providers.xml in a text editor, add an entry for the new FDO provider and save the changes.

<FeatureProvider>
    <Name>OSGeo.OGR.3.2</Name> 
    <DisplayName>OSGeo FDO Provider for OGR</DisplayName> 
    <Description>Access to OGR data sources</Description> 
    <IsManaged>False</IsManaged> 
    <Version>3.2.1.0</Version> 
    <FeatureDataObjectsVersion>3.2.1.0</FeatureDataObjectsVersion> 
    <LibraryPath>OGRProvider.dll</LibraryPath> 
</FeatureProvider>

Make sure that the FDO version is match with the entries in the providers.xml file.

That's the FDO installation!

Now I'll try to show how to access OGC supported data by AutoCAD Map 3D. eg. DGN, E00

Access DGN file
Click the Data button in Display Manager -> Select Add OGR Connection -> Enter the DataSource -> Click Connect button

Select the checkbox -> Click Add to Map button

DGN file was sucessfully connected to AutoCAD Map 3D.

Access E00 file
Click the Data button in Display Manager -> Select Add OGR Connection -> Enter the DataSource -> Click Connect button

Select Schema -> Click Add to Map

E00 file was sucessfully connected to AutoCAD Map 3D.

Resource
FDO Data Access Technology at a Glance

URL
www.autodesk.com/fdo

OGD Simple Feature Library

OGC Vector Data Access

FME - Access to over 100 formats