MidCoast Council Strengthens Consultant Adoption with Validated Digital Plan Submittals
- Open Spatial
- Oct 21
- 4 min read
MidCoast Council, New South Wales, Australia
Purpose
MidCoast Council sought a modern, standards-driven solution to replace a legacy CAD validation tool and streamline the process of receiving and verifying as-constructed data for critical infrastructure assets. The objective was to reduce manual handling, support self-validation by external consultants, and ensure spatial data integrity across water, sewer, and reuse systems.
About MidCoast Council
Located along Australia’s New South Wales coast, MidCoast Council is a regional authority responsible for a diverse mix of urban and rural communities, serving over 90,000 residents. Covering over 10,000 square kilometers, the council manages a complex infrastructure network, including extensive water, sewer, and recycled water systems. As the region continues to grow, the council is focused on improving its digital processes to support efficient service delivery, planning, and asset management.
Challenges
Prior to the implementation of ACDC, MidCoast Council relied on a legacy validation tool for checking CAD drawings submitted by external consultants. This tool had reached its end-of-life and no longer met the evolving needs of the council. The lack of flexibility and limited functionality made it difficult to ensure drawing quality and consistency, especially across various submitters and asset types.
Additionally, the council lacked an effective mechanism to support independent validation of drawings by consultants before submittal. This gap led to inefficiencies in the process, as errors were often only discovered after submission, required repeated back-and-forth and delaying integration into downstream workflows.
Context
MidCoast Council initiated this project to address growing limitations in its legacy CAD drawing validation tool, which had reached the end of its functional life. The existing system, while familiar, lacked the flexibility and functionality required to support current workflows and evolving consultant needs. The council sought a solution that could modernize its drawing validation process while preserving compatibility with its established data pipeline and engineering practices.
Working with Open Spatial, MidCoast aimed to implement a solution that would both replace the legacy system and introduce new efficiencies. The As Constructed Design Certification (ACDC) solution was selected for its ability to support desktop and cloud-based validation, enforce drawing standards consistently, and provide an accessible self-service platform for external consultants. By aligning the new validation rules with existing drawing templates and attribute specifications, the implementation ensured continuity with previous standards while enabling future scalability and ease of use.
In addition to replicating existing checks, the project incorporated a range of enhanced validation rules developed specifically for MidCoast. These included rules that assessed text orientation, compliance with attribute values, the correct placement of detail references within drawings, and identification of inconsistent use of objects. The result was a more robust and tailored validation environment that better supports the quality assurance process across engineering disciplines.
"By enabling consultants to validate their drawings before submission, we’ve significantly reduced the back-and-forth and improved data quality from the outset. ACDC gives both our team and external submitters the tools to work smarter."
- Jane Anderson, GIS Coordinator MidCoast Council
Innovations/Results
Migration of Legacy Standards: Existing validation rules were successfully migrated from the previous format into the ACDC environment, preserving historical standards, while enhancing maintainability.
Enhanced Validation Rules: Open Spatial worked with MidCoast Council to develop and implement enhanced validation rules that were required. These rules enhanced the data quality coming from the portal even further and reduces any manual checks. For example:
New rule = Check for the existence of an asset based on another asset.
New rule usage = An error will be created if there is no fitting at the end of a sewer service connection (lateral)
Simplified Attribute Management: MidCoast worked with Open Spatial to revise attribute naming conventions, moving from coded tag names to more descriptive terms, improving clarity and ease of use for drafters and reviewers alike.
Desktop and Portal Validation Options: Both the ACDC Desktop and Portal platforms were implemented, offering flexible validation options for internal staff and external users.
Online Portal for Consultant Validation: MidCoast now uses the ACDC Portal to enable external consultants to validate their own drawings before formal submission. This self-service approach improves data quality at the source and reduces internal rework.
A total of 31 Developers/Surveyors were created on the ACDC Portal and enabled to submit as-constructed data for validation. These businesses are local as well as in Newcastle, the Central coast, Sydney, Port Macquarie, Brisbane and more...
10 MidCoast staff were created on the ACDC Portal.
Focused Implementation Scope: The initial rollout concentrated on the council’s water, sewer, and reuse networks, providing a solid foundation that can be expanded to other asset classes in the future.
Seamless Integration with Existing GIS Workflows: The implementation ensured that validated CAD drawings could be incorporated into MidCoast’s GIS environment without needing to reconfigure the data transformation and loading processes already in place.
Workshops and Training: Council staff and external stakeholders were trained to align with the new workflow to ensure consistent implementation.
Solution
Open Spatial’s ACDC solution was implemented to replace the legacy validation tool and modernize MidCoast Council’s as-constructed drawing verification process. Both the ACDC Desktop and Portal environments were deployed to support flexible validation options, allowing internal teams to maintain their workflows while offering external consultants a self-service pathway for checking their drawings prior to formal submission. This dual-platform approach ensures that drawing standards are enforced consistently, regardless of the user.
The solution included a migration of MidCoast’s existing CAD standards into the ACDC framework and introduced a range of enhanced custom validation rules tailored to the council’s specifications. These updates supported improvements in data accuracy, consultant accountability, and internal processing efficiency, while maintaining compatibility with the council’s existing GIS and asset management workflows.
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Validate and Automate Electronic Design Submittals
With ACDC you can easily validate and transform design information stored in As-Constructed drawings to GIS and Enterprise Asset Management information without capturing the data.
ACDC manages submitted data, validates its quality against organizational and industry standards and transforms it into geospatial and asset management information which can be automatically loaded into GIS and CMMS/AMS systems with minimum disruption to current workflows.
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