By David Crowther
One of the main differences between using CAD and GIS is that CAD is very much interested in the linework of features, whereas GIS users are just as interested (if not more interested) in the attributes of those geographical features.
Using the Properties pane within CAD you can interrogate features and set styles based on those attributes. However, without having those attributes in a Table view, it’s hard to implement spatial analysis, attribute querying and thematic maps, all of which are commonplace within a desktop GIS.