To add to Dallas' excellent clarification, many, if not most firms who use CAD use it not only as a drawing tool/environment, but also for calculations and analysis.?ÿ A drawing file may have several layers which are not directly pertinent to the final drawing as plotted.?ÿ They may contain temporary construction lines (drawing construction, not on-the-ground building facilities), preliminary data, rejected data/evidence, etc. that were all necessary at some preliminary point in the job but not to the final results.
Prior to providing a CAD file, assuming that there is such info in the DWG file, the surveyor may want to know how the file will be used to determine just how much file cleanup he will need to do before providing a copy.?ÿ If it will be available to multiple users for multiple purposes, then you can bet that one of those users will end up using some preliminary, rejected, or seemingly random line or data instead of that representing the final survey determinations if that data is not first cleaned out to avoid the possibility of such confusion.?ÿ The surveyors may also want to know so that he does not have data that is pertinent background data (perhaps site control point coordinates) removed from the cleaned up version provided.
Also consider what the surveyor was contracted to provide when the survey was performed and drawing provided.?ÿ If State Plane Coordinates were not specified, it?ÿwill take additional effort to make the conversion if he had worked on a local or assumed system (which would have been acceptable and probably normal practice if SPCs were not specified in that contract).?ÿ If providing a CAD file was not specified, then there would likely have been no effort to clean up the extraneous and potentially confusing data.?ÿ Those layers would have simply been turned off or frozen when plotting the final drawing(s).?ÿ Background data, such as the locations of and coordinates for on-site random proprietary control has value and if providing that data was not part of the original contract, should not be expected for free now.
If what you are asking for now is the coordinates for points that are shown on the final drawing and there is no need to convert those coordinates from a local or assumed system to State Plane or some other project coordinate system, then I would think the cost to supply that data would be nominal - something along the lines of 2 to 4 hours of CAD tech work and 1 to 2 hours of Project Surveyor or Principal's time at most.?ÿ If the relationship is ongoing and the survey firm gets a fair amount of work from your municipality on a regular basis, many firms would provide the data for free (again, assuming data is already in requested format and represents points shown on final drawing) as an act of ongoing goodwill between the organizations.
Bottom line, consider what was required by the original contract and consider what you are asking for now.?ÿ What seems like a simple request might actually require a significant amount of work if there are differences in the bases of the data, or it might be quite simple if current project specs, including and especially project datum, have not changed.
I wouldn't chalk it up to a personality conflict if it hasn't actually elevated to that so much as a lapse in communication due to each not having a good understanding of what the other needs.
Great points to think about and ask for clarification.?ÿ Unfortunately there never was a contract, just a verbal agreement and my insistence on a contract and digital deliverables going forward has been met with incredulity.?ÿ So maybe not a personality clash but a generational clash.
Thanks again.