I am a thief - I am stealing this topic from a blog entry at Civil 3D dot com because I think it may need more discussion than is appropriate in blog comments. Jason, if you object to my thievery just let me know and I will lock up this thread.
Do MAP queries have a place if one is intending to move to a document set created exclusively in Civil 3D and containing only Civil 3D created elements? Well they could have one, but it has been noted that MAP is unable to query any of the Civil 3D objects. So on the surface so to speak, they are useless even though Civil 3D itself contains and is even built on MAP 3D. When you think about the very start of a project though, is there not some very beneficial uses for MAP? I think that MAP queries can still be very useful when using Civil 3D, especially when analyzing a problem drawing or one from an outside source that you may not trust. Selected drawing elements can be imported directly into a fresh drawing without opening the suspect drawing. Although it may be a bit more work to obtain data this way rather than a wblock or copy/paste operation there is a minimum of unwanted baggage from the source drawing.
I guess I am showing how much of a fossil I really am, but I still use a base layout from a preliminary drawing with nothing but native AutoCAD elements. Even if my final document set contain none of these items, they tell me where my curbs are along with building setback lines existing easements, adjoining properties, the owner approved preliminary lot layout and even my own boundary. I have existing utilities and surface features in their surveyed locations and the preliminary routing of all of my utilities. If these elements are provided by an outside source or especially a sketch plan from my boss, I am not going to just open the drawing and assume everything is perfect and I am sure not going to recreate them all as Civil 3D objects.
This is where I see the value of MAP query. I don't think it is practical or even possible to create all of the preliminary and existing elements as Civil 3D objects and I know for certain my boss who personally does all the prelimnary layouts will ever attempt the task.
