Transform your utility design

Graphic work design

Distribution Design Studio (DDS) is used by electric and natural gas designers to efficiently create designs in the office and in the field.

2025 GeoSpatial Innovations Design Conference

Transform Your Utility Design

Traditional Design Excellence

DDS delivers proven features and capabilities, GIS and WMS integrations, engineering calculations, and field support to get the job done right the first time.

Efficient Design

Scalable, cloud-based infrastructure minimizes costs, while automation accelerates design cycles, reducing time and material use within a unified platform.

Built-in Engineering

Integrated tools for structural analysis, clearance analysis, and electrical calculations ensure compliance to NESC and utility requirements.

Seamless Integration

Ensures consistent data flow and compatibility by connecting with GIS and Work Management System (WMS), supporting both legacy and modern platforms.

Field Design

Robust field design functionality allows fast and precise data collection required for compliance to engineering standards.

Transforming Utility Design

Human-Centric Solutions
Intelligent Innovations
Collaboration and Services

DDS extends stakeholder engagement through Human-Centric Solutions, reimagines how design work will be performed in the future through Intelligent Innovations, and expertly supports utility personnel through Collaboration with partners and targeted Services.

Empathy-Driven Design

Tools address the real-world challenges faced by engineers and other stakeholders, ensuring intuitive operations and seamless data validation.

Collaborative Workflows

Iterative design optimization across cross-functional teams – fosters teamwork and goal alignment.

Enhanced Visualization

Advanced 3D modeling tools simplify complex designs, providing clear, actionable visualizations for all stakeholders.

Field Adaptability

Ensures seamless operations by enabling design modifications in the field, both connected and disconnected.

Streamlined Experiences

Consolidates multiple design processes into a unified platform, reducing complexity and enhancing productivity.

DDS represents a transformational leap in utility design, leveraging data insights and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to unlock unparalleled efficiency, adaptability, and innovation.

Data Insights

Analyzes historical configurations and data patterns to optimize decision-making and improve operational efficiency.

GIS Rule-Based Translation

Automates dynamic data mappings between DDS and GIS systems, reducing maintenance costs and enhancing adaptability to changes.

Design Co-Pilot

Leverages AI to automate design tasks from source data, such as work orders, optimizing routing, cost-effectiveness, and precision.

Enhanced Field Readiness

Provides optimized designs that minimize on-site adjustments, improving execution speed and reliability.

AI-Driven Optimization

Automates complex design processes to streamline workflows, reduce manual input, and achieve precision in results.

Unattended Design

Performs design tasks autonomously using pre-existing data, ensuring efficiency and accuracy in project execution.

Dynamic Integration

Uses AI to adapt to evolving requirements, maintaining seamless compatibility with GIS and WMS platforms.

The core of DDS and combining teamwork with tailored support to ensure successful solution implementation and sustained productivity, we’re delivering collaborative processes, enhanced workflows, data migration and cleaning, and seamless adoption.

Collaborative Processes

Facilitates teamwork across departments, aligning design efforts with organizational goals and standards.

Enhanced Workflows

Streamlines processes to reduce redundancy, ensuring consistency and efficiency.

Shared Insights

Encourages transparency and knowledge sharing, empowering teams to make informed decisions throughout the design lifecycle.

Supportive Services

GSI and its partners offer services to augment the configuration, training, and maintenance of the solution, ensuring seamless adoption and ongoing operational excellence.

End-User and Administrator Training

Provides in-person or remote training for employees and contractors, ensuring effective change management and optimal solution usage.

Standards Maintenance

Offers engineering services to maintain the configuration of data standards, supporting productive use as organizations adopt automation and system hardening.

Production Design Services

Provides staff augmentation to assist contractors or in-house teams with production design work, helping to identify workflow improvements.

Data Migration & Cleaning

Supports seamless migration of jobs and data from legacy systems to the DDS platform, ensuring data integrity and usability throughout the transition.

Why Distribution Design Studio?

DDS is built for utilities that value Design and Engineering

Efficient and Intuitive User Interface

User-friendly
Menu-driven
Custom training documents to match your company’s workflow

Robust Integration with GIS and WMS

An integrated solution that supports popular GIS platforms, such as Esri ArcGIS, GE Smallworld and Hexagon G-Technology as well as Work Management Systems such as IBM Maximo, SAP EAM, STORMS and Oracle EAM\WAM

Embedded Structural, Clearance, and Electrical Calculations

A design tool with built-in structural and electrical analysis that enforces your company’s standards to ensure compliance

Precision Field Design on Mobile Devices

Making field collection for designers 50% faster than traditional staking processes

Embedded CAD Functionality

GIS rendering
CAD import/edit/export
Robust drawing functionality
• Dimensioning capabilities

Secure and Compliant Data Handling

A software solution that meets your IT’s security requirements and is actively managed and maintained, along with analytics and support

In-the-Office & In-the-Field

(with or without an internet connection)

In-the-Office Integrations between DDS and GIS/WMS significantly reduce the duplication of effort in the office. Work orders, compatible units, parts and costs are all kept in sync.

In-the-Field Design is supported on tablets and phones (Android and iOS) along with various types of GPS/GNSS receivers for collection of accurate locations and spans with optional compatible unit assignment.

Testimonials

DDS has been an integral component of our grid modernization strategy. It has streamlined our design process. Our GIS model, design standards, work management system, and right of way process have been seamlessly incorporated into DDS with increased accuracy and efficiency.

DDS simplifies and streamlines the entire design process from the old days of separate CU, sketch and analysis tools. The ability to drag, drop, and select multiple construction variables in a few clicks combined with the ability to provide standards validations in one easy-to-use interface greatly increases the efficiency and accuracy of nearly any designer. When you add in the powerful engineering analysis taking place in the background, you create the utility designer’s best friend and asset.

Distribution Design Studio has taken what used to be a labor intensive manual process between our drafting software, GIS and WMS to create integrations that work automatically with reduced user input. Working with GSI through the build out and implementation was a pleasure. They continue to provide excellent communication and customer service after the sale. Going from our manual processes to DDS is like going from using a 300’ tape measure to using a range finder!

I like the many different analysis that can be done to check the work that the designer completes because it takes away any guess work that would otherwise need to be done on the design.

Featured Case Study

AEP puts DDS at the core of their Joint Use Attachment Make-Ready Engineering to meet today’s challenges: a surge in broadband deployments, attachment requests pressure, and distribution system resilience.

DDS supports AEP’s focus on safety, engineering excellence, and compliance/efficiency to adhere to NESC and local rules while meeting FCC timelines mandate.

Key Improvement

DDS ensures that all Make-Ready work is engineered according to AEP specifications and that all costs are properly allocated and justified.

Transform your utility design​